E6400 + 975X Overclocking?

[Atty]

Well I've been dead set on a E6600 for my new set up but after hearing the horror stories about Overclocking with a E6600 I'm thinking of getting a E6400 and just overclocking straight away.

My plan is for a 975X, 2GB Corsair XMS2 Cas 4.

How easy would it be too overclock an E6400 on a 975X? I've never overclocked before. Would the 2MB cache over the 4MB prove that much of a difference in performance? I'll be using this PC for gaming, pogramming, and some 3D work in 3DS and Maya.


Edit: I plan on installing a CNPS9500 + AS5 right as I build the computer.

 

[aggressor]

How high do you want to go? 975X boards are good up to 400-420 FSB in best case scenarios, which is fine if you are looking for 3.2ghz or so. The truth is, most C2Ds top out around 3.2-3.4, so you wouldn't be losing much. The performance difference between the E6400 and E6600 at the same Ghz show the E6600 with a 0-10% lead depending on the app\game.

 

[Atty]

Well I plan on atleast getting to around the X6800 clock speed or a little hihger. I don't think I'll go above 3.0 ghz straight away.

 

[YoungGun21]

look at the P5B Deluxe article AT just posted on homepage a few days ago...they got the E6300 to ~3.5ghz and I think the E6400 was around that area too

 

[Atty]

Will I be able to reach that high overclocking with the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe? I've done alot of research on the P5W and it works for everything I want including the X-Fi platnium which seems to have alot of problems with motherboards.

 

[lopri]

No. Without a hardware mod, the max FSB with 1:1 is somewhere around 420~430FSB. But I believe there is a revised P5W-DH now so if you haven't bought one already make sure to check it out. It's supposed to have an Vmch option up to 1.85V. (currently tops @1.65V)

 

[Atty]

I have not bought it yet. I'm waiting for newegg to get them back instock.

Do you think the new instock versions will have that upgrade? If it does will it allow me to get higher? Thank you.

 

[lopri]

With higher chipset voltage the max FSB will surely go up. I have no idea who's carrying them, however. There are some individuals who received the new revision.

 

[Atty]

Even if I don't get the Vmch updated motherboard would it still be possible to get to 2.8/2.9ghz area easily?

 

[jg0001]

I have the P5W DH Deluxe and an e6400 that I've had for a few weeks now.

I o/c'd mine to 3.19Ghz on day 1 and have never looked back.

In the BIOS, I set FSB to 399 (for an exactly 50% overclock, 400 works too, but 405 remains problematic). I locked the PCI-e figure at 100 and the PCI freq at 33.3.

EVERYTHING ELSE stayed on auto. I ran it this way with Prime95, SuperPi, etc., quite long BUT would occasionally have Prime95 errors that would sometimes occur after 18 hours, other times after 2 hours, etc. I upped only the CPU voltage until I saw this error gradually disappear from shorter runs. Now at 1.375 volts, I have yet to see Prime95 fail a 10 hour test. All benchmarks run fine, games are great, and nothing is 'wonky' about it.

So.... (for me)
e6400 + P5W DH
FSB at 399
PCI-e at 100
PCI at 33.3
try everything else at auto... perhaps up CPU voltage a bit thereafter until Prime95 seems stable for repeated multi-hour tests
FYI: I'm running old, cheap-o 533mhz ram in this setup.... 1M Pi scores are in the 18.9 sec range; I leave all memory settings on auto, as well as the other voltage settings (I don't know enough about these to really play with them, and since I got a 50% OC without touching them, I'll probably leave them on auto).

I did try jacking the FSB over 400 and upping the CPU voltage even more, but it took about 1.50 or more volts to get it to boot and then it never even managed to stay solid in WinXP itself, let alone on any tests or benchmarks. For now, I'm happy with my working 3.19 Ghz and will probably just leave it alone.