E6300 + P5B - Let's OC!

[airedale]

Here is my Rig:

P5B Deluxe Mobo
E6300 C2D
2 x 1GB XMS 6400Pro 5-5-5-12

I am trying to overclock this bad boy and am having a pretty rough time.

I have the VCore set to 1.325
FSB: 310
RAM: Running at DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18)
RAM Voltage: 2.00

I *can not* get any higher than this. I am looking for any advice on where to tweak to get going higher.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Ram is holding you back. If your using the DDR2-800 3:1 setting with a FSB of 310 your ram is running DDR2-930 too high for that ram. Drop the ram multi to 2x,2:1, or DDR533 or what ever it's called on your mobo. This will allow you to go up to 400mhz FSB while keeping you ram at or below the rated speed of DDR2-800

 

[airedale]

I think I tried dropping down one notch (to what would be DDR2-5300), and it really didn't help at all. I'll go down to the DDR2-4300 (533) and see if that makes a difference. Any other ideas for me to try before I get home tonight?

 

[aggressor]

My recommendations to get you started:

1. Use the latest BIOS. That's ver. 0507
2. Stick with 1:1 memory ratios. You are going to need to push your FSB pretty high to get a decent overclock, and your memory won't be able to handle it if it isn't running 1:1
3. Up the vcore! My P5B Deluxe undervolts a bit. If I set 1.3625 in the BIOS, actual voltages (as read in Windows) is actually around 1.32v idle, 1.3v under load. These chips are spec'd to run at 1.35v, so keep that in mind.
4. This is the most important and really difficult to explain why. Skip the 300FSB range. Completely. I recommend starting out at 410 FSB, because there's something funky going on in the 300 range. For example, my system won't even get into Windows before bluescreening if I try 7x375, but if I bump it to 7x410, everything is fine.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

You will probably also need to increase the chipset/fsb/vmch voltages.
I would also suggest dropping the CPU multi to 5x or 6x as well as using the lowest memory ratio, so you can isolate the FSB and see how high you can get it with the increased voltages I mentioned above.

 

[aggressor]

HTT is an AMD thing There isn't such a thing on Intel platforms.
I agree, it's good to manually set the vdimm, but if you set the NB\SB\FSB termination voltages to auto they will automatically adjust (higher) when you overclock. It's probably not optimal, but it works for some people.

 

[airedale]

I am in Windows right now with a successful 405 FSB

Dropped the Memory down too to a 1:1
Pushed the VCore to 1.425

Problem now is that 3DMark05 is reporting a framerate at half the speed I was getting before! It seems as if it has taken a step backwards?

Any ideas as to why?

 

[aggressor]

Strange. I don't know what would cause that...maybe heat throttling? What are your temps?

 

[airedale]

A cool 38 degrees

 

[airedale]

My 3DMark05 Score was about 1/3 of what it normally is around.

Could this have something do with needing to OC the Northbridge or something else?

 

[Nightmare225]

Are you using a 7950GX2?

 

[airedale]

No, a 7900GTX

I have gotten the framerates up now - not sure if they are great or not, but they are almost back to where they were. Maybe a bit better.

I had to up the Northbridge to 1.45

3 questions from that.

Are many people doing that?
Is that a safe voltage with just air cooling?
Are there any other voltages I should be uping right now?