Help overclocking mem and cpu

[Greco101]

as you all know this is my first custom so all these new things are opening up to me... I've just never done it before so I'm a little behind.

Could someone by chance set me in the right direction, or even walk me through a lite OC? I have stock cooling atm so nothing extreme... Maybe 2.8-2.9 out of my e6600. I'd also like to get better timing with my ram but i literally know next to nothing about memory.

I know you guys don't take payments but since it's holding my hand I'd be willing to pay for the help - it's really the only way I can give anything back at the moment.


I've done tons of reading on oc'ing but most of it is greek to me, plus just because one way applies to one mobo doesnt mean that way is right for my system and I have yet to learn how to know the difference so to be on the safe side, I ask all of you.

mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188013)
ram (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146108)

[Bucko]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you should overclock your computer.
If you can't work out where cables go, how or even when you need to change BIOS settings, or even how the partitioning on your HDD works, I don't think you are ready to go as advanced as overclocking.

[slytherock]

At least, wait till you reached the limits of your new baby

[.Maleficus.]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you should overclock your computer.
If you can't work out where cables go, how or even when you need to change BIOS settings, or even how the partitioning on your HDD works, I don't think you are ready to go as advanced as overclocking.
That being said (which might be a good idea until you get your bearings straight with everything) I'll try to help you out.

1. I replied to your other thread and told you how to change your multiplier. That will jump you up to the stock 2.4GHz right away.
2. Before you do anything, download Prime95.

FSB. The FSB (Front Side Bus) is what you'll change to up your clocks. I can't remember what the stock for the E6600 is, but I have mine at 1440ish and I'm at 3.1GHz. BUT DON'T JUST GO, "HE HAS HIS AT 1440 SO THAT'S WHAT I'LL DO". Bad idea. You need to take baby steps. Bump it up by increments of 5 or 10. When you get to higher numbers start going by 1, 2 and 3. You'll notice that when you up the FSB, your RAM speeds increase. That's good and bad. If your RAM can't handle the higher speeds, you'll get a scary "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP" when you restart your computer and (in the case of yours and my mobos) You'll get a message say that the computer is in Safe Mode and you need to reset your settings. But, you can avoid that by lowering the RAM Multiplier.

RAM Timings. This is pretty easy. Navigate to the RAM Timings page (I'll let you figure that out yourself) and change the timings.


*Side note* Whether you can get 2.9GHz out of your stock cooling will depend on the rest of your system. Run Prime95 after every (major) increase. Let it run for at least 8 hours, and it will tell you of any stability problems.

If you have any more questions, I guess just post 'em here.


Edit: Whether this discourages you or not, I'd like to add that you can (and if aren't careful and/or don't know what you're doing probably will) fry your components. Keep that in mind when you decide to OC. Is it really worth the $1000+ that you spent?

[Greco101]

Ya, I figured out the x9 thing last night. Probably shoulda tried it myself before posting that question.

Also, Nvidia offers that nTune program. Is that any good?

I know it may seem like it but I'm not THAT computer illiterate. I've just only "seen so much of the moutain" because I was limited with my old pc's. I know it's not wise to just jump into OCing and stuff but I do want to learn about it because you gotta start somewhere.

[slytherock]

Also, Nvidia offers that nTune program. Is that any good?

If you really want to OC it, yes, it can do the job. But I still think it's not necessary. I mean, with an old rig, yes OC to get better performances, but with that one, wait till it become too slow...

[Greco101]

I set the memory to the advertised settings. I was going through the bios and it defaulted at 5-5-5-15. It's at 4-4-3-10 now @ 2.1v

I completely agree with you sly about waiting but is 2.4 really enough for the time being? Plus I would really like to learn about it anyways, mainly because I'm extremely interested in computers. (even more-so since I've joined this forum). Hours of this place has taught me a lot and it really is contagious. :)

Also, that ntune program doesn't seem "right." I know there's a lot more to it than sliding over a bar so would this be the equivalence of just throwing a huge pulley on your SC w/stock internals and thinking its the biggest and baddest... until it explodes...?

[Greco101]

I came across this tutorial while searching around.



Part1. Tidying Up Your BIOS (not all BIOS may have those options)
*You must update your BIOS to the latest version before proceeding*

1. Disable ‘AI Tuning’ for ASUS, ‘C.I.A.2’ for Gigabyte
2. Set PCI Express (PCIe) frequency @100Mhz (‘Auto’ for DS3/DS4/DQ6)
3. Set PCI frequency @33Mhz
4. Disable Hyperpath 3 (for P5W DH only)
5. Disable any ‘spread spectrum’
6. Disable Q-Fan (for ASUS only)
7. Disable ‘Limit CPUID Max to 3’
8. Disable any overvoltage protection
9. Disable ‘C1E’
10. Disable ‘EIST’
11. Disable Virtualization Technology
12. Disable No-Execute Memory Protect
13. Disable any other thing you don’t use
14. Do not enable any speed enhancements you see

The purpose here is to lighten up duties placed on the chipset

Part2. Memory Adjustments
**Expand options for Gigabyte BIOS under ‘M.I.T.’ by pressing CTRL+F1**
Gigabyte: Set ‘Memory Multiplier’ to 2 (1FSB:1RAM operation)
ASUS: Set ‘DRAM Frequency’ to DDR2-533 @266Mhz FSB (1FSB:1RAM operation)
As you increase the FSB, the RAM will follow in the pattern of 1:1 shown in BIOS.

1. Set ‘DRAM Timing’ to manual or disable SPD (use SPD for P5W DH)
2. In BIOS you will see 4 separate timing digits, change them to the ones specified on your RAM

e.g. 4-4-4-12
CAS# Latency (tCL)
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD)
RAS# Precharge (tRP)
RAS# Precharge Delay or Active to Precharge (tRAS)

When 1FSB:1RAM is overclocked above the rated frequency of your RAM use the following values
Timing: 5-5-5-15
vDIMM: 2.2V

e.g. DDR2-667 4-4-4-12 1.9V operating at ~400Mhz will need to be set to 5-5-5-15 2.2V

3. Leave the rest of other timings either at ‘Auto’ or at their default values

Part3. Voltage (again not all BIOS will have the option or uses different name)
***The following voltages are to be used with Part4***

1. Set DRAM/DIMM Voltage (vDIMM) to 2.1V or 2.2V if specified by RAM (+0.3V or +0.4V)
2. Set MCH Voltage (vMCH) to 1.55V
3. Set FSB Voltage (vFSB) to 1.40V
4. Increase SB Voltage (vICH) by +0.1V from default-lowest value
5. Set CPU Voltage (vCore) for the following CPU

E6300=1.370V E6400=1.375V E6600=1.400V E6700=1.400V X6800=1.400V

Part4. Frequency Control
First attempt:
1. Set CPU Host Clock/Frequency (FSB) to 333Mhz (300Mhz for X6800)
2. Set CPU Clock Ratio or Multiplier to the default value for your processor

E6300-> 333x7=2331
E6400-> 333x8=2664
E6600-> 333x9=2997
E6700-> 333x10=3330
X6800-> 310x11=3410

3. Save settings and reboot

Further attempts:
1. Up even more FSB by 5Mhz or 2Mhz increasement
2. Calculate your final clockspeed
3. Up even more vCore if needed by 0.025V increasement


Part5. Stability Testing
You will need the following programs:
- CPU-Z
- Prime95
- Memtest86+
- Core Temp
- SpeedFan

1. Fire up CPU-Z and keep it running in the background to monitor clock speed
2. Fire up Core Temp to monitor temperature
3. Fire up SpeedFan to monitor voltages
3. Run dual instances of Prime95 in torture mode for 2 hours
4. (Optional) Run Memtest86+ for 2hrs
5. If stable go to Part4-Further Attempts, if not go back to last stable frequency
6. Once you’re happy with the settings proceed to the final part

Note1: The higher the final clock speed, the lower the temperature for CPU has to be to maintain stableness

Note2: Delta of Idle-Load reported by Core Temp should not exceed by 26°C

Note3: vCore should not fluctuate by more than +/- 0.100V. If it does, improve cooling on MOSFETs

Note4: If an attempt fails and the computer doesn’t boot, hold down ‘Insert’ key when booting to restore default settings in BIOS

Part6. Finalising
-Lower vCore by one notch at a time until lowest possible while maintaining the same stableness
-Do the same for vMCH, vFSB, vICH after the above step is completed
-Record the BIOS settings which works (except DFI and ASUS owners)
-(Optional) Pull off a PCMark and/or SuperPi32M score and compare to stock to gauge performance increase

[Olen]

Ummm... as far as I know never having used any of that equipment that should work unless you have the misfortune to have a component which doesn't like oc.

Just take it really really slow. If it isn't feeling really boring and tedious you're going to fast. And watch those temperatures (speedfan does temps and voltages). Up a little test, up a little test. If you can't afford to replace the components don't try it.

nVidia's nTune - this didn't work at all for me. It 'detects' you optimum settings. Mon deriere. It put my 6200 way way up in its detection and claimed it was stable. Under load it wasn't. In fact my graphics refuse to run stable with any oc now (its touch and go without) - probably because of some damage done by nTune.

My advice would be to get a rubbish old computer and have a play with it to learn how.

[.Maleficus.]

Olen, some of that advice is so good, I had to put it in my sig. +rep to you.

[Olen]

Cheers if you follow that closely enough you are unlikely to hurt anything because it will never get pushed that far.

Ntune isn't as bad as I said really. I had another play today (it rained) and I can't do anything with the core frequency without it becoming unstable but I got the memory up to 700MHz from 500 without any signs of instability. Things were getting hot a bit and seeing as thats a 1:2 ration that should be (and is) fast. Raised my 3dmark05 score by 8%! But it doesn't fully work and don't let the automatic stuff do anything.

[Spawn-Inc]

and don't super overclock just for fun, like i did. i got away with being able to take out the battery for a while but it might screw up the system. i think i will leave my stuff, once i actually get the money for it, stock until i order some water cooling.

[haha49]

and don't super overclock just for fun, like i did. i got away with being able to take out the battery for a while but it might screw up the system. i think i will leave my stuff, once i actually get the money for it, stock until i order some water cooling.

i did that.. i was trying to fry a cpu... i took a 2.4 celleron to 4.6 ghz wit a zalmon 9700 led heatsink fan had the ram at stock as i wanted to keep that.. then it went poof and my mb was the thing that broke.. was stable as a rock till the motherboard broke.. had voltage on cpu maxed.. was fun.. :banana:

[Greco101]

i did that.. i was trying to fry a cpu... i took a 2.4 celleron to 4.6 ghz wit a zalmon 9700 led heatsink fan had the ram at stock as i wanted to keep that.. then it went poof and my mb was the thing that broke.. was stable as a rock till the motherboard broke.. had voltage on cpu maxed.. was fun.. :banana:

Coulda been more fun to throw it on ebay instead of trash it but eh at least it was fun lol.