First Overclock tonight! Advice please

jamesgoss

jamesgoss

jamesgoss

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Doing my first overclock tonight!

If my computer freaks out/won't start (presumably from hitting an unstable clock), will the PC restart normally so I can change back the BIOS? And if it won't even do that, what other options are there?

Thanks!
 
Well if your motherboard has a cmos button just push that if you need to revert your settings. If not, you will need to pull out the battery and wait 10mins...
 
jamesgoss said:
Doing my first overclock tonight!

If my computer freaks out/won't start (presumably from hitting an unstable clock), will the PC restart normally so I can change back the BIOS?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

No. If the computer won't start (POST) then you'll need to clear the BIOS and start again. There'll be a jumper on your motherboard (refer to your manual for its location) that will allow you to do this.
 
Is the CMOS button the same thing as the jumper?

And if the PC will POST, but not boot into windows, will I just be abe to change the BIOS settings back to their last stable clock?
 
fantastic stuff guys, thank you for that.

Raised FSB from 1333 to 1400 and now running ORTHOS for half an hour to check it out. 1400 equates to 3.15GHz. Not huge I know, but we've all got to start somewhere, right? :o
 
Hi James!

Good luck with the OC, definately keep us posted with the temps/volts too, i'm currently on 3.55ghz stuggling to get it to post on 3.6ghz but i just don't think i'm giving it enough volts :confused:

On a side note (not intending on jumping the thread) when my overclock fails, the pc shuts down and automatically reverts back to stock settings, is this normal? as i haven't needed to reset the cmos or press the jumper...
 
Ok I woke up this morning and my PC freaked out on turning it on,wouldn't POST a couple of times but I rebooted rnough times that it decided it would boot into windows and that's where I'm typing from.

First time it tried to POST it told me my cpu was not running at 3.15 but 3.0, and RAM at 800, not 667 (running RAM at 800 destabilises my system, damn mobo issues) Have no idea why. But it decided on this last go that it was indeed running at 3.15, and my RAM at 667. It blue screened a couple of times, but because I was barely awake and doing some freaking out of my own, failed to take pics. Will next time.

As for voltages and things, everything's on Auto (which I know it shouldn't be) but I heard for small overclocks it's ok. Next restart I'll check out my BIOS settings.

One more question: my RAM sticks are actually 2 slightly different types (2x1 Corsair at 4-4-4-12 and 2x1 Corsair at 5-5-5-18). I'm sure this must be causing problems, am I right?

As for it resetting itself Will, it may be a safety feature of your mobo to allow it to start up perfectly fine if anything goes wrong? I'm not sure though
 
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Ok, just started my pc after a few hours of rest.

It started up fine, then after 5 mins blue-screened, having this message:

3525498761_0152f6eb5b.jpg


Now it's doing fine. I blended it for 30 mins earlier today and it had been fine. Can anyone tell me whether my comment about my RAM is possibly having an effect?

Here are CPU-Z details:

3525509047_c7c08b146c.jpg


My Core Voltage varies between 1.424,1.402 and 1.392, is it normal to change frequently?
 
Hi James,

1.424v in cpu-z is a lot of volts up from your vid of 1.2625v to attain an overclock of 150mhz.

For reference my E6850 has a vid of 1.275v and is currently running 3420mhz, 9x380fsb on stock volts, 1.232v in cpu-z prime load.

Needs 1.33125v in bios, cpu-z shows 1.264v to reach 3600mhz prime stable.

Will post back later if you need help. I am interested in the temps you are getting using the sunbeam cooler.
 
When I had a P5N-E SLi, the northbridge voltage was the key to a good overclock. I believe there are three settings; setting it to 1.56v or something with a 5 in it allowed me to take my E6300 to the limit, but you really need aftermarket cooling on the northbridge for this, and also the southbridge can overheat as well so grab a little cheapo 'sink for that too.
 
sumyungi said:
Hi James,

1.424v in cpu-z is a lot of volts up from your vid of 1.2625v to attain an overclock of 150mhz.

For reference my E6850 has a vid of 1.275v and is currently running 3420mhz, 9x380fsb on stock volts, 1.232v in cpu-z prime load.

Needs 1.33125v in bios, cpu-z shows 1.264v to reach 3600mhz prime stable.

Will post back later if you need help. I am interested in the temps you are getting using the sunbeam cooler.
Click to expand...

Well last night I was playing around with 3260mhz on 1.3625v, and would ORTHOS fine, except my BIOS would reset every time I tried to reboot the machine. When it screwed me over again this morning, I decided to up the FSB for fun to 1450, and it managed to run fine at 3375mhz at 1.3625v. I hope it runs stable at that FSB. If it runs stable, I will try reducing the volts on it, because my VID is 1.2625v.

As for temps I'm getting no higher than 55 celcius on load. I'll give updates when I've played around with it a bit more!

reflux said:
When I had a P5N-E SLi, the northbridge voltage was the key to a good overclock. I believe there are three settings; setting it to 1.56v or something with a 5 in it allowed me to take my E6300 to the limit, but you really need aftermarket cooling on the northbridge for this, and also the southbridge can overheat as well so grab a little cheapo 'sink for that too.
Click to expand...

Ah, I've read a few things about mucking around with teh Northbridge voltages but I'm only a novice at all this so I haven't really factored it in. If I start having problems achieving stable clocks I'll be asking you for some assistance! :D

Thanks for your replies
 
Hi there,

With the crashing your getting, i would first want to rule out the ram, especially as your using 2 different types of corsair ram. They could be 2 different chips in the ram.

Google DDR2 ramlist, click top result and check out your ram on their site.

Is it possible for you to take out 2 sticks of the higher latency ram, and see what difference you get then.

oh and btw,temps on the sunbeam seem perfect going by frostytech and comparing to my Xigmatek HDT-SD964. 2x arctic cooling 92mm 2000rpm fans in PWM mode.

Just been running prime small fft for the last hour and a half and highest temp is 51 using tJ MAX of 95 degrees C, cpu @ 3420mhz and 1.275v. Before when i upped volts to 1.33125v i got 56 degrees
 
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Cheers for the RAM list tip sumyungi, I reckon if I get any more nasty blue surprises I'll be onto that like a flash.

I'm now up to 1550 FSB = 3488mHz on vcore of 1.38.

Idle is still 35, and load on Orthos for 30mins got to 57 Celcius. My Sunbeam fan is on its lowest setting too. Very pleased! Think I'm going for another boost to push it past 3.5 :D
 
Ok, got to 3600Mhz with FSB 1600 and 1.38 vcore. Windows is running absolutely fine, but ORTHOS gave me an error after an hour. Is it necessarily a problem, and how would I fix it, i.e. what does an ORTHOS error represent?
 
Upped vcore to 1.39375, passed 2 hours 15 mins before it failed on me :D I reckon that's good enough for every day use, unless I start getting blue screens again...I'll leave it at 3.6 for a while, let it bed in. Thanks for your help!
 
When you reach your final CPU overclock (eg as high as you can get the VCore) it's often worth seeing if you can get another little bit more by upping the NB/SB/ram voltages a notch or two.

It's a 65nm chip, so it's more than happy at 1.4v - you can almost certainly push it to 1.5 (it's the 45nm core2duo that get testy at 1.45+) but if you're happy at 3.6 there's no point risking it; save it for when you get a new chip and want to find out how high this one will go :-)
 
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