Using a Northwood B CPU on an ASUS P4T-E Motherboard
The ASUS P4T-E uses an Intel 850 chipset. This
chipset is only validated for use at 400Mhz FSB (Original
Pentium 4 & Northwood A CPU's).
If you decide to run a Northwood B CPU on this
motherboard you will have to use a 533Mhz FSB, you are in effect
overclocking the Intel 850 chipset.
Personally I've had my P4T-E running with a
533Mhz FSB for a few months now and it has been 100% stable, if
you do not want to risk overclocking the chipset then you will
need to purchase a motherboard based on the Intel 850E chipset,
this is validated to run with a 533Mhz FSB.
The first thing you will want to do is check
which clock generators your ASUS P4T-E is using, use the
information located here to check on
this.
If your motherboard is using the ICS clock
generators then you should have no problems at all, if your
motherboard is using the CYP clock generators then attempting to
overclock your motherboard is done at your own risk, I certainly
cannot guarantee stability.
The Northwood CPU's were only supported on
this motherboard with BIOS revision 1005 or higher, if you are
running an older BIOS make sure you update this first. The
majority of P4T-E BIOS releases are available on this site here
The BIOS for this motherboard does not contain
any way of locking the PCI & AGP slots to specification whilst
you overclock the FSB, so as you raise the FSB you will also be
running all PCI & AGP cards out of specification too, this
really cannot be advised as a lot of cards simply do not work
when they are overclocked. For this reason we are going to
switch from "JumperFree" mode to "Jumper" mode.
Set the jumper JEN to 1-2 on, this will stop
you being able to make BIOS level changes and you will now be
using the switches SW1 to set your FSB, PCI & AGP Mhz settings.
You do not need to change the switches 1-5 as
these will not make any difference to what CPU you are using.
Switches 1-4 are used to set the CPU multiplier frequency, as
Intel lock this no matter what you set here it will still depend
on your CPU. Switch 5 is reserved, it is switches 6-10 that we
are interested in.
|
CPU
(Mhz) |
PCI
(Mhz) |
AGP
(Mhz) |
Switch
6 |
Switch
7 |
Switch
8 |
Switch
9 |
Switch
10 |
|
100 |
33.5 |
66.9 |
On |
Off |
On |
On |
On |
|
103 |
34.3 |
68.7 |
Off |
Off |
On |
On |
On |
|
105 |
35.0 |
70.0 |
On |
On |
Off |
On |
On |
|
108 |
36.0 |
72.0 |
Off |
On |
Off |
On |
On |
|
110 |
36.7 |
73.3 |
On |
Off |
Off |
On |
On |
|
112 |
37.3 |
74.7 |
Off |
Off |
Off |
On |
On |
|
115 |
38.3 |
76.7 |
On |
On |
On |
Off |
On |
|
118 |
39.3 |
78.7 |
Off |
On |
On |
Off |
On |
|
120 |
40.0 |
80.0 |
On |
Off |
On |
Off |
On |
|
122 |
40.7 |
81.3 |
Off |
Off |
On |
Off |
On |
|
125 |
41.7 |
83.3 |
On |
On |
Off |
Off |
On |
|
125 |
41.7 |
83.3 |
Off |
On |
Off |
Off |
On |
|
130 |
43.3 |
86.7 |
On |
Off |
Off |
Off |
On |
|
133 |
44.5 |
89.1 |
Off |
Off |
Off |
Off |
On |
|
120 |
30.0 |
60.0 |
On |
On |
On |
On |
Off |
|
133 |
33.3 |
66.7 |
Off |
On |
On |
On |
Off |
|
133 |
33.4 |
66.8 |
On |
Off |
On |
On |
Off |
|
136 |
34.0 |
68.0 |
Off |
Off |
On |
On |
Off |
|
138 |
34.5 |
69.0 |
On |
On |
Off |
On |
Off |
|
140 |
35.0 |
70.0 |
Off |
On |
Off |
On |
Off |
|
142 |
35.5 |
71.0 |
On |
Off |
Off |
On |
Off |
|
144 |
36.0 |
72.0 |
Off |
Off |
Off |
On |
Off |
|
145 |
36.3 |
72.5 |
On |
On |
On |
Off |
Off |
|
148 |
37.0 |
74.0 |
Off |
On |
On |
Off |
Off |
|
150 |
37.5 |
75.0 |
On |
Off |
On |
Off |
Off |
|
152 |
38.0 |
76.0 |
Off |
Off |
On |
Off |
Off |
|
154 |
38.5 |
77.0 |
On |
On |
Off |
Off |
Off |
|
156 |
39.0 |
78.0 |
Off |
On |
Off |
Off |
Off |
|
133 |
26.5 |
53.2 |
On |
Off |
Off |
Off |
Off |
|
150 |
30.0 |
60.0 |
Off |
Off |
Off |
Off |
Off |
The line highlighted in Yellow is
running your PCI & AGP slots within specification, you are
effectively locking them. Higher FSB settings may result in a
stable system, however they may result in system instabilities.
My recommendation would be to get everything working within
specification first, if you want to experiment with further
overclocking afterwards that is your choice.
Depending on what memory you are
using in your system will govern how fast you can run it, some
of the older PC800 RDRAM modules are not stable at 533Mhz
(PC1066) where as some of the newer modules are fine at these
speeds.
My recommendations would be as
follows:
-
Using PC800-45 RDRAM - Start
by setting the memory in the BIOS at a 3x ratio (PC800
specifications) if this appears stable try setting 4x and
watch for "Blue Screens of Death" and random re-boots in
Windows, if you start to get these set the memory back down
to 3x. Samsung PC800-45 modules tend to be most likely to
overclock successfully.
-
Using PC800-40 RDRAM - This
memory should be absolutely fine at a 4x ratio (PC1066
specifications) although you may wish to set the ratio to 3x
for the first boot just to make sure all is working as
should be.
-
Using PC1066-32 RDRAM - This
memory is designed to run at PC1066 specifications,
immediately set your memory ratio to 4x in the BIOS. Note,
many people have reported that a machine will refuse to boot
if PC1066 RDRAM is set to a 3x ratio (PC800) in the BIOS,
only run this memory on a 4x setting.
Troubleshooting
Q. When I power my system
up it simply beeps at me, I am using BIOS revision 1005 or later
and have PC1066 RDRAM installed
A. Your memory ratio must
be set to 4x in the BIOS, reinsert your old PC800 modules and
manually set the BIOS to run memory at 4x, remove your PC800
modules and re-insert your PC1066 ones. Never set the BIOS to
"Auto" for the memory ratio.
Q. My motherboard is using
BIOS revision 1004 or earlier and I do not have an original
Pentium 4 to use for flashing purposes
A. Immediately switch from
"JumperFree" to "Jumper" mode, the motherboard will post (enough
for you to flash your BIOS) if you manually set-up for your CPU
rather than attempting to do so through the BIOS.
Q. I'm using PC800 RDRAM
at 4x memory ratio (PC1066 specifications) and am experiencing
random lock-up's and re-boots
A. Both PC800-40 &
PC800-45 RDRAM is only designed to run at this specification,
although with PC800-40 modules you have a very high chance of
being able to run at the faster speed. If you are getting
instability problems move your memory ratio back down to 3x
(PC800) and the problems should disappear. |