Overclocking Noob!

[manic111]

Hi!

Im going to order my first ever build on Monday, and am probably going to get an E2160 with a Gigabyte P35-DS3R motherboard, and 2GB PC-6400 cheap Geil RAM.

I am a complete overclocking noob, though, and to be honest want to know if I would just be better of going with a faster Athlon chip and not OCing. I have read the beginner's overclocking sticky, and understand most of it. However, I really dont understand 2 things.

Firstly, when you talk about the FSB, you seem to be talking about FSBs of around 2-300 mhz, yet in the chip's specs it says 800mhz. Why is this?

Secondly, I really dont understand about RAM ratios. How do you work this out? If my pc 6400 RAM has a speed of 400mhz, and my E2160 a FSB of 200mhz, is my ratio 2:1? So if I then overclock to 300mhz the ratio is 4:3? Is it that simple?

If I am missing anything, please explain in really simple language-I am fairly computer savvy, but a bit of a noob when it comes to BIOS.

Also, what are the main mistakes that new overclockers perform?
Thanks a lot!

 

[paradigm]

Hello, and welcome to OcUK forums

want to know if I would just be better of going with a faster Athlon chip and not OCing.

No, C2D's represent the best value for money processing at the moment, clock for clock they are faster than their rivals, and overclocking is that simple you should see a good percentage increase over stock anyway

Firstly, when you talk about the FSB, you seem to be talking about FSBs of around 2-300 mhz, yet in the chip's specs it says 800mhz. Why is this?

Ever since the days of the Willamette core Pentium-4, intel's CPU Bus Speeds have been QUAD PUMPED (think about DDR-RAM being double pumped), so an 800FSB CPU represents a 200MHz Front Side Bus x4.

Secondly, I really dont understand about RAM ratios. How do you work this out? If my pc 6400 RAM has a speed of 400mhz, and my E2160 a FSB of 200mhz, is my ratio 2:1? So if I then overclock to 300mhz the ratio is 4:3? Is it that simple?

For the most part that is pretty much how it is, but to get the best performance out of your machine as a whole, you will want to use a ratio that allows the best balance of RAM overclock and FSB overclock, for example:

I have an E2140 (and an E2160, but it doesn't overclock as well), which is an 800FSB chip (200MHz x 4), to run my PC8500 (DDR1066 - 533MHz) at its stock settings, I need to run a FSB:DRAM ratio of 3:8.

The max I can stably get out of my CPU is 422 x 8 (3376MHz), but due to the CPU:DRAM ratios available, and the limitation of my RAM, the highest ratio I can use is 3:4 (the next highest ratio takes my memory much too fast), giving me a RAM speed of 562MHz (DDR-1124). This is all well and good, but my RAM can happily do 615MHz before crashing out, so;

I drop my FSB back to 405, running my CPU at 3240MHz, but, changing my FSB:DRAM ratio to 2:3. This takes my memory up to a nice 607MHz (DDR-1214), making my system faster overall than having the extra 130MHz on the CPU alone.

If I am missing anything, please explain in really simple language-I am fairly computer savvy, but a bit of a noob when it comes to BIOS.

Also, what are the main mistakes that new overclockers perform?
Thanks a lot!

Only real things to consider are that you will need to adjust voltages, and more than just the vCore and vDIMM (CPU and RAM), you will most likely need to adjust Northbridge (chipset) voltage (called MCH on the P35's), and Southbridge voltage (ICH), as well as the CPU VTT 1.2v voltage (mine is currently at 1.31v). You will probably also find that for the higher FSB's adjusting the I/O voltage (ICHIO 1.5v) helps with stability.

You may want to do some reading up on RAM timings also, basically the slacker (larger numbers) they are, the higher you will be able to overclock, BUT a higher overclock may not always negate the performance drop experienced by lowering timings, find a good balance.

Keep an eye on temperatures (System/PWM/CPU), and be sure to test your overclocks with ORTHOS/PRIME95 and SuperPi. CPUz will become an invaluable tool, as will EVEREST. If you want to play with RAM timings in windows rather than in the BIOS (read up on RAM timings first before doing this), download MemSet 3.3b.

Any more questions, just ask

 

[manic111]

Wow, apparently you really know your stuff! Thanks a lot!

I am planning on running it in the Antec Sonata III case, which (I think) only comes with one fan. It says that the 2nd one is optional-does this mean that it is included but not installed, or just not included? If it isnt included not, would my money be better spent on buying a 2nd case fan or a CPU cooler (probably an arctic 7)?

 

[Angilion]

If a fan is referred to as optional in a case, it almost certainly means that it is not supplied (but that the case has a mounting point for it).

If you are buying a retail CPU, i.e. one in a fancy box from Intel, it will come with the standard cooler for it. That will be adequate, but if you overclock a lot with it then you will probably start to get nasty temperatures and your overclock will probably be limited by the cooler, i.e. the CPU could run faster, but the stock cooler can't shift the heat quickly enough. More overclocking = more heat. A good cooler would be useful, but you're looking at £20-40, much more than for 1 fan, and there really is a difference between the £20 coolers and the £40 coolers.

If you are buying an OEM CPU, i.e. one in a plain little white padded box (or maybe even just in a bag), it won't come with a cooler and you will certainly need one.

Many of the high-end coolers can be aligned to exhaust heat towards the back of the case, where you would be fitting that second case fan if you buy it. They can therefore do the job of a rear case fan as well, to an extent. EDIT: Silly me, posting in the middle of the night. A pre-fitted case fan will probably be at the rear, not at the front.

If you do buy a CPU cooler, you might want to get some high-end thermal paste as well, although it seems that good CPU coolers come with good thermal paste. MX-1 paste seems to do the job well and it has the advantage of being electrically inert (i.e. if you bodge a bit and get some on circuitry, it won't fry anything).

You might want to replace the fan that comes with the case, anyway. They are never the best. The case you're buying comes with a standard Antec Tri-Cool fan, as far as I know. I had one in mine, but not for long. It's OK, but you can buy better fans. I fitted 120mm Akasa Ambers on a fan controller, but those aren't the best either. They cooled better and were quieter than the Tri-cool, though.