Only 2GB's and still at WALL!!

[bushwickbill]

I know this is yet another post about my stubborn E6400, But I tried all the
suggestions put to me, and still I have something clearly wrong. I got fed up with trying to Overclock E6400(past 2.8Ghz) with Four 1gb Sticks of Kingston DDR2 667. I Flashed My BIOS to the latest 1604 And still had issues trying to get over my 2.8Ghz Wall. I took out two 1Gb sticks of Ram to hopefully solve my issue. People kept saying "Four 1Gb sticks won't overclock." I loaded up 360*8=2.88Ghz and it posted and ran Stability tests no problem. V.Core was only at 1.2625, Ram at 1.9 Volts. I then tried 370*8 and no post? I jacked the V.core up to 1.35, 1.40, No post. I put the Ram volts up to 2.1volts, No post? I then tried Raising the "FSB Termination Voltage" to the Max and still no luck. What is causing this. I followed all the advice everybody gave me. Does anybody else know why this is happening? There has to be something I am missing. Thanx Again

 

[dflynchimp]

might it be stock cooling? did you check the load temps @ 2.88?

 

[tigersty1e]

Forget about touching the vcore. Your RAM is holding you back.

You have 533 ram but it's rated at 266 and you're trying to go to 380. That's a 40% overclock. If it could do that, then the company probably would've labeled it as 667 and sell it for higher.

Just buy some 800 RAM for ~70 AR. and OC to 3.2 for the cheap easy fix...


or try raising your timings. Post a newegg link to the RAM you have now.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

DDR2 667 is rated at 333MHz. Those sticks can easily hit 400MHz @ 4-4-4-12-2T with 2.0Vdimm!

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Well I can't tell wether its DDR533 or DDR667, it says 667 in the post but 533 in his sig.

If it is 533 then you will need new ram to go higher, if it is 667 then you need to make sure your using the lowest divider/multi (usually 2.0) and lossen the timmings and bump the volts and you should be able to go higher.

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Well I can't tell wether its DDR533 or DDR667, it says 667 in the post but 533 in his sig.

I was going off his sig.

Apprently he has DDR800 ram in his other thread. I'm not sure what to believe.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Well I can't tell wether its DDR533 or DDR667, it says 667 in the post but 533 in his sig.

I was going off his sig.

I'm not sure what to believe.

Seconded

Stock cooling

Might not be up to the job

 

[Arkaign]

Agreed :

Culprit #1 : Shifty ram not working well, solve this by getting better ram or by going as lax as possible during OC testing to remove this from the equation.

Culprit #2 : Stock Intel cooling, not very good really, and mounts for crap, putting lots of pressure on the mobo itself. Solve this by getting even a cheap RoseWill tower cooler from Newegg, they mount onto a flat plate that goes on the bottom of the mobo. This prevents the board from experiencing the same kind of flexing/pressure that happens with the cheapie retail cooler. Also cools much better, obviously. I'm now testing an E6400 @ 3.4Ghz on one of the Rosewill coolers, and temps are in the low 40s.

Culprit #3 : The E4xxx and below don't have a soldered IHS like the E6xxx and above. *IF* you have experience, and are willing to take the risks involved, read up on how to remove the IHS, improve the thermal transfer situation, and reattach it. This is very risky, so do your research before you leap, but many times this gets temps down 7-10c, and gets the OC into the mid 3ghz range.

 

[bushwickbill]

Thanx for the reply, Sorry about the Sig confusion. I fixed my Sig, I Forgot to change it after buying my new Cooler and 3 sticks of DDR2 667. The Ram is Kingston KVR667D2N5/1G BTW to match my other 667 stick. Looking Back I should've just bought four sticks of 800Mhz. I just figured I would be o.k. up to 3.2 Ghz with this Ram overclocked to 800Mhz??(TISK,TISK!!) But I do Have four 1Gb Sticks Of 667. Sorry for the confusion. I have never said I had 800Mhz Ram, I stated that my four sticks do overclock to 800Mhz at 1.9 vots, 5,6,6,18. That is were that comment might have come from. And at load while CPU at 2.88Ghz, The temps were:Speed fan reported 55C on the cpu and core 1 and 2 were between 43-44C. "Core temp" reported both cores at 43C. So temps are not the issue. I did try to run a looser Ram timing but when I entered 6,6,6,18 It wouldn't post at all. How do you configure the other 6 Ram timings in the BIOS? The First four are understandable(I think?), but the bottom six I have no Idea what to do there. What would be the next loosest timing after 5,6,6,18?? If I could get the Ram looser just to rule out that my Cpu can get above 360*8=2.88Ghz. And does anybody know what "FSB Termination Voltage" does on this board. It is listed on the same page as CPU and Ram volts in the BIOS. When selected, I have Auto, And 1.2,1.3,1.45(Volts I assume). I can't seem to get a straight answer on what this voltage is for and how or if it can help my stubborn Overclock? Nothing in the manual about it either. HMM...

 

[TC91]

I have the exact same ram and 4 sticks too; did you try 1.9v and 4-4-4-12-2t? for some weird reason @ 2.0v or higher my memory is not stable @ 800mhz (heat maybe? they have no heatspreaders). before i could not run my ram @ 800mhz stable no matter how much voltage (never tried any less than 2.0 since i didnt think they would work with that little voltage) or how loose the timings were (cl6 for me also did not boot whatsoever), and i decided to tighten the timings to see if it worked, and some weird reason they are working well on cl 4 timings and 1.9v. passed 50 passes of memtest86+ too. hopefully this helps!!

 

[tigersty1e]

Can the E6400 unlock the multiplier downwards?

Have you tried lowering your multiplier and OCing?

My hunch is that you won't be able to get to 370 * 7 which would mean possible 1 of 3 things (maybe more I really don't know)


1. Board is holding you back
2. Ram is holding you back
3. Some setting in the BIOS is holding you back.

 

[bushwickbill]

TC91, Holy sh*t. You have the same ram as me running how I need mine to run. I take it you must have some North bridge volts or something else to adjust than me? I nearly crapped my pants reading your post. HMM..... I will give it a try tomorrow when I have a chance. At 2.6Ghz I can run all four at 4,4,4,12 2T, But I can't get to 2.7Ghz without having to loosen off the Ram timings. Very Strange. I won't get my hopes too high, but you have given me another glimmer of hope to break 3.0Ghz with this Ram. Thanx for all the help everybody. I will post my result when I can.

 

[TC91]

oh for my mb settings, i have the spp to 1.4v, fsb to 1.4v and that is all i can access on my board. those are my maximum board settings for voltages.

Edit: nvidia took out a few bios settings since i dont have the full 680i board.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: bushwickbill
At 2.6Ghz I can run all four at 4,4,4,12 2T, But I can't get to 2.7Ghz without having to loosen off the Ram timings.

Seems to me as if your RAM is the limit. Clock speeds, timings and voltages of ICs like RAM and CPUs tend to ramp up gently, then as they near their limits will shoot up (to keep stability). At clock speeds that suddenly needs much relaxed timings or much more voltage, you know you're at the limit.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: bushwickbill
TC91, Holy sh*t. You have the same ram as me running how I need mine to run. I take it you must have some North bridge volts or something else to adjust than me? I nearly crapped my pants reading your post. HMM..... I will give it a try tomorrow when I have a chance. At 2.6Ghz I can run all four at 4,4,4,12 2T, But I can't get to 2.7Ghz without having to loosen off the Ram timings. Very Strange. I won't get my hopes too high, but you have given me another glimmer of hope to break 3.0Ghz with this Ram. Thanx for all the help everybody. I will post my result when I can.

RAM is fine up to 400MHz/2.1V/4-4-4-12-2T. You can run memtest86 to confirm.

 

[TheInternet1980]

Originally posted by: TC91
oh for my mb settings, i have the spp to 1.4v, fsb to 1.4v and that is all i can access on my board. those are my maximum board settings for voltages.

Edit: nvidia took out a few bios settings since i dont have the full 680i board.

FYI, P6 BIOS is available @ xfx right now.

Adds back in 1.5v on the FSB and the SPP

 

[TC91]

Originally posted by: TheInternet1980
FYI, P6 BIOS is available @ xfx right now.

Adds back in 1.5v on the FSB and the SPP

oh nice. i never actually touched 1.5v for the fsb and spp actually since 1.4v was stable, but nice to hear it was added back in. thx for the news TheInternet1980.

 

[TheInternet1980]

Originally posted by: TC91

Originally posted by: TheInternet1980
FYI, P6 BIOS is available @ xfx right now.

Adds back in 1.5v on the FSB and the SPP

oh nice. i never actually touched 1.5v for the fsb and spp actually since 1.4v was stable, but nice to hear it was added back in. thx for the news TheInternet1980.

It was a really low key BIOS release. for something that is a HUGE deal for oc'ers. I know I needed those voltages for stability on this quad. They also mention enhanced OC stability for quads specifically in the release notes. Not sure if that is independent of the voltage settings.

Maybe not many folks own the XFX flavor of this board, hence no news of the new BIOS?

 

[TC91]

yah i dont think too many ppl own the xfx version. TheInternet1980 i think ur the first person i ve seen with the same board that i have lol. i dont think i will update my bios this time tho since im running good. good to hear it helped out ur quad.