E6600 + Asus P5B-E Plus

sunama

sunama

sunama

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Carrying on from this thread (Asus P5B-E Plus review), I have started to overclock.

Ive been continously moving my cpu speed upwards, in small increments.

Yesterday, I was setting the vcore manually.
Today, I switched on speedstep (an excellent energy saving feature), switched the multiplier to auto/disable and
switched vcore to auto.

Since then, I have been increasing the fsb speed by 5mhz, at a time. I have been testing system using Orthos set to blend - stress cpu and ram.

3420mhz
I am now at an fsb of 380*9=3420mhz. I have tested at each setting and have not had a single error.

Temps are maxing out at around 54C at this stage. However, with each increase in FSB, the temps are rising. Keep in mind that this is all at 100% cpu load (due to orthos). Most of the time, the system will be at idle or very low cpu usage and this will allow speedstep to kick in. When this happens, temps reduce very quickly.

At 3420mhz, the highest recorded vcore (in CPU-Z) is 1.336v.

I will add another 5FSB and see what happens.
 
Right, Ive just ran orthos on the higher fsb for 35 mins.

385fsb*9 = 3465mhz
vcore = auto (in bios), highest vcore value in CPU-Z=1.376v
highest temp seen in CoreTemp = 58C

I think I shall leave it for tonight as Ive been running orthos for many hours - the PC needs a rest.

More overclocking tomorrow.

For what its worth, so far, this motherboard/cpu has been rock solid.
 
Right.

Im not sure if anyone is following this but perhaps it will give others an idea of what to expect from this motherboard, should they buy it.

3600mhz
Today I managed to hit 400fsb*9=3.6ghz.

Once again, I have set vcore to auto, as well as allowing speedstep to kick in whenever it can to save power usage.

The problem is though that as I increase the FSB, so the BIOS is automatically increases the vcore. At 3.6ghz, various programs are giving me different readings, but the BIOS (in the hardware monitoring section) is reporting the vcore in the region of 1.49v, which is very high indeed.

The core temps when running orthos are reaching approximately 60C. Idle core temps are around 39C.

Stability
One thing I have noticed with this motherboard and cpu combo is that I feel I can quite literally keep upping the FSB, 5FSB at a time and the computer keeps booting up fine and running programs without any issue at all. However, when you read the vcore, you see it is set very high in order to achieve these clocks. Every single speed upto 3.6ghz, with vcore set to auto, that I have tried, has ran perfectly with no stability problems.

Final "Safe" speed
I bought this cpu for £200 and I dont particularly want to take the risk of frying it. Hence, my safe usage speed, based on temps and vcore is: 370FSB*9 = 3330Mhz.

Im going to start playing around with the memory timings now, but if you wish to ask me any questions then fire away.
 
sunama said:
Right.
The problem is though that as I increase the FSB, so the BIOS is automatically increases the vcore. At 3.6ghz, various programs are giving me different readings, but the BIOS (in the hardware monitoring section) is reporting the vcore in the region of 1.49v, which is very high indeed.
Click to expand...
1.49V is not really especially high, something that a decent air-cooled heatsink + 120mm fan should be able to handle without much trouble.

However an average E6600 may not even need that much for a stable 3.6GHz - 1.425-1.475V (actual) may be possible although not sure what setting that will require in BIOS given the Asus P965 board's droop issues.


2bullish said:
Stop now if you are reaching 60 degrees idle or you may very well bork your chip.
Click to expand...

"The core temps when running orthos are reaching approximately 60C. Idle core temps are around 39C."
 
nightic said:
1.49V is not really especially high, something that a decent air-cooled heatsink + 120mm fan should be able to handle without much trouble.

However an average E6600 may not even need that much for a stable 3.6GHz - 1.425-1.475V (actual) may be possible although not sure what setting that will require in BIOS given the Asus P965 board's droop issues.




"The core temps when running orthos are reaching approximately 60C. Idle core temps are around 39C."
Click to expand...


My bad, read that wrong.
 
nightic said:
1.49V is not really especially high, something that a decent air-cooled heatsink + 120mm fan should be able to handle without much trouble.
Click to expand...

Intel states that the max voltage for this cpu is 1.375v. Should this not be heeded?

nightic said:
However an average E6600 may not even need that much for a stable 3.6GHz - 1.425-1.475V (actual) may be possible although not sure what setting that will require in BIOS given the Asus P965 board's droop issues.
Click to expand...

I must admit that coming from a P4 setup, the vdroop on his motherboard (and I believe the entire series asus P5 series of mobos) is quite dramatic. You set something in the BIOS and in actuality it delivers something not even close to what you asked for.

RAM
The memory Im running in async mode now.
FSB=370mhz
Ram=462.5mhz (925mhz, effective)
timings: 4-4-3-3
Vdimm=auto

This ram you sold me NightIC is pretty special. It hasnt missed a beat so far.
 
sunama said:
Intel states that the max voltage for this cpu is 1.375v. Should this not be heeded?
Click to expand...
Given that some Conroe CPUs have a VID (the default voltage - this varies from CPU to CPU) of up to 1.35V, it would appear that 1.375V is extremely conservative as a maximum.

Given a good, modern air-cooled heatsink with a low/medium-output 120mm fan, I feel up to 1.50V would be a safe 24/7 setting, although extended periods of load will see temps higher than many users are used to.

With a well thought out water-cooled setup this would extend to 1.60V and beyond, depending on exact specifications.


sunama said:
RAM
The memory Im running in async mode now.
FSB=370mhz
Ram=462.5mhz (925mhz, effective)
timings: 4-4-3-3
Vdimm=auto

This ram you sold me NightIC is pretty special. It hasnt missed a beat so far.
Click to expand...
Very glad to hear it - sounds like you're getting the best out of it.
 
Last edited:
lavigne_22 said:
i have mine set to 1.7v in bois...works out about 1.66v max....under 100% load drops to like 1.62v
Click to expand...

AAAh, but you have phase change cooling correct? If so, you are in a different league from PCs that us mortals use.
 
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