upgrade advice

jamest · 1 Nov 2008 at 12:50

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at getting a cheap upgrade until the i7's come out and start dropping price next year.

For the motherboard I'm looking at:
Asus P5K SE-EPU Intel P35 (Socket 775), but open to suggestions if there are better overclocking boards for a similar price.

I'm stuck with the CPU though. Not sure between the E2200 & E5200. They seem roughly the same price, but which one would be best for overclocking and playing games?

Finally am I right in thinking PC6400 RAM would be adequate for overclocking either of the above processors?
Something like: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB)

Thanks

neon.uk · 1 Nov 2008 at 13:13

I've heard the E5200 can do up to 4Ghz, it seems a no brainer at the moment.

pastymuncher · 1 Nov 2008 at 14:07

Do not buy the E2200 as it is nowhere as good as the E5200. Despite what a lot of people on here think, you will not hit 4Ghz with a E5200. Realistically you are looking at 3.2-3.6Ghz. These cpu's do not like high fsb's and being a 45nm core you cannot give them a lot of voltage. Mine does 3.6Ghz on 1.325v although it will do 3.2Ghz on 1.16v.

jamest · 2 Nov 2008 at 14:17

Thanks for your replies.

I've just ordered the following:

- Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
- OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2
- Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB)
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

Can anyone give me some tips so I can get this overclocked when it arrives? Been so long out of the game I don't really know where to start... :confused:

Presumably if I increase the fsb to 240 that will get me to 3ghz. What about the dram frequency? should I use a divider to get this as close to 400mhz as possible?

Is the multiplier on these chips unlocked? From my AMD overclocking days, I just remember trying to reduce the multiplier as much as possible to allow the greatest fsb speed.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

TheRedZealot · 2 Nov 2008 at 14:20

I would try and get the FSB to be on a 1:1 ratio preferably, that should mean 3.2Ghz with an 8x multi.

jamest · 2 Nov 2008 at 14:25

I would try and get the FSB to be on a 1:1 ratio preferably, that should mean 3.2Ghz with an 8x multi.

Right, so from that I take it the cpu multipliers aren't locked?

pastymuncher · 2 Nov 2008 at 15:28

TheRedZealot said:
I would try and get the FSB to be on a 1:1 ratio preferably, that should mean 3.2Ghz with an 8x multi.

I wish people would stop posting like this. It is'nt going to happen. I have only seen one that does a 400 fsb and that was a lunatic on XS that pumped 1.9v through it. These things do not like high fsb's. The max that they will reach will be 360 and even these are few and far between. Most are stuck below 320 although that does not mean they will hit a high clockspeed. As you ramp up the fsb they become more and more unstable. Mine maxes out at 3.7Ghz prime stable (12.5x296). It will not do 3.7Ghz with any other combination. It will do a 323 fsb with a 6-10x multiplier but no more. These are also 45nm cores so you can't give them lot's of voltage.

TheRedZealot · 2 Nov 2008 at 15:40

pastymuncher said:
I wish people would stop posting like this. It is'nt going to happen. I have only seen one that does a 400 fsb and that was a lunatic on XS that pumped 1.9v through it. These things do not like high fsb's. The max that they will reach will be 360 and even these are few and far between. Most are stuck below 320 although that does not mean they will hit a high clockspeed. As you ramp up the fsb they become more and more unstable. Mine maxes out at 3.7Ghz prime stable (12.5x296). It will not do 3.7Ghz with any other combination. It will do a 323 fsb with a 6-10x multiplier but no more. These are also 45nm cores so you can't give them lot's of voltage.

My e7200 with P5E like yours has been running at 421x9.5 for 6 months so far without any problems. Even if he cant run 1:1 he may be able to do 300x12.5 (the max multi on the e5200 i believe) which would result in 3.75Ghz or 250x12 which would give him 3Ghz. It all depends on how stable it is at the settings that are being used.

pastymuncher · 2 Nov 2008 at 15:59

TheRedZealot said:
My e7200 with P5E like yours has been running at 421x9.5 for 6 months so far without any problems. Even if he cant run 1:1 he may be able to do 300x12.5 (the max multi on the e5200 i believe) which would result in 3.75Ghz or 250x12 which would give him 3Ghz. It all depends on how stable it is at the settings that are being used.

The E5200 is completely different to the E7300 though in the way it works. It would appear that i have one of the best one's on here but other's are struggling to get over 3.2Ghz. To get stable high clocks you need to use the 12.5x multiplier but the higher the fsb the harder it is to get stable without giving them excessive voltages. Mine will not do 323 on the fsb if the multiplier is set any higher than 10x. It has been in my main rig (in siggy) under water and now it is in my second rig in a Gigabyte P35 DS3R and it behaves exactly the same as it did in my P5E. People are advising others to get these cpu's and saying that they will easily hit 4Ghz or run 400 fsb but in reality it's never going to happen and people end up being disappointed with their cpu's. I truly believe that they are just about the best buy in the budget end but people are expecting too much out of them due to the other 45nm cores clocking so well. With these you just have to make the best out of the high multiplier and sacrifice the bandwidth. There just does'nt seem to be any middle ground with these cpu's.

Edit. In your first post you suggested he ran at 1:1 for 3.2Ghz using the 8x multiplier which meant that he would have a fsb of 400 which is not going to happen. That's why i made a post.

jamest · 2 Nov 2008 at 16:31

Thanks for your comments guys. I'm not expecting 4ghz out of it. I'd be quite happy with 3.2ghz!

Will I have to increase the voltage on the cpu to get to 3.2ghz? what's a safe amount to put through it?

Lastly, can you explain what the 'FSB Strap to North Bridge' option does? :confused:

Thanks again

pastymuncher · 2 Nov 2008 at 19:32

jamest said:
Thanks for your comments guys. I'm not expecting 4ghz out of it. I'd be quite happy with 3.2ghz!

Will I have to increase the voltage on the cpu to get to 3.2ghz? what's a safe amount to put through it?

Lastly, can you explain what the 'FSB Strap to North Bridge' option does?

Thanks again

Possibly a small increase. Mine does 3.2Ghz with 1.16v but anything more and it needs a bigger increase. In any case i won't take mine past 1.425v. I have had a 45nm cpu degrade on me before.

Fsb to north bridge strap is effectively your memory divider. It allows you to vary the speed at which the memory actually runs. With the E5200, chances are that you will end up running the memory faster than the fsb. If you leave the strap on auto there usually is a drop down box that appears when you click on DRAM Frequency that then allows you to select the spped closest to your ram's stock speed.

jamest · 5 Nov 2008 at 21:05

So glad I got this CPU now. Its running like a dream! :cool:

Currently at 3.8ghz with 1.35v (as set in BIOS). Idle is 38°, Load 56° according to Coretemp. Not sure how much I trust Coretemp though, given the VID reading I'm getting...

How long should I run Prime before I can be sure its stable? Only run it for 10minutes so far, no errors yet though.

TheRedZealot · 5 Nov 2008 at 21:22

I personally run for 5 hours as that is the longest time i would be stressing it for in games etc, run Realtemp to get the true 45nm readings (unless coretemp has been fixed)