Struggling to get a stable overclock

Cyriz

Cyriz

Cyriz

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Joined
17 Jan 2010
Posts
10
Hi,
I know a tiny bit about overclocking and i had my old system overclocked. But i have just recently upgraded and am struggling to get a stable overclock with my components. I'm looking to take the cpu to about 3.0 - 3.2ghz but every time I do that i'm not sure what else, except voltage i should be changing. Any suggestions would be helpful.

My machine is

windows 7
gigabyte p35-ds3l
intel core 2 e2200 cooled by Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
4gb (2x2gb) kingston hyper-x 1066 ddr2
Vapour-x hd5770 at 945/1400
hiper 550w psu
Samsung f3 500gb hdd

oh and one last thing, i was a bit disappointed with the performance of the 5770, do you think my cpu is holding it back, and if so, would overclocking the cpu mean the card will preform better or would i need a new cpu?

Thanks
Kayne
 
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Hi
Very good board for overclocking, The CPU should be good for the speed you are after too.
It sounds like you need to check the memory divider.
Make sure you have you memory speed set to manual and do not exceed the manufacturers speed for now.
 
Thanks for the reply, though i am not sure where to change the memory divider? would that also be known as the multiplier?

ive managed to get the cpu to 3.0ghz and ran a quick test to see if it was even the slightest bit stable, where i was failing after like 2 seconds it ran for a good ten minutes no problem. This was with the memory multiplier set to 2 and an fsb of 300. If i try to changed the memory multiplier to anything other than 2, to try and get the memory running closer to 1066 the system crashes after start-up. any ideas why this might be?
 
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what voltage are you running the ram at? And what timings? What idle/load temps are you getting with your overclock and at what vcore? If raising he divider to get ram freq higher causes instability that usually means your ram ain't stable, so usually I'd up ram voltage, but need to know more about your OC settings first.
 
Your RAM voltage seems a little low, check for the part number and then cross reference at Kingston web site for the correct voltage; this will probably be 2.2v but always best to make sure rather than fry something.
Also the timings you are using are almost certainly incorrect, try them at 5,5,5,15 but again double check at the Kingston web site for your specific part.
 
Luffy said:
Your RAM voltage seems a little low, check for the part number and then cross reference at Kingston web site for the correct voltage; this will probably be 2.2v but always best to make sure rather than fry something.
Also the timings you are using are almost certainly incorrect, try them at 5,5,5,15 but again double check at the Kingston web site for your specific part.
Click to expand...


what's incorrect with 4-4-4-12 for 840mhz?

5-5-5-15 IS for 1066mhz+ speeds which are no use with this CPU anyways as it won't hit any higher fsb than ~300 and that would make best with 1:3 cpu/ram ratio and tight c4 timings.

Regarding ram volt, they should do this low speed on 1.9 easily.
2.2 would be required only for some crazy OCs which again his CPU/mobo won't allow for.

And e2xxx like volts so 1.45 is fine, depending on chip he might do those clocks with little lower but I'll start with that to see what it can do first and then eventually lower or bump up if needed.

Anything up to 1.55will be fine as long as the CPU temp under full load is within 50-60c ( I personally wouldn't run it over 65 ).
 
Cyriz said:
Thanks for the reply, though i am not sure where to change the memory divider? would that also be known as the multiplier?

ive managed to get the cpu to 3.0ghz and ran a quick test to see if it was even the slightest bit stable, where i was failing after like 2 seconds it ran for a good ten minutes no problem. This was with the memory multiplier set to 2 and an fsb of 300. If i try to changed the memory multiplier to anything other than 2, to try and get the memory running closer to 1066 the system crashes after start-up. any ideas why this might be?
Click to expand...
Apologies if I provided poor info, this is what he said so I believed he was trying to get his RAM closer to it's limit.
:(
 
no, not at all, i have gone along the route that PhoenixUK provided but with a slighter lower vcore and its holding out well and the ram timings i set as 5/5/5/15 as recommended by kingston. Through doing this i have defiantly learned a lot more about oc'ing.

Just one question, would changing my timings to 4/4/4/12 yield any sort of noticeable improvement?
 
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If you're running the mem under 1066 it makes sense to tighten the timings.

To answer your question, unless you benchmark, no, I doubt you'll notice any difference.
 
There will be some difference, not much but every bit counts when OCing and it should all match up nicely so try to get lowest timings possible for your current speed.

So check your current RAM speed and if it's between 840-910 try to run it at 4-4-4-12, if below 840, good sticks should manage 4-4-4-10 or close to it. Above 910 I'd say you'll have to run it 5-4-4-12 / 5-5-5-15 depending on how good your RAM is but then you can just as well run it at 1066 or even 1100+ 5-5-5-15.

If it was running fine then you should try getting 300fsb which will be 3.3ghz and run RAM at 900mhz 4-4-4-12 timings if your sticks can manage it, that's the sweet spot for this CPU and you should be able to run it under 65c when doing orthos/prime blend.
 
Cyriz said:
I know a tiny bit about overclocking and i had my old system overclocked. But i have just recently upgraded and am struggling to get a stable overclock with my components. I'm looking to take the cpu to about 3.0 - 3.2ghz

  • windows 7
  • gigabyte p35-ds3l
  • intel core 2 e2200 cooled by Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
  • 4gb (2x2gb) kingston hyper-x 1066 ddr2
  • Vapour-x hd5770 at 945/1400
  • hiper 550w psu
  • Samsung f3 500gb hdd
Click to expand...

Hello Kayne,

Welcome to OcUK Forums! :)

Please read & understand the forums rules and enjoy your stay!

So you wanna overclock your Intel® Pentium® E2200 to 3.0GHz-3.2GHz

  1. 11 x 200 = 2.2GHz
  2. 11 x 273 = 3.0GHz
  3. 11 x 291 = 3.2GHz
#2: With the FSB set to 273MHz you will be pushing your chip to 3.0GHz, if you leave the memory on the [1:2] divider it may hit DDR2-545 (5-5-5-15) which would be quite sweet!

#3: With the FSB set to 291MHz you will be pushing your chip to 3.2GHz, if you leave the memory on the [1:2] divider it will probably fail to hit DDR2-581 (5-5-5-15), the next best config would probably be using the [8:5] divider (if your chipset has it?) which would run the memory at DDR2-931 but not sure what timings you could pull here! :p

If you wanna seperate the testing into two stages (which works great for dummies like me!) then you can set the memory to [1:1] ratio (also known as Sync), slacken the timings to 5-5-5-15 and then just push up the FSB giving the processor more juice as and when it needs it. By setting the memory to sync and giving it slack timings you are basically taking a lot of strain from the Northbridge chip and therefore any errors you encounter are 99% gonna be CPU related! :)

Once you work out roughly how the chip runs and what vCore it needs @ 3.0GHz then 3.2GHz you can make a note of this and then start working on getting the memory running faster . . . .

The only difference between the two scenarios mentioned above is that once you set the memory on an upwards divider the strain on the Northbridge will increase so you may need to bOOst the vNB.

I would suggest leaving any voltages your not sure about on [Auto] and see how you get on, vCore will probably also work fine on [Auto] but no doubt the board will set it higher than it needs to . . .not a problem for initial testing if you have a good cooler but ideally once you passed stability testing on [Auto] vCore you should switch to manual over-ride and set about reducing the vCore set by step . . .

If you have patience there is no reason you can't have this susses in a few days, I think config #2 above 3.0GHz + DDR2-545 (5-5-5-15) will be rather pleasing . . . although I'm sure overclocking addiction will drive you on further!

Good luck and have fun! :cool:
 
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