My silly e6400 won't go faster than 2800Mhz. Help, please

[SaltBoy]

Hey gang,

I'm wanting to overclock my e6400 a little bit more than I am doing right now. I've seen other people get theirs up as high as 3450mhz, but I'm not that ambitious. I want to get it up to only 3200mhz. Here are my specs:

CPU - e6400
MOTHERBOARD - Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4 motherboard (nVidia 650i chipset)
RAM - Corsair Dominator RAM - TWIN2X2048-6400C4D (Rated at 4-4-4-12)
VIDEO - eVGA 7950GT
PSU - Antec NeoHE 550w
COOLER - Arctic Freezer 7 Pro

Right now, my system is running very stable at 2800mhz (350 FSB). I'm able to encode video with x264, which regularly uses at least 85% of the CPU, for hours on end. Even better than that, the full load temperatures stay at a very low 35(!)degrees C. This is also with the default voltage in place - no increases whatsoever. Happy happy joy joy, etc.

However, when I try to push the FSB any higher, I get lockups. I can post and get to Windows at 2900mhz and 3000mhz (363 and 375 FSB, respectively), but any type of significant activity done in Windows at those speeds will cause a crash. If I try to go any higher than 3000mhz, I won't get a post at all. I've done all that I can to increase the voltage on the CPU, the NB, and the Memory, but that doesn't seem to make any difference. I was thinking that there might be some sort of FSB "hole" in play here, but even at a 410 FSB I can't get anything.

I've read somewhere - don't remember exactly - that my Corsair RAM might not be good for overclocking; the chips contained in its RAM modules are alledgedly "bad", or something like that. I'm wondering if I might see any difference if I switch the RAM out with some Crucial Ballistix RAM or even get RAM at DDR1066 speed instead of DDR800.

Also, I don't think my PSU should be the culprit, but I'm just wondering if 550w might be too low for trying to get the overclock that I want to achieve. Should I get something with more juice?

Or, am I just hosed because my e6400 doesn't want to go that high, no matter what? What would be the consequence if I increase the voltage to the CPU by a LARGE margin (say, to 1.8V). If the cooling system is working as well as it is, would the increase in voltage still decrease my CPU lifespan?

FYI - I don't believe my video card or my operating system could be affecting the overclock. I've had the same problems in both XP SP2 and Vista (which I just upgraded to).

Thanks!

 

[aigomorla]

1. do you have any spare tim on hand? Tim is that gray stuff under your heat sink. If you do i need you to do something.

2. i need you to pull your heat sink off, and grab the bin letter of your cpu. If your cpu was RETAIL, meaning it came in box, all you need to do is look at the box.

On the box or on top of the chip, you'll see a series of numbers that look like this:

L631B120 i need those numbers to tell you approx what your chip is capable of.


That should tell me for sure if you have a fsb wall.

 

[SaltBoy]

Sure, I have plenty of thermal grease and can easily reseat the CPU if I need to. I'll try to do that by EOD. In the meantime, if it DOES say L631B120, what am I facing here?

 

[Noubourne]

Why not just give the guy the links so he can go see for himself.

C2D OC Database @ HardForum


C2D OC Database @ XtremeSystems

Find similar Steppings, Weeks, and Codes in those tables to find out approximately what your chip is capable of. It is likely (though not guaranteed) to get close to the same clocks and volts as other chips that came from the same silicon, or manufactured around the same time.

This varies because the manufacturing process tends to change over time as they get better at it they make adjustments. Of course, it doesn't ALWAYS get better!

I always google my steppings when I get them now to see if there's any info about them before I even start my OC.

 

[SaltBoy]

It looks like I might have an L2 Stepping...

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/Saltboy/cpuz.jpg

I assume this is bad. Right?

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: SaltBoy
Sure, I have plenty of thermal grease and can easily reseat the CPU if I need to. I'll try to do that by EOD. In the meantime, if it DOES say L631B120, what am I facing here?

3.6ghz @ 1.4Vcore real. EAsily.

Your bin is IDENTICAL To mine. So hence it should perform near on par to it.

However it will heat up uberly.


I highly recomend you getting a ultra120 extreme.

But 3.6ghz should be absolutely no problem at 1.45V MAX. It will most likely take 1.4Vcore real tho.

You got a great chip. Heres where i can push her at her max under water. Yours should do the same if your bin is identical to mine.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p73/aigomorla/3-1.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p73/aigomorla/Clipboard02.jpg

However the top 3.75ghz will require watercooling at middle or upper tier if you intend to run it longer then 6 hours per day.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p73/aigomorla/IMG_0574.jpg


Let me know what board, Ram, and PSU you have. I may be able to help you extend your E-Dingy uber long like a porn star.


EDIT: wait how is yours a L2 stepping while mines a B2? i think you might of gotten your batch number wrong.

 

[SaltBoy]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

EDIT: wait how is yours a L2 stepping while mines a B2? i think you might of gotten your batch number wrong.

Sorry, there was a misunderstanding on my part. As you can tell from my screenshot, I appear to have an L2 stepping and NOT a B2 stepping. The rest of my specs are in my original post up top.

Anybody got any ideas, please?

 

[Binky]

It sounds like you're pushing your ram too far. How are you setting your memory dividers? Doesn't the 650i chipset allow you to lock your memory at a certain speed? At 1:1 with a 350-399mhz bus, you would be running your memory slower than its rated speed.

It is unlikely that your CPU is really running at 35C at full load.

 

[SaltBoy]

How am I pushing my RAM too far? It's is PC6400, so it *should* be able to go 1:1 with a 400mhz bus, right? And Yes, 650i does allow me to lock the memory at a certain speed, which I've done. I haven't overclocked the RAM at all, as far as I know.

 

[alaricljs]

I remember reading of a 650i board that with the fsb/mem locked at 400 it wouldn't worked, but unlocked and still set both to 400 worked. Think it was the Gigabyte 650 thread.

 

[Binky]

Well, that was just a guess obvisously. It just doesn't seem possible that you could be stuck at 2.8ghz. Not even posting at 3ghz...I'm having trouble with that. Hell, my 6420 will post (and run) at stock voltage up past 3.2ghz (haven't tried higher).

Does something like CPU-Z confirm that your memory is running at a 1:1 ratio for your highest overclock (i.e. 350mhz)?

 

[gramboh]

Try 400 or 401FSB x 8 = 3200MHz, your board might have problems with 350-399MHz although I'm not sure if this applies to the 650 series chipsets.

 

[SaltBoy]

I've tried 400, 401, 405, 410 - no posting at all.

Could somebody let me know if the relatively low wattage on the PSU (550W) could be the culprit?

 

[kurt454]

Do you have any active cooling on the northbridge? If not it might cause instability past 350fsb. As far as not posting at all, you might just have a bum board.

 

[HyperTension]

If I'm not mistaken, the 6400C4D are Promo based, not micron. Those "traditionally" do not allow for a farther overclock vs. micron based chipsets. Based on your divider, that may be the limit of your memory.

See if you can give your north / southbridge a small bump in voltage. Make sure you have some type of airflow going across those sites.

Hell, that may be the limit of your chip. Hopefully not, but then again?

 

[Binky]

I'm also curious what his memory speed shows while in windows with the stable 350mhz bus setting. I'm betting that the memory isn't running at 350mhz...

 

[peter121]

CPU-Z 1.40 report file

Processor(s)

Number of processors 1
Number of cores 2 per processor
Number of threads 2 (max 2) per processor
Name Intel Core 2 Duo E6420
Code Name Conroe
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6420 @ 2.13GHz
Package Socket 775 LGA
Family/Model/Stepping 6.F.6
Extended Family/Model 6.F
Core Stepping B2
Technology 65 nm
Core Speed 2699.9 MHz
Multiplier x Bus speed 6.0 x 450.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 1800.0 MHz
Stock frequency 2133 MHz
Instruction sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 4096 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size

Chipset & Memory

Northbridge NVIDIA 650i SLI SPP rev. A2
Southbridge NVIDIA 650i SLI MCP rev. A3
Graphic Interface PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width x16
PCI-E Max Link Width x16
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 2048 MBytes
Memory Frequency 450.0 MHz (1:1)
CAS# Latency (tCL) 4.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# (tRDC) 4 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 4 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 12 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 20 clocks
Command Rate 2T

System

System Manufacturer
System Name
System S/N
Mainboard Vendor Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Mainboard Model GA-N650SLI-DS4
BIOS Vendor Award Software International, Inc.
BIOS Version F5
BIOS Date 04/11/2007

Memory SPD

Module 1 DDR2, PC2-6400 (400 MHz), 1024 MBytes, PDP Systems
Module 2 DDR2, PC2-6400 (400 MHz), 1024 MBytes, PDP Systems

Software

Windows Version Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
DirectX Version 9.0c

peter