Conservative OC...

[RanDum72]

Current setup:

MSI P6N Diamond nvidia 680i chipset
C2D E6550, HSF is Coolermaster Gemini with 1 x 120mm fan
2gig OCZ PC1066 DDRII (SLI ready with EPP)
8800GT 512mb
Seagte 160gb x2 RAID0
Coolermaster Real Power Pro 650w PSU

I was going to run the whole thing at stock speeds but I decided to 'test the waters' just a bit. I haven't OC'ed a single CPU since 2004 so I decided its about time to get at it again.

Bumped the FSB from 1333 to 1600 to get a 1:1 ratio with the memory at PC800 DDRII. System booted just fine at 2.8ghz. Before that I upped the FSB voltage by 2%. CPU voltage remains stock. Memory is at 4-4-4-12 1T @2.0v.

I'm pretty happy with this easy OC. Everything runs stable, CPU cores are at 26- 27C.
What do you guys think? Should I test the limits of my setup? Any tips on how to maximize things?

 

[badnewcastle]

I've got the same board as you and similar setup, here's an article I was reading to see how far to push things somewhat conservative but I will get bored one day and go for 3.6Ghz which shouldn't be too hard with my E6750.

Here's a good OC article on the P6N Diamond... Happy reading!

 

[Conjugal Visit]

@RanDum - curious why you applied additional voltage to the FSB...lack of stability? Also, what are you using to monitor your temps? You really idling at 3-4C over ambient? I believe that C2D will show temps 15C low on some temp monitor programs that are not set up for the 100C Tjunction on many C2D's....

Regards,

 

[RanDum72]

I added additional juice to the FSB just for the heck of it, I haven't tried the normal settings

I checked the temps with CoreTemp 0.95 and Everest 4.2. Right now, just surfing the web CoreTemp shows one core at 23C and the other at 21C. With Everest, it shows CPU at 25C and tne CPU#1/ Core#1 at 40C and core#2 at 37C.

 

[Conjugal Visit]

Try Coretemp 0.95.4 - it will give you (and others) a truer picture of your CPU temps.

 

[badnewcastle]

Randum, if you lower you FSB and it is still stable, let me know I had to up the voltage there to keep mine stable but only a little bit.

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: RanDum72
Do you think I should go for more?

No, I think you should wonder for eternity whether your rig could hit 3.5GHz.

 

[RanDum72]

Originally posted by: Conjugal Visit
Try Coretemp 0.95.4 - it will give you (and others) a truer picture of your CPU temps.

Hhmm...CoreTemp 0.95.4 gives 43c and 42c. Is this still an OK temp?

No, I think you should wonder for eternity whether your rig could hit 3.5GHz.

hhmm..Its a nice number to shoot for, but for now, Im pretty happy with what I've got, at least temporarily.

Randum, if you lower you FSB and it is still stable, let me know I had to up the voltage there to keep mine stable but only a little bit.

You mean lower the FSB voltage right? Let me try that later and I'll let you know..

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I think we'd accepted a general rule of thumb that if you look at the "economy" and mid-range models, they're more over-clockable than the flag-ship and high end models. What we know about Intel's traditional production processes would seem to support that notion.

I think you could probably get to 3.6 with an E6750 if you only need to do a 20% over-clock on an E6850 to get to 3.6. Perhaps Badnewcastle should try it, find the settings, check the temperatures, make note of the results, and drop back to his more comfortable level if it suits him. Probably no harm in doing that . . . .

 

[badnewcastle]

@ Bonzai, I tried you idea of bumping it up to 3.6Ghz with FSB @ 450Mhz, can't even boot into windows, so I'd have to say that 3.6 with my setup isn't working...

I maxed all my voltage settings out to try and get it to work, and nothing is sticking, maybe it's a memory issue as my memory is running stable @ 800 or 1066 don't know why it wouldn't work @ 900mhz?

 

[RanDum72]

I did drop the Voltages to stock, except memory@ 2.0v. Runs rock stable. I think it runs more stbale at 400fsb (1600) than 333fsb (1333). My memory is DDRII-1066 so I will shoot for 1:1 to the highest FSb it can get at tomorrow.

 

[badnewcastle]

Right now, I'm running stable @ 3.4Ghz no changes in bios from 3.2Ghz setup. 3dMark06 score jumped ~1200 marks from 2.6-3.2Ghz and an additional ~350 marks from 3.2-3.4. I think I'm doing something wrong when I'm shooting for 3.6, it should easily be attainable... but ehh 3.4 is a measly 30% OC... Running 1:1 FSB@425 and Ram @ 850.

RanDum, see if you can get yours to run stable @ 3.6 I"m curious to see if you find any trouble. 1

 

[RanDum72]

Its going to be a little tougher for the 6550 since multiplier is only 7 and getting 3.6ghz would mean running a FSB of 514-515...I'm in the process of changing my case right now so once everything is nice and settled, I'm going to shoot for at least 450fsb = 3.2ghz

 

[badnewcastle]

Oh yeah, well I meant run FSB @ 450...

I'm able to get mine to run stable @ 3.6GHZ with a descent boost in VCORE voltage but I can run the memory @ 900 to get 1:1 it fatal errors windows out and doesn't work. My memory is rated @ 1066 so running 900 shouldn't too much of a problem.

 

[RanDum72]

what are your timings for the memory? Also, do you run HT at 800 or 1000?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm not entirely sure about what's safe for the 1.2VHT, CPU_VTT, NB and SB voltages. While some have bumped up the SB to 1.55 or even 1.6, I only "Fixed" mine at 1.5V.

On the others, when I ran up against errors at some VCore and VDIMM setting, I would successively attempt a +0.05V adjustment in each of the remaining voltages, and if the PRIME95 / ORTHOS errors "went away," I'd leave the setting on the voltage where it made a difference. If I tried a new voltage on one of them and it didn't help, I'd back it back down and try another.

I since have left the VHT at 1.30, the CPU_VTT(FSB) at 1.35, and the NB at 1.35V. I don't think these are excessive. Most of these voltages were showing in excess of 1.27V in BIOS monitor anyway -- some of them a tad higher -- under the "Auto" settings.

I even thought that if I found a "fix" with a tweak to one of these voltages, there were somehow lower core temperatures, but I might have been imagining things.