e6800 with a 6870

[ShreddedWheat]

Bump to overclock, more ram and better monitor and then Win7. I had my e5200 oced to 3.4 with a 4850 512 megs approx. = to your 5770 and had been playing on my 28" monitor at 1920x1200 with Windows XP for the longest time and it did great. If I would have had a 1 gig card I probably wouldn't have impulse bought the 5850. The advice here is great.

 

[betasub]

But DRAM frequencies lower than 1:1 aren't normally available on Intel chipsets. This is either a CPU-Z error, or he's using a non-Intel chipset. (Or possibly an older chipset, like 865?)

Agreed. The Asus P5W appears to be a high-end LGA775 board with Intel's 975X chipset. As you say, the low memory speed in CPU-z doesn't sense. Nice tight timings though

 

[steve wilson]

I was doing something stupid... got it set to a 1:1 ration now at 667mhz.

I have read the guide, but I don't really know where to start with the CPU VCC voltages. CPU-Z says it's at 1.200v with the cpu set at 3.00ghz. I want to try to get to 3.3ghz so do I set the voltage to 1.25v?

 

[betasub]

Based on your previous attempt at 3.3, bumping to 1.25V makes sense. Try it out, monitor temperatures and then give it a stability test.

 

[maniac5999]

just FYI, assuming that you're using the stock intel heatsink you're going to be temperature limited, so watch your temps. Does anyone remember what the max. safe temp. is for the 65nm c2D?

 

[steve wilson]

OK. I bumped the voltage up a few times and kept getting errors. I got to 68 degrees and got scared so lowered my OC to 3.2ghz with 1.2875v. Did a 10 hour torture test in Prime 95 and no errors, although I think the max temp got to 69 degrees and seems to level out at 67 degrees over night. I'm using the stock intel heat sink and the guide states that he is conservative with his 65 degrees red line. Am I risking frying my chip here for an extra 200mhz?

 

[maniac5999]

I'm no expert with the 65nm intels but the voltage sounds fine. (I'm using 1.2875v on my 65nm AMD K10, and have been as high as 1.5v with it) but the heat is up there. Remember you have to build in a cushion for seasonal variation in ambient temperature. Does the computer sit in a room that isn't air conditioned in the summer? I also bet that the stock fan is screaming at that temperature. You might want to invest $20 in an aftermarket cooler. (generally the tower style coolers work best, but they require a lot of space.)

Does anyone know the max safe temp of a 65nm C2D?

 

[exar333]

Get 2GB more RAM and OC your CPU.

 

[steve wilson]

Exarkun333... in the process of both.

Maniac i think the safe temp is under 70 degrees... so I'm right on the edge at the moment. England is a pretty cold place most of the time, so the room it's in shouldn't be too hot (unless my gf turns the heating up way too high). The heating was on while the torture test was running last night, so that's probably as hot as it's going to get.

 

[maniac5999]

well, in that case you're probably ok New Jersey (where I live) routinely hits 30*C in the summer, while England rarely sees 25*C

Note: changed from US/imperial measure for our foreign colleagues 25*C = approx 80F 30*C =approx90*F

I am jealous about your ability to see Top Gear real time w/o streaming it after the fact BTW.

 

[steve wilson]

Yeah Top gear is one of my favourite programs, even my gf loves it and she knows nothing at all about cars, well except the colours

Anyway thanks for all the help guys... my computer feels a lot smoother since the OC and will hopefully get even better when I get the extra RAM. You guys saved me a lot of money