need help overclocking an intel dual core E6400 on an Abit AB9 Pro

[tami]

hello friends.

so i have this box i need to overclock. specs are as follows:

* Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor
* ABIT AB9 Pro LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
* Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory
* ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink
* OCZ PowerStream ATX, BTX, EPS12V 520W Power Supply
...
* BIOSTAR V6202EL63 GeForce 6200 LE 256MB TurboCache(64M VRAM on board) GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Low Profile Video Card

i've been able to push it as far as 340 external clock at 1.8vcore (default i think is 272/1.325 respectively) but it's unstable. when i bring it to 345 i get a bluescreen in Ntfs.sys. i assume part of it is ram-related but i'd like a second opinion and tips on how to get overclocked successfully (maybe 3GHz, maybe higher... i know it's possible).

i've checked neoseeker and tomshardware that had reviews and when i up the voltages of any of the other settings, the computer doesn't hit POST - it beeps upon startup with an error message on the mobo of C1 - check RAM.


now i have two questions - or well, three.
1. how do i get this overclocked successfully (and stably?)
2. IS IT A COOLING PROBLEM? if so, where could it be? i have checked everything but the cpu. therefore, how can i monitor the temperature of the cpu? i see mbm5 doesn't really exist anymore.
3. if you suggest a ram upgrade, what is ideal without breaking the bank?

THANK YOU

love,
tami :lips:

 

[tami]

bump

 

[gerwen]

1.8Vcore (If that's your processor's voltage) is WAAAY too high imo. 1.5 should be your practical upper limit on air, and that's high still. You *should* be able to hit 340 fsb at (or close to) stock voltage of 1.325V. I'm hitting a 400 FSB at less than stock volts. (1.275V)

Pushing past 340 is going over your ram's rated speed. You can try looser timings if your mobo supports that, but it's doubtful you'll get much headway. You can also try raising the Ram voltage from 1.8V to 2.1V or 2.2V

Ram suggestions: Depends on how high of an overclock you want. If you want to hit a relatively conservative 3.2GHz, You can get the cheapest DDR2-800 you can find and it should work fine at that speed. Want more than 3.2 and you'll need ram that can run at higher.

 

[TRD3SGTE]

i've been able to push it as far as 340 external clock at 1.8vcore

WOW!
If you did run 1.8v, I'm surprised that your system hasn't turn to molten plastic already.....

Are you sure it was 1.8v?

Anyway, on the two reviews, they were running 4-4-4-12. That's tight timing and you might not be able to replicate with your memory stick.

Try 5-5-5-15 and this time please don't go above 1.55v on the CPU.

I used to have AB9 Pro but could only go up to 380MHz.

my E6300 and Gigabyte 965P-DS3 hit 534FSB at 3.738 Ghz @ 1.55v on CPU

Link

So it was your memory which held back your overclocking quest.
Try faster sticks ^__^

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Also make sure you set the memory to 1:1 or the DDR533 setting, and disable any "speed step" features, C1E, CPU spread spectrum, etc.. in bios. And make sure you have the latest bios from Abit, the early ones suck for overclocking.

Unforetunately the overclock ability of your CPU far exceeds the ability of your board and ram, if you really want to take the E6400 to it's limits you will likely need to upgrade both.

 

[tami]

thanks guys ... i figured that the RAM would play a factor and am considering getting better RAM for better results.

i have hit 340... but there were stability issues. i'm not sure if that's an issue of temperature (chip seems ok though) or what... maybe it is my vcore.

the only settings i adjusted were the external clock (340) and the vcore (1.5... i never went beyond that .. actually, i did, but i got beeping noises and a C1 LED indicator on the mobo, indicating that i should check my RAM.. there's my answer i suppose)

this bios is pretty new.. it has features not in the previous reviews' screenshots.

so if i upgrade the RAM and still have what appears to be stability issues, what could be other factors? i guess i'm trying to understand what MCH and ICH do and how they interrelate with vcore.. and all those other voltage settings.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The MCH and ICH are chipset voltages and can be increased to gain stability at higher FSB's, they don't really relate to CPU voltage. You will likely have to increase those before a CPU voltage increase is necessary, as most Conroes will overclock quite a bit on stock volts.

You should test for your maximum FSB by lowering the CPU multi and loosening up the ram timings to 5-5-5-15 and increase the vdimm to 2.1v-2.2v. This will reveal how high your ram/mobo can go together. And remember the new chipsets have shown holes, for example it may not boot from 340-375, but 380 is fine, and most all boards automatically loosen the internal timings at just over 400mhz, and actually are more stable at 400+ than at 350-400

 

[tami]

i am not sure what that even mean, guitardaddy, but i trust you. i don't recall if there was any 5-5-5-15 or whatever setting in the bios, but i'll have to double check. if i can get it over 400+, that would be ideal... i would love this thing to actually work faster than it is now.

i think the next step has to be RAM at this point - then i can test and see how practical all these changes are. if i increase the vcore, the mobo goes nuts (beeps before post, no video at all) and i need to conquer that problem first before making any additional progress.

i might need to get someone on AIM/yahoo/msn/icq for this when i start tweaking... anyone up for experimentation? PM me your contact info i won't bug you too much! (promise)

 

[gerwen]

Originally posted by: tami
i don't recall if there was any 5-5-5-15 or whatever setting in the bios, but i'll have to double check.

The 5-5-5-15 are all separate settings. Cryptic stuff that few truly understand.
They are in order:
CAS Latency
RAS to CAS Delay
RAS Precharge
Tras (or cycle time)

There are other timings, but the are the most commonly quoted and used. You may or may not be able to adjust these in the bios. It varies between motherboard brands and models.

i think the next step has to be RAM at this point - then i can test and see how practical all these changes are. if i increase the vcore, the mobo goes nuts (beeps before post, no video at all) and i need to conquer that problem first before making any additional progress.

Chances are, loose timings or no, new ram will be needed beyond your current 340FSB. To keep it cheap, I'll again suggest the cheapest DDR2-800 memory you can find. What i got. It'll get you to 3.2GHz without being the bottleneck.

3.2 seems to be a good practical limit on the 6400 to aim for. It's attainable for almost everyone, without drastic voltage and heat increases. Going higher you quickly run into diminishing returns on voltage, heat, and memory cost.

 

[tami]

i don't believe i saw anything like this 5-5-5-15 setting in my bios. i'll take a look. i'm going to be getting better ram. it's been ordered.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145040

thanks.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Ram timings are

Here


The best bios for overclocking seems to be the 1.9 beta
Linked in the OP here

The real limiting factor on this board appears to be MCH voltage which is 1.25v at stock and max setting is 1.45v in bios. I would go straight to 1.45v if you have adequate case cooling, that seems to support FSB's up to around 430-440. If your good at soldering and are brave enough to do the MCH volt mod and add aftermarket chipset cooling you can go much higher. The guys over at XS are hitting mid 500 FSB's with the voltmod

 

[tami]

hehe... don't think i'm going to do the soldering. this isn't really my box... i'm just helping out a friend who is more clueless than i am

 

[tami]

i got new ram... and i realize that i can't flash the bios because this machine has neither a cd-rom nor a floppy drive... i also can't tell what version of the bios this uses because it flashes too quickly (it's uguru 1.00c though)

so these are the settings i've changed for this to work at 2.72GHz (which is what i had before, really):
external clock: 340mhz
cpu core 1.5v
ddr voltage 2.0v (this is default, i just realized)
everything else is default

is there anything else i can try to get this baby running faster?

i'm noticing i bluescreen at 375... very mean bluescreens too.. i don't know how much i can go, but the computer itself is NOT hot... so why am i bluescreening?

 

[AnotherGuy]

ok set the ddr voltage to 2.1 - U Have to do THIS!!!
set cpu core to 1.45 u dont even need more than that u just making it get hot for no reason at 1.5... set the ddr timings not auto but manual to 4 4 4 12 and then turn everything else to manual or disabled instead of auto... that would be like the Spectrium setting... or advanced mode or tight timings all those settings have to be off in ur bios... and then play with the clock speed.... and always try to overclock the system from BIOS not from other software

Also install Speedfan to check processor temps
http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

also for like $210 u could get 2 gigs of ddr2 800 but thats ur choice

 

[gerwen]

Originally posted by: tami
i got new ram... and i realize that i can't flash the bios because this machine has neither a cd-rom nor a floppy drive... i also can't tell what version of the bios this uses because it flashes too quickly (it's uguru 1.00c though)

so these are the settings i've changed for this to work at 2.72GHz (which is what i had before, really):
external clock: 340mhz
cpu core 1.5v
ddr voltage 2.0v (this is default, i just realized)
everything else is default

is there anything else i can try to get this baby running faster?

i'm noticing i bluescreen at 375... very mean bluescreens too.. i don't know how much i can go, but the computer itself is NOT hot... so why am i bluescreening?

You could try going straight to 400 or 401 FSB. Most 6400's do that no problem. Many boards have problems with FSB's in the mid to high 300's, but run properly at 400 or 401.

I don't know if you've checked out Yoxxy's thread yet, but there's good info on which settings you need to change here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1947261

I would set the Vcore back to 1.375V. 1.5V isn't likely needed until you're pushing past 3.3 or 3.4 Gig, and is creating heat you don't need. My chip runs 3.2Ghz undervolted to 1.275.

Bump your ram voltage up to 2.1V or 2.2V. Won't hurt, and can help stability. You can also try bumping up the MCH voltage by .1V

Disable CIA2, C1E and speedstep if they exist. Set your PCI-E Frequency to 100

 

[tami]

this ram can do 4-4-4-12 ... but like i said before, i don't know where in the BIOS to configure that.

anotherguy, i don't need more ram... we already upgraded once

gerwen, it bluescreened as soon as i hit 375... at 400 it was even worse... windows wouldn't load.. something about kernel DLLs not running.

 

[tami]

ok, it's back on 1.375vcore and ddr 2.1... what more can i configure here?

where in the bios do i set up the ram timings to 4-4-4-12?

 

[Rockettman]

1. Your ram timings are under Advanced Chipset Features, change from auto to manual then enter your values.

2. Under Advanced BIOS Features disable Full Screen Logo Show, this will allow you to see your bios revision number during post (prior to the Silicon Image or J-micron hardware detection). It will be on the bottom of your screen, last number.

3. Abit includes a windows utility for flashing your bios (use at your own risk). Abit Uguru, FlashMenu. If you use it, be sure to go and get the file yourself, do not let the utility search it out for you.

 

[tami]

thanks rockettman i appreciate being your first post!!!

 

[Rockettman]

4. Also you should use coretemp to monitor CPU temps, on Abit boards the Uguru chip causes conflicts with both speedfan and TaT.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: Rockettman


3. Abit includes a windows utility for flashing your bios (use at your own risk). Abit Uguru, FlashMenu. If you use it, be sure to go and get the file yourself, do not let the utility search it out for you.

And always download the bios to your hard drive, then flash. Dont use any "update from web" options. Not sure if Abit even has this, but many do. I've used many windows based bios update tools with no problem, should be safe.

 

[tami]

ok, that's a good program suggestion.. didn't know that existed.

i tried the timings of 4-4-4-12 and it didn't work even though the ram we bought is supposed to be 4-4-4-12... i'm on 5-5-5-15 running at 2.88 ghz now... i will have to tinker more tomorrow i guess.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Here are some settings a reviewer used to get a nice O/C on that board. I would try the same except drop the FSB to 400 and the DDR volts to 2.2, that woud run you ram at spec DDR 800 and still have a very nice O/C. You may be able to drop the vcore to 1.5 (test and see), I've also heard some people have had trouble with ICHO over 1.5, just play with it and see which works.


uGuru screenshot

 

[gerwen]

Originally posted by: tami
ok, that's a good program suggestion.. didn't know that existed.

i tried the timings of 4-4-4-12 and it didn't work even though the ram we bought is supposed to be 4-4-4-12... i'm on 5-5-5-15 running at 2.88 ghz now... i will have to tinker more tomorrow i guess.

Don't sweat the timings. The difference in performance between 4-4-4-12 and 5-5-5-15 is pretty marginal. Chances are the only place you would see the difference is in benchmarks. With everyday use the difference will be invisible.