So I was bored and decided to (finally) overclock my E6600

[Imyourzero]

I've never overclocked, and bought the C2D several months ago in part because they are so fast at stock speeds and easily overclocked.

I had to restart my PC last night and hit Del to check things out in my BIOS (I recently flashed my P5B Deluxe to the latest version and wanted to see what had changed).

While I was in there I thought, what the hell, I'll bump her up just for S&Gs. So I raised the FSB to a meager 300, rebooted, and all was well at 2.7 GHz. Went back and tried 330, also with success. I finally tried 350 and stopped there simply because I didn't know if I should start modifying other settings, but I think I can go quite a bit higher. Still on stock voltage (I assume; Vcore is still set to "Auto")

I read this guide and just didn't know if I should be playing with anything else.

Should I leave DRAM frequency set to Auto? What about PCI-E frequency? Spread spectrum (the article says it's best disabled when overclocking, but is that true and why?) I also left NB Vcore and SB Vcore unmodified.

As you can see, the only thing I did was raise the FSB. Running at 3.15 Ghz right now with more room to go I'm sure, but I don't want to hurt anything. Just looking for any suggestions or advice on where to go from here. Not looking for the maximum possible overclock, but 3.4 or so would be nice, especially if I can get there on stock voltage. I just don't know if I should adjust anything else in the BIOS, and that's where you guys come in.

If you have any good informative links to C2D/P5B overclocking, that would be appreciated too.

Thanks and sorry this is so obvious to many of you...I feel WAY late in the game here.

 

[darkfalz]

333 is a good FSB, gives you 3 GHz, take vcore off Auto and work down from 1.4v until it's no longer Orthos stable, then bump it back up one for good measure.

 

[BradAtWork]

Auto doesn't mean stock voltage. The mobo is raising the voltage as you raise the fsb.

I would manually set it something if I were you.

 

[Imyourzero]

That's what I suspected, Brad. I'll see what it's running @ Auto and set it manually to something else.

darkfalz, how long should I run Orthos to be sure of stability? Any use running Prime?

And as far as a Windows-based monitoring utility, what's the best? SpeedFan seems to be pretty popular...I also ran across Motherboard Monitor although it is apparently not being updated anymore.

I appreciate the help, guys. I'll report back with voltage and temps.

 

[darkfalz]

Orthos is prime in a nice GUI and will test both cores, one core will inevitably fail before the other so important to test them both. It's easier actually to start low (try stock 1.325) and increase voltage 1 step at a time before it stops crashing, it should crash pretty fast at the start but take longer each time. Once it seems stable probably raise it one more and then test for 4 hours or so.

CoreTemp is the best for temp monitoring as it's small and easy.

 

[JustaGeek]

My E6600 works fine at 1.3V - I would set it at that, and would not let the MB choose the voltage. Remember - the MAX is 1.35V!

Set the RAM voltage/frequency/timings manually.

Leave PCIe frequency at 100MHz, Spread Spectrum Disabled.

For monitoring I use Everest, but it's not free (~$30). There is a 1 month trial - and you might just like it! It is the best monitoring/informational program IMO, reporting all the details of your software and hardware.

http://www.lavalys.com/

 

[Imyourzero]

OK, CPU temp was 48* as reported by the BIOS. I disabled Spread Spectrum, set Vcore to 1.325, and backed the FSB down to 333. However -- and this was weird -- as soon as my sound card drivers loaded upon XP boot, there was a loud hiss coming from my speakers. I could play audio, but the hiss remained. Sounded like I left the TV on a channel that was off-air. Odd.

Rebooted and the only thing I changed was upping the FSB to 340. No hiss this time. I have no idea what caused that, and it might have been an isolated incident as it's never happened before...but very strange IMO.

Now I guess I should run Orthos and see how she fares at 3.06 GHz / 1.325 Vcore?

 

[JustaGeek]

I would not run Orthos for more than 1 hr. I usually run mine for about 20 min whan I change the OC parameters, or do any BIOS settings' change.

The instability will manifest itself in games, or other intensive applications anyway.

Good luck!

 

[CloE]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
My E6600 works fine at 1.3V - I would set it at that, and would not let the MB choose the voltage. Remember - the MAX is 1.35V!

Set the RAM voltage/frequency/timings manually.

Leave PCIe frequency at 100MHz, Spread Spectrum Disabled.

For monitoring I use Everest, but it's not free (~$30). There is a 1 month trial - and you might just like it! It is the best monitoring/informational program IMO, reporting all the details of your software and hardware.

http://www.lavalys.com/

Are you serious? 1.35 MAX ? Do you mean 1.35v max for hitting your oc speed? such as 3.0ghz?

you should take a look around, most e6600 user who overclocks went to 1.45v to achieve higher speed. EX: 3.6ghz at 1.45v is the perfectly safe voltage for 24/7.

I agree if the OP only want to OC just a little bit, then he/she should set it below 1.4v, but 1.35v is absolutely NOT the max safe voltage for this CPU.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
I would not run Orthos for more than 1 hr. I usually run mine for about 20 min whan I change the OC parameters, or do any BIOS settings' change.

The instability will manifest itself in games, or other intensive applications anyway.

Good luck!

I sort of the do same, except I try to find a setting where P95 fails within 5 minutes. If it passes 5 minutes I'll lower the voltage 0.025 and try again. Once I've got a fail within 5 minutes setting - I'll work my way back up from there.

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: CloE

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
My E6600 works fine at 1.3V - I would set it at that, and would not let the MB choose the voltage. Remember - the MAX is 1.35V!

Set the RAM voltage/frequency/timings manually.

Leave PCIe frequency at 100MHz, Spread Spectrum Disabled.

For monitoring I use Everest, but it's not free (~$30). There is a 1 month trial - and you might just like it! It is the best monitoring/informational program IMO, reporting all the details of your software and hardware.

http://www.lavalys.com/

Are you serious? 1.35 MAX ? Do you mean 1.35v max for hitting your oc speed? such as 3.0ghz?

you should take a look around, most e6600 user who overclocks went to 1.45v to achieve higher speed. EX: 3.6ghz at 1.45v is the perfectly safe voltage for 24/7.

I agree if the OP only want to OC just a little bit, then he/she should set it below 1.4v, but 1.35v is absolutely NOT the max safe voltage for this CPU.

Look, no one will prevent you from setting any voltage you want.

1.35V is the maximum rated for this CPU by Intel. If you want to fry it, or replace it after a few months - go ahead, it's your money.

Left on Auto after BIOS update, my motherboard set the voltage to 1.4V. Before I noticed, I ran Orthos, and was wondering why the maximum temperature rose from ~60C to ~70C for Core 1/2. My CPU with the same OC works perfectly fine at 1.3V - set manually.

Again - if you want to run it at 1.4 or 1.5V, no one can stop you.

I am perfectly happy with the 22% OC - it's more than enough for my games.

 

[JustaGeek]

my P5B-E acting weird lately, sometime it won't boot, i have to switch memory to different slots to make it work. the memory sticks are fine, maybe i put too much voltage to the board at 1.475.

so don't give too much voltage to board or memory

CloE,

This is your post from another thread.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...AR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

Perhaps you do put too much voltage...?

 

[Markfw]

That post is gone.... How can you do that ?

 

[The-Noid]

Anything <1.50v should be fine on the cpu. After having them run for over a year at higher voltages. I think it is safe to say 1.50v is not going to kill them.

 

[Imyourzero]

Originally posted by: Yoxxy
Anything <1.50v should be fine on the cpu. After having them run for over a year at higher voltages. I think it is safe to say 1.50v is not going to kill them.

It'll probably reduce the usable lifespan, but that's a non-issue to most. Especially enthusiasts that won't be using the same CPU for more than a couple of years (if that long).