HOWTO: Overclock C2Q (Quads) and C2D (Duals) - A Guide v1.7

[arthur2007]

Thanks for the great guide, Grasky. I used it to OC a E4500 intel (266x11) to 2.8GHZ (257x11) and set ram a pair of GSkill 1GB each at 4-4-4-12 510 Mhz (FSBRAM=1:1) and it ran great. However at max load (using p95 test) the core temp was 62 62 degree celcius respectively. Is this too high for the Intel E4500? It ran normal idle around 43-42 average. Please advise. Thanks. It ran torture test for five hours no error however.

 

[arthur2007]

A little more digging lead me to intel site that say thermal Specification for E4500 is 73.2 degree celcius. I guess, It should be alright then. Thanks

 

[graysky]

@generalo - Regarding #1, I would ignore it (hell, my P5B-Del complains everytime I boot that my CPU fan RPM's are 0... that makes sense since my u-120 ex isn't connected to the MB).

Regarding #2, That's a good question. You might have a look in the gigabyte forums for an answer. It's unclear to me if that implies you can't change it from the factory 33.33 MHz value, or if you increase the FSB, the PCI bus will increase proportionally. I'm guessing it's the former, but don't hold me to it

@arthur - I'd say it's okay judging by Intel's thermal specs. Glad to hear your system is stable running nearly 30 % over factory. I'm assuming your minimized the vcore for 11x266, right? If not, that can play a MAJOR role in lowering those load temps.

 

[graysky]

Originally posted by: arthur2007
A little more digging lead me to intel site that say thermal Specification for E4500 is 73.2 degree celcius. I guess, It should be alright then. Thanks

Haha... you beat me to the punch by <1 min!

 

[arthur2007]

Oh yes, big thanks for the advice

I'm assuming your minimized the vcore for 11x266, right? If not, that can play a MAJOR role in lowering those load temps.

. I tottally forgot about the Vcore voltage==>darn! It was left untouch at 1.44V. No wonder why, now after I lower Vcore down to 1.3750 the temp drop 10 degree to hovering around 52,53 at max load. Wow, you save me big. Big kudos to you! Thanks.

 

[graysky]

Originally posted by: arthur2007
Oh yes, big thanks for the advice

I'm assuming your minimized the vcore for 11x266, right? If not, that can play a MAJOR role in lowering those load temps.

. I tottally forgot about the Vcore voltage==>darn! It was left untouch at 1.44V. No wonder why, now after I lower Vcore down to 1.3750 the temp drop 10 degree to hovering around 52,53 at max load. Wow, you save me big. Big kudos to you! Thanks.

Glad to hear it... just make sure that vcore (or a lower one) is stable to 6-12 h of p95 and you should be good to go... you could also attempt to parlay that delta temp into a higher overclock, assuming the machine will run stable @ a higher FSB. Maybe give 11x272 a try and hit the 3.0 GHz mark?

 

[arthur2007]

Thanks Graysky. Definitely, I'll do that.

I'm still awaiting for the better cooler so , soon as I received them will plug it in and try. Now the system been stable on torturetest p95 for four hours, while I run other software (download, installation) at a blaze speed. My configuration for the moment is
GIGABYTE GA-P31-DS3L FSB set as 255x11=2805Mhz
Memory 2 GB Gskill set as 4x4x4x12 at 510MHz
Core 2 duo e4500 vcore now at 1.31875 and average temp max on full load running drop to 51 degree C.
Intel Stock HSF cooler --> will upgrade this and try better FSB with better cooler.

 

[SpeedEng66]

Graysky great guide! (im a newb at ocing)

just need someone to coment on my progress so far

here's my stuff
foxconn p35a
E6550 on a zalamn 7000
2 x 1gb 667 hp ram

I went up to 395fsb (but found out it crashed @ 5hours 46min)

now im @ the current spec
390 FSB
vcore 1.32-1.33
cpu temp of 53C (stress testing for 6 hours so far)
system temp 35C

memory is kinda weird (to me)
it's at 724.1 @ 1.90volt (I thought it would be 1 to 1 @ 780)

how does this look so far?

 

[graysky]

memory is kinda weird (to me)
it's at 724.1 @ 1.90volt (I thought it would be 1 to 1 @ 780)

What do you mean by this statement? Is this what CPUZ reports... or?

 

[SpeedEng66]

Originally posted by: graysky

memory is kinda weird (to me)
it's at 724.1 @ 1.90volt (I thought it would be 1 to 1 @ 780)

What do you mean by this statement? Is this what CPUZ reports... or?

opps sorry cpuz reports 362 for mem (5-5-5-15) (the foxconn software quotes it @ 724)

 

[graysky]

hmm... wonder what's going on there

 

[SpeedEng66]

Originally posted by: graysky
hmm... wonder what's going on there

I know!

im happy it did overclock but the mem dont make sense to me

 

[Build it Myself]

I have a question because i'm having a problem with my overclock. i'm running what you see in the sig, 2.76 oc on a 2180 with an ip35pro board. it's orthos stable and runs all my apps and games @ 1.3350v. I tried oc'ing to 3ghz and had to up my volts to 1.4050 just to boot into window, and even then orthos crashes in 3seconds and i can't have more than 2 internet browsers open @ a time. Speedfan shows vcore (when @ 1.4050) to be 1.54, temperatures seem ok, but then again i can't load it so i don't know).

My point is that the voltage seems really high to me, however i'd like to see someone else's opinion, maybe i'm just being paranoid. I don't want to blow this chip since i don't plan on getting another one until Q1 2008.

Is 1.4050 too much for a 2180 or can I push it more? I'd like to have a 3ghz oc, that's the reason i went with this chip (higher multi than 2160/40). It's not my ram since i've got the timing relaxed to 5 5 5 5 15 and it's running 1:1 @ 300fsb (600) so that's not the problem.

Can I push the voltage more, or should i be pushing in a different direction. The abit BIOS interface is different than what I studied on, so the uGuru seems a little strange than doing everything manually. but regardless, is there another voltage i should be looking at? am i missing something?

Thanks,

John

Note: stepping is m0

 

[RobinBee]

Lapping: I get it, the making of two very flat surfaces, put evenly together.

However, I worry about Earth's gravitational force on my new motherboard.

Because: The weight of my new heatsink is 1 kilogram, and the heatsink is tall. And my new case is a vertical one. I suspect as a result: localized bending of the motherboard? Is an Intel cpu strong enough to not follow such bending, if any?

I have read Intel's technical document on the q6600 cpu, and this document seems to me to be full of worry about possible bending of motherboards, even tiny amounts. Is this something I should not worry about at all?

My old computer have a sort of such a problem, because it' has a heavy Zalman cooler which cannot be tightened enough, a product design error.

Also, I would like to know: Am I the only one messing like a fool when putting a cooler upon a cpu?

My new computer:
- Motherboard: ASUS Maximus Formula Republic of Gamers.
- Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra 120 A.
- Case: Antec Performance One P182
(parts ordered, not received yet)

 

[Build it Myself]

no, you're not the only one if it's got those terrible push and snap plastic clips, those things suck!

 

[graysky]

Originally posted by: RobinBee
Lapping: I get it, the making of two very flat surfaces, put evenly together.

However, I worry about Earth's gravitational force on my new motherboard.

Because: The weight of my new heatsink is 1 kilogram, and the heatsink is tall. And my new case is a vertical one. I suspect as a result: localized bending of the motherboard? Is an Intel cpu strong enough to not follow such bending, if any?

I have read Intel's technical document on the q6600 cpu, and this document seems to me to be full of worry about possible bending of motherboards, even tiny amounts. Is this something I should not worry about at all?

I have the same case and HS. Mine has been fine since April/07. The back X bracket that comes with the u-120 and u-120 ex takes most of the load. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you... maybe it'll break the board after 5 years or so to use a round number. Do you care? In 5 years your Q6600 will be slow and you'll want the no doubt 8 or 16 core CPU for the same $300 you spent on the Q6600

 

[RobinBee]

» ... maybe it'll break the board after 5 years or so ... «

You are right. A tiny amount of bending might be worse, though. If bending, then the heatsink may loose a tight connection with the surface near one or two of the cores of a quadcore cpu. (I am just speculating.)

 

[graysky]

I wouldn't worry about it dude. There are 1000s of people using these things without a problem. If you're that worried, just use the stock HSF and don't overclock the machine.

 

[berny9ii]

<img src="http://i5.tinypic.com/6ue4a5x.jpg"> is this ok temps?

 

[graysky]

@berny - 50/51 (assuming p95 load) is fine for that chip... I didn't see the load bars in speefan, but there's no way those are idle temps, right?

 

[Uninvited Guest]

It's a great guide. I still feel overwhelmed going for my first over clock, but at least I have step by step tools in hand now. Now, I do have a problem, in that CoreTemp has an unsigned driver, and thus cannot be used in Vista x64. Since all it does is monitor my temp, can I get away with just SpeedFan? As well, does speedfan also report 15 degree lower temps on C2D chips as well? I'm running an E6600, BFG Geforce 8800 GT, Asus P5W DH, Mushkin PC2 6400 4-4-3-10, all at stock. It shows System Temp 38C, CPU 28C, AUX 123C (What is this?), HD 32C, Core 0 42C, Core 1 44C.

Has anyone tried AI NOS? I remember it cam with my mobo, but passed it off. Was it any good?

Oh, and since this is the first time I've looked, CPUZ reports that my ram is running at 400 mhz, in 2:3 with the FSB. For a stock system, should that be? Have I been missing out all along?

 

[Uninvited Guest]

Alright, so I'm running the stress test, and I'm hoping that the 64C core temp that speedfan is reporting is not too low by 15C, otherwise I'm frying my chip without knowing it.

Prime 95 is only displaying information in worker thread 2, but my performance manager shows both cores maxed. Normal?

 

[demiurge3141]

Originally posted by: Uninvited Guest
It's a great guide. I still feel overwhelmed going for my first over clock, but at least I have step by step tools in hand now. Now, I do have a problem, in that CoreTemp has an unsigned driver, and thus cannot be used in Vista x64. Since all it does is monitor my temp, can I get away with just SpeedFan? As well, does speedfan also report 15 degree lower temps on C2D chips as well? I'm running an E6600, BFG Geforce 8800 GT, Asus P5W DH, Mushkin PC2 6400 4-4-3-10, all at stock. It shows System Temp 38C, CPU 28C, AUX 123C (What is this?), HD 32C, Core 0 42C, Core 1 44C.

Has anyone tried AI NOS? I remember it cam with my mobo, but passed it off. Was it any good?

Oh, and since this is the first time I've looked, CPUZ reports that my ram is running at 400 mhz, in 2:3 with the FSB. For a stock system, should that be? Have I been missing out all along?

to use coretemp:

http://www.overclock.net/opera...64-coretemp-tweak.html

 

[TraumaRN]

Finally think I hit the absolute wall with my processor.

C2Q 6600, Sitting stable at 3.64 Ghz.

3.64Ghz

Had to really bump the Vcore to be stable. CPUZ says 1.44, but its really 1.425. With Vdroop its 1.41 at least according to Speedfan.

Funnily enough it'll fail Prime95(after about 2 hours) but I can play crysis, TF2, etc without any issues.

 

[graysky]

Originally posted by: Uninvited Guest
Alright, so I'm running the stress test, and I'm hoping that the 64C core temp that speedfan is reporting is not too low by 15C, otherwise I'm frying my chip without knowing it.

Prime 95 is only displaying information in worker thread 2, but my performance manager shows both cores maxed. Normal?

No, that 15 °C deal is for quads and one of the new duals. You can download the latest version of speedfan and that bug is fixed by the way. Also, follow demiurge's link to use core temp.