Overclocking my E6750 - 3.8GHz so far :D

[downhiller80]

OK, so I've just built my new system.

System:
* GA-P35-DS4
* E6750
* 4GB G.Skill PC2-6400C5 800MHz
* Sparkle passive 8800GT
* Zalman 500W modular PSU.

* Tuniq Tower 120
* TX-2 thermal gunk

* Raptor 74gb system drive
* 500gb & 250gb data drives

Setup:
* All temp readings are using Core Temp 0.96
* I have the fan on the Tuniq turned to the minimum setting to keep my system nice and quiet
* I have a 120mm case fan at the front of my case to cool my HDs
* The PSU also has a 120mm fan in it
* The side is currently not on the case, and to be fair rarely is
* Room temp is about 22°C at the moment I'd guess (72F). I don't really know tbh


Key:
Frequency (mult x FSB) / voltage / idle temps / load temps

Stock:
2.66Ghz (8 x 333MHz) / 1.35v / 29,30 / 47,48

Overclocked:
3.00GHz (8 x 375MHz) / 1.35v / 29,31 / 52,52
3.20GHz (8 x 400MHz) / 1.35v / 30,33 / 54,54
3.40GHz (8 x 425MHz) / 1.35v / wouldn't post
3.40GHz (8 x 425MHz) / 1.40v / wouldn't post
3.40GHz (8 x 425MHz) / 1.45v / wouldn't post
3.40GHz (8 x 425MHz) / 1.50v / wouldn't post
3.24GHz (8 x 405MHz) / 1.35v / 30,32 / 54,54
3.24GHz (8 x 405MHz) / 1.25v / 30,32 / orthos failed after 20 seconds
3.24GHz (8 x 405MHz) / 1.30v / 30,32 / 51,51
3.40GHz (8 x 425MHz) / 1.45v +0.20v DDR2 / wouldn't post
3.28GHz (8 x 410MHz) / 1.35v / 32,34 / 54,54
3.32GHz (8 x 415MHz) / 1.35v / posted, but wouldn't boot into windows
3.32GHz (8 x 415MHz) / 1.40v / posted, but wouldn't boot into windows
3.28GHz (8 x 410MHz) / 1.30v / 31,33 / 52,52
3.32GHz (8 x 415MHz) / 1.35v +0.10v DDR2 +0.10v FSB +0.10v MCH / wouldn't poste
3.32GHz (8 x 415MHz) / 1.40v +0.20v DDR2 +0.20v FSB +0.20v MCH / 33,35 / BSOD after 5mins of Orthos

** Whoops, worked out what was wrong! Turned "performance enhance" to "standard" (from "turbo") **

3.40GHz (8 x 425MHz) / 1.35v / 32,34 / 56,56
3.60GHz (8 x 450MHz) / 1.35v / posted, but wouldn't boot into windows
3.60GHz (8 x 450MHz) / 1.40v / 34,35 / orthos failed after 8 minutes
3.60GHz (8 x 450MHz) / 1.45v / 35,36 / 58,58
3.60GHz (8 x 450MHz) / 1.45v / 35,36 / 58,58
3.70GHz (8 x 463MHz) / 1.45v / 35,37 / orthos failed after 8 minutes
3.70GHz (8 x 463MHz) / 1.475v / 35,37 / 60,60
3.80GHz (8 x 475MHz) / 1.475v / 35,37 / BSOD after a few hours of Orthos

** I'll add other OCs in here as I do them **

 

[downhiller80]

Hmm, up to 3.2GHz (8 x 400MHz) and still stock voltage and only 52° under load. These processors are great aren't they - I remember fondly the day of getting my Duron 650 to over 1GHz, I reckon these E6750 are just as good!

(FWIW this is the first Intel proc I've ever bought :Q)

 

[badnewcastle]

Adding 1+ GHz should prove to be fairly easy for you.

 

[The-Noid]

Seems like 3.6 is a hardwall for these chips. You can get a bit past but you start to see diminishing returns where you have to add serious vcore to take it any higher.

 

[downhiller80]

Hmmm, 3.4GHz (8 x 425) wouldn't post even going up to 1.4V. Time for me to do some reading and find out what an acceptable voltage to go up to is!

 

[BlueAcolyte]

1.5V is good for hard use. Of course, some chips are different... Be careful of that sparkle, they get up to absurd temps under load... maybe stick a fan near it to cool the heatsink?

 

[The-Noid]

1.55v is listed in the intel whitesheet as the hard wall.

 

[downhiller80]

Hmm, just tried 3.4GHz 8 * 425 @ 1.5V and it still wouldn't post. I'm reluctant to go any higher given the vcore everyone else runs on here. Given that I'm running very happily at 3.2GHz 8 * 400 @ 1.35V do you think it's a different problem? Seems that I've got plenty of headroom in terms of voltage and temps, so why won't it post at 8x425? Could it be my memory?

 

[downhiller80]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
they get up to absurd temps under load... maybe stick a fan near it to cool the heatsink?

I read Anand's review and am happy that it'll be ok where it is. Certainly it runs through 3dmark06 (8800, does that sound about right?) with no problems.

 

[boomhower]

You may need to up your ram voltage and/or MCH to go to 425. Which version of the RAM do you have? HZ's? If nothing else you could run a mutliplier to down clock your ram.

 

[downhiller80]

I've already got the ram as slow as it goes (2 x 425MHz = 850Mhz).

The memory I bought is this stuff http://www.overclockers.co.uk/...t.php?prodid=MY-019-GS (G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ)

I tried bumping the DDR2 voltage up 0.20v and it made no difference. I'm adding a complete log of my progress to the original post in this thread.

Here's a dull observation - Core Temp refuses to return a temp of 53°C, I'm seeing a lot of 52 in my logs, and the occasional 54, but never 53. Told you it was dull

 

[badnewcastle]

Originally posted by: sebfrost
Hmm, just tried 3.4GHz 8 * 425 @ 1.5V and it still wouldn't post. I'm reluctant to go any higher given the vcore everyone else runs on here. Given that I'm running very happily at 3.2GHz 8 * 400 @ 1.35V do you think it's a different problem? Seems that I've got plenty of headroom in terms of voltage and temps, so why won't it post at 8x425? Could it be my memory?

If you hitting a wall at 3.4, it's likely your motherboard or memory... try running memtest86+, if that runs well on test 5 for a 5-10 passes and atleast 1 pass on the whole test...

You can bump you memory up to 2.0v, if your not already there and make sure the timings are set to mfg's recommendations...
If that doesn't work and you still can't post then you could try bumping up your NB Voltage, slowly...

 

[downhiller80]

Latest: 3.32GHz (8 x 415MHz) / 1.40v +0.20v DDR2 +0.20v FSB +0.20v MCH / 33,35 / waiting for load temps...

edit: BSODed after 5mins of Orthos.

Going back to last known good, I need to stop wasting time and do some work

 

[downhiller80]

Amazing how much difference the TIM curing can make, a week later and my idle temps have dropped to 25/28C (running at 3.2GHz /1.325v) and load temps dropped to 48C

 

[VirtualLarry]

$190 for 3.2Ghz, 4MB L2 cache, or $60 for 3.2Ghz, 1MB L2 cache. Which would you choose? I'd pick the latter.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

3.6 is cake on thse chips, at least it was for me.

 

[Phunk0ne]

if you want to keep your E6750 @ 3.2GHz @ 1:1 ratio, why not undervolting it?
I was able to reach 1.25V in BIOS, Everest reads 1.2V @ Idle & 1.184V under Load.

These were my results keeping my FSB @ 1:1 ratio

*side note: I have both my TR U-120-E and my cpu IHS lapped

Result 1:

Undervolted
@ 3.2GHz
BIOS: 1.25V

Everest:
Idle @ 1.200V
Load @1.184 (ORTHOS)

FSB:RAM Ration @ 1:1
RAM Frew @ 400MHz DDRII-800
RAM @ 1.9V @ 4-4-4-12
Stock all over the board.

ORTHOS Stable
3DMark 06 Score: 13209

Temps:
Idle @ ~23C
Load @ ~37C

Result 2:

@ 3.6GHz
BIOS: 1.40000V

Everest:
Idle @ 1.360
Load @ 1.328 (ORTHOS)

FSB:RAM Ration @ 1:1
RAM Freq @ 450MHz DDRII-900
RAM @ 1.9V @ 5-5-5-15
MCH @ +.1V

ORTHOS Stable
3DMark 06 Score: 13729

Temps:
Idle @ ~25C
Load @ ~46C

Result 3:

@ 3.8GHz
BIOS: 1.50625V


Everest:
Idle @ 1.456V
Load @ 1.424V (ORTHOS)

FSB:RAM Ration @ 1:1
RAM Freq @ 475MHz DDRII-950
RAM @ 1.9V @ 5-5-5-15
MCH @ +.1V

ORTHOS Stable
3DMark 06 Score: 14086

Temps:
Idle @ ~27C
Load @ ~55C

 

[Earfoam]

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp
3.6 is cake on thse chips, at least it was for me.

me too on Abit IP35, couldn't have been easier in fact....

 

[MarcVenice]

Well, he has cas5 ddr2 800mhz ram, if his ram doesn't take kindly to overclocking getting anywhere past an FSB of 400 might prove difficult.

 

[downhiller80]

Right, my gigabyte bios has something called "performance enhance" with the options "standard, turbo [default] and extreme". What does this actually do?

Obviously I should have tried turning it off before, and now I've put it on "standard" I've just booted at 3.4GHz (8x425) no issues at all with speedstep still on and all voltages normal.

edit: ah I see my memory timings are now 5-6-6-16 instead of the G.Skill's rated 5-5-5-15. So putting it on standard actually makes it SLOWER than stock. On this board there seems to be no way to manual adjust memory timings that I can see?

 

[downhiller80]

3.6GHz (8x450) BSOD booting into vista at 1.35v, but at 1.4v so far seems ok.

 

[downhiller80]

3.6 stable (well, passes an hour, will obviously test more rigorously when I'm settled!)

3.7 boots quite happily too

Still got stock voltage on everything bar the proc @ 1.45v (CPUz reports 1.424V/1.408V under load)

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: sebfrost
3.6 stable (well, passes an hour, will obviously test more rigorously when I'm settled!)

3.7 boots quite happily too

Still got stock voltage on everything bar the proc @ 1.45v (CPUz reports 1.424V/1.408V under load)

See they do work.

 

[AsusGuy]

Wow I hope I can get my chip to 3.6-3.7Ghz

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: sebfrost
edit: ah I see my memory timings are now 5-6-6-16 instead of the G.Skill's rated 5-5-5-15. So putting it on standard actually makes it SLOWER than stock. On this board there seems to be no way to manual adjust memory timings that I can see?

Hit CTRL+F1 at the main bios menu screen to active the hidden settings.