BIOS settings I used on my Gigabyte DS3 + E6400

[Alphafox78]

Im running a E6600 and I have DDR-667 Ram. I want to run 1:1, so at 333 FSB and ram. I cant quite seem to hit 333, 320 seems ok, but that little extra just makes prime crash in a second. no amount of Vcore helps, nor does any other voltage increase. the NB heatsync does seem extremely hot, could that be the cause for the wall I am hitting here?

Also, I have the F4c and I dont see any memory timing settings like in the screen shots, how do I make thoes appear?

Temps are 45 under load for cpu

 

[fyleow]

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[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Alphafox78
Im running a E6600 and I have DDR-667 Ram. I want to run 1:1, so at 333 FSB and ram. I cant quite seem to hit 333, 320 seems ok, but that little extra just makes prime crash in a second. no amount of Vcore helps, nor does any other voltage increase. the NB heatsync does seem extremely hot, could that be the cause for the wall I am hitting here?

Also, I have the F4c and I dont see any memory timing settings like in the screen shots, how do I make thoes appear?

Temps are 45 under load for cpu

I was getting random lockups because the NB was running too hot so that could be your problem as well. Leave the NB voltage at stock. I'm running it at 425fsb at stock voltage. Point a fan at the NB to see if that helps.

For the timings, in the Main bios menu hit Ctrl+F1 and then go to the MIT menu in bios.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: fyleow
Overclocking this thing has been a nightmare for me. I have basically the same bios settings as you do. I am running my E6400 on the 6x multiplier to test for FSB stability.

I can't get past 350 stable. No matter how I adjust my voltages it just doesn't happen. It's not the CPU that is limiting my speeds because I have tried it at 2.8 ghz with the 8x multiplier and it primes just fine. It has issues at 2.4 ghz with the 6x multiplier at 400 FSB. I am using OCZ DDR 800 mhz memory and the F4 bios.

I have active cooling on my northbridge, and my temps under full load don't exceed 40C according to speed fan.

Are you using the F4 bios or F4C bios?? I was reading that some people got crappy overclocks after switching to the F4 bios so I decided to stick with the F4C bios since everything works for me.

Download Coretemp to read temps. or read them from Gigabyte Easytune. SPeedfan gave me weird, inconsistent values.

 

[fyleow]

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[fyleow]

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[AdamK47]

Originally posted by: thilan29
Here are pics of my bios (F4C beta bios):
click
click
click
click

Hopefully those help. Also, a word of warning, point a fan at your Northbridge (big gold heatsink) because I was getting lockups because it was running SO hot. Don't up the voltage on the northbridge unless you have another cooler for your northbridge.

I have it running at 3.2GHz set in the Bios and I'm just waiting on my Northbridge cooler to push it further.

Your LCD has a stuck red pixel

 

[Alphafox78]

Originally posted by: fyleow

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: fyleow
Overclocking this thing has been a nightmare for me. I have basically the same bios settings as you do. I am running my E6400 on the 6x multiplier to test for FSB stability.

I can't get past 350 stable. No matter how I adjust my voltages it just doesn't happen. It's not the CPU that is limiting my speeds because I have tried it at 2.8 ghz with the 8x multiplier and it primes just fine. It has issues at 2.4 ghz with the 6x multiplier at 400 FSB. I am using OCZ DDR 800 mhz memory and the F4 bios.

I have active cooling on my northbridge, and my temps under full load don't exceed 40C according to speed fan.

Are you using the F4 bios or F4C bios?? I was reading that some people got crappy overclocks after switching to the F4 bios so I decided to stick with the F4C bios since everything works for me.

Download Coretemp to read temps. or read them from Gigabyte Easytune. SPeedfan gave me weird, inconsistent values.

I have now reflashed to the F4C bios to give it a try. It was stable for about 4 minutes and I was going to jokingly post about how that's stable enough for me, but when I hit the firefox button it rebooted. Maybe I shouldn't be doing anything while priming.

EDIT: Failed after 7 minutes of priming. Core Temp shows temps at around 48C load and I immediately pulled the northbridge fan off right after it failed to get a feel for the temps. it was not hot at all.

so what bios are you going to use? F4C or just F4? link?

 

[fyleow]

..

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: fyleow
thilan29,

Are you 100% positive the northbridge temperature is affecting stability. I was convinced too, but after my setup was stable on dual prime for 30 minutes I decided to pull the fan off the NB. It's still going 30 minutes later. I'm at FSB 425 with no increase in MCH voltage.

I was going to pick up the Thermalright Ultra-120 and a HR-05 to get some nice dual cooling with just a single fan, but it looks like I might not need to.

I'm using a Thermalright SI-120 so there is *some* airflow around the NB but not much. I'm using a Globewin @ 7v and those just don't push that much air.

When I first started overclocking, I was getting random reboots and lockups and when I touched the NB heatsink, I literally burned myself. I then pointed a fan at it and my instability went away.

I suppose if you have good airflow and don't increase the volts it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: AdamK47 3DS

Originally posted by: thilan29
Here are pics of my bios (F4C beta bios):
click
click
click
click

Hopefully those help. Also, a word of warning, point a fan at your Northbridge (big gold heatsink) because I was getting lockups because it was running SO hot. Don't up the voltage on the northbridge unless you have another cooler for your northbridge.

I have it running at 3.2GHz set in the Bios and I'm just waiting on my Northbridge cooler to push it further.

Your LCD has a stuck red pixel

Where?? It could just be that the screen is dirty. I don't see one anywhere.

 

[fyleow]

..

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: fyleow

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: fyleow
thilan29,

Are you 100% positive the northbridge temperature is affecting stability. I was convinced too, but after my setup was stable on dual prime for 30 minutes I decided to pull the fan off the NB. It's still going 30 minutes later. I'm at FSB 425 with no increase in MCH voltage.

I was going to pick up the Thermalright Ultra-120 and a HR-05 to get some nice dual cooling with just a single fan, but it looks like I might not need to.

I'm using a Thermalright SI-120 so there is *some* airflow around the NB but not much. I'm using a Globewin @ 7v and those just don't push that much air.

When I first started overclocking, I was getting random reboots and lockups and when I touched the NB heatsink, I literally burned myself. I then pointed a fan at it and my instability went away.

I suppose if you have good airflow and don't increase the volts it shouldn't be a problem.

Yeah it does get pretty hot. I picked up a Zalman northbridge cooler today from SVC and it works great. Cleaned out the NB chip and put on some Arctic Silver 5 to go with it.

It's working well for me, might be a good choice for those who want to lower the NB temps passively.

I can't get 3.2 ghz though, even with 1.4 V Guess my chip isn't very good. I'm running stable at 3ghz right now (429 x 7)

My load temps according to Core Temp is around 66-67C with default voltage. Guess I should look into getting that Ninja or increasing the fan voltage on my SI-120.

Yeah I was using the Big Typhoon but didn't like the temps I was seeing even with a slight increase in voltage. I'm at 1.375v in BIOS at 3.4GHz and see about 63 degrees load in CoreTemp but that's with watercooling. I was hitting those temps at stock voltage with the Big Typhoon. One thing I don't understand is why these chips run so hot. I mean my Athlon 3000+ at 2.5GHz 1.45v wouldn't go above 43 degrees load with the Big Typhoon. With the Core2 chips even a slight bump in voltage sends temps skyrocketing. I thought the TDP of these chips was pretty low.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: fyleow

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: fyleow
thilan29,

Are you 100% positive the northbridge temperature is affecting stability. I was convinced too, but after my setup was stable on dual prime for 30 minutes I decided to pull the fan off the NB. It's still going 30 minutes later. I'm at FSB 425 with no increase in MCH voltage.

I was going to pick up the Thermalright Ultra-120 and a HR-05 to get some nice dual cooling with just a single fan, but it looks like I might not need to.

I'm using a Thermalright SI-120 so there is *some* airflow around the NB but not much. I'm using a Globewin @ 7v and those just don't push that much air.

When I first started overclocking, I was getting random reboots and lockups and when I touched the NB heatsink, I literally burned myself. I then pointed a fan at it and my instability went away.

I suppose if you have good airflow and don't increase the volts it shouldn't be a problem.

Yeah it does get pretty hot. I picked up a Zalman northbridge cooler today from SVC and it works great. Cleaned out the NB chip and put on some Arctic Silver 5 to go with it.

It's working well for me, might be a good choice for those who want to lower the NB temps passively.

I can't get 3.2 ghz though, even with 1.4 V Guess my chip isn't very good. I'm running stable at 3ghz right now (429 x 7)

My load temps according to Core Temp is around 66-67C with default voltage. Guess I should look into getting that Ninja or increasing the fan voltage on my SI-120.

Yeah I was using the Big Typhoon but didn't like the temps I was seeing even with a slight increase in voltage. I'm at 1.375v in BIOS at 3.4GHz and see about 63 degrees load in CoreTemp but that's with watercooling. I was hitting those temps at stock voltage with the Big Typhoon. One thing I don't understand is why these chips run so hot. I mean my Athlon 3000+ at 2.5GHz 1.45v wouldn't go above 43 degrees load with the Big Typhoon. With the Core2 chips even a slight bump in voltage sends temps skyrocketing. I thought the TDP of these chips was pretty low.

They're IHS right?

So maybe intel used a crappy, thick layer of epoxy to stick them on?

I find all these temps laughably low since last summer i had to set my overshutdown temp to 100'C to stop my AXp rig shutting down. Once i did, voila, no stability problems, even though i was loading in the high 80s/low 90s

Picked up a SLK-800 that has dropped the temps a lot tho

 

[thilanliyan]

NM

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: thilan29
One thing I don't understand is why these chips run so hot. I mean my Athlon 3000+ at 2.5GHz 1.45v wouldn't go above 43 degrees load with the Big Typhoon. With the Core2 chips even a slight bump in voltage sends temps skyrocketing. I thought the TDP of these chips was pretty low.

Any time you increase the voltage you are going to increase temperature. X2's were the same way. Above 1.45 the temperatures get extreme.

 

[ForgetCassettes]

I just installed a Zalman CNPS9500 LED heatsink on my E6400. I switched from a Scythe Ninja. I didn't care for the size of the Ninja and the complex installation. I thought by switching to the Zalman that my temps would increase slightly but I was wrong. My temps have decreased about 2C with the Zalman. I'm running at 3.2 GHz (8x400) with a VCore of 1.3625. I can play Oblivion and my temps never reach over 56C according to "Core Temp". They are way less using Easy Tune and Speedfan. If I go dual Prime95s, my temps max out at 64C according to "Core Temp". After reading some of the problems people are having here with overclocking, I think maybe I got lucky with both the CPU and motherboard. Oddly enough, I bought them both from my local Micro Center. The CPU was OEM for $259. I'm sure I could take this thing much further but I'm uncomfortable enough with 64C. I don't want it to get any warmer than that.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: ForgetCassettes
I just installed a Zalman CNPS9500 LED heatsink on my E6400. I switched from a Scythe Ninja. I didn't care for the size of the Ninja and the complex installation. I thought by switching to the Zalman that my temps would increase slightly but I was wrong. My temps have decreased about 2C with the Zalman. I'm running at 3.2 GHz (8x400) with a VCore of 1.3625. I can play Oblivion and my temps never reach over 56C according to "Core Temp". They are way less using Easy Tune and Speedfan. If I go dual Prime95s, my temps max out at 64C according to "Core Temp". After reading some of the problems people are having here with overclocking, I think maybe I got lucky with both the CPU and motherboard. Oddly enough, I bought them both from my local Micro Center. The CPU was OEM for $259. I'm sure I could take this thing much further but I'm uncomfortable enough with 64C. I don't want it to get any warmer than that.

I got the zalman to go with my 6400 as well, im loving it.

 

[Alphafox78]

I was having issues OCing, but get this; I was shooting for 333 fsb so that ram could be in sync since I had 333 ram. when I set the FSB to 333 I coulnt prime for more than 5 seconds. no amount of voltage or whatnot would make it go longer. I tried a lot of stuff, and then just for the heck of it I pushed past 333 to 350, and guess what, it worked!! I am now running 356, 3.2Ghz @ 1.43V, 56C max. its working good, I had to boost the voltage to get it to run through 3dmark05 cpu tests. it seemed to prime fine at 1.40 but 3dmark would just reboot the pc when it got to the cpu test. I did end up putting a crappy fan on the NB and now its still hot but doesnt burn the flesh off your hand when you touch it either.

 

[Madellga]

Originally posted by: Alphafox78
I was having issues OCing, but get this; I was shooting for 333 fsb so that ram could be in sync since I had 333 ram. when I set the FSB to 333 I coulnt prime for more than 5 seconds. no amount of voltage or whatnot would make it go longer. I tried a lot of stuff, and then just for the heck of it I pushed past 333 to 350, and guess what, it worked!! I am now running 356, 3.2Ghz @ 1.43V, 56C max. its working good, I had to boost the voltage to get it to run through 3dmark05 cpu tests. it seemed to prime fine at 1.40 but 3dmark would just reboot the pc when it got to the cpu test. I did end up putting a crappy fan on the NB and now its still hot but doesnt burn the flesh off your hand when you touch it either.

Try lower Vdim (between 1.8V and 1.95V). It did the trick for me.

 

[vhx]

Would this Thermalright HR-05 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835109128 work with a Scythe Ninja Plus on a Gigabyte 965-DS3? Anyone have this setup?

 

[TaeKim]

What does the memory multiplier do? I have to set mine at 2:1 for it to overclock and boot. It says 720 memory frequency. What does that mean?

 

[hchen]

Originally posted by: maddawg007
To get mine 100% stable 10 hours dual prime, dual 32 Super PI, 5 hours ortho, 3d mark several times, bf2 for 6 hours, and HL2 games (css and dods) for 8+ hours, I had to use 1.45 vcore at 390fsb. Anything higher and it was stable in windows, but would fail post sometimes and reset the fsb override. I'll check my other settings and get back ASAP.

BIOS f4c
1.45 vcore
+.1 fsb
+.2 mch
+.3 vdimm 4-3-3-8 gskill 2x1mb (black heatsink normally 4-4-4-12)

temps
CPUI Idle: 30C
CPU Load: never sees 52C
NB Idle: 44C
NB Load: 55C

I use an Zalman 9500 LED, and I hotglued a small fan to the stock northbridge heatsink

I also must add, that since I am running my DDR2 800 at 780 I can tighten the timings, which makes up for the fact that my goal was 400Mhz FSB. Although I can boot at 435 FSB it is very hard to get it ortho stable, and it still fails to post sometimes even when it is ortho, prime, super PI, and 3dmark 06 stable.

I get over 10,700 3D marks and 2700+ on the cpu, which isn't much different at all from 435 FSB

Sometimes the hardware you buy may not be the same quality as what feels like everyone else's, but that is just the way it goes. Try the settings I used, and see if they work for you.

Are you getting NB temps with a physical probe or are you using software? If software, which one? Under Easytune, it only gives the CPU and system temps.

 

[Mogadon]

i haven't got the board yet but can someone tell me the size of the NB. I'm thinking of getting a 40mm fan to hotglue to it but i'd rather do a 50mm fan ... will that be too big and interfere with other components?

edit - oh yeah, and will a 40mm fan on the SB fit ok?

thanks for any help guys.

 

[MustangXS]

Hello all. I'm running a Gigabyte DS3, E6400 with stock Intel cooler and 2x1gb Mushkin ddr2-800 5-5-5-12. Now for overclocking the E6400. How can I clear CMOS without having to open the case? It's a pain to open up the case, take out the battery and the power plug and all that in case my computer doesn't boot at the overclocked settings.

I'm looking to achieve around 3.0GHz, no more than that. Is this doable with the stock intel cooler and without changing the NB heatsink? Thanks for your response.