Overclocking new E4300 is an odd experience

[allies]

Well... just got a new box set up, and I don't really understand how to overclock intel chips apparently.

I'm shooting for 3 Ghz. My specs are as follows:

E4300
4x1GB SuperTalent PC5400
XFX 8800GTX
Gigabyte DS3 Rev 3.3
True Power II 550W PSU
1x150 GB Raptor
1x250 GB Barracuda

Since I'm shooting for 3GHz, I thought the easiest way would be 333*9. So I upped the voltage (I know how E4300s are more voltage hungry than the E6xxx series) to 1.425 (reports ~1.39 in windows)volts, upped fsb voltage +.1 volt and the g(mch) by +.1 as well. Fails Orthos within seconds. Now I'm trying a different route: Same voltages, but lowered the multi to 8x, FSB to 378. So far I've been orthos-ing for about 10 minutes (I know, not proven stable yet, but a lot better than a few seconds).

So, what gives? Do Allendales not like the 9x multi? I think if I'm orthos stable for a couple hours I might push for 3.2GHz... which is about all my RAM can do at stock timings. I guess I would be satisfied with 3.2GHz from a $160 chip 😛

Also, are speed fan's temp recordings accurate? Right now under full orthos load my cores are around 50ish C. I can't get TAT or Coretemp to work in Vista x64

 

[Ichigo]

You have all that and couldn't spring for a quadcore? -_-

 

[allies]

Originally posted by: Ichigo
You have all that and couldn't spring for a quadcore? -_-

Processor - $160
Ram - $240
GTX - $500 (Mid december dell deal)
TPII - From old computer
Raptor - $175 (BB deal)
Barracuda - From old computer
Vista - $8 (from school)
Case - From old computer

Sold my X2 + 2GB of RAM (-350)

K so I spent ~$750 on the computer I have now. No I couldn't have gotten a quadcore. Any other tips on overclocking? Thanks!

 

[RonAKA]

I'm new at this and just spend the morning finding out what I could get with my E4300 on an ASUS P5B DX board, with DDR2-667 RAM.

With 1:1 RAM multiplier, CPU at 1.3 V, and Mem at 1.9 V, it hit the wall at 330 FSB (with x9 multiplier just short of 3 GHz). To this point all it really seemed to be sensitive to was CPU volts.

To get further I increased Mem V to 2.0 V, and CPU to 1.4 V. It then hit the wall at 355 FSB. This was with Mem still set on auto and timings of 4-4-4-12.

I think the next step would be to unlock the Mem and go to 5-5-5-15 timing, and increase Mem volts to 2.2, but I got to where I wanted to be with a stock cooler, and DDR2-667 RAM.

As far as tips go, I don't have many. Found that if you were curious as to what was limiting, it worked to reduce FSB by 5 MHz, and then reduce CPU volts or Mem Volts to see what was determining the limit. You quickly find out. I found this site helpful:

http://www.overclock3d.net/articles.php..._guide_for_intel_core_2_duo_processors

Ron