Can somebody hold my hand to O/C my system to get another 9 months usage out of it :)

[dean_ham]

Hi guys,

I built this system 5 years ago now, although thats easy enough to do. I had a go at overclocking it, but i found what ever i tried to do to overclock it was never ever stable. So i just gave up set to optimal settings and left it as it was and its been realiable ever since and means i gave up with pc games i felt i didnt need a performance boost or it was too slow.


Lately I have got back into PC gaming and been playing CSS a lot again again but in a 32 man server im really suffering 20-30fps in firefights. Ive messed around with lowering the detail etc but to be honest doesnt make much difference if any at all so i may aswell play with medium/high settings.

I done a search on this forum about overclocking my system again and came across a few posts saying they have been running my exact setup at 75-100% overclocked for years with no problem. Means i have windows 7 now i thought id give it a go and see if it was any more realiable.

My spec is;-

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
GeIL 3GB (3x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit >>>1 GB STICK FAILED!<<<
Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B Heatpipe CPU Cooler
HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

Here is a pic of the bios.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I have increased the memory so currently its running at 2100mhz but ive tried at 2400mhz and cs was running sweet so i shut down and tried at 2600mhz as ive read this is the "norm" for overclocking for this chip. The system wouldnt even boot up after it posted. So i turned it back down to 2400mhz and css was running roughly 20fps better than previously at stock. But then when i was browsing the net later on it froze up on me. I checked the CPU temp as soon as i rebooted and it was only running at 40oc. Also it seems that my gfx card is running at 90-100oc when playing cs even though it has been tuned down in CCC manager. Any reason why this is happening? age of the system.

If someone could give me tips to get a little bit more out of this system to last me a few more months i would be over the moon!!

Thanks guys!!

Dean

 

[j.col]

you will need to raise the cpu voltage a few levels, try 1.35v for now.

this is a very basic explanation of overclocking

its basic maths. your E6300 is rated at 1066mhz. you always divide this number by 4 so 1066/4= 266, this is your fsb. (or cpu frequency)
then your processor (cpu) has a multiplier of 7 (or cpu ratio)
so 266 x 7 = 1862mhz or 1.86GHz, your stock speed

boot into bios, and disable C1est, and any other power saving features.

unlink your ram, using the ram divider, so it stays at stock speeds, you can overclock the ram later.
this means leave it at 800mhz
your ram is at 750, so leave it at that for now.

can you raise the fsb? yours is now 300. try rising it to 320 (@1.35v)
boot into windows
download realtemp and coretemp (google them)
install and run them
then download intel burn test (ibt) and load it.
have a look in task manager and notice how much free ram is listed.

in ibt set threads to 2 (for 2 cores) and then click on custom ram and enter an amount just below the free amount.
eg. i have 2520mb free ram. so i enter 2500 into the custom ram.
run the test for 10 passes. for now,
and then at final speed you want, run for 50 passes
keep an eye on temps (do not let it go over 70.C)

or download prime95 and run the torture test/large fft's

if test runs fine, go back into bios, and change frequency (fsb) to 340 and repeat the tests.
keep doing this in 20mhz steps until windows will not boot. then just go back a step (remove 20 from the fsb) to the last stable frequency,
or
just raise the cpu voltage a couple of levels. (1.4v) it should now boot.
its a balancing act, higher voltages will get you higher fsb, but it will also give you higher temps.
the max voltage is 1.5v, so you have a lot to play with

also i would remove 1 stick of ram for now, so leave 1 stick in each pair of slots
and manually set the pci express frequency to 100