e6400 Overclocking Problem with DS3

[eojinlim]

Have you heard of anyone having problems with the $40.00 Thermaltake 430W PSU that I'm using? I know for a fact that you get what you paid for but I thought it would have been enough to hold its own until I got an Antec Neo 500W.

 

[eojinlim]

If my power supply could do only 18a on the 12v rail while an overclocked e6400 (400x8=3.2ghz OC) pulled in roughly 22a on the 12v rail, would that almost certainly restrict the overclock and prevent my system from successfully booting up?

If anyone has a concrete answer to that question, I think it's a certainty, the power supply is an extremely important part to any overclocking.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: eojinlim
Have you heard of anyone having problems with the $40.00 Thermaltake 430W PSU that I'm using? I know for a fact that you get what you paid for but I thought it would have been enough to hold its own until I got an Antec Neo 500W.

I have heard of a few ppl having issues with 430watt powersupplies not being enough...especially with a modern pci-e gaming card...

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: eojinlim
If my power supply could do only 18a on the 12v rail while an overclocked e6400 (400x8=3.2ghz OC) pulled in roughly 22a on the 12v rail, would that almost certainly restrict the overclock and prevent my system from successfully booting up?

If anyone has a concrete answer to that question, I think it's a certainty, the power supply is an extremely important part to any overclocking.

First off the cpu even oc'd should not being pulling that much...based on what I have seen in power supply calculators your 3.2ghz at default vcore should not be pulling anymore then 10a of that 18.....

Now remember other things use the 12v rail....power efficiencies may reduce that as well...

I think if you take vid card opff and throw in a pci video card or even a low end card like an x300 should sizeably reduce the load being used by the vid card...

 

[eojinlim]

If a power supply does not supply enough current, what exactly does your system do? I'm sure it wouldn't blow up if it didn't supply enough power but I'm wondering whether the symptoms I have seen from my system while upping the FSB to 400 (ie/system does not boot up) is directly due to the power supply.

 

[Duvie]

Failure to boot....fans may still spin up though....Also spontaneous reboots or looping of reboots as you try to start the system. Sometimes even issues booting from a cold start as opposed to a warm start....

I do not know what the load is but 216watts total on the 12v rail is rather low when you start ocing and using a 7600gt card...HDD's and other drives use the 12v rail to spin up, and the mobo will take some of the 12v as well....not to mentions some case fans etc....

 

[FightTest]

For the record, I'm using a Thermaltake TR2-500W PSU atm and my bios and SpeedFan read the 12v rail at 11.37v. Which is obviously horrible. And I've heard bad things about Thermaltake's lesser PSUs many times since I bought mine.

So I'm not saying it's your problem, but I am saying that I ordered a new PSU along with my new hardware setup because I don't trust this TT PSU at all with any moderately new hardware.

 

[eojinlim]

I'm not too familiar with power supplies but why would 11.37v on a 12v rail be obviously horrible?

Let's just hope my Antec gets here today.

For me, speedfan states that on the +12v rail I have 0.00v while on the -12v rail, I have -16.97v......Is this when I should just shut my computer down and hope nothing has been damaged?

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: eojinlim
I'm not too familiar with power supplies but why would 11.37v on a 12v rail be obviously horrible?

Let's just hope my Antec gets here today.

For me, speedfan states that on the +12v rail I have 0.00v while on the -12v rail, I have -16.97v......Is this when I should just shut my computer down and hope nothing has been damaged?

It should be obvious you are not getting accurate results with that program. What does your bios say these numbers are?

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: eojinlim
I'm not too familiar with power supplies but why would 11.37v on a 12v rail be obviously horrible?

Let's just hope my Antec gets here today.

For me, speedfan states that on the +12v rail I have 0.00v while on the -12v rail, I have -16.97v......Is this when I should just shut my computer down and hope nothing has been damaged?

+12v rail on most PSU will say they deliver that +-5%...That would be 11.40v so thta is outside of their own spec....

I personally have had some old PSU in the days that dropped as low as 11.55v...They worked fine but they were limiting my OCing...I turned around and got an enermax pSu and those went up to 12.02v and I had less issues..

Hands down PSU and power issues are some of the most difficult to diagnos...So it is the one area you dont want to skimp...

Use a PSU calculator...Then times that by .80 for 80% efficiency and that is what you need in a miimum size power supply unit...

 

[eojinlim]

Originally posted by: Beachboy

Originally posted by: eojinlim
I'm not too familiar with power supplies but why would 11.37v on a 12v rail be obviously horrible?

Let's just hope my Antec gets here today.

For me, speedfan states that on the +12v rail I have 0.00v while on the -12v rail, I have -16.97v......Is this when I should just shut my computer down and hope nothing has been damaged?

It should be obvious you are not getting accurate results with that program. What does your bios say these numbers are?

Ya, I assumed as much that they weren't accurate.

 

[cmdrdredd]

"Does your Crucial 10th Anniversary feel very hot to the touch? I think I am also experiencing high temperatures for my e6400, chipset, and memory.

According to TAT, on idle, my overclocked 3.0ghz e6400 is 50degrees Celsius, while on load it is 55degrees Celsius.

My chipsets are so hot (esp. the northbridge) that I almost got myself burned. "

My memory doesn't get hot (but I do use a corsair memory cooling system on them). I run 2.4v and 5-4-4-8 timings 24/7 DDR2-1000

I can try 4-4-4-12 but it's not 100% stable at 2.4v. Each stick of memory is different...not every memory will do it even from the same revision and part.

 

[eojinlim]

Alright. Thanks for the quick replies. Is it advisable to get a Corsair Memory Cooling System on them and if so, do you know a place to find a decent deal on them?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: eojinlim
Alright. Thanks for the quick replies. Is it advisable to get a Corsair Memory Cooling System on them and if so, do you know a place to find a decent deal on them?

I got mine from here http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=375016

I like it because everywhere I went said that if you went to 2.3v or higher you need active cooling to avoid problems with heat.

 

[eojinlim]

Well, I installed the new Antec NeoHE 500W psu and tried overclocking (with the 5-5-5-5-15 timings, voltages of almost everything increased as to not provide a bottleneck, turned off all necessary peripheral components that may potentially use the chipset, increased the vcore to 1.45v) and the highest I was able to overclock my e6400 was 380x8 = 3040mhz OC.

When I tried upping the FSB to 400 for a 3200mhz OC, my system would keep rebooting and eventually hang itself with the monitor not turning on.

Could this be a case of being unlucky with my memory? I am pretty sure that my CPU isn't causing any troubles for my overclocking. I'm pretty sure it's my memory that is holding me back.

Even with the new power supply providing ample power and current to all the rails, I can't get the magic 400FSB and have a successful bootup of my system to Windows.

Any suggestions would be helpful. If not, can someone give me advise in how to RMA the memory and ask Crucial for a new pair?

Man, I thought the new psu would have solved everything.

 

[Roguestar]

You don't have a case to RMA the memory if it does exactly what it says on the tin, just because it won't overclock, surely? Are you sure you've narrowed it down to RAM? Search the forums for threads similar to this, try it with a cheap PCI graphics card, etc etc.



edit: spelung neded fixd

 

[eojinlim]

I've read countless threads. A cheaper PCI graphics card would work if I was unable to overclock at all. (I've read the DS3 guide thread that has been stickied as well). Well, from more reading, I've found out that a northbridge chipset running too hot will create a 380FSB wall. Currently, I am looking for ideas to cool the chipset.

If I wanted to buy a memory that would work at stock, I wouldn't have bought the Crucial 10th Anniversary Edition ddr2 667 ram. I would have bought something cheaper. People bought this particular ram for the same reasons I did - to overclock it to at least 400FSB.

It seems like you take me as a fool considering your patronizing response.

 

[Roguestar]

Well if you don't appreciate any remaining help I can think of you can just not reply instead of getting on your high horse about it.

 

[eojinlim]

I;m just getting a little frustrated about the FSB wall that's facing me. The onyl alternative solution I can think of is to buy a 40mm fan to cool down my northbridge chipset.

 

[Markfw]

Well you could find a fan (any fan), open your case and point it at the north/southbridges, and see if it helps, if it does, problem identified. I am at 500 fsb, but I have PC8000 memory. But I have fans pointed at the north/southbridges.

Also, Duvie went back to F5 bios I think (not sure), but both of mine are using F5.

 

[eojinlim]

Oh, the F6 S3 Bios overclocks worse than the F5? That's something I havent heard. Hmm, seems like another idea.

 

[bob4432]

can't you just go to some computer store around you place and buy some ddr2-800 and see if that fixes the problem?

also, why did you buy ddr-667 when you knew you wanted ddr2-800 speeds? just out of curiosity....

 

[eojinlim]

Because the Crucial 10th Anniversary RAM was made to be overclocked. I called them just a few minutes ago and their tech rep said these were made for ddr2 800 but hand selected for their 10th anniversary edition. You don't see many memory able to run 3-3-3-12 timings at ddr2 800 which is what many people are already getting.

 

[Roguestar]

Indeed, I bought the 10th Anniversary for the same reason. I don't think it's your RAM that's limiting you, eojinlim. Have you tried adding +0.1 to MCH and FSB voltages?

You know, it might just be that your particular chip doesn't overclock well .

 

[eojinlim]

chip as in my 965p chipset? If that was the case........mannnnn

I've tried upping the voltage and the system would continue to auto boot and restart until it went back to default settings.

Roguestar, what motherboard are you using and do you have any aftermarket cooling on the northbridge if your using the S3 board?