My first OC attempt: E6600 stuck at around 3.2 GHz

[goofyballer2]

So I just put together my computer, which has an E6600 on a Gigabyte DS3 w/ 2GB of Corsair DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12. I'm currently trying to OC and I'm not having quite as much success as some of you guys seem to be having. I've searched for previous posts and read the "Definitive, unbiased guide" that everyone seems to link to, but it seems more oriented towards describing how to torture test a system and not really how to figure out what the maximum stable OC you can do is.

I've gotten the system to POST with the FSB as high as about 388, but that's it. SP2004 ran into errors so I knocked it down to 366; Then SuperPi had errors, but I read that it could have been because I had both .exes in the same directory so that might have been a false failure. Either way, Memtest86 ran fine at 380 and SuperPi is currently doing fine at 350; however, I just ran the Thermal Analysis Tool for the first time, and my CPU temperatures got up to 67C during 100% load!!! That seems excessively high, especially considering that I have a Big Typhoon for my heatsink, and an Antec P180 case which has two 120mm fans around the motherboard.

My Vdimm is at 2.1 (which is standard for the Corsair, and I don't think needs to be changed since it's not even running at its rated speed); I have the Vcore at 1.45 and the MCH/FSB each at +0.2V from normal (not sure what normal is). I tried setting each of those to +0.3V and the Vcore to 1.475 when I was trying to get the system to POST at ~390+, but it didn't happen.

So, any ideas as to what I can do to get a better OC? Or as to why my processor is running so hot?

 

[Rinaun]

Originally posted by: goofyballer2
So I just put together my computer, which has an E6600 on a Gigabyte DS3 w/ 2GB of Corsair DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12. I'm currently trying to OC and I'm not having quite as much success as some of you guys seem to be having. I've searched for previous posts and read the "Definitive, unbiased guide" that everyone seems to link to, but it seems more oriented towards describing how to torture test a system and not really how to figure out what the maximum stable OC you can do is.

I've gotten the system to POST with the FSB as high as about 388, but that's it. SP2004 ran into errors so I knocked it down to 366; Then SuperPi had errors, but I read that it could have been because I had both .exes in the same directory so that might have been a false failure. Either way, Memtest86 ran fine at 380 and SuperPi is currently doing fine at 350; however, I just ran the Thermal Analysis Tool for the first time, and my CPU temperatures got up to 67C during 100% load!!! That seems excessively high, especially considering that I have a Big Typhoon for my heatsink, and an Antec P180 case which has two 120mm fans around the motherboard.

My Vdimm is at 2.1 (which is standard for the Corsair, and I don't think needs to be changed since it's not even running at its rated speed); I have the Vcore at 1.45 and the MCH/FSB each at +0.2V from normal (not sure what normal is). I tried setting each of those to +0.3V and the Vcore to 1.475 when I was trying to get the system to POST at ~390+, but it didn't happen.

So, any ideas as to what I can do to get a better OC? Or as to why my processor is running so hot?

Which corsair RAM do you have? give me info, including model #. I think the ram you have is the really bad 6400C4 stuff I have, Won't OC past like 410 FSB. What divider are you running at as well? 1:1 ratio should set you in the 3.2 Ghz zone automatically. Don't P965 boards have a FSB strap RIGHT before like 380 FSB? you need to set it to 400 or higher to break the strap IIRC. Mine wouldn't boot at 389 on my P5b-Dlx, but would at 402 FSB.

Also, if you were testing with such programs as Orthos or some other high stress program - Don't worry about 67C, these tests strain your PC far beyond normal running standards. I don't think I've ever hit 60c not testing, even when Orthos hit 66C testing.




Edit: On the heat issue: Don't worry about heat,once you dial in your rig you could probably lower some CPU temps, as you should be able to easily get to 3.2 wiht minimal voltage.

 

[tallman45]

How are you cooling the Northbridge ? If still using the stock cooler then that is likley part (a big part) of your roadblock.

Either of these will make a significant difference

HR-05

NC-U6


The HR-05 should also leave you pleanty of room to attach any 80MM fan

 

[blurp]

Originally posted by: goofyballer2
So I just put together my computer, which has an E6600 on a Gigabyte DS3 w/ 2GB of Corsair DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12. I'm currently trying to OC and I'm not having quite as much success as some of you guys seem to be having. I've searched for previous posts and read the "Definitive, unbiased guide" that everyone seems to link to, but it seems more oriented towards describing how to torture test a system and not really how to figure out what the maximum stable OC you can do is.

I've gotten the system to POST with the FSB as high as about 388, but that's it. SP2004 ran into errors so I knocked it down to 366; Then SuperPi had errors, but I read that it could have been because I had both .exes in the same directory so that might have been a false failure. Either way, Memtest86 ran fine at 380 and SuperPi is currently doing fine at 350; however, I just ran the Thermal Analysis Tool for the first time, and my CPU temperatures got up to 67C during 100% load!!! That seems excessively high, especially considering that I have a Big Typhoon for my heatsink, and an Antec P180 case which has two 120mm fans around the motherboard.

My Vdimm is at 2.1 (which is standard for the Corsair, and I don't think needs to be changed since it's not even running at its rated speed); I have the Vcore at 1.45 and the MCH/FSB each at +0.2V from normal (not sure what normal is). I tried setting each of those to +0.3V and the Vcore to 1.475 when I was trying to get the system to POST at ~390+, but it didn't happen.

So, any ideas as to what I can do to get a better OC? Or as to why my processor is running so hot?

You might want to try to put MCH/FSB on default because the DS3 OC automaticly.

Also put multiplier on 8 instead of 9 and run your system @ FSB 400 with memtest to see if your memory is doing fine.

If all goes well, increase FSB from 400 up to, let's say, 410-415-420-425 with maybe 2.2 on the vDimm between 415-425 or relaxed timing 5-5-5-15.

 

[goofyballer2]

Here's my RAM model: Newegg

I just set MCH and FSB voltages to default, left Vcore at 1.45, and everything booted fine at 8x400. Memtest did OK (4-4-4-12 @ 800), but at 410 my computer wouldn't even boot without 2.2 Vdimm and relaxed timings (I set the timings to "auto" and at 410 it got set to 5-6-6-20, lol).

I don't have any Northbridge cooling; I read a Tom's Hardware where they OCed a C2D system with a DS3 and they were slowly increasing the MCH and FSB voltages as they went up in bus speed. If I can leave them on default though then I'll just do that. I'm not trying to get the ultimate overclock; initially I wasn't planning on OCing at all, but I was convinced by the posts here which made it look pretty easy to get a 400 FSB, with some people even using the stock Intel HSF and/or close to stock Vcores. I just want to make the most of my system with what I've built.

Is the 8x just a temporary solution to poke holes into my setup to see what we can improve, or should I be feeling stupid for spending an extra $100 on a 9x processor? I tried 9x400 while writing this (@ 1.475v), but the computer restarts as it's about to enter Windows. Also, what's the FSB strap? I've seen that term referenced here but I'm not really sure what it means. I tried 9x401 just for the heck of it and it didn't get any farther than at 9x400.

 

[goofyballer2]

Here's another question: I ran 3DMark 06 on stock settings and at 366 FSB, scores were like 8350 and 8900 respectively. Currently I have it at 9x380 and Orthos seems to be running okay for about 20 mins (@ 1.4625V, it got an error at 1.45V). I decide to try 3DMark 06 again, and my framerates have dropped by 75%. WTF???? My new score is 3348. I thought it might be because I installed NVidia drivers for my 8800 GTS rather than the Leadtek drivers, so I reverted back and I'm still having the same problem. Why the hell would that happen?? I haven't messed with my graphics card or with PCI-E at all.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Most likely means your overclock is not quite stable. Run Intel Thermal Analysis Tool at 100% on both cpus for a while and see what happens. I'm guessing it will crash rather quickly.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: goofyballer2
Here's another question: I ran 3DMark 06 on stock settings and at 366 FSB, scores were like 8350 and 8900 respectively. Currently I have it at 9x380 and Orthos seems to be running okay for about 20 mins (@ 1.4625V, it got an error at 1.45V). I decide to try 3DMark 06 again, and my framerates have dropped by 75%. WTF???? My new score is 3348. I thought it might be because I installed NVidia drivers for my 8800 GTS rather than the Leadtek drivers, so I reverted back and I'm still having the same problem. Why the hell would that happen?? I haven't messed with my graphics card or with PCI-E at all.

Check your PCI-e speed in CPU-Z.

It's likely running @ only 1x.

 

[goofyballer2]

I restarted my OC process from scratch (went back to 266 FSB and stock voltages) and figured out that increasing the northbridge voltage to +0.1V solved the video card issues for whatever reason. Getting up to about 378 FSB seemed to hit a wall of diminishing returns where I had to start increasing the Vcore a lot for small increases in FSB; so, I'm currently running SP2004 at 9x370 @ 1.4V and if it checks out ok (currently 5 hours through) leave it at that. I suppose a 38% OC isn't that bad.

 

[Rinaun]

Originally posted by: goofyballer2
Here's my RAM model: Newegg

I just set MCH and FSB voltages to default, left Vcore at 1.45, and everything booted fine at 8x400. Memtest did OK (4-4-4-12 @ 800), but at 410 my computer wouldn't even boot without 2.2 Vdimm and relaxed timings (I set the timings to "auto" and at 410 it got set to 5-6-6-20, lol).

I don't have any Northbridge cooling; I read a Tom's Hardware where they OCed a C2D system with a DS3 and they were slowly increasing the MCH and FSB voltages as they went up in bus speed. If I can leave them on default though then I'll just do that. I'm not trying to get the ultimate overclock; initially I wasn't planning on OCing at all, but I was convinced by the posts here which made it look pretty easy to get a 400 FSB, with some people even using the stock Intel HSF and/or close to stock Vcores. I just want to make the most of my system with what I've built.

Is the 8x just a temporary solution to poke holes into my setup to see what we can improve, or should I be feeling stupid for spending an extra $100 on a 9x processor? I tried 9x400 while writing this (@ 1.475v), but the computer restarts as it's about to enter Windows. Also, what's the FSB strap? I've seen that term referenced here but I'm not really sure what it means. I tried 9x401 just for the heck of it and it didn't get any farther than at 9x400.

at 400x8 , thats 3.2 Ghz. That is a perfectly acceptable OC. Also, your ram IUS the bad stuff. I have the same stuff in my rig, made with profound memory chips or something.

Also, you shouldn't have to edit much of your mobo voltages to hit 3.4