Wierd Asus P5W DH Deluxe & E6600 Overclocking Problem

[TheManOfSteel]

Ok, so I've been tinkering around with my new build (Look at sig) trying to get a good overclock. So far I've yet to get anything stable that will boot Windows repeatedly without freezing. Up to this point using wusy's guide I would always encounter Windows XP Pro freezing the second it loads up the logo screen. So... it's been bugging me that my Pioneer 105 DVD-RW is showing as the Primary IDE Master in my BIOS settings, while my HDD is showing as the Third Primary. Just for kicks I decided to unhook the DVD Drive (HDD STILL shown as Third IDE Master), and I booted up my system to wusy's specifications besides having all voltages to auto. The computer boots up perfectly!!! What is going on? And how do I get my HDD to be displayed as the Primary IDE Master? (It's currently hooked up to the SATA1 slot, while the DVD-RW was hooked up to the PRI_IDE IDE cable slot. Thanks for all of the help guys in refreshing my computer knowledge lol.

Core 2 Duo E6600
ATI Sapphire Radeon X1900XT 512 MB DDR
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB Kit DDR2-800
Seagate 7200.10 (Perpendicular) 320 GB HDD
Antec NEO HE 550 Watt PSU
Pioneer DVD-RW 105

 

[TheManOfSteel]

Ok, looks like unhooking the DVD Drive wasn't the magic fix-it, because I'm right back to only booting up Windows stable about 1/4 tries when using wusy's guide. When I was overclocked and running windows I got an error the moment I tried doing the Prime95 test which stresses memory a lot. I'm now running stock settings and not getting errors in Prime95. Needless to say I am very frustrated at this point, because I bought this setup to do some overclocking of at least 3.0 ghz. Is it time to RMA the motherboard?

 

[GreenJelly]

Does it run at stock speeds?

and then...

What are you setting it too.

 

[TheManOfSteel]

Yeah I run fine at stock speeds. So with more tinkering I have avoided wusy's guide when it comes to the voltage settings etc... (still disabling Q-Fan, C1E, Hyperpath 3, etc...). I've managed to get the following settings stable on Prime95 (if it's not stable it gets an error in Prime95 like 3 seconds into the memory stressing test).

FSB: 325 Mhz (2.92ghz)
DDR-2: 813 Mhz
CPU Voltage: 1.3500
Memory Voltage: Auto
All other voltages on Auto

I have not been able to get the system to be stable at 3.0 ghz yet. Anybody have recommendations on what voltage I should up in order to get it stable? Going to 1.3625 allowed me to boot, but I got the very quick error in Prime95 memory test. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm gonna give up trying to push further tonight just so I can enjoy my new system a little bit. :0

 

[GreenJelly]

What temp is the chip running at, when you set it to the current 2.9ghz?

I looked for that damn document that states intel core 2 duo datasheet that tells maximum operating temps, voltages, etc. I couldnt find it...

I am interested in reading knowing the default voltages...

Anyways... Keep this in mind... The X6800, E6700, E6600 are produced on the on the same process, and mostlikely comes off the same platters. Therefor they are the same chip, but Intel tests them and the best ones go to the higher numbers. They then lock the multipliers based on their specs and demand.

The X6800 runs at your clockspeeds stable, at default voltages. I cant find the default voltage settings for the X6800 but I wouldnt increase the voltages at all above what the X6800 is. I would however set the voltages manually to these values.

I cant find that damn document, and its pissing me off... can someone please list the default voltages for these chips? (I think its slightly above 1.3)

I beleive that you increased the voltages and didnt need too. You may find that you can get more performance from LOWER voltages... but first we need to find the default values. I also dont trust Auto in these cases cause I dont know what its ACTUALLY doing...

Remember... start with Default values... run the machine for a few weeks... Make sure its stable... After this then increase the FSB up and run it for a few days... Play games, etc. Run some stress tests, but keep in mind that many of these tests run very specific and isolated areas of the chip. Its better to run the benchmark tests, or run it real world for awhile. Take your time...

For you, I would start back at 2.85 at default voltages... Run this for awhile... Enjoy the machine cause it will be FAST... Watch the VCore, and the CPU temps. Make sure your not going over 60c... Lots of people say 70c, which is probably safe... but why chance it? If it runs 60c and it is safe, then expect under some situations for it to pop above 60c...

Remember that increasing the speed of the chip by 100mhz will result in less then a second of a difference...

After a week increase it to 2.90! Again, take a week... Use it, run it, monitor it... This isnt a race... this is to create a stable machine.... keep the racing to the crazy people who want run WaterCooled Peltier systems... or Even phase change... If you dont care about a fried chip and random crashes, then go ahead and rush it..

After you find the machine starts acting weird... Increase the voltage ONE step... Run this for awhile, and if it continues to act unreliable, then you know you hit your MAX... Write this number down, then back it down a bit.

Now try lowering the Multiplier. Dont worry about the CPU speed unless you go near the maximum stable speed. Keep stepping up the FSB slowly by lowering the Multiplier and increasing the FSB. Check corsairs website for the Voltage requirements for the Memory you are using... and set it to that manually. Also check the timings, these are often wrong.

Eventually you will find the max stable memory speed.

Now right this number down... and you if you back off both of these numbers a bit...

then find the right multiplier that will bring these settings to their closest settings.

Thanks
Mike

Where is wusys guide?

 

[GreenJelly]

Remember, Right now you are running near the speeds of a CPU that costs 4 times what you paid for it.

Also you have 2 cores... One of them are probably less overclockable then the other. It is hard to recognize if one core will fail while the other keeps ticking... thats why you should run it for awhile.

It is hard not to want to jump in and start pumping things up so quickly... but this is how damage is done, and how confusion starts. Also, write down EVERYTHING you do, and how and what happens... Start a Log...

I find this helpfull because you can always go back and look at the numbers, notes and other things...

Also as your memory speeds increase you will get faster responses... This will unleash more of the CPU's potential... resulting in a small possibility that when you set both your CPU and Memory speeds to the best values that you will end up with an unstable machine. This is where your notes come in handy.

Mike

 

[TheManOfSteel]

I'm currently running at 38-40 Celsius (CPU) and 34 Celsius (Motherboard).

 

[TheManOfSteel]

So the farthest I can push my processor on 1.35 CPU voltage is:
-327 MHz FSB
-820 MHz DDR-2

That is a final clockspeed of 2.94ghz. I understand not pushing it, the stock voltage of the E6600 is 1.35, but that even 3.0 ghz is just so much more appealing lol. I think I'll stick with what I have for now.

P.S. - lowering CPU voltage to 1.3375 on my previous settings caused a crash.

 

[GreenJelly]

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<td align=right x:num="367.875">367.875</td>
<td align=right x:num="420.42857142857144">420.4286</td>
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<td align=right x:num>588.6</td>
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<td class=xl24>CPU Speed</td>
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<td class=xl24 align=right x:num>2943</td>
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<td height=17 class=xl24 align=right style='height:12.75pt' x:num>400</td>
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<td align=right x:num="490.80675422138836">490.8068</td>
<td align=right x:num="552.15759849906192">552.1576</td>
<td align=right x:num="631.0372554274993">631.0373</td>
<td align=right x:num="736.21013133208248">736.2101</td>
<td align=right x:num="883.45215759849907">883.4522</td>
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[GreenJelly]

DAmn, cant get this to display... take this text, and put it in notepad and save it as a HTML

It is the result of a Excel Sheet I made for the E6600, Tried to show it as a table, but cant

PM me at this site with your Email and I will send you the excel sheet I made... then you can play with the numbers yourself...

Excel Sheets are a absolute great way to find out how to meet certain specs given the fact that your Multiplier is 9 or less and that you have a limit to memory speed and to CPU speed.

It basically shows the different FSB's and Memory speeds at different multipliers, given a base speed.

The most important thing this shows is that at a multiplier of 7 and a 1/2 Memory Multiplier with a FSB of 420 you will get a memory speed of 840... which alone maybe acceptable for your memory, since it is corsair.

I would try it...

[code:1:71b502faa5]<table>
<tr>
<td>FSB</td>
<td>368</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Clock Speed</td>
<td>2943</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Different Multipliers same speed</td>
<td></td>
<td>Multiplier</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>9</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>7</td>
<td>6</td>
<td>5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>FSB</td>
<td>327</td>
<td>367.875</td>
<td>420.4286</td>
<td>490.5</td>
<td>588.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td>1308</td>
<td>1471.5</td>
<td>1681.714</td>
<td>1962</td>
<td>2354.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>CPU Speed</td>
<td>2943</td>
<td>2943</td>
<td>2943</td>
<td>2943</td>
<td>2943</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=7></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Memory Speeds</td>
<td colspan=6></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1066</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>1308</td>
<td>1471.5</td>
<td>1681.714</td>
<td>1962</td>
<td>2354.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>400</td>
<td>0.375234522</td>
<td>490.8068</td>
<td>552.1576</td>
<td>631.0373</td>
<td>736.2101</td>
<td>883.4522</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>533</td>
<td>0.5</td>
<td>654</td>
<td>735.75</td>
<td>840.8571</td>
<td>981</td>
<td>1177.2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>667</td>
<td>0.625703565</td>
<td>818.4203</td>
<td>920.7228</td>
<td>1052.255</td>
<td>1227.63</td>
<td>1473.156</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>800</td>
<td>0.750469043</td>
<td>981.6135</td>
<td>1104.315</td>
<td>1262.075</td>
<td>1472.42</td>
<td>1766.904</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table>[/code:1:71b502faa5]

 

[n2h]

im keeping an close eye on this
this is my first build and first ever attempt at OC'ing im picking up more tips from you guys then anywhere else on the forum-
On my setup I used AI Booster (disk with the MB) and used the overclocking tool on that to over clock it i think to 20 or 15% (not at my PC to check) this showed the speed at 3.4 and it booted fine but after 4mins(timed) the temp strated to increase hit 55 and i shut it down went into bios and changed it the next time it booted it showed 3.2 this took the temp up again and i decided to brave and let it run it leved of at 59 / 60
so i left it there played Battlefield 2 crashed on boot when back into ai booster and changed the voltage for the graphics card and memory to auto and played the game again crashed a few times so went back in and lower the auto ai booster profile to 5% overclock and letf all other volatge settings to auto manage plays the game at full wack high graphics and has only crashed on me once in a 4 hour playing session.

THEMANOFSTEEL-
have you had other issues crashing or installing oftware
when i first installed BF2 the game installed fine played it on normal graphics settings and it worked great moved it to high graphics settings it crashed and had to change the volt to auto
also when patching teh game that kept failing at times it was saying my Virtual memory is low so had to set that to 3gb and even after that i had installion problems- i had to change the setting to allow my virtual memory to be cleared on reboot-
Reason im asking you these questions is because your setup is the closest to mine i have found in the forum except the memory
I hope you get your issue resolved and update this thread with any tips for me- i want to get my PC to preform at its peak but not compramise my stabilty-
Dude I built the PC 2 nights before my wedding lol and straight after that i was of to turkey for my honeymoon and when i got back from there this sunday the next day back in work so havnt had much chance to do research on OC'ing
any tips you can give will be appericated
thanks
p.s can my RAM be affecting my system stabilty??? do i need to push my RAM any further>??
its default is Bus speed (mhz) 667MHz DDR2 >Cas latency CL 4-4-4-12 >
Speed PC5400 > V 1.9 should dude should i try changing any of these settings
and would any of you recommend using Ausus ai booster?

 

[GreenJelly]

First, Do NOT overclock two things at once...

If you had your video card running stable at a OCed speed on another machine then use thoose settings. Do Not use ATI-Tool or any other drivers... If you are using Catalyst Drivers, dont even use there OC...

One thing at a time... Choose which device your going to overclock...

Slow it down... You probably got a few more years left in your life, so take a few days and go slowly.

Games are a good test, because they often use portions of the CPU no-other application uses...

From your post it sounds like your air-cooling... are you using a default or aftermarket fan? Did you follow the Artic Silver instructions? I dont personally do the center glob, I use a razor, and spread a REALLY thin coat accross the top of my CPU... then I would put a small dot in the center... but my heatsink is a waterblock that has a screw that presses itself onto the CPU...

Do you have it stable on your 2.95ghz?

55c and 59c is not bad... thoose are below what intel says are the max... which is bellow what the actual failure temp is...

Did this machine run reliable before you started overclocking? And for how long? And did you use your machine for all applications that you usually run?

If you didnt make sure the machine ran right from the get go, you wont know if problems arise do to overclocking... So if you are having problems... time to go back to stock, and run it for awhile... If you experiance problems, then you either fried the machine, it was defective from the get go, or you havent set up the software right... Check, and Recheck all drivers. Make sure Windows is updated... If your running Windows 64, make sure the drivers are for 64... I am not certain on this OS support for programs... I have only run it for a short time on a machine that had problems...

If it still doesnt run, its time to call the place you bought it from and pretend to be a "normal" user, with no understanding or interest in OCing...

If they wont take it back, then A) You bought this machine from a bad place and B) Time to get in touch with the Manufactures... You will be without a Machine for some time...

If you go reliable (for a week or more) then start pumping things up... WATCH THE TEMPS!!! AND GO SLOW!!! 5 FSB MHz steps, and test for a few days of heavy usage...

Keep this up, for as long as it takes... There is NO such thing as going to slow... But too fast will definately be bad..

Mike

 

[TheManOfSteel]

I spoke to soon on my previous post. The best setup I have achieved is at 2.92 ghz ( 325 FSB CPU, 813 mhz DDR-2, @ 1.35 CPU voltage, Memory voltage at auto). On that setting I have run Prime95 for about an hour with no stability problems (the program would give an error seconds into the test if it's not stable). I have also run Oblivion, BF2, Far Cry, and LOTR BFME 2 all stably for roughly an hour or more on the system so far with no problems at all. I'm contemplating whether or not I want to raise the voltage and go for 3 ghz, because CPU cooling is not a problem right now. FYI I'm using the retail heat sink and fan and have good airflow in my case.

 

[GreenJelly]

For about $50 you can have some AMAZING heatsinks... I would recommend them... I wont pull out my old Maximum PC's for the reviews, but Im sure if you ask, someone will give you a few recommendations... just ask for their source, and why they want it...

BEFORE you go ANY further... stop... Run it for a week...

I have an excel sheet, that should help people find the best numbers for there system.

But before that... you can try this quick experiment... drop your memory multiplier down... so that your underclocking your memory... Then up the speed of the chip by 10 fsb...

See if the damn thing crashes.. Run it for awhile... Test it real world... Make sure to run Multithreads... Try your benchmark... (BTW, I tend to run allot of these benchmarks with Toast or Superpi running too, this ensures that the benchmark is infact warming things up...)

This will give you an idea if the memory is limiting you or your CPU... But be carefull... This isnt full proof. There are other reasons why you can clock up your CPU after dropping your memory speed.

You can also try the opposite... underclock your PC, and Push up the memory speeds... you can do this by changing the multiplier...

This gets crazy complicated... To find multipliers that will keep your CPU running around or slightly bellow 2.80, and yet overclock your memory by a push...

You may find out through these two experiments that you should up the voltage on your memory, and not your CPU...

PM me for the excel sheet... I am not going to keep giving this out... hopefully I can get someone here at Tomshardware to post it and then sticky it as a cool tool.

Mike

P.S. I help you, now you got to help 3 other people overclock their systems... I will be monitoring this thread, so come back to it as things progress... even if its in a few weeks...

 

[TheManOfSteel]

Good thread for fixes and/or overclocking suggestions for this board:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110193

 

[scorp_tsi]

I think you guys need to set mem to 2.1 thats what i run mine at, and I believe thats what they call for. Atleast my c4pro does.

 

[GreenJelly]

you must mean 1:1 or 533... 2:1 would certainly cause the system to hang with 800mhz memory.

 

[TheManOfSteel]

I think he meant the memory voltage to 2.10v. After running for a week or so I've decided to try some more overclocking. This time I am going for a 1:1 FSB to DDR-2 memory ratio. So I downlclocked the memory and I've currently achieved:

340 FSB (3.06 ghz)
680 mhz DDR-2
1.35 CPU voltage
1.80 Memory voltage

 

[GreenJelly]

The memory is crying... LET ME FREE!!! I WANT TO FLY!!!