I have no BIOS, can I overclock?

[HAL9000]

Hey guys,
just curious without a BIOS can I overclock my CPU's? Maybe in Windows...?

I should mention I've got dual xeon's @2.66ghz 1333fsb. 1.131v

 

[Cogman]

you ALWAYS have a bios. (ok, not exactly true, but true enough)

 

[Ben90]

SetFSB is going to be your best bet. It doesn't work for every motherboard as some manufactures have hard locks on the clock generator, but give it a try.

 

[HAL9000]

you ALWAYS have a bios. (ok, not exactly true, but true enough)

Trust me I don't, I don't really want to get into it, but I dont.

SetFSB

SetFSB isn't compatible with my motherboard, I'm able to overclock using the FSB tool in SysTool, but is there anyway I can increase the voltage?

 

[Cogman]

Trust me I don't, I don't really want to get into it, but I dont.



SetFSB isn't compatible with my motherboard, I'm able to overclock using the FSB tool in SysTool, but is there anyway I can increase the voltage?

You do, it just doesn't have an interface. There is EFI (which is the rare exception), but ultimately the concept is the same, the OS communicates with some sort of fireware to get information of devices present. This is the bios (or EFI.)

Heck, most likely some device in your computer has a bios since EFI isn't all that popular (thus, you have a bios).

 

[HAL9000]

You do, it just doesn't have an interface. There is EFI (which is the rare exception), but ultimately the concept is the same, the OS communicates with some sort of fireware to get information of devices present. This is the bios (or EFI.)

Heck, most likely some device in your computer has a bios since EFI isn't all that popular (thus, you have a bios).

I have an EFI, thus no BIOS, hence my question.

 

[Ben90]

If you can't do it via whatever software came with your motherboard the only way to change the voltage is through unsoldering/soldering stuff onto the board.

 

[Cogman]

I have an EFI, thus no BIOS, hence my question.

What is your chipset?

 

[HAL9000]

If you can't do it via whatever software came with your motherboard the only way to change the voltage is through unsoldering/soldering stuff onto the board.

Ok thanks, that's all I needed to know

 

[HAL9000]

What is your chipset?

Dual Xeon x5355's

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Xeon X5355s aren't chipsets, they're CPUs. He means northbridge/southbridge kind of thing.

 

[HAL9000]

Xeon X5355s aren't chipsets, they're CPUs. He means northbridge/southbridge kind of thing.

Oh yeah sorry, I misread, in answer to the original question. I have no idea.

 

[Cogman]

Oh yeah sorry, I misread, in answer to the original question. I have no idea.

If you don't know what chipset you have, how can you know if your chipset uses EFI or a Bios?

Either way, the fact that you are using a dual socket setup (and a xeon to boot) almost certainly guarantees that you are using a server motherboard.

Server motherboards traditionally don't support overclocking (and most people don't WANT to overclock a server setup).

 

[HAL9000]

If you don't know what chipset you have, how can you know if your chipset uses EFI or a Bios?

Either way, the fact that you are using a dual socket setup (and a xeon to boot) almost certainly guarantees that you are using a server motherboard.

Server motherboards traditionally don't support overclocking (and most people don't WANT to overclock a server setup).

Yeah I gather that a lot of people don't want to overclock server motherboards, it's a workstation motherboard technically, but trust me I KNOW 100% that i have an EFI, when it boots it initially loads an EFI not a BIOS. Not especially important I was just wondering about the limiations of software overclocking as I have an EFI and no BIOS.

 

[Dufus]

What mainboard do you have?

 

[HAL9000]

What mainboard do you have?

I'd rather not get into it, it will change the focus of the thread.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

I'd rather not get into it, it will change the focus of the thread.

Sigh...

*Debates helping*

Telling us the motherboard will enable us to find out what the chipset is, which will tell us whether you can overclock or not. We are trying to help and you are being difficult (maybe unintentionally so, but so none the less).

As far as I am aware the only dual xeon motherboards which don't have a BIOS are Apple ones.

The chipset is likely an Intel 5000 series, (which comes in P,V, and X flavours) since you are running a 65nm Xeon series.

Although the Intel 5100 and 5400 series chipsets also support 65nm Quads.

The good news is that it is likely you can overclock your Xeons, though this comes with the usual disclaimers - You do so at your own risk (anandtech/PlasmaBomb/others take no responsibility/liability), you may damage your machine or cause its premature failure (and all the other standard stuff).

Now assuming you are still interested - you need to look for the PLL on the board - it should look something like this -

and is typically near the silver oval (crystal) (which is easy to spot).

Now you should be able to read the lettering off the chip and it will hopefully be something like this -

ICS932S401....

continues in part two...

 

[betasub]

Nice detective work, Plasmabomb. Maybe OP's is being obtuse because he wants to create a puzzle?

 

[PlasmaBomb]

part two...

Assuming that you have a board with a ICS932S401 chip on it you can download systool (from here - http://www.techpowerup.com/systool/)

Download it, install it and follow the instructions.

When you run it you should be presented with a screen looking something like this -

Click the CPU overclocking button and select ICS93S401 from the drop down tab then hit the Read button.

It should tell you your CPU multi, the FSB, the CPU clock, memory ratio and memory clock. The PCI and PCI-express busses should be locked at ~33.33 and 100 MHz.

If the read doesn't work properly your machine may crash (as is the way when fiddling with things). This is indicative of not having the Clock generator that you think you have (and a short way to test the clock gen - not recommended!).

If it does work you should be able to use the -/+ buttons or the slider to increase the FSB and thus overclock your machine.

Click write to finalise the overclock.

The find max will attempt to find a safe overclock (it may hang, and for 24/7 running you will probably need to back off).

The Chipset tends to run warm, and limit the OC, typically you are looking at 370-380 FSB max.

Have fun.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Nice detective work, Plasmabomb. Maybe OP's is being obtuse because he wants to create a puzzle?

I know these xeons (have a rig), maybe the OP has a mac... which would have been nice to know...

Oh the FB-DIMMs can also run warm, so active cooling isn't a bad idea either... (you may be able to squeeze some more out of the system).

SetFSB may also work for overclocking, since SysTools hasn't really been updated recently, SetFSB may support more clockgens.

 

[HAL9000]

Sigh...

*Debates helping*

Telling us the motherboard will enable us to find out what the chipset is, which will tell us whether you can overclock or not. We are trying to help and you are being difficult (maybe unintentionally so, but so none the less).

As far as I am aware the only dual xeon motherboards which don't have a BIOS are Apple ones.

The chipset is likely an Intel 5000 series, (which comes in P,V, and X flavours) since you are running a 65nm Xeon series.

Although the Intel 5100 and 5400 series chipsets also support 65nm Quads.

The good news is that it is likely you can overclock your Xeons, though this comes with the usual disclaimers - You do so at your own risk (anandtech/PlasmaBomb/others take no responsibility/liability), you may damage your machine or cause its premature failure (and all the other standard stuff).

Now assuming you are still interested - you need to look for the PLL on the board - it should look something like this -

and is typically near the silver oval (crystal) (which is easy to spot).

Now you should be able to read the lettering off the chip and it will hopefully be something like this -

ICS932S401....

continues in part two...

Thanks for the help, but I have already overclocked using Systool as I mentioned in an earlier post, the reason I was being difficult about my motherboard is that it is a Mac, and that 99% of the time whenever I post something a long these lines and mention the word Mac people scream "haha you can't overclock Mac's get a PC" and then the morons chirp in with their apple bashing so as I didn't want to create another one of those threads I went about things this way, thanks anyway.

I have been able to push the FSB up to about 400 without it becoming too unstable, with the right RAM, which gets me to 3.2ghz but I was wondering what other options were availiable to me.

 

[Cogman]

Thanks for the help, but I have already overclocked using Systool as I mentioned in an earlier post, the reason I was being difficult about my motherboard is that it is a Mac, and that 99% of the time whenever I post something a long these lines and mention the word Mac people scream "haha you can't overclock Mac's get a PC" and then the morons chirp in with their apple bashing so as I didn't want to create another one of those threads I went about things this way, thanks anyway.

I have been able to push the FSB up to about 400 without it becoming too unstable, with the right RAM, which gets me to 3.2ghz but I was wondering what other options were availiable to me.

When have you ever had "People scream 'haha you can't overclock Mac's get a PC'" on these forums? A quick look at your post history shows that you have asked this question, for this rig, more then once on these forums. And each time, nobody ever told you "You are stupid for trying to overclock a mac"

In fact, you claimed to be successful at overclocking this system a couple of times.

Which begs the question, why are you asking a question which you already had the answer?

 

[HAL9000]

When have you ever had "People scream 'haha you can't overclock Mac's get a PC'" on these forums? A quick look at your post history shows that you have asked this question, for this rig, more then once on these forums. And each time, nobody ever told you "You are stupid for trying to overclock a mac"

In fact, you claimed to be successful at overclocking this system a couple of times.

Which begs the question, why are you asking a question which you already had the answer?

Maybe not on these forums, but believe me i've had it before, most people just dismiss it when you say Mac, I was asking the question again in the hope that someone else might have a suggestion as all I've been able to do is increase the FSB and I was hoping someone might have another suggestion

 

[Cogman]

Maybe not on these forums, but believe me i've had it before, most people just dismiss it when you say Mac, I was asking the question again in the hope that someone else might have a suggestion as all I've been able to do is increase the FSB and I was hoping someone might have another suggestion

You're only going to be able to increase the FSB. The multiplier on all Intel CPUs except for the extreme editions are locked.

 

[HAL9000]

You're only going to be able to increase the FSB. The multiplier on all Intel CPUs except for the extreme editions are locked.

Yeah I gathered, this is why I was wondering about voltage, or a pin mod, but to both I have had no luck