GA-EP45-UD3P overclocking

oggmonster

oggmonster

oggmonster

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Going to be doing a little testing on a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P (rev 1.1) see, what I can squeeze out of this board (stable clocks only!)





Processors in question will be the E8600 E0 Stepping + the famous Q6600 G0 stepping




My TRUE needed some epic lapping, but both IHS were amazingly flat!


Equipment being used:
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
Kingston HyperX 4GB 8500C5
Q6600 G0 + E8600 E0
Antec 900 case
Thermalright Ultra Extreme with washer mod + 120mm Yateloon fan.
8800 GTX
320GB WD caviar sata2
Vista HP x64 SP2


Washer mod


In case close up


All in the case :D and yes I will give the wires a good tidy when i'm happy with everything!

BIOS M.I.T shots.

Multi, FSB + RAM ratio options


Ram timings + CPU voltage settings - nice to see volts going to 100,000th of a volt there!


Northbridge volts and RAM volts.

Ok first up the E8600

Everything at stock, just to make sure everythings okay. I had noticed the lowest the 2nd core goes is 37oc...Kinda weird as @ 100% load they're both equal, so think I'm gonna put this down to an iffy temp sensor

I really wanted this dual to run 1:1 ratio with my ddr2 8500 memory. So I set the FSB at 533mhz and the multi at 6 (for now). CPU PLL @ 1.570v. MCH Core @ 1.280v. Then manually set the RAM timings and gave it 2.1v. This will give me CPU speed of 3.2ghz but with a really quick FSB speed (2132mhz! :D). Next to test RAM make sure its running at rated speed.

Great! :D

Next up making sure CPU is stable


All good, now for 4.53ghz ^_^ After much playing around I eventually got there using the following settings in BIOS FSB@ 533 multi @ 8.5 (hurray for .5 multis!) Vcore @ 1.4375v PLL @ 1.570v MCH core @ 1.4v (am thinking this can possibly be lowered at a later date)


Somewhat toasty, but okay + stable. Plus I only use my PC for gaming so would never get that hot anyway. Though I found when I enabled speed step etc the temps dropped :S



Have never been a fan overclocking software, but I thought I would try the gigabyte overclocking software. So I loaded it up, pressed the big red button for 4.05ghz, restarted.


Am somewhat impressed, I know its not as comprehensive as overclocking in the BIOS but for someone who wants a quick stable overclock, this seems pretty good

Next up the quad, pretty sure 3.6ghz is achiveable. Set FSB@ 400 Multi x9, manually set RAM timings to run at 800mhz (1:1 ratio again) with 1.8v. CPU volts: 1.40625v PLL:1.57v MCHcore: 1.3v


W00t. When I have time i'm going to lower cpu volts. Also i'm suprised at the 4c difference between cores 2,3 and 0,1. The cpu IHS seemed flat, perhaps it just needs a little lapping? Though am not overly worried as its still within safe temps, will resolve this at a later date :P

Now for easytune

Bam! 3.52ghz like that and prime stable!

All in all an impressive board great for clocking both dual and quads alike. An extensive number of BIOS options for the advanced user. Was impressed that voltages for CPU went to 100,000th of a volt! Also seems like a good board for newbies as the easytune software provides a fairly decent overclock at the click of a button. Was always sceptical of overclocking software, but from what I've seen of this it seems pretty faultless. Like I said a great option for a newbie looking for a simple overclock.

So to finish - E8600 @ 4.53ghz - 36% increase and a Q6600 @ 3.6ghz - 50% increase. Also I'm pretty sure the Q6600 would hit 4ghz with watercooling. Am aware that this is also 'old tech' now, but for anyone on a budget or for someone who wanted to build a gaming rig, this would be ideal.
 
Hey oggmonster,
Thx for the "review", it’s so good to see members of the public doing this kind of thing for Gigabyte :-)
We really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience.

I will send you a small gift as a thank you ;-)
 
Cracking board and a great choice. It was for it's ease of overclocking that I choice this board to get me cpu to 4.6Ghz when it was limited to 4ghz in my Asus maximus board.

You'll find that by playing around with gtl refs and other voltages you should be able to get your vcore down on your cpu.

Also with some more playing around I reckon you might get 9 x 533 stable = 4.8Ghz on your e8600.
 
They are great boards indeed, I just think gigabyte should have had more power phases as I need nearly 1.38VTT to be stable at the same clock on a wolfdale as I did on my old P5Q Deluxe which only needed 1.20VTT even for 4.95GHz benchable
 
Awesome, thanks for the feedback guys. Where do I find the gtl ref? I have not heard of this before if i'm being 100% honest. Would be great if I could lower the cpu volts so I can get to 9x533 ^_^
 
GTL ref is the cpu ref on your bios. From memory the ideal for quads is 63% and duals is 67% (not 100% sure on the duals)

Every board and cpu varies as to what it likes. Get it wrong and you have a toally unstable system.

My cpu loves low %, some peoples have it set as high as 69%

PITA on the gigabyte bios is that it's a volatge setting, not a percentage so you have to work it out yourself and go for the nearest voltage.
 
Nice work oggmonster :cool:

I was looking at one of these boards earlier as I fancied getting more than a couple of hundred MHz out of my e6600.

You wouldn't have happened to have done any benchmark comparrisons to see how much of a difference it makes for gaming would you? like 3dmark o6/vantage etc?
I'd be very interested if you have as It might just push me to get one. :)
 
Greebo said:
GTL ref is the cpu ref on your bios. From memory the ideal for quads is 63% and duals is 67% (not 100% sure on the duals)

Every board and cpu varies as to what it likes. Get it wrong and you have a toally unstable system.

My cpu loves low %, some peoples have it set as high as 69%

PITA on the gigabyte bios is that it's a volatge setting, not a percentage so you have to work it out yourself and go for the nearest voltage.
Click to expand...

Cool thanks for letting me know. So do you have any ideas how to work out what it should be? Any kinda formula? Would it be 67% of what its current BIOS CPU volts are? Or 67% of the VID?

LEUVEN: I can probably run a 3dmark 06 and/or 3dmark vantage. But the best I could probably do would be to run it at stock then run it at overclocked speed. Though this won't be a true representation of the performance you may or may not get due to having compleatly(ish) different systems. Though I may do this anyway just out of interest.

MAXIBOY: You're welcome!:D
 
oggmonster said:
LEUVEN: I can probably run a 3dmark 06 and/or 3dmark vantage. But the best I could probably do would be to run it at stock then run it at overclocked speed. Though this won't be a true representation of the performance you may or may not get due to having compleatly(ish) different systems. Though I may do this anyway just out of interest.
Click to expand...

Yeah that'd be great, I wouldn't expect the same results but it would give a good indication of increases so if you do them id be interested to see them, thanks.
 
Greebo said:
VTT so by default cpu termination is 1.2v and cpu ref is 0.76v = 63.33%

Good article here:

http://www.ocxtreme.org/main/?q=node/1
Click to expand...

So if I bump the CPU Termination up and make sure the CPU ref is 63.33% of that number, I should be able to have lower CPU volts and possibly 9x533?

LEUVEN: Okay I will look into buying 3Dmark06, may not be for a while though as things are somewhat hetic atm

JonJ678: Thanks for that mate, will definatly try that, how many oC do you think it will improve. I know its obviously dependant on airflow and ambiants etc etc, but was just interested :)
 
You dont need to buy the full version of 3d mark 06, a basic version can be downloaded for free, and as jonj678 has mentioned switch the fan round to push through the heatsink, or if you have another yate loon fan of the same speed use 2 on the cooler in push/pull, may give you a drop of a few degrees.
 
Probably about one degree, but it might be more. The main benefit is moving it further away from the rear case fan, currently the air leaving the one on the heatsink is rotating in the same direction as the exhaust fan, so the exhaust fan cannot exert as much force on the air.

I set it up the same way you have for the first few months, didn't realise I was going against the norm. Temperatures did improve marginally when I moved it to the other side, so for the few seconds it takes it's well worth trying.
 
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