alright i have a prescott 2.8 (dont remember what family, i remember it is the easy to overclock one though. my mobo is a msi 6728 (775 mobo). now i have a ultra xconnect 500w (which has been on the fritz lately). i can easily get the processor from 2.8 to 3.6 and get past the bios post. but when i get to the windows boot screen, about halfway into the boot the comp just restarts. is this because of the power supply? or is it because the clock is too high? i havent upped the voltage yet. im betting that my power supply is bottlenecking this whole thing.

That power supply is not a good one for overclocking in general, it has gotten a pretty nasty rep over the years...replace it as soon as posible.

You will typically need to raise the CPU voltage some for a 800MHZ Overclock, just go in small increments and use Prime 95 to load test it for at least an hour.

With stock CPU voltage, your probably going to get to around 3.2GHZ stable....what kind of load (100% CPU usage) temps are you getting?

I use Speed Fan for temp monitoring, it can be found in my Ultimate links collection at the bottom of my sig...there are other apps you may find handy there too, such as CPUZ)


I would not advise Overclocking it until you replace that PSU, check out the "Myths" about power suplies below, pay particular attention to numbers 2,3 and 8!!!!
Power Supply Myths Exposed!


I look moare at the amp rating on the 12v rail than I do the rated wattage, in general, I look for 30 amps or more.

Here is a good name brand (Silverstone) with a single rail (I don't like dual or quad rail power supplies, as explained in the Myths) that won't let you down..I know it's a bit pricey, but it will see you through to another upgrade without worrying about replacing it.

At 137$ it is one of the least expensive PSU's I reccomend..just remember, you get what you pay for!

Newegg.com - SILVERSTONE SST-ST56ZF ATX12V / EPS12V 560Watts Power Supply 90V ~ 264V (Auto Range) - Retail

The only other one in a decnt price range is the OCZ 520 SLI (33 amps) wich has taken all kinds of abuse from me in the last 2 years, but is a bit hard to find.
Not sure about this E-tailer, but you may look around and find it somewhere else..possibly even for a few $$ less then the 120$ they want.

NCIXUS.com - Buy OCZ PowerStream 520W ATX12V V2.0 BTX 20/24PIN Low Noise Power Supply W/ SLI - OCZ520ADJSLI.


To find out more information about what size PSU you will need, and how much wattage your CPU will use before and after, you might enjoy playing with some of the apps in the OC Bilbe!

http://forums.pcapex.com/other_oc_ha..._oc_bible.html

so it is the power supply...and i guess its because the core voltage as well. thanks, that answered alot. ill try and see if i can sell off the power supply. it served its time it last (2)? years. heh. yeah i use prime95 for testing as well and speedfan is on most of the time, although i cant judge anything off of that yet since i havent really setup my watercooling yet. i only have 1 rad cooling all 3 components, which gets me 120f idle. 3.2 is what my stable point was, in order to boot.

btw, my dvd drive kept on going out (randomly loosing power) which is why i was thinking it was my power supply.

oh and thanks for those links to the PSU's...the right price too.

ah... and another question...would keeping my northbridge cool prove to be effective for better overclocks? just wondering. if not, then ill take the watercooling off and put just a air cooled heatsink on.

NB cooling is one of those things that some people can get realy hung up on.

It realy just depends on the chipset and how it's cooled...older Intel chipsets can get VERY hot when pushing up the FSB and voltage if a poor cooling design was done by the manufacturer.

With My DFI Lan party's for AMD (NF-2,3 and 4) I was able to get away with stock coling at well over 260-390 FSB (Depending on wich model) by having adequate ariflow acrossed it, and AS-5 paste under the heatsink...the NF-2 and NF-2 did not have a fan on it from the factory, just a big honking aluminum passive cooler!

On m yGigabyte S-3 socket 775 Core 2 Duo board..the stock pasive NB cooler is very wimpy, and needed some AS-5 and I used a low rpm 120MM fan to kep it reasonable.

All I can tell you is to carefully "Touch it" and see, if it does not have the ability to monitor temps (Probably not) your finger is a VERY good indicator for almost any motherboard component.

Don't forget to ground yourself first before touching anything, you don't want to zap anything with a static discharge...and most of all, know EXACTLY what it is your touching...and be aware of the components nearby it, just don't go poking around components at random...if you touch a capacitor by acicdent, it can be potentialy deadly!

If you don't know what you are doing..DON"T TOUCH ANYTHING! (Disclaimer!)

If it nearly burns you with a light quick touch..then ya have to do something about it, you should be able to hold it on there without it being "Hot hot" to the touch if your temps are OK, just be carefull if it has a fan on it..you can hurt yourself realy quick!

There are many aftermarket solutions available if you need to step it up a bit beyond adding some AS-5 and having a fan blowing on it, check out Frozen CPU...a god air cooling solution is just fine, IMO, watercooling is overkill for all but the most extreme OC, and will just cause your CPU temps to get hotter if it's in the same loop.

Chipset Heatsinks/Coolers | Page 1 | Sort By: Product Title A-Z - FrozenCPU.com *

alright, i remember trying to touch the stock cooler (aluminum one, i put a fan on) and it was very borderline hot. any hotter and it would have been pretty unbareable to keep my finger there for long. i do have a copper heatsink, ill try and see what i can do to mod a fan onto that and get it onto the chipset.

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro NB cooling is one of those things that some people can get realy hung up on. It realy just depends on the chipset and how it's cooled...older Intel chipsets can get VERY hot when pushing up the FSB and voltage if a poor cooling design was done by the manufacturer. With My DFI Lan party's for AMD (NF-2,3 and 4) I was able to get away with stock coling at well over 260-390 FSB (Depending on wich model) by having adequate ariflow acrossed it, and AS-5 paste under the heatsink...the NF-2 and NF-2 did not have a fan on it from the factory, just a big honking aluminum passive cooler! On m yGigabyte S-3 socket 775 Core 2 Duo board..the stock pasive NB cooler is very wimpy, and needed some AS-5 and I used a low rpm 120MM fan to kep it reasonable. All I can tell you is to carefully "Touch it" and see, if it does not have the ability to monitor temps (Probably not) your finger is a VERY good indicator for almost any motherboard component. Don't forget to ground yourself first before touching anything, you don't want to zap anything with a static discharge...and most of all, know EXACTLY what it is your touching...and be aware of the components nearby it, just don't go poking around components at random...if you touch a capacitor by acicdent, it can be potentialy deadly! If you don't know what you are doing..DON"T TOUCH ANYTHING! (Disclaimer!) If it nearly burns you with a light quick touch..then ya have to do something about it, you should be able to hold it on there without it being "Hot hot" to the touch if your temps are OK, just be carefull if it has a fan on it..you can hurt yourself realy quick! There are many aftermarket solutions available if you need to step it up a bit beyond adding some AS-5 and having a fan blowing on it, check out Frozen CPU...a god air cooling solution is just fine, IMO, watercooling is overkill for all but the most extreme OC, and will just cause your CPU temps to get hotter if it's in the same loop. Chipset Heatsinks/Coolers | Page 1 | Sort By: Product Title A-Z - FrozenCPU.com *