Hello

I was wondering from your experience... what is the max I can push the FSB in order to overclock an E6420 WITHOUT having to buy new heatsink, extra fans, water cooling, super ultra uber cooling 2000 system etc etc.
This is, ALL STOCK

333 Mhz max perhaps? Or maybe 400 Mhz?

In case you need to know, the MoBo is a GA-965P-DS3. What revision no idea, but I have the feeling Amazon might end up sending me v1.0 or something, if that matters.

Thanks

The stock Intel HSF's are really good. Most people hit 3ghz with ease. So around a 366FSB?

Depends how good the 6420's are for OCing though. I'll assume they are as good as every other Intel cpu that's been released.

With the stock HSF, I'd hazard a guess of 400FSB 3.2GHz. Any higher you'll probably have to start raising the Vcore which shoots up temps REAL fast... that's aftermarket HSF territory.

Thanks guys

8O Alright, then I certainly hope the E6420 is as good for overclocking as Ive heard

Interesting. So what happens if I push the FSB too high and keep the Vcore to the stock? The processor simply doesnt run, I get instability to the gazillion, or I get a nice intel pancake™?

Interesting. So what happens if I push the FSB too high and keep the Vcore to the stock? The processor simply doesnt run, I get instability to the gazillion, or I get a nice intel pancake™?

You'll get instability (not necessarily a crash, but stability checking programs like Orthos may indicate an error) if you push it too high, but thats about as bad as it gets. Theres no way you'll fry a CPU @ stock volts though, so don't worry. I suggest a nifty tool called ClockGen, it allows you to adjust your overclock on the fly in Windows instead of restarting and going to BIOS etc. Many mobos have their own Windows based overclocking programs anyway, most work pretty well from my experience (I've used Asus and Gigabyte).

Anyway, I'd start off @ 333FSB (99% success rate IMO ), then if that works I'd skip to 366FSB (90% success rate I'd estimate), after that I'd slowly raise the FSB in 5 or 10MHz increments until you start hitting instability, then slowly fine tune it until it's totally stable.

If you ever get a better HSF, even a 10 - 15% overvolt (standard stuff for more 'serious' overclockers) is highly unlikely to damage a CPU as long as you have sufficient cooling. You might shorten the lifespan of the CPU by a few years by raising the Vcore, but when the estimated lifespan is 10 years give or take, a few years hardly makes much difference unless you plan on keeping it really long term.

Oh I understand.

I think then Ill make some calculations (this is mainly to know if I get 533 DDR2 or 667), but it seems pretty easy stuff for the average overclocking Joe Doe (me)

Thanks for your time

Huh? :?: Unless you want to overclock RAM, DDR2-533 will only work if you don't OC the CPU. You need to divide the RAM speed by 2 to match the "FSB speed". So you need DDR2-533 to go with the stock 266 MHz FSB ("1066" in Intel speak), DDR2-667 to go with a 333 FSB, DDR2-800 with 400 MHz FSB, etc. No, I don't know why this terminology was made so confusing. Remember - Intel's claimed FSB (1066)= 4 times the base frequency(266), DDR RAM runs at twice the base frequency(533), which makes the RAM speed = 1/2 of Intel's claimed FSB.

You can OC the RAM some but unless you're going for super CPU overclocks it's better just to buy the right speed RAM - if anything, buy higher speed RAM, underclock it, and set the timings really tight.
DDR2-800 highly recommended for the E63x0 and E64x0 CPUs due to the low clock multiplier.

Out of curiousity, why on earth would you buy a mobo from Amazon? Rev 1.0 of the DS3 is a RAM compatability nightmare. If you do get rev 1.0 make sure to get RAM that will work at 1.8 Volts. Rev 3.3 is much friendlier.

Huh? :?: Unless you want to overclock RAM, DDR2-533 will only work if you don't OC the CPU. You need to divide the RAM speed by 2 to match the "FSB speed". So you need DDR2-533 to go with the stock 266 MHz FSB ("1066" in Intel speak), DDR2-667 to go with a 333 FSB, DDR2-800 with 400 MHz FSB, etc. No, I don't know why this terminology was made so confusing. Remember - Intel's claimed FSB (1066)= 4 times the base frequency(266), DDR RAM runs at twice the base frequency(533), which makes the RAM speed = 1/2 of Intel's claimed FSB.

You can OC the RAM some but unless you're going for super CPU overclocks it's better just to buy the right speed RAM - if anything, buy higher speed RAM, underclock it, and set the timings really tight.
DDR2-800 highly recommended for the E63x0 and E64x0 CPUs due to the low clock multiplier.

Out of curiousity, why on earth would you buy a mobo from Amazon? Rev 1.0 of the DS3 is a RAM compatability nightmare. If you do get rev 1.0 make sure to get RAM that will work at 1.8 Volts. Rev 3.3 is much friendlier.
Oh yeah thanks Senor_Bob.
I finally understood that tanks to another topic I made.
I was just saying I have to think if I wanna overclock or not, because the ValueRAM 533 is around $100, while 800 Mhz is too expensive :? (Like 80 bucks more).
Amazon because as Ive explained before I live overseas an no other US online retailer will take my international credit card

The RAM I mention, Kingston ValueRAM 533 Mhz is 1.8V according to the specs on Kingston site, so I guess Ill be fine (because sucks that amazon doesnt list the mobo version).

Thanks for your help

Interesting. So what happens if I push the FSB too high and keep the Vcore to the stock? The processor simply doesnt run, I get instability to the gazillion, or I get a nice intel pancake™?

You'll get instability (not necessarily a crash, but stability checking programs like Orthos may indicate an error) if you push it too high, but thats about as bad as it gets. Theres no way you'll fry a CPU @ stock volts though, so don't worry. I suggest a nifty tool called ClockGen, it allows you to adjust your overclock on the fly in Windows instead of restarting and going to BIOS etc. Many mobos have their own Windows based overclocking programs anyway, most work pretty well from my experience (I've used Asus and Gigabyte).

Anyway, I'd start off @ 333FSB (99% success rate IMO ), then if that works I'd skip to 366FSB (90% success rate I'd estimate), after that I'd slowly raise the FSB in 5 or 10MHz increments until you start hitting instability, then slowly fine tune it until it's totally stable.

If you ever get a better HSF, even a 10 - 15% overvolt (standard stuff for more 'serious' overclockers) is highly unlikely to damage a CPU as long as you have sufficient cooling. You might shorten the lifespan of the CPU by a few years by raising the Vcore, but when the estimated lifespan is 10 years give or take, a few years hardly makes much difference unless you plan on keeping it really long term. I'd be willing to bet that with a small increase in vCore(~.05v) and a nice tower HSF that drops the temps lower than the stock HSF provides, it won't shorten the lifespan at all. My thought is that a good enough HSF will drop temps, thereby negating any possible damage incurred by the vCore increase. I think that temps are just as important as voltage.......to a point of course.

Edit: Sorry Epsilon....after i read my post, it ends up sounding very similar to yours.

Should be able to go to 3.2ghz. I had my 6400 running at 3.4ghz with the stock fan.

8O That's great, this business of overclocking for dummies is actually pretty good I think

Thanks for your help people

Yes, the Core2 chips are giving outrageous overclocks, so much so that somebody new to O/C could go to a 30% overclock without even trying.