Getting back into overclocking

NotAGolf · 9 May 2008 at 19:01

When I first bought my system about a year ago I overclocked it up to 2.8GHz (spec in sig). I got 3.0Ghz out of it stable (12hr Orthos) in XP but it wasnt stable in Vista so dropped it down to 2.8. I didnt really have time to do the overclock completely as I was a bit busy, and havent really got round to it. But now I've finished my exams and I'm got a few weeks free so I fancy giving it another bash.

Here's the current details on the overclock:

BIOS settings:
vCore: 1.375
Mem: 2.085
NB Core: Auto
Vcore offset: Auto

FSB: 1400Mhz
MEM: 800Mhz (Unlinked)

Idle:
vCore: 1.39 (using cpuZ and asus probe)
cpu temp: 40C (using coretemp)
MB temp: 38C (using asus probe and speedfan)

Load:
vCore: 1.33
cpu temp: 59C
MB temp: 41C

Couple of questions about things:
1. How bad is it dropping 0.06V on the vcore (i'm guessing due to vdroop)?
2. Should I manually set the northbridge voltage? If so, what to? And how will this affect the overclock?
3. What's the maximum vcore and temp I should be looking at? (I know there's not a specific answer but a rough estmate would be useful)
4. Most importantly...what do you think I can get out of it?!!!

Thanks for any advice.

weescott · 9 May 2008 at 21:55

1: seen worse. It's fine
2: Depends how much of a clock you want, u might not need to touch it at all.
3: Roughly 1.55v and 72c load
4: 3.4ish

NotAGolf · 9 May 2008 at 22:28

Thanks weescott, they're some impressive clocks in your sig btw :eek:

I want to go as high as possible really, obviously without blowing stuff up! I don't really want to go above 1.5V really as that sounds quite excessive and I would like the chip to last as long as possible.

How do I know when I should up the NB? When I seem to have reached the maximum stable overclock? And also, what is the default setting, and again, what is the maximum safe value for if? (I dont have a fan on the NB or anything, its just the standard heatsink).

Thanks again.

weescott · 9 May 2008 at 23:36

I used 1.55v to get my E6750 stable at 3.6 with lesser cooling. It's not as much as it sounds. First thing first though; you HAVE to active cool the chipset on that board to get anywhere or any extra voltage will be useless.

NotAGolf · 10 May 2008 at 08:17

weescott said:
I used 1.55v to get my E6750 stable at 3.6 with lesser cooling. It's not as much as it sounds. First thing first though; you HAVE to active cool the chipset on that board to get anywhere or any extra voltage will be useless.

Why so? Will I be damaging it or will it simply be limiting my overclock? I cant really afford to get another fan and start pull apart everything on my mobo. That's kinda the reason I'm pushing this rather than buying a new cpu.

weescott · 10 May 2008 at 11:27

Because the chipset runs so hot and yes it will limit your clock/cause instability. Any cheap fan you might have lying about will do.

NotAGolf · 10 May 2008 at 12:33

weescott said:
Because the chipset runs so hot and yes it will limit your clock/cause instability. Any cheap fan you might have lying about will do.

Thanks again Weescott but I dont have a spare fan and i'm not really technical enough to buy a cheap one and attach it somehow.

What is a safe temperature for the Northbridge then? I've done a bit of reading and the P5N-E doesn't seem to great overclocking wise, especially tempwise on the northbridge. I dont know exactly how hot it is, I've got a motherboard reading of 33C idle and about 36C under load using the Asus probe, but i'm not sure this is accurate, or even if its the northbridge temperature rather than just an ambient temp somewhere in the case.

I don't know what voltage to set the NB to in the BIOS either as it's set to auto atm and I don't know what the stock/max temps for it are.

Sorry for the stupid questions.

Pneumonic · 10 May 2008 at 17:06

Something like this is really easy to attach and move around to cool hot spots in your PC, use one to cool my northbridge and RAM nice little piece of kit

NotAGolf · 10 May 2008 at 20:17

Bit of an update.

Made it to 3.1GHz, with 1.43 Vcore. Idle at 36C and 61C after 30mins Orthos test. Also downloaded Everest which also states my motherboard temp is around the 35C mark so I think that is my northbridge temp which seems ok.

I tried to go to 3.2 at 1.46V but when showing the BIOS splash screen it had artifacts all over it, obviously that scared the **** out of me so I quickly turned the computer off. Rebooted and got into the BIOS (no artifacts this time). And put it back to 3.15 and 1.46V, this gets into windows but locks up soon after.

Where do I go from here?

I'm kinda scared to up the voltage anymore after the last scare, I dont think the problem was temps however as I still have a bit of headroom with the current temps, so I'm a bit confused.

I had a look at the options under the NB voltage but I can only set them to: 1.208, 1.393, 1.563, 1.748. I presume 1.393 is the default (Auto) so I dont really fancy whacking it all the way up to 1.563.

Any advice?
Thanks.