Overclocking e2160 on a abit ip35pro problems? When do you have to add chipset voltage?

[PingSpike]

So, the other night I setup the rig with the aforementioned motherboard and cpu, using the stock cooler for now. I was initially shooting to hit 3.1-3.2ghz stable, then I would back it off to 3.0 and call it a day. That didn't really work out, but I got it to prime for 10 hours at 330x9=2970mhz @ 1.385(bios).

I've got that cheap HP ram, 4 sticks. I figured, I'd try to overclock that and keep it running at a similar speed.

I couldn't get it to boot at 370x8 1:1 even with extra ram voltage.

I got graphics corruption in the bios and occasional boots at 350. 340 seemed fine in my limited testing. (just a memtest run)

The cpu was running well below the stable tested point here, with the same voltage. So I don't think that is the problem? Is it?

The ram would be running at 700mhz at this point...beyond spec, but hardly a monster overclock. And most people say this stuff is good for 800mhz. Even feeding it more voltage didn't seem to do much.

So do I need more chipset voltage? I left it at stock...but the board supports 1333fsb so I wouldn't even think 350x4 would be pushing it outside of tolerances? Would it? When do you normally need to update the chipset voltage?

There are a few options in the bios for chipset (ICH, MCH, etc) And I'm a little lost on them since I'm new (again) to intel stuff. What should I do there.

On a side note, I really love how this motherboard lets me save different "profiles" of bios options and restore them later. Saves a lot of time.

 

[MadScientist]

Try increasing your MCH voltage a notch. What ram timings are you running? Try running them, if not already, at 5-5-5-15-2T or 5-5-5-18-2T

 

[PingSpike]

I just left the timings on SPD...I wonder if there's something I'm missing there...maybe when I dropped it to the 1:1 setting the bios didn't realize the FSB was raised and the chips automatically got set to 4-4-4-x timings or something. I hadn't thought about that actually. I will investigate tonight.

 

[jjmIII]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
So do I need more chipset voltage? I left it at stock...but the board supports 1333fsb so I wouldn't even think 350x4 would be pushing it outside of tolerances? Would it? When do you normally need to update the chipset voltage?

There are a few options in the bios for chipset (ICH, MCH, etc) And I'm a little lost on them since I'm new (again) to intel stuff. What should I do there.

I have an IP35-e, but.....

In the Voltage section I raise them ALL one click. I forget which setting is at 1.5V default, but I raised that one to 1.6V (1.55V was one click up). I run the HP ram at 2.0, and of coarse you'll have to play with your cpu Voltage.

Four sticks of ram is harder to OC than two.

My "e" board has no problem at 400bus with an e2140.

 

[Replay]

I'd do initial cpu oc tests with your best single stick of ram.

First test the limits of those ram sticks at one by one with Memtest86. Drop the cpu multi, set the ram at 1:2, and start testing around 200 Mhz fsb. You might have a stick that is not so good. Don't try this testing in windows or you risk corrupting your OS install. I've tested 11 sticks of that HP-Micron stuff in an IP35-E, some reaching 470 Mhz (235 x2 with 1:2 cpu:ram ratio), the worst passes at 406 MHz.

The HP-Micron 667 ram, unlike most, does not respond to extra voltage, it can even get worse. So just leave it at the SPD defaults (1.8V 5-5-5-15, with 1t or 2t).

 

[PingSpike]

Can I run 1t with only two sticks?

 

[PingSpike]

I didn't have a lot of time to test last night. But it ran through one pass of memtest fine using 1:2 to get DDR2-800 speeds. Yet it was locking up at DDR2-700 (350fsb) as well. The timings seem to be staying at the 5-5-5-15 or 18 or whatever regardless of ratio selection.

I tried posting at 355 by bumping all chipset voltages up one notch and it was a beep fest.

So, I don't know WTF is going on. The memory can do 800 on stock volts, but memtest actually LOCKS UP when trying to run 700 with 350fsb...in the same place too.