GA-965P-DQ6

[Honest989]

Hi folks!
I've an old system which, despite the gfx card, has stood the test of time:

GA-965P-DQ6
E6600 OC'd to 3.2 GHZ
GeForce 7600 GTXX XFX
PC2 6400 RAM

Now, the graphics card I want to replace with a gtx 460 to get some more mileage out of this (and I don't have tonnes of cash lying around) before replacing most of the components some time next year when I have the money.

Problem is, this will cause a minor bottleneck at the moment but I will still notice the massive gain.

I wonder if anyone with a similar set up to this has managed to get the OC to 3.5 GHZ as this would help me minimize the issue. What voltages etc did you use?

I tried finding a sensible thread for this but just saw people with liquid nitrogen etc which is a bit silly.

 

[1Day]

It really all depends on your cooling to be quite blunt. And as we are heading into summer cooling is going to be pushed to the limit.

3.6GHz should be quite doable on that board with your CPU.

A good idea is to test if your CPU can do the FSB first before attempting the overclock.
What you need to do is set your multiplier to 6 and then increase your FSB using SetFSB or what ever application in OS you prefer. Each time you freeze up, return to the BIOS and increase the voltage a notch or two, repeat this untill your FSB with the 6x is = to the FSB you need for 3600MHz. If I recall correctly it should be 400 x 9. 400 x 2 should be your ram speed too. So you could leave ram on auto and the SPD will select the correct settings.

Once you have your 400FSB stable, then start increasing your multi one step at a time. Again if you can not boot into OS or your OS is unstable. Increase voltage. Now at this stage of the process you will need to be looking at your temps. CoreTemp is a handy application to monitor on the fly overclocking with.

Temps should be your guide in the final analysis.

Let us assume you have 400 x 9 set. Now you can test for stability of your overclock. I really suggest you simply play your most taxing game as that is what your system will be doing. Or if you prefer use a stress test but understand that your system will never work in such a fashion so I am not sure what the benefit is of them. If your system shows instability and your temps are still within suitable levels. Level you need to decide. Then increase vcore a touch and possible FSB termination too. Repeat until 100% stable and you can play all your games without any crashing or freeze type moments.

Done.

 

[Honest989]

hmmmm. Stupid reply but I'd fogotten about the cooling aspect! Well I think under load I'm at about 55-60 degrees right now. I might not push the clock speed up until I get a better cooler, but I will probably still go ahead with the card.

FYI, I think I'm on 360 x 9 at the moment as I'm overclocked at 3.2 ghz. I will refer back to this post later though!