E5200 Overclocking Questions

[Kona*]

Hi

Yesterday I took delivery of a E5200, GA-EP43-DS3 and Arctic Freezer 7. I was under the impression that pretty much every E5200 would do 3.0GHz on stock voltages, is this correct?

I have the CPU voltage set to 1.25v (Default VID) and have tried cranking the FSB up from 200 to 240 (with a 12.5 Multiplier) and the system refuses to boot. What is a safe voltage to pump trough a E5200? I don't want to go frying my chip

I am new to this Overclocking malarkey so if I have done it totally wrong please excuse me!

Cheers,

Craig

 

[Kona*]

Thanks for the replies.

The RAM I am using is the OCZ 4GB 800MHz Vista Dual Channel Gold Series, I made a thread about it yesterday regarding voltages actually: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17946567

I have been reading a few threads and I think it may be the RAM Ratio as its on Auto at the moment, as I up the FSB of the CPU it ups the speed of the RAM (I think) but I don't know which option to change in the BIOS - I will have to check when I get home

I will also try upping the voltage slightly. Thanks for the suggestions, keep 'em coming

Craig

 

[Kona*]

Great, thanks for the help I will give this a try when I get home and update this thread with my progress!

Cheers,

Craig

 

[Kona*]

Bit of an update...

The memory I bought was rated at 5-5-5-18 but both CPU-Z and my motherboard detect it at 6-6-6-18 - if I try and modify this to what it should be the system refuses to post. I did manage to get the system to boot with the F5 BIOS with the CPU at 3.0GHz (12.5x Multi, 240FSB) and the Memory at 6-6-6-18 but as soon as I updated to BIOS F9 the system again refuses to boot - I think its something to do with the extra memory options that BIOS introduces, not sure what settings to set them too.

I'll take a screenshot in a bit and you will see what I mean

Cheers,

Craig

Edit: Also, CPU-Z is showing my memory as 400MHz and it should be 800MHz (the BIOS is showing it as 800MHz too)

 

[Kona*]

Thanks for that info Duke - I didn't want to pump 2.1v through it incase I frazzled it but on your advice I stuck the voltage up to 2.1v and then this happened:





Time to push a bit further I think. Thanks for the help everyone, no doubt ill be calling for more help in the future

Craig

 

[Kona*]

38ºC at full load plenty of headroom for more volts and more overclocking keep going dude

It hovers around between 38 and 41 on full load, very pleased with that I had a few problems with the memory running at 5-5-5-18 (as it says on the OcUK website) and I am now running it at 6-6-6-18 as that's what its suppose to be running at apparently! Going to push to 3.2GHz some time today

 

[Kona*]

Make sure you're running the memory 1:1 with the CPU. In the BIOS set it to 200/400/800 (whichever is listed).

I cant see the option for that in the BIOS, I know the memory is running at 800MHz - is that what you mean? (Sorry, still new to this!)

 

[Kona*]

You have to press Ctrl + F1 in Gigabyte's main bios page to get all the options up. System Memory Multiplier is the option you are looking for.

Trust Gigabyte to have secret hidden memory options

The value in System Memory Multiplier is "3.33C" and the FSB Strap is "Auto"

 

[Kona*]

You have both?? Usually you have one or the other depending on manufacturer. My Gigabyte P35 DS3R has System Memory Multiplier and my Asus P5E has FSN Strap To NB. Basically they are both the same as they allow you to set the memory dividers. You then select the actual memory speed under Dram Frequency. You have to keep adjusting them because as you increase the fsb you increase the ram speed. Ideally you want the ram to run at it's stock speed, or as close as possible to it.

How Odd. The GA-EP43-DS3 has DRAM Frequency (called Memory Frequency in the EP43) grayed out, you cant change it at all! It does change when you use the Memory Multiplier though. It's really confusing me now I thought I had it all figured out earlier!

 

[Kona*]

Bit of an update.

System is prime stable at stock. This is what I have managed to get out of it:

CPU Clock Ratio: 11 X
Fine CPU Clock Ratio: +0.5
CPU Host Frequency: 266MHz
(G)MCH Frequency Latch: 266MHz
System Memory Multiplier: 3.00A
Memory Timings: 6-6-6-18

CPU Vcore: 1.3V
CPU Termination: 1.260V

MCH Core: 1.3V
DRAM Voltage: 2.1V
DRAM Termination: Auto (0.900)

This gives me a clock speed of 3.06GHz and the memory running at 800MHz - and its prime stable!

Now then, the system point blank refuses to boot when I set the MCH Frequency Latch to anything other than 200MHz, 266MHz or Auto. Even if the memory is running at 800MHz when I select the appropriate FSB & Multiplier. Do you think this could be an issue with my Motherboard or RAM? Or is this the limit of my ram? Its not the best RAM for overclocking really!

Last but not least, if this is the limit of my RAM - are the above voltages safe to run 24/7? Also, do I need to up the DRAM Termination as I raised the DRAM Voltage above stock (1.8V)?

Cheers,

Craig

 

[Kona*]

Well, I have to laugh at myself... My system wasn't booting because I didn't know (or should I say, didn't realise) that you needed to set the CPU FSB and FSB Strap to the same setting and use the correct multiplier. I was just picking which one I wanted at random and using odd FSB's.

My system now boots with the CPU FSB & FSB Strap at 200, 266 and 333MHz FSB with the CPU at 3.0GHz - Still can't get it to boot with the CPU FSB & FSB Strap at 400MHz but I *think* this may be because my CPU's default FSB is 200 and it just doesn't like running at 400Mhz, could that be right?

At the moment it's fully prime stable at 3.06GHz (266X11.5) and memory timings at 5-5-5-18, the memory doesn't really like anything but stock speeds but what can you expect - It wasn't exactly the most expensive memory

It's all part of the learning curve I suppose If some kind soul could cast a beady eye over my post above and let me know about the voltages that would be great. Thanks for all the help so far chaps.

Craig