How best to OC this new build?

Vahldark

Vahldark

Vahldark

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10 Dec 2008
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Just wondering how I should approach OC'ing this new build of mine? Never OC'd a build before and all the terminology is quite overwhelming at times.

Any and all advice is appreciated - oh, and is this system build any good for an air cooled OC set up?

Cheers all :)

ASUS P5K Premium Blackpearl Wifi Deluxe
Be Quiet! 750W psu
Intel Q9450
GeIL dual channel DDR2 Ultra pc6400 800MHz CAS4 x 4Gb
Arctic Cooling pro7 heatsink
Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32Mb cache
BFG GeForce 9800 GTX+ OC 512Mb GDDR3
Windows Vista Home Basic-64bit os
Antec 900 Gaming Case
 
You should be able to overclock it quite simply...

The basic process is:

Increase the FSB by a small amount (around 10 to 20 is good initially).
When the system become unstable (Tested with Orthos/Futuremark), increase CPU voltage slightly.
Ensure ram isn't going above its rating
RAM voltage will likely need to be increased to 2.1 or higher.

Google for some helps when it comes to that motherboard and you'll find other peoples overclocking attempts.
 
AS Conan says, this is the right general approach, however you probably can jump straight to 3.2, certainly 3Ghz without any problems, all of those chips should be capable of that. A good way is to set your RAM on 1:1 divider first whilst you OC your CPU so you dont have to worry about it, and manually set your RAM voltage, although I'd just set it at its rated speed to start
 
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Thanks guys ... sorry, I feel like a real noob asking these things. I've looked in the bios and RAM settings are on 'auto' - I assume the mobo is running things in accordance to its own voltage and timing settings (at the moment I'm just looking at things, not changing anything) - and in the list of memory voltages I see 2.0; 2.05 & 2.10 (amongst a vast list of others). Is the 2.1 the 2.10 with the zero dropped off? Daft question, maybe, but I need to be certain.

Once again, sorry to be a pain, but thank you for your advice.
 
Yes 2.1 and 2.10 are the same
auto prob will be ok at first, but the thing is a lot of motherboards tend to undervolt the RAM, thats why its best to manually set it to vendors specified rating so you know that any issues you encounter arent RAM related
 
Brilliant. I know to some they might be thinking 'duh!', but I'd rather look an idiot than for the sake of asking, go ahead and plonk in any old temp.

Looking at CPU-Z info here on cpu and memory -core voltage is alternating from 1.120v & 1.136v. Is that normal? The core speed is at 2003.7MHz (with a +/- variation on the .7).
The multiplier is x6.0 - Bus Speed 334.0 MHz - Rated FSB 1335.9MHz.

As for the memory info: DC Mode is Symmetric - Dual channels - DRAM Frequency 400.7MHz - FSB:DRAM 5:6 (looked but don't know where to change this?)
CL 4.0 clocks
tRCD 4 clocks
tRP 4 clocks
tRAS 12 clocks
CF 2T

Under SPD on CPU-Z, Timings Table shows: 200MHz 3.0-3-3-9 12 1.8v / 266MHz 4.0-4-4-12 16 1.8v / 400MHz 5.0-5-5-18 23 1.8v

In the bios I've set up the memory to 800Mhz with 4-4-4-12 @2.1v, which is the specification on the GeIL casing.

So, does any of this look out of the ordinary? Is it normal? Do I need to make changes anywhere?
 
All looks fine
Its normal for your voltage to fluctuate in CPU-z, it needs different amounts depending on whether or not its under load
If you want to, you can disable speedstep in your BIOS, thats why CPU-z isnt reporting the correct speed for your CPU
Ignore the SPD page on CPU-z, its horribly inaccurate and causes more problems than it solves
Dont worry bout looking daft, everyones new at some point, and youre right, youre better safe than burning out a component or something else, if not sure always ask :)
 
You should be fine for the time being... I'd always disable speedstep as it helps with overclocking...

Your voltages will drop under extreme load... This is usually the cause of instability, take notice of your voltages and use OCCT (http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/) to monitor temps/voltages while you benchmark after overclocks.
 
Gentlemen, a big thank you for taking the time out to read and reply. I shall attempt to get to grips with this OC stuff. In the meantime I hope I do not become too irritating posting question after question.

Thank you once again :)
 
Another question for you guys; what do the following numbers relate to in 'Timing Information'as they follow direction on from my RAM timing settings - 4-4-4-12-3-42-6-3-3 ... it is the last 5 number sets I'm unsure of, and are they correct?

Cheers peeps :)
 
You can safely ignore those last 5 numbers, they have very little effect on any actual performance, the first 4 have some effect, lower is better, but its more important to get your CPU up than worry about RAM timings
 
Guys

Going to put any OC'ing on hold for a while ... going to do some proper homework before I start fiddling too much. This P5K Premium BP mobo is giving me some headaches, so I want to be 100% sure about how this thing works (and what doesn't) before I proceed further. Shall keep you updated should I make progress.

Cheers :)
 
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