Whats the furthest you've been able to overclock your Core 2 without adjusting voltage?

[bryanW1995]

my x3350 only does about 3.1 on stock, same with the q9450.

 

[demiurge3141]

Originally posted by: PG

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
To be honest, I dont trust alot of people who say "I got to 'X' on stock voltage." What many people dont realize is that even though they may have never touched a Vcore setting in BIOS, it is set on auto. (Im obviously not talking about seasoned overclockers.)

I considered myself a seasoned overclocker (keep the snickering to yerself ) and I too fell into this trap when I upgraded from i680 mobo's to a P35 DS3L.

I was thinking "woo-hoo, 3.3GHz on stock voltage on this Q6600, who-rah!" Then I realized that Gigabyte programmed their DS3L's BIOS to allow overvolting above and beyond the CPU's VID so long as the auto Vcore did not exceed Intel's max specified VID (which was 1.35V for a Q6600 at the time, now its 1.50V).

So I agree with you 100%...you can't say you are running at X GHz at "stock volts" unless you actually went into the BIOS and manually set the Vcore to the CPU's listed VID from Coretemp.

The DS3L has some funny quirks that take some time to figure out. I have one for myself and built a system for a friend with another one.
I've messed around with the settings for hours before I finally figured out the best way to set these up.

If you leave the main voltage setting that controls everything at Auto, then yes, the board goes a bit nuts on the Vcore. For my E6300 and my friends E2160 the DS3L set the Vcore to about 1.39 which is not even remotely necessary.

You can set the voltage manually, but then you have to experiment before you figure out the best balance between having enough for stability, but you don't want to go too high because the temps get out of control.

Here is another way, and the best way to set these boards up:
1. Set the main voltage to Manual and not Auto.
2. Set all voltages to Normal, especially Vcore.
3. There is another screen in the bios with EIST and C1E. Enable both of those.
4. Save and exit.

Now download CPU-Z, Core Temp, and Orthos and have some fun.

Set up this way the DS3L dynamically adjusts Vcore and the mutiplier to save energy.

On my E6300 and the friends E2160 I have seen Vcore as low as 1.12V at idle, and around 1.28V at full load.

I can see this varying in CPU-Z. Use Orthos to add load and stop to remove loading on the CPU.

I can also watch the mutliplier vary. The lowest mutiplier used for a C2D is 6, so my E6300 varies between 6 and 7. The E2160 has a multiplier of 9, so it varies between 6 and 9.
Both are overclocked yet run relatively cool this way. The E6300 is running at 7 X 400Mhz and the E2160 is at 9 X 333.

That E2160 really rocks: 2997Mhz and 22C idle, all with he stock Intel cooler.

I think it's best to disable EIST and C1E, since the drop in voltage just introduces more complications and may make you unstabe on idle or anywhere in between. I certainly don't have time to stability test on each speedstep. I have the perfect solution for vdroop, just run FaH and........ what vdroop?

 

[Denithor]

e6400 @ 3.0GHz @ 1.32V
(stock--IP35-E won't let me adjust lower; completely stable, used 24/7 F@H)

e8400 @ 3.6GHz @ 1.225V
(stock--IP35 Pro also won't let me adjust lower--still tweaking may hit higher max)

 

[amenx]

The e2140 at 3.5ghz and 1.216v (below stock volts) is incredible. Great chip! Intel must have mis-binned it or something , lol.

 

[Fraggable]

I'ev got my E6400 to run at 3.4GHz on stock volts, and run it at 3.6 @ 1.4V every day.