The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

Mort81,
I agree with what you say about the memory,but from what I'm reading the pc will boot at 286 but not 287.

Stock speed is 2.13ghz and he is only getting to 2.28ghz.

This cpu should be good for at least 2.8 without touching vcore settings.

 

Problem is, when I try to increase the front side bus to 287MHz or more, the computer shuts down, then restarts, then, nothing. No beep, and the power light turns itself off. Then, after cutting the power using the power switch in the back and putting it back, my BIOS says that the overclock failed. I think I HAVE to raise the VCore voltage.

EDIT: All I know about my RAM is that it's running at 667MHz(2x 1GB, Kingston brand).

EDIT 2: Do you think I should increase the VCore voltage to 1.3V and then slowly increase it from there until I reach the speed of an E6700 by doing that and increasing the speed of the front side bus?

 

ace_2,

Something else to try.

Are you using the latest bios?

If not try the latest one here:
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx

 

crowy,

you would think but there has been some ppl having problems getting the later bined E6600's to even run at 3.0 with the vcore as high as 1.4 volt.

personally I would be a little leary of setting the vcore to 1.6. 1.5 volt is my cutoff on air. right now I'm just a little over 1.4.

Ace_2,

just for referance and our information

 

Wait, can't that screw something up? I never flashed any BIOSes on any of my 2 computers.

 

I don't even know what's half the stuff you're asking for.
UPDATE ON CPU TEMPS: At idle, CoreTemp shows the cores running at around 30-32 degrees celcius. I'll test at maximum load soon and give you an update.

 

Ace_2,

Yes it can screw something,but then again,so can o/clocking

Have a look at the ASUS website,you will find all you need to flash the bios including directions on how to do it safely.

Provided there is no power interruption to your pc while it's flashing you shouldn't have a worry.

Iv'e flashed every board I ever owned without a problem.

 

you don't know what memory or cpu heatsink fan you're using?

 

Ace_2,
Have a look at page 60 in your motherboard manual with regards to flashing the bios.

 

I don't know what you mean by memory, and I don't know what fan or heatsink I'm using.
By the way, under maximum load, my CPU peaked at 54 degrees celcius as its maximum temp. Something's wrong, because on one site, I don't remember which one, it said you can overclock an E6420 to up to 3.23 GHz on stock cooling and still maintain system stability, but it must be running at nearly 70 degrees(my assumption).

 

Ace_2,
I would say you have stock heatsink and stock fan(HSF).

Download cpu-z here:

http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpu-z-140.zip

This will tell you how fast your memory is running as well as your timings,what your cpu is running at and various other things.

Let us know how you go.

 

did you have somebody/someplace build your pc or did you buy it preasembled. I highly recommend an aftermarket cpu hsf especially if OC'ing.

BTW cpu-z will tell you what memory you have (make,speed, amount, timings, dual or single channel, etc) and also give you some more details about your pc. it's free.

crowy,

you posted while I was typing. good idea

 

Crowy,

That's a bit steep to recommend, at least on the thread. Last thing we want is some newbie seeing that and promptly blowing his CPU! Maybe with a better cooler, but at 1.4V you are exceeding the Intel design limits of the chip by a bit. The general trend here at AD has always been 1.40 for the C2D as the limit on air. Go higher at your own risk! Funny things start to happen to the core temps with some of the C2Ds past 1.40v. I know, my E4300 the core temps start fluctuating wildly past 1.40v! What ever it is can't be good for the chip

Either his 6420 has poor stepping, is badly binned or both as 2.28 should be a very mild OC If what I've read about it is true. I know with my 4300 2.25 was my first stop in OC-ing it. Next stop was 3.01!

That's why I want to get a 4400 with it's 10x multiplier. It should hit 3.4 on my MB with less stress than I give it now with the 4300 at 3.276! 340 base fsb is all it will take to reach 3.4. Run the memory multi at 2.75 which lets the memory run at 935MHz. Should be very fast and voltage won't be a problem running the fsb at 340!

Clock On,
theone :}

 

theone,

unless the binning sucks on the new 4400's like it does with the new 6600's. are you going to try and find an early production 4400 with the good binning off ebay?

 

Mort81,
There are too many factors that can negatively affect the final result. Here I have to mention “FSB Wall” effect, limited mainboard abilities when it comes to FSB frequency increase, and even insufficient frequency potential of the younger processor models, because they are often built on the cores that didn’t get selected for more expensive CPUs. In other words, the overclocking result on Core 2 Duo E6420, E6320 or E4400 will have a lot to do with simple luck.

I've gotten lucky with my past 4 CPUs! Who am I to up-set a trend! LOL!! I guess that's why the reports are so different from person to person on the 4400! Some OC great and some don't! Me, I'm expecting the best! LOL!! Gotta have faith!

Clock On,
theone :}

 

theone,

good luck my friend. I sincerely hope you get an overclockable monster.

 

Mort81,
LOL!!

Russ,The last thing I want to see is a newbie watch smoke coming out of his cpu.However as is stated here:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2duo-e6420_11.html

The second experiment was performed with the same CPU working at 1.6V Vcore. Core 2 Duo processors are known to be very tolerant to processor voltage increase, which leads to significant improvement of their overclocking potential. And this time, it was no exception: we could push the FSB frequency to 465MHz.

1.6v shouldn't be a problem (provided temps are monitored).

The reason I said 1.6vcore is to load the psu and see if it shuts down again .
Also here above 1.6v(Albeit with aftermarket cooling)

As you can see, the e6400 outperforms the e4300 for overclockability, and watercooling outperforms the aircooling. However, in terms of % overclock from stock, the e4300 achieves a 97% overclock (3.55GHz @1.63V- 394FSB), while the e6400 reached 81% over stock speeds (3.84GHz @1.64V- 480FSB). Both excellent results! If I were to calculate it in terms of dollar per GHz based on the current CPU prices, the e6400 is $69.00 CAD per GHZ, while the e4300 is only $58.87, so in this sense the real bargain is the e4300.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/hard...0-vs-e6400-performance-air-water-cooling.html

 

I've had nothing but bad experiences with OC'ing anything. First off I tried CPU as I have AMD. I bumped of FSB up from 200MHz to 205MHz. It seemed stable enough... until around 20mins after XP had just locked. I hard reset my PC and went back into XP and the same thing at literally the same amount of time. The temperature only went up 2~3 degrees C and in the end it was only at 35 degrees C. Not going to try and OC CPU for a while.

Now with GFX card I had a more comfortable experience. I have a 6600GT and some of you might be thinking, who needs to OC that card? Well, I just did it for the fun of it and optimized using the auto feature that sets the speeds to maximum. I applied them and set Fan to always be on and everything worked well. I got fairly better performance but after 1 week I started see blackouts and sometimes nasty looking black splotches. I immediately set the speeds to default which fixed the problem and I didn't really care much cause it's fast enough as is.

Also relating to the first post in this thread, all the way back on page 1, my brother OC'ed his XP 2500+ to 2800 without an extra fan upgrade and sits at 40 degrees C at average. I wonder why I set mine up just 100 or a little more and the whole computer goes wacko on me. I really hope it's not bad hardware.

 

Ace_2,
I downloaded the manual for the VM-SE board and this is what's available for overclocking...not much.

ADVANCED MENU
JumperFree Configuration >
AI Overclocking > Manual:

CPU Frequency- [set the number between 100 to 400]

Next on the list is that Asus "Overclock Options" for 10%, 15%, 20% & 30%.

After that you have a PCI Express frequency- Auto or Manual.

Next you have Memory voltage, options for 1.8V or 1.9V.

And lastly- Spread Spectrum Control- Auto or Manual.

A very limited board with no Vcore adjustments.

There are three different P5B-VM models listed at Newegg, none of them are overclocking boards as near as I can tell, being limited to the "overclocking features" I mentioned.
Here they are:

ASUS P5B-VM LGA 775 Intel G965 Express Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

ASUS P5B-VM DO LGA 775 Intel Q965 Express Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

ASUS P5B-VM SE LGA 775 Intel G965 Express uATX Intel Motherboard

About all I would try with this is to set the Overclock to 10%. See what that does. You can't unlink your memory and you can't change your Vcore so that really limits what you can do. It's not made to overclock like some of the other Asus boards.

I was only able to dl just one manual for the SE version from Asus's crap website so if your manual has something different on page 2-19 then let us know.

 

i am ocerclocking for the first time and i am doing pretty good. i got my 3600 from 1.9 to 2.75 on stock cooling. xp and linux both boot fine but i am having trouble with vista. does vista have trouble with OC'ing? also how high would i be able to get my 3600?