Pre-Overclock Check

MADMAN69UK

MADMAN69UK

MADMAN69UK

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26 Sep 2005
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875
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Hi there :)

I'm looking to do my first ever overclock.
I just thought I'd run my hardware by you experts and see if there's anything I should be aware of before I begin.


Here's my current setup:
  • Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
  • Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 Motherboard
  • Intel C2D E6600 2.40GHz CPU
  • Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
  • MSI ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 Graphics Card
  • OCZ 4GB PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (4-4-4-15)


Does anyone forsee any problems with me overclocking with this setup?

I was hoping to get the CPU up to around 3.0Ghz - 3.2Ghz?

Thanks :rolleyes:
 
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u dont have any ram... Umm you want to find the stock voltages of your cpu, nb etc. find whatever voltage your ram is rated to run at, most say on the sticker stuck on em. Set them manually otherwise on auto your board may start pushing all the others up without you knowing. keep your fsb:Dram low so your ram is running well within what its rated at. Set your PCi frequency to 100 if its not already. then keep an eye on temps when giving it a quick stress. intel burn test may be good for you to give it a short burst for say 20 mins then when you think your happy go for 8 hours with prime. once your stable either push further if temps and voltages allow or try and get the voltages down.
 
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Bradley8988 said:
u dont have any ram... Umm you want to find the stock voltages of your cpu, nb etc. find whatever voltage your ram is rated to run at, most say on the sticker stuck on em. Set them manually otherwise on auto your board may start pushing all the others up without you knowing. keep your fsb:Dram low so your ram is running well within what its rated at. Set your PCi frequency to 100 if its not already. then keep an eye on temps when giving it a quick stress. intel burn test may be good for you to give it a short burst for say 20 mins then when you think your happy go for 8 hours with prime. once your stable either push further if temps and voltages allow or try and get the voltages down.
Click to expand...

Whoopsie, forgot the memory. Just added it to my first post.

Ok, sounds like I have some reading up to do on stock voltages. What's "nb" by the way?
 
northbridge

stock volts should be indicated on your board

once you go to voltages - go to the voltage you want to set - press + it should go off auto and present you with a number

in the top right of the bios screen it will tell you what standard is

set it to that - then increase depending on the problem you encounter
chances are if you are only aiming for 3/3.2GHz that you shouldnt need to mess with volts too much and only having two sticks of ram wont require much more strain on the NB
just make sure you set your ram to its rated frequency and loosen the timings a bit
 
If I was able to pull off a successful overclock I was going to purchase this:
MSI ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

And also double my RAM to 4GB.

Is that going to impact the overclock?
 
Ok, the computer has been on for a good hour and these are my temperatures whilst idle:

2947004238_cddf4f0cc4_o.jpg


Does all look ok?
 
Ok, I'm getting lost with all this northbridge talk.


Here's a picture of the interior of the PC:

2946168477_3c323800a9_o.jpg



Is the northbridge that big silver heatsink just below the CPU cooler?

If so, it is rather toasty.
 
i have the same motherboard and cpu, running quite happy at 3.2Ghz for many months now.

rest of my spec in sig.
 
How would I go about getting cooling over that particular area? With it being in the middle of the case.

Also, when you say I need the stock voltages for my CPU, Northbridge and RAM, where do I locate those exactly? BIOS?

I found some numbers on the RAM, 4-4-4-15, is that something of interest?

Pretend you're explaining this to a complete moron if you can ;)
 
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not recommended, every processor is different and your ram is also different to mine.
I run with 2.1volts on my ram which its rated for, not sure yours needs that much. Also to get my cpu stable at 3.2Ghz i had to put 1.3volts though it. Your best off reading the overclocking stickies at the top and trying to follow them.
 
A friend just pointed out on my SpeedFan screenshot that Core is represented by flames... is that right or is something wrong?

I haven't begun any overclocking yet, this is all at stock.


Edit: Looks like "Core" in this case is my graphics card...
 
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That "core" temp is fine...

If your overclocking get a fan on that northbridge ASAP - even if its just a 60 or 80mm pointed at it from a short distance.

For a 3gig OC you should be able to leave everything on stock voltages, dial in 333*9, set the RAM divider to get 800MHz and away you go.

For 3.2gig you will probably* need a +0.05v on the vcore and possibly an extra +0.1 on the NB and FSB depending on the motherboard.

Don't bother OCing the RAM - the benefits are almost non-existant aslong as your 1:1 or better with the CPU FSB and increasing the voltage to the RAM usually shortens lifespan considerably.

* The E6600 on average does 3150 +/- 50MHz on stock voltage depending on the quality of the chip so on some you might get away with 3.2 on stock voltage.
 
One more thing... those 650i boards are a minefield of FSB holes... just 1MHz +/- can have a huge difference in performance... generally speaking values of 300-333, 350-360, 400 and 450-460 have peak performances with gaps inbetween where it can drop off a lot the exact numbers depend on the partciular 650 board but mostly its 300,350,400,450.
 
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