Hi there! I'm having trouble OCing my old 3400+. It seems no matter what I do - raise voltage to the CPU and DDR, lower the HTT to x3, loosen the timings on the RAM, lower the divider from x12 to say x10 - I just can't get the CPU stable over 2556 Mhz which is like 213 Mhz x 12. The thing is, I can do that on standard voltage (settings on "auto" ) without meddling with anything else but raising the frequency in the bios (or Windows for that matter). This leads me to believe that I should be able to squeeze more out of it by adjusting for example voltage, RAM timings, the HTT, the divider etc. but it just won't work. I don't know if it's me being the dumbass here, and that's why I'm posting this thread - to see if any of you guys out there have some bright idea that I haven't tried yet.

I can give you a couple of examples on what I've tried so far:
226 Mhz x 12 @ 1,55V (1,5V standard), HTT x3, RAM timings 3-3-3-8 @ 2,8V (2,6V standard) - didn't work
260 Mhz x 11 otherwise the same as above - didn't work
270 Mhz x 10 otherwise the same as above - didn't work

My guess is that the problem lies in the RAM (PC3200: 1 x 512 MB Corsair Valuepack, 1 x 512 MB Kingston, 1 x 1024 MB unknown brand) or with the PSU (no-name 450W).

Any ideas? Please - I'm getting desperate!

could be anything but from what i know Ocing a 3400+ 754 isnt really smart. after a few months it would run at like 175 degrees f, but all depends on your mother board

Haha, thanx for the advice. And yeah you're right - it is running kinda hot. We're talking 46 C idle, and around 62 C under heavy load. I'm trying to cool the bastard with a Zalman 7000B, but it's actually not much more efficient than stock cooling.

Since there haven't been very many answers to my thread as of yet, I've continued with some research of my own. Seems my motherboard - Asus K8N4-E (not the deluxe version) - is hardly ever mentioned anywhere on the net. Conclusion is that it is not the favourite board among people out there

There are still two anomalies I'd like to understand or get an answer to.

1. Regarding RAM: Why does the computer freeze and refuse to start up without a CMOS reset when I lower the timings on the RAM over a certain point?

2. Regarding PSU: My Power Manager in BIOS says my 12V rail actually only gives about 11.73V. Could this be a part of the problem? I should also add that this PSU is ATX1.1 standard, and the mobo is ATX2.0 standard though backward compatible. I'm getting a new PSU next month anyways but I'm still curious.

Love to hear some thoughts on this