The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

well i'll be damned :O

 

hehe, crafty or what?

 

I know, that's why I'm waiting for that elusive 100 dollar price for the P5E and I'll grab it!

 

And tell the GM or have a flogging coming. hehehe.

That is amazing me thinks. Like sammy said it may not have ALL the features of the Maximus mobo but it's got to be close.

I really want one of those now with all the praise that Morty's been throwing!!! I like my Gigabyte mobo but I'd love to have all those features, of course I may be missing something on mine as SLOW as I is. hehehe.

....gm

 

Here is a site with some screens of my BIOS options.

My system setup:
PC Power and Cooling 750 Silencer PSU
Dual 7900 GS's in SLI
Core 2 Quad Q6600 GO stepping
4Gb Crucial Ballistix DDR2800 SLI Ready memory(2gb installed, and dont use the SLI Ready Memory feature in BIOS)
Thermaltake Heatsink w/ A.S. 5 thermal paste.
Creative Audigy 2 ZS Soundcard
ATI TV Tuner

At the moment I have everything at stock. I set default settings in BIOS, saved and rebooted, and then flashed the BIOS to 1302 as recommended by this OC site.

 

Russ,

even you would like this asus rampage formula. no memory dividers to contend with. there are 4 different fsb straps at which each will give you 2 and usually 3 different memory speeds to choose from. the speed choices change imediately as you change the cpu frequency. no reboot to see where your at and no guess work.

 

I covered this previously in my earlier POST of the my MAXIMUS FORMULS SE and later P5E. Here's a recap.
They all have to do with more extreme or performance overclocking of each the CPU and RAM together w/ mobo or the X48 chipset to say. CPU PLL is the CPU bus voltage and and when increased can help gain more CPU FSB and or slightly lesser vcore. too much can hinder the life span of a new CPU. I do notice 45nm's cant handle as much as a 65nm E6750 or E6600 (usually 1.6~1.7v average). The SB 1.5 is just like it is on previous X series. 1.5 is standard and increasing to say 1.55 to 1.6 can stable out RAID set and if PCIE is also OC'd (cause OC'n PCIE on these mobos gives performance edge on higher mobo FSB) Lots of things run through the SB so keeping iot fed is important for say USB crashes, Wi-Fi, ICH9R, and many other add ons. Next is the GTL wich is in direct relation to the way VTT or PLL is used. This is the percentage of the voltages used. Higher is is often needed to gain stability (ie; CPU GTL Ref = 63x and NB GTL Ref = 67x). In many cases, it is so that the CPU GTL Ref for multi cores need to be adjusted individually. Yet ASUS only lests us have one combined set. DFI allowsa 2x2 for it's quads. Also in assocciation with these is the FSBT. it needs to be increased ofter to smoooth out stability when increasing mobo FSB and CPU pLL. this is the termination voltages of the system bus. There are many GTL and PLL's along the whole mobo, these are just the simple few we get control of for now. THe DRAM GTL REf is the same as other GTL but for RAM. I personally have not got to really see any need to move this from auto so I cant comment on it's exact results on either mobo. Same goes for the DRAM A or B tweak. I do know if using 4 sticks RAM it allows to tweak vdimm per bank cause ASUS like DFI usually vamps up one set of RAM slots to give better 2 slot OC performance, so all 4 can be matched to some degree, or especially if 2 different RAM types that OC different in pairs. Ie; Crucial and OCZ in same mobo. The Crucials need or like to be in the 2nd colored slots.

Flash at your own risk. This of corse voids the ASUS warenty. If it fails, and it has and can again, you're SOL. But yes, this is so for each the P5E and MAXIMUS to be flashed with hacked Rampage Formula BIOS. They have many drwabacks and dont always perform as wished for. Remember, this is a ROM written for another mobo/chipset so you get what you get. The P5E is essentially the MAXIMUS FORMULA slimmed down more basic (less OC tweaks, added eSATA and some other stuff lke Wi-Fi). The ROG versions are aimed at gamers and this lack features most gamers and or overclockers most often will never use. The Rampage Formula is close, but not exactly the same of either. It is the new X48 chipset designed for DDR3 made or tweaked to still work w/ old DDR2 at best it can. So BIOS was hacked to help keep it stable especially with newer DDR2 ic's and high density 2x2g kits. So most flash the x48 BIOS to an x38 BIOS to get some of this RAM sub timing tweaks, but like I said, it comes ar t cost. Most are tweaking it for bench scores but not really taking in to account daily reliability and stability. Just brouse through the forums and see the many bugs be reported. There's lots of this to concider before you try it is all.

All in all, if you like the features of X48, just get the RAMPAGE up fornt. I played with each and I do love this mobo for DDR2 overclocking right now. ASUS and DFI have done a great job outfitting these X48's for DDR2. Remember, I own the MAXIMUS FORMULA and now a new P5E-WS Pro. I may end up getting the RAMPAGE FORMULA if not the DFI LanParty UT on X48. Now thats an awsome mobo for quad core overclocking.

I hear you there. my brother just got one few months nack and wow, nice. we got 3.33GHz on air with his 5000 BE @ 333x10 and wow, not bad. I got my X2 6400 BE just a month before him and recently got it to 3.60GHz on air but need to prime for stability. 3.50 is norm for now. This mobo the CROSSHAIR, loves Ballistix to DDR1200. better then my X38 mobos do.

Hope this helps out and good luck!

 

Mort81,

It's not a question of liking or disliking the Asus Rampage Formula. I just can't justify the expense in my own mind!

Realistically speaking, Intel CPUs have taken such a huge leap in performance, that even mild overclocks yield performance virtually unheard of before the C2Ds. I have no intentions of having an everyday 24/7 computer running at 4.0GHz on air to begin with. Water cooling is not an option for me as I want no part of it! 3.8 Stable is the best that I plan to try. If I can't do it with this MB then I may consider something else but I doubt it. It's tough to justify $300 to maybe gain 300MHz. It just won't increase the overall performance enough to justify that kind of expense. I'm already going to gain some of that performance by switching to 1066 memory, which should be a hair under a 300MHz gain in memory speed, and that's at my current 3.5GHz using the 2.5 memory multiplier (1096MHz)! What's it going to do, shorten my encode times by 5 minutes. It's just not worth spending the money to do it, at least not to me!

I go back to what I've been saying for more than a year now! How fast is fast? You reach a point where any additional gains cost too damn much for the benefits you gain. We've reached a point with speed that a 10% increase in speed doesn't really mean that much in overall results. Not enough in my mind's eye, to justify the cost. I could put the same amount of dollars into a Q6700, or better yet spend a little more on a 2.66GHz X3350 Xeon Quad with 12MB of L2 Cache memory and use my current setup. I think I would gain more for my money this way!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I do plan on moving up to a 45nm 12m L2 cache quad core cpu later. at least with this mobo I already have a very stable platform. it will do everything I ever intend on doing to a 45nm or 65nm dual or quad core cpu. it is an overclockers delight and should serve my needs well for years to come. I am not in the least disappointed or feel that the cost was too high. my E3110 is only a stepping stone for the time being.

 

Mort81,

That's exactly how I feel about the 6750. I bought for it's performance benefits over the E4300, with the sole idea in mind to eventually replace it with a 45nm 12MB cache Quad Core, which my MB can handle. Reportedly they run extremely cool and overclock well. To me at this point, the Q6600 just isn't worth it. We'll see what the end of the month brings. Intel is supposed to drop the price on several of the Quad Cores by then.

I'm ordering the parts to upgrade the AMD Sempron 3600+ to a 4450E 64x2 tomorrow, and once I get that finished and set up properly I can concentrate on other things. It should be easy as he doesn't want it OC'd. He just doesn't have the need! All he does with it is play Age of Empires and surf the net! LOL!! It will still be a much faster computer than the D-940 was!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Hi all,

E vs Q!? I'm thinking of swapping out my E6320 in the near future (maybe a couple of months) and have got my eye on the E8400, along with some DDR2-1066 - probably the Corsair XMS 5-5-5-14 stuff as that's about the same price the equivalent DDR2-800 was a few months ago. Question is, are the quad cores worth it? My main CPU intensive task will be gaming. I do some encoding, but 90% gaming. Now I know based on this you'd probably all say E8400! - 4Ghz on air, good for games, 6mb cache. But in 6 months time, will there be any games that will take a liking to the quad cores? The current gen consoles have more than 2 cores, PS3 has 8 or 9 I think and nearly all games will now be multi platform and plenty of PS3 ports to PC. So, would a quad core of about the same price like the Q6600, that would probably do 3Ghz on air, be a better choice for the next year of releases? (Or is there a quad core in the pipeline that would be a better choice?)

 

lol glad i stirred that up, the p5e are those not quite up to scratch,the runt of the litter. now this doesnt make them bad just not as good as the m.e. im sure if they had passed whatever test asus use to determin the grades it they would not doubt of been p5e m.e. and had the features needed added.

@russ glad to hear yours does 500fsb and lets hope mine does too when it turns up

as for the 45nm cores, well my 82 needs over volting before my core temps even move. im running 3.4ghz atm on 1.17v (does stock 1.05v - 3ghz 1.12v -3.2 on 1.15v, these are bios settings, drops 0.03v under load) and i still have one of my sensors stuck @31c and only under load does it move. at this speed and volt i dont see 40c on the cores in orthos or occt.

all those with wc setups are wasting it on these chips as they donot get hot enought to need it. i have seen screens of near 5ghz under a freezer pro on 1.7v so it makes me wonder wether i have just wasted near £100 on fans, heatsinks and controllers.

sam you could run one of these passive with no trouble under your true.

 

You could probably run a CPU on a Freezer 7 Pro at 5Ghz, 1.7V as long as it had a 100C tjunction, as it would probably only get to about 85-90C. Too much for my liking though certainly.

 

just looked, its 4.8ghz on 1.48v under load. 600x8 man thats unreal. best of it is its on a matx board :0

xs forums.

 

1.48V is somewhat more realistic. I'm guessing that's an E6850?

 

8200
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=174820

 

Lol a 45nm CPU at that voltage - that'll last all of a couple of hours...

 

funny thing is sam im seeing more and more people push high voltage thru the 45nm chips and the failure rate is still low.

personally i think that intel has been overly conservative again with what they claim to be safe.

time will tell i guess, but im not sure atm what i will plump for as my 24/7 setting yet but i need to a new board for that and it didnt turn up today so....tbc

 

I don't even know what intel recommend as the safe voltage, I base that statement purely on evidence provided by people on other forums, some claim to have had more than half a dozen CPUs because they didn't realise the required voltage was so low.

 

they say the max is 1.365v but they also said the 65nm max was around 1.475v so....i gave mine (65nm)upto 1.63v idle and its still going strong. if anything after i pushed that much vcore thru it i could get lower speeds on less voltage and still be stable so who knows.

i dont think i would give mine more than 1.5v but im not sure if i will need to give it that much as 1.325v keeps it solid for 3.6ghz and if i can get it near 4ghz i will be happy.

edit

the first batch of wolfdales intel shipped were called back from more than 1 shop i know of due to some issue but afaik they never recalled any that were already sold ??? maybe those you have read about were from that batch?