How to Oclock 4300 w/ Gigabyte 965 DS3?

[CapnKill]

I've never overclocked before... Is there a step by step tutorial out there on how to do this?

 

[RussianSensation]

First decide how high you would like to go. I replaced stock cooling with Thermaltake Big Typhoon

I then replaced the northbridge heatsink with ZALMAN ZM-NB47J

After I flashed my bios to latest version - so F10 for you.

Then I used this guide:
Core2Duo Overclocking Guide v1.1
(It also has recommended aftermarket heatsinks for overclocking)

I simply followed all the steps for DS3 board and got my E6400 to 3400mhz. I have my MCH voltage at 1.40, and FSB voltage at 1.40 as well, VCore set at 1.375V in the BIOS (I recommend overclocking through the bios as opposed to the windows based EasyTune utility). My memory is running at 2.0V but I have PC5400(667mhz) overclocked to 850mhz. You will likely not require such high memory voltage and 1.9 could suffice.

I would recommend to overclock at all stock voltages and then as you encounter problems increase them and see if they help the overclock.

The lowest ram: cpu ratio DS3 has is 1:1 and I would recommend you set it to that. Since E4300 runs at 9x multiplier x 200FSB = 1800mhz, to get to 3400mhz, you'll need 378FSB (corresponds to 378x2 = 756mhz DDR2 ram = PC6050). Make sure your ram is capable of overclocking to 756mhz or is at least PC6400 stock.

For stability testing to stress out the cores I used Orthos and run Blend test for 24 hours. Download Intel Thermal Analysis Tool to monitor your temperatures.

Sorry if any of this was confusing. Feel free to ask.

 

[GimpyFuzznut]

Here are two guides with plenty of useful information about the BIOS settings and more;

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1169366
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=6&t=10706

Check through that whole post on the first link I gave you. Lots of very useful information there.

 

[CapnKill]

Thanks guys... I don't know how high I want to go, I don't plan on getting aftermarket cooling, however my case has 8 fans in it... so that may help a little. Somewhere close to 3GHZ is what I see people reaching comfortably so thats my goal. How do I know if my memory is good enough or the right one for this?

 

[CapnKill]

btw, I don't have a floppy drive, can I flash from CD?

 

[RussianSensation]

You can flash the BIOS with the bios flash software you can get for DS3 off the website or the one that comes on the CD (and then "update" it). I stopped flashing from the floppy long time ago as I trust the windows based flashing a lot more.

To test how high your ram can go change the CPU:RAM ratio to anything higher than 1:1 like 1:2. Normally at stock (1:1) when your FSB is 200mhz your ram is running at 400mhz. Therefore with 1:2 ratio, the ram will be running at 800mhz. Make sure to lower the FSB to below 200 if your stock ram is not rated at least PC6400. Otherwise if it is, you can simply start increase FSB to 201, 205, etc.

If your goal is 3000mhz only, then 9x333 = 3000 implying DDR2 667 or PC5300 is sufficient.

 

[yacoub]

This thread has some great resources in it! Thanks RussianSensation et al.

 

[CapnKill]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
You can flash the BIOS with the bios flash software you can get for DS3 off the website or the one that comes on the CD (and then "update" it). I stopped flashing from the floppy long time ago as I trust the windows based flashing a lot more.

To test how high your ram can go change the CPU:RAM ratio to anything higher than 1:1 like 1:2. Normally at stock (1:1) when your FSB is 200mhz your ram is running at 400mhz. Therefore with 1:2 ratio, the ram will be running at 800mhz. Make sure to lower the FSB to below 200 if your stock ram is not rated at least PC6400. Otherwise if it is, you can simply start increase FSB to 201, 205, etc.

If your goal is 3000mhz only, then 9x333 = 3000 implying DDR2 667 or PC5300 is sufficient.

I jut got two of these: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=T6UB1GC5 ..so 5400 I take it.

 

[GimpyFuzznut]

Yes that memory should be fine.

FSB @ 333MHz (if you can get it stable here that is). CPU will run at 333FSB x 9multiplier = ~3GHz.
Memory @ 2.00 multiplier setting = 667MHz.
The DS3 bios has the 1:1 setting you want to run listed as 2.00.

You'll want to check the timings that the memory runs at and the voltage it requires. Pres CTRL-F1 in the BIOS to bring up advanced memory settings to adjust timings. Also adjust the VDIMM/Memory voltage to run the memory at required voltage.

From this point, if you increase the FSB further, you will also be overclocking the memory. That RAM can most likely very easily handle a higher speed, probably 800MHz. You will just have trouble getting the DS3 stable at the 340-400FSB range.

 

[MarxMarvelous]

Here is another pretty good guide - made specifically for E4300 and DS3 which is nice:
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=610&p=1

The only confusing thing is that they talk about mem running at 722MHz then later at 965MHz, without mentioning that this implies changing the CPU/RAM ratio from 2.0 to 2.5. From what I've seen it makes most sense to just go for 2.0 and save money on the RAM.

 

[CapnKill]

Thanks guys! Where could I find a windows bios flash for Gigabyte 965 DS3? Their website has an EXE file but... it doesn't look like a windows flash. Also where can i find the Bios ver #? I couldn't locate it inside the bios.

 

[RussianSensation]

BIOS utility

Instructions

once you install and launch the utility it'll show you the BIOS version you have. This way you know if you need an update or not. Make sure to flash the BIOS at default settings.

 

[CapnKill]

Thanks again, I couldn't find that for the life of me. I will try it tonight!