The Definitive, Unbiased Core 2 Duo Overclocking Guide.

[The-Noid]

Section I: Purchasing the right components (5 systems to chose from based on price level)
Section II: Setting up bios options and overclocking.
Section III: Testing your overclock for stability.


After reading the forums for a few days I have noticed that people are asking many questions before finishing up their Core 2 Duo builds. This post should help with that as well as providing a good idea of what you can expect and your rig to do once you have all that parts together. These products summarize what I believe to be the best in their given niches.

Section I:

First off I want to start off by saying this is in no way a solicitation for me on any of these products they are simply products I have used myself and feel give an almost guaranteed overclocking performance. I repeat I myself have used all of these products or I would not be recommending them. I will not be messing with water in this review as for conroe and core 2 duo is pretty much worthless. You may get another 200 mhz or so, but in the end it is not worth it. The final two systems include phase changing cooling. The Syth Infinitiy, Tuniq Tower or any other high-end CPU heatsink that comes out in the next couple of months can be used in place of the Thermaltake Typhoon, but performance of the Typhoon and Tuniq Tower are at the top right now especially with an upgraded fan.

These are what I would consider to be the best products in each category. I will update it every 2 weeks based on price and other considerations. I will also guarntee that you can get the overclocks that are listed as expected by buying these parts.

Mainstream Cruncher (lowest price, fast performance, little gaming. little experience to overclocking)(overclock you can expect, 3.2 ghz): Price = $770.00

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Socket T ($115.99)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13 2M L2 (8x Multiplier) ($220.00)
Heatsink: Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120mm ($38.99)
Ram: Corsair XMS2 1 GB (2x512MB) DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 ($132.00)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE SATA 250 GB($69.99)
DVD-R: Lite-ON 16x DVD+-R ($30.99)
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound ($5.99)
Video Card: Biostar 6200 LE PCI-E ($32.99)
Case of your choosing and 500w Power Supply ($110.00)

Mainstream Overclocked Gamer (Fast video performance, moderate gaming, little experience to overclocking) (overclock you can expect, 3.2 ghz) Price = $1350
Motherboard: eVGA 680i ($229.99)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13 2M L2 (8x Multiplier) ($220.00)
Heatsink: Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120mm ($38.99)
Ram: G.SKILL 2 GB DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 (2.0v) ($249.99)
Hard Drive: 2X Western Digital Caviar 250 GB SE16 7200 RPM in Raid 0 ($154.98)
DVD-R: Lite-ON 16x DVD+-R ($30.99)
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound ($5.99)
Video Card: BFG Tech 7950 GT (Add a second when you have more money) ($249.99)
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 600w ($104.99)
Case: Case of your choosing ($70.00)

Performance Gamer: Faster Cpu Performance, and Video Performance, Higher Price (Medium experience in overclocking). Overclock You Can Expect: 3.6 ghz Price = 1947.6

Motherboard: eVGA 680i ($229.99)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 ($315.00)
Heatsink: Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120mm ($38.99)
Ram: Team Xtreem DDR-800 3-3-3-8 D9GMH ($433.68)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE SATA 250 GB($69.99)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 150 10,000 RPM Hard Drive ($194.99)
DVD-R: Lite-ON 16x DVD+-R ($30.99)
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound ($5.99)
Video Card: EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 (Step Up To 8800 GTX or purchase a second) ($459.99
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700w ($114.99)
Case: Case of your choosing ($70.00)

Extreme Overclocked Gamer: Same Cpu Performance, Faster Framerates, When Games are What Matters. (Medium experience in overclocking). Overclock You Can Expect: 3.6 ghz. Price = $3124.58

Motherboard: eVGA 680i ($229.99)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 ($315.00)
Heatsink: Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120mm ($38.99)
Ram: Team Xtreem DDR-800 3-3-3-8 Micron D9GMH ($433.68)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE SATA 250 GB($69.99)
Hard Drive: 2x Western Digital Raptor 150 10,000 RPM Hard Drive in Raid 0 ($389.98)
DVD-R: Lite-ON 16x DVD+-R ($30.99)
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound ($5.99)
Video Card: 2x eVGA 8800 GTX in SLI ($1320.98)
Enermax Galaxy 1000w ($349.99)
Case: Case of your choosing ($70.00)

Extreme Benchmark Machine: Fastest of everything, When you want to be on top of the ORB. (Medium Experience in System Building, High Experience in Overclocking). Overclock You Can Expect: 4.0-4.3 ghz. Price = $4440.39

Motherboard: eVGA 680i ($229.99)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX6700 2.66GHz LGA 775 <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227138--">($1249.50)
Ram: OCZ Titanium ALPHA VX2 2 GB PC2-8000 4-4-4-15 D9GMX or any other high-end ram($439.99)
Hard Drive: 2x Western Digital Raptor 150 10,000 RPM Hard Drive in Raid 0($389.98)
DVD-R: Lite-ON 16x DVD+-R ($30.99)
Arctic Silver Ceramique Thermal Compound - OEM($4.99)
Video Card: 2x eVGA 8800 GTX in SLI ($1320.98)
Enermax Galaxy 1000w ($349.99)
Vapochill LS Socket 775 ($869.99)
LIAN LI PC-7B plus I...oduct/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811112099</a>[/L]

Section II: Setting Overclock Parameters.

For the 965Pand E6400 You should be able to easily hit 3.2 ghz using the 8.0 ratio.
First go into the bios and change overclocking to manual. Slowly raising these settings is best in the overclocking, but if you are lazy you can start at the top. Let stability be your key.

# vCore: 1.375
# vFSB: 1.300 (Auto)
# vNB: 1.3 (Auto)
# vMem: 1.8 - 2.45 on ASUS Boards. Default on DS3 is 1.8 and moves in +.1v increments. Find the maximum your warranty will allow.
# Configured FSB: 400 x 8 = 3.2ghz, May be less or more depending on processor.
# Memory Ratio should be 2.0 on DS-3, DDR2-800 on P5B
# Configured Ratio: 7 (E6300), 8 (E6400), 9 (E6600), 10 (E6700), 11-50 (X6800)
# Configured Memory Timings: 5-5-5-15/4-4-4-12 (Configured under Chipset)
# C1E and SpeedStep off, Locked PCI Express Frequency locked at 100, PCI Sync Mode at 33.33.


975x Overclocking

First go find the section AI Tuning, or the Equivalent for your 975x Board. BadAxe is labeled "Overclocking."

# vCore: 1.425(3.4ghz)/1.475(3.5 ghz)/1.525(3.6 ghz) To Compensate for Vdroop
# vNB: 1.7
# vMem: 2.0-2.5 (Find the warranty for your ram)
# Configured FSB: 1520, 1560, 1600
# Memory Ratio: 1:1 on 975x. This corresponds to the Ram Speed being 2x the fsb. I.E. 400 = DDR2-800.
# Configured Ratio: 7 (E6300), 8 (E6400), 9 (E6600), 10 (E6700), 11-50 (X6800)
# Configured Memory Timings: Configured under chipset. I would say most ram should be able to handle 4-4-4-12 @ 800mhz. If you are lucky your ram will be able to do CAS3 and get better performance.
# C1E and SpeedStep off, Turn off any PCI-E linkboost as it is actaully slower.


Reference 680i Overclocking
First go into bios and change overclocking to manual. Slowly raising these settings is best but if you are lazy you can start at the top and work your way backwards on voltage. Let stability be your key.

# vCore: 1.425(3.4ghz)/1.475(3.5 ghz)/1.525(3.6 ghz) To Compensate for Vdroop
# vNB: 1.4
# vMem: 2.0-2.5 (Find the warranty for your ram)
# Configured FSB: 1520, 1560, 1600
# Memory Ratio should be asyncronomous.
# Configured Ratio: 7 (E6300), 8 (E6400), 9 (E6600), 10 (E6700), 11-50 (X6800)
# Configured Memory Timings: Memory is Asyncronomous. Change to whatever you would like under "FSB Memory Config." I would recommend anywhere from 800-1100. Change the timings to expert and this will allow you to change CAS and other things.
# C1E and SpeedStep off, Turn off any PCI-E linkboost as it is actaully slower.

Asus 680i Boards (Asus 680i Boards Work Best for 1T)

First go into bios and change overclocking to manual. Slowly raising these settings is best but if you are lazy you can start at the top and work your way backwards on voltage. Let stability be your key.
All settings are located under Extreme Tweaker.
# vCore:1.625 (Core 2 Quad has a large Vdroop) under Overvoltage
# vFSB: 1.4
# vNB: 1.4
# vMem: 2.4-2.5 (Make sure you have ram warrantied to do this)
# Configured FSB: 1200 Quadcores can't handle more then
# Memory Ratio: Set to Whichever MHZ you are stable at as it is ansyronomous.
# Configured Ratio: 14-16
# Configured Memory Timings: Memory is Asyncronomous. Change to whatever you would like under "Overclocking." I would recommend anywhere from 900 4-4-4-8-1T. Change the timings to expert and this will allow you to change CAS and other things.
# C1E and SpeedStep off, Turn off any PCI-E linkboost as it is actaully slower.


Section III: Testing your overclock for stability.

Read the post on overclocking in this section. It iwll give a good list of programs needed to download, and how to test. My post gets to long and the message board decides to eat it.

 

[The-Noid]

Also if you would like to add any hardware (motherboards and video cards specifically) that perform better please post in here and the post will be updated to reflect this. I believe this guide helps to clarify what 50% of the posts in the overclocking forum come to ask, and I think it will cut down on a lot of the clutter.

 

[Markfw]

I have the Gigabyte 945-S3 and have my E6300@3.5 I think that one deserves mention for ~$123 shipped. My memory is Gskill PC8000 DDR2-1000 and is running@1:1

 

[Shimmishim]

the abit board does not give vFSB control.

you have to do a vmod (woohoo!) to get more than what is stock.

the stock vFSB is only 1.2 on that board.

edit: good job on the post.

i'll read over it again later.

 

[The-Noid]

Yeah I should probably link to that to be honest. You do make a good point.

The gigabyte S3 is also a good board. DS3 is not. I will put that in.

 

[sanitydc]

Originally posted by: Yoxxy
Yeah I should probably link to that to be honest. You do make a good point.

The gigabyte S3 is also a good board. DS3 is not. I will put that in.

why the ds3 hate homie?

 

[sanitydc]

before you tell me i'm trying to justify my purchase,

notice the article on anandtech's frontpage, also notice that the ds3 wins neary every gaming benchmark and supports tighter timings. just because you had a bad experience with it doesn't mean you need to be bias'ed in your article.

 

[The-Noid]

Its the 550 post of problems in this forum, the 37 pages in their own forum, the 50 pages on XS all complaining about the DS3. It is not just me... The DS3 also had faulty timings for quite some time. Apparently that is fixed. This motherboard has been problem riden form the start. Maybe they have fixed it with the F7 bios. I will put one in the bench tonight and run it through the paces.

Update: I tried to use the motherboard and the only sticks of ram I could get working, were my A-DATA DDR2-667 Sticks that take 1.8v. Even after raising the memory voltage it didn't want to boot either my Team Xtreem's or OCZ Titaniums without bluescreening. Can't really say for sure, but maybe the motherboard I have laying around is faulty like the other 50-60 people that have posted in message boards with faulty boards. If you have a DS-3 and it works I am sure you are in the majority (as usually people only post when something goes bad, not when it works great), but imo which I am using as the basis for this post, as I made sure I have tested everything that gets a recommendation. The DS3 is not a good board, I may RMA this one to find that the DS3 is the best Conroe board out, but for now I am left with a sour taste in my mouth. I also bought mine at launch, how long ago did you pick up yours? I think this may have something to do with it.

The other question I have is how many of these boards have you tried out? If you have just tried out the DS3, what makes you think it is better than any of the other boards?

 

[thecoolnessrune]

ASUS P5B-E FTW!

 

[myocardia]

Yoxxy, you have a bad DS3. Send it back. Every company makes a bad board occasionally, including Asus. That doesn't mean that everyone else on the planet shouldn't be buying their boards, does it?

 

[Markfw]

Note my S3 ? There isn't that much difference.....

 

[The-Noid]

This is my second DS3 I have owned I sold one to someone else, that had the same problems. I don't really care if there is a consensus that the DS3 is that much better then the P5B-Deluxe or P5B-E then it will go up. The S3 fills a better niche as the price is much better. The DS3 @ $159 would be a good deal @ $125 taking into account that everything worked. I guess in my opinion I would rather pay $20 more for a P5B-Deluxe, but maybe some would not. The case for the S3 is for that price you are not going to get a better deal if it is hitting 500 fsb...

I have also had many boards from Asus that were bad or faulty. I mean ASUS probably pulled the biggest horsegag in history when they shipped out the P5W-DH and it did not support Core 2 Duo.

If D9 worked well with DS3 the board would be good. Until D9 works flawlessly it is not the performance board Gigabyte wants it to be. Can we end the debate on the DS3 finally?

Edit: I actaully did not notice I had left my rips on the DS3 from last night in. Took those out of the top as well.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Nice job Yoxxy

 

[LittleNemoNES]

STICK




E

 

[CupCak3]

ah nice to see your thread again Yoxxy

 

[vailr]

Instead of the Lian LI PC-65B case, you might consider the
LIAN LI PC-7B (120 mm fans being quieter than 80 mm fans).
There exist several SATA DVD-R drives; this one from Dell is only $50:
Text

 

[The-Noid]

7B it is. As for the SATA burner. On the High end it seems like a great idea, but hard to justify on the low end as the extra 20$ could go elsewhere.

 

[sanitydc]

Originally posted by: Yoxxy
Its the 550 post of problems in this forum, the 37 pages in their own forum, the 50 pages on XS all complaining about the DS3. It is not just me... The DS3 also had faulty timings for quite some time. Apparently that is fixed. This motherboard has been problem riden form the start. Maybe they have fixed it with the F7 bios. I will put one in the bench tonight and run it through the paces.

Update: I tried to use the motherboard and the only sticks of ram I could get working, were my A-DATA DDR2-667 Sticks that take 1.8v. Even after raising the memory voltage it didn't want to boot either my Team Xtreem's or OCZ Titaniums without bluescreening. Can't really say for sure, but maybe the motherboard I have laying around is faulty like the other 50-60 people that have posted in message boards with faulty boards. If you have a DS-3 and it works I am sure you are in the majority (as usually people only post when something goes bad, not when it works great), but imo which I am using as the basis for this post, as I made sure I have tested everything that gets a recommendation. The DS3 is not a good board, I may RMA this one to find that the DS3 is the best Conroe board out, but for now I am left with a sour taste in my mouth. I also bought mine at launch, how long ago did you pick up yours? I think this may have something to do with it.

The other question I have is how many of these boards have you tried out? If you have just tried out the DS3, what makes you think it is better than any of the other boards?

august, my first one was bad. rma'ed 2nd 1 was golden. albeit the memory thing was awkward just had to move it around some slots in single channel before i put it in dual channel to boot and it worked fine.

 

[sanitydc]

my problem with asus boards is their cheap quality of build... they perform well sure- but they're made cheaply.

 

[IfReborn]

i have a e6600 and a p5w dh g.skill ddr2800 4-4-4-12 if i set my ram to 800mhz in the bios and do not over clock anything my ram will not perform any better than a 1:1 correct. In order for it to perform better i would need to up the FSB?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Note my S3 ? There isn't that much difference.....

I was under the impression that the S3 was made from cheaper components and didn't result in overclocks as good as the DS3? Your OC is most impressive considering the board. Am I mistaken about the S3?

 

[The-Noid]

S3 is a 965 C2 chip where the DS3 is C1. There is better compatibility with some memories. As for the P5W-DH you must use 1:1 above 380 and to go much above that you need to enable SPD for the ram timings. It is a good board but to go really high on the FSB the workstation boards or 965 work better.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Yoxxy
As for the P5W-DH you must use 1:1 above 380 and to go much above that you need to enable SPD for the ram timings.

Not any more. :lips:

http://img218.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sp32mqh3.png
http://img226.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sp32mddr1000ys8.png

Very nice guide. Your effort will be appreciated by many. (Although I think the title is somewhat off. "Buyer's Guide" would have been better considering the content)

 

[The-Noid]

Well there is actually 3 sections to the gude. Most people haven't really read the last 2. The last 2 are actaully the better written sections. As it explains overclocking settings for the 965 and 975, as well as how to test an overclock.

 

[The-Noid]

Lopri that is with the 1.80 mch version of the board or the 1.65?