My first overclocking project!

davejm

davejm

davejm

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16 May 2007
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302
Hi guys. Thanks to some great advice I recieved on here, I've bought myself and made up a brand new rig which I'm hoping will enable me to overclock somewhat.

First of all, here's what I purchased:-

CPU: E6600
MB: Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3P
HSF: Noctua NH-U12F
HD: WD Caviar 500GB 5000AAKS
PSU: Corsair HX 520W
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 2GB 5300
GPU: BFG Geforce 8800 GTS OC 320MB

As I mentioned, everything is built and it seems to be running smoothly, so I'm wanting to explore my overclocking options and work out exactly what I need to do.

Before I do anything, can you give this screenshot the once over? It shows my current CPU-Z and Speedfan readings, so I want to make sure that everything is as it should be before I get started. Can someone explain exactly what the CPU-Z readings are, i.e the temp1-3 readings? I presume the HD0 reading is the HD and Core 0/1 are the two cores of the Conroe? Do the temps look OK?

sysinfo.png


If everything is well, I want to start overclocking. I'm aiming to the get the FSB up to 400mhz, taking the memory with it up to 800mhz and the CPU up to 3.2ghz with a 8x multiplier. What kinda increments to do I need to go in?

Cheers folks! :)
 
Ah, is this why it is showing incorrectly?

Although I can't find the option in the BIOS. Where and what exactly am I looking for?

EDIT:- Found it! (EIST)

OK, here's another screeny of TAT and CoreTemp.

sysinfo2.png
 
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Here's my first attempted overclock. I upped the FSB to 320mhz, and lowered the multiplier to 8x, giving me 2.56ghz. I ran Orthos for half an hour and took a screeny (it was running while I took the screenshot too).

Am I on the right track? Presumably I just run Orthos for a while as I increase the FSB in small increments?

clock_320fsb.png
 
Right, I'm currently at 400fsb with a 8x multiplier giving me 3.2ghz.

Current temps are mid-30's under full CPU load and things seem to be 100% stable (8 hour Orthos test).

Then I tried to increase the FSB to 420 and it wouldn't boot to Windows. Is this the point where I need to look at increasing my voltage?
 
I just remember reading that higher FSB is usually better... is it not?

I'm not sure why you're suggesting 8x333... that's 3ghz right? Which is slower than what I'm clocked at the moment. The memory is still at 1:1 - overclocked to 800mhz with a memory multiplier of 2x.

Am I missing something here?
 
I tried 360x9 (3.24ghz) and Orthos errored after only a minute or so (my first problem so far).

I've now set to 333x8 (3ghz) as you suggested and things seem OK.

So it looks as though I can't really go past 3.2ghz... is this where I increase the CPU voltage?

Not sure I understand your suggestion there... increase my FSB to 400 again? And keep the 9x multiplier? 3.6ghz seems like a bit jump. Not sure what you mean by keeping my RAM at 2.2 minimum... the multiplier only goes up in half integer increments, i.e 2, 2.5, 3 etc.

Cheers for the tips so far! :)
 
I've gone back to the 8x multi with the higher FSB and I seem to be getting better results (not sure why it wouldn't boot earlier, seems fine over 400 now).

Currently at 425x8 (3.4ghz) and just running Orthos now.

What kinda temps do I need to be wary of? Currently 42c under full load.
 
Currently running at 390x9 (3.51ghz) and it boots OK, but I'm getting Orthos errors. Do I need to up the voltage? (currently 1.376)

RAM is currently 5-4-4-18
 
OK, my RAM is fine... the 'small' test is failing too.

One thing I did notice is that cpu-z is reporting that my voltage is dropping to 1.36 from 1.376 when I run Orthos. I thought I'd turned off all the limiting options in the BIOS. Is there something I'm missing?

Also, when I manually set the voltage value in the BIOS, it's being reported differently from within Windows.

Will try and set to 1.45
 
That makes me feel better.... currently 45°c, although Orthos has failed after 10 mins. Was a lot better than before though, after failing pretty much right away.

Am I hitting the max of my CPU now? Temps seem fine, but I'm wary of increasing the voltage too much.
 
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