Bit rusty - going back to overclocking

NotAGolf · 28 Jan 2010 at 12:52

Hi all.

I've got a lot of encoding work I need to do over the next few weeks so I'm going to overclock my cpu a bit more to get that bit extra from it.

I have an E6420 at 2.6Ghz currently. I've had it for a few years now. When I first got it i was near the 3Ghz mark but was struggling to keep it stable so just dropped it down to 2.6. Now I'm looking to get it back up to that level and maybe a bit more, especially as my house is colder now!

Couple of quick questions before I do:
- Max 'safe' load temp for my chip? I believe it's around 60/70. I'm currently at 40 tops but that's not a great deal to work with if that's the case.
- Is the Orthos Small FFT test on priority 10 still a good guide as to stability or are there better ones around now?

Thanks

w3bbo · 28 Jan 2010 at 20:10

Intel Burn test will heat the processor up more but I've had cpu's pass the intel burn test 20min/5 iterations but fail orthos/prime95 (8hr).

Max temp I would go for using 24/7 under 100% load is 60c but tbh you would most likely still be ok @ 70c. Anymore and you risk permanant (shortening the lifespan) of the CPU.

NotAGolf · 29 Jan 2010 at 08:33

Thanks w3bbo.

I'll give that Intel Burn a bash later on.

I ran it overnight on Orthos Small FFT (priority 9) at 3.0 GHz on 1.38 vcore. It was still going after 8 hourse so that's good news, and the temps only got to 40 degrees under full load...although the boiler has broken in my house so it was a chilly night! Don't expect it to go up to much more than 45 as my room is always pretty chilly.

One slight worry though, I woke up during the night and the fans were going crazy. I checked speedfan and everest and my GPU fan was at 100%, even though the gpu temps were only 38 which is super low for my card. I restarted this morning and the fan stayed at 100%. Had to do a proper shutdown for it to go back to it's normal 40%. Any ideas what happened here?

I'm at work now but left my computer running at 3.1 to see how that goes. I turned off speedfan incase that was affecting the gpu.

What's the highest vcore I should realisically go to for running 24/7? Does it make much difference as long as the temps are low? I definitely wont go above 1.5, but was wondering if I could up it to 1.4/1.45 if I need to further down the line. I suffer from pretty severe vdroop (1.38 drops to 1.33 under load) as well so not sure how that affects things.

Cheers.

**Edit** - Forgot to ask as well. Is it ok to leave my NB voltage set to auto? That's what it's on currently. I'd prefer to set it manually just so I know what it is but I don't know the default voltage. I've had a look but can't seem to find an accurate value. I can't remember the exact voltages but I know I only have 4 options; 1.3something, 1.5something, and one higher and one lower. At a guess I'd say 1.3 is stock. Only got a heatsink on there atm so not sure if I should up it, especially as I don't know how to monitor this temp. Would the NB temp be the 'motherboard' temp in everest or is that somewhere else on the board, or even the ambient temp?

Thanks again.

w3bbo · 1 Feb 2010 at 16:59

One slight worry though, I woke up during the night and the fans were going crazy. I checked speedfan and everest and my GPU fan was at 100%, even though the gpu temps were only 38 which is super low for my card. I restarted this morning and the fan stayed at 100%. Had to do a proper shutdown for it to go back to it's normal 40%. Any ideas what happened here?

I'm at work now but left my computer running at 3.1 to see how that goes. I turned off speedfan incase that was affecting the gpu.

You answered your own question there. It's what i would have suggested.

What's the highest vcore I should realisically go to for running 24/7? Does it make much difference as long as the temps are low? I definitely wont go above 1.5, but was wondering if I could up it to 1.4/1.45 if I need to further down the line. I suffer from pretty severe vdroop (1.38 drops to 1.33 under load) as well so not sure how that affects things.

Cheers.

1.4-1.45 should be fine but keep an eye on your CORE temps. Use a program called realtemp to monitor your CPU temps.

**Edit** - Forgot to ask as well. Is it ok to leave my NB voltage set to auto? That's what it's on currently. I'd prefer to set it manually just so I know what it is but I don't know the default voltage. I've had a look but can't seem to find an accurate value. I can't remember the exact voltages but I know I only have 4 options; 1.3something, 1.5something, and one higher and one lower. At a guess I'd say 1.3 is stock. Only got a heatsink on there atm so not sure if I should up it, especially as I don't know how to monitor this temp. Would the NB temp be the 'motherboard' temp in everest or is that somewhere else on the board, or even the ambient temp?

Thanks again.[/QUOTE]

Your motherboard might let you know what your voltage is set at. Check the PC health section where it tells you fan speeds and the like.

Motherboard temp is unlikely to be the NB temp, it might be but its usually a generic sensor on the motherboard and doesn't give an accurate reading. NB temps can however drastically affect stability so best to keep them under control be either a) not increasing the voltage past stock or b) ensuring the nb area has a cool supply of air.