Overclocking an e6420

[eternicus]

Ok people, I'm coming to you for help.

I have a e6420 running on a Asus p5n32-e sli plus. For cooling I have an Ultra-120 extreme sitting in a p180b. Temps so far haven't gone higher than 38c (tCase) and 45c (tJunction) according to speed fan.

I'd ideally like to see at least 3GHz on this thing before I stop. I've gotten as high as 2.7 with some level of stability (in Orthos anyway). Anything past that and Orthos would error after just a few seconds. I'm using 2Gb of Patriot DDR2-6400, 800MHz 5-5-5-15@2T, 2v. I followed the overclocking guide as closely as possible, but so far the changes in voltage don't seem to be helping. Right now my vCore is at 1.425 in the bios although cpu-z and speedfan only report about 1.33 at load.

I'm wide open for suggestions as to how to get my speeds higher and still manage to pass the Orthos test.

 

[rhysee]

I have a gigabyte ds3p rev 3.3 with F5 bios , I can overclock straight to 410Mhz in the bios , I dont need to touch voltage levels at all ..
I have got up to 3.66Ghz (water cooled thou) with the Vcore to 1.575 ( can go to 1.6V I here)
Check this pic out..
http://nzforum.dyndns.org/forum/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=436[/img]

 

[eternicus]

I was able to boot to windows at 3.2GHz, although my voltages are higher than I had planned. Right now NB is 1.5, SB is 1.55, vCore is 1.5, memory is 2.1, cpu vtt is 1.55, 1.2v ht is 1.35. 400MHz bus speed, ram linked and set to synchronous (800Mhz).

I hope I can bring some of those voltages down a little, but so far those are the only settings that have let me into windows. I'm running 2 iterations of superPI mod1.5, 32M. Temperatures are under control around 45C.

 

[mykim01]

Hi Eternicus,
I have the same setup sans the ram. I have Corsair at 4-4-4-12 at 2.1v. Anyway, I'm running my rig at 3.2Ghz pretty solid with Orthos (over 6 hours).

Voltage-wise, we're about the same believe it or not. NB HAS to be at 1.5v or Orthos craps out taking the computer with it half the time (hard lock, blue screen reboot). My vcore is set to 1.4v although I do NOT trust CPU-z to report correctly. SB is at 1.5, VTT is at 1.55, 1.2v HT is at 1.35. See, it's pretty much like your setup. However, try taking the LDT from x5 to x4. I believe LDT stands for Lightning Data Transfer or something like that. It helps with stability. Also, DISABLE all spread spectrum for the sake of overclocking. As a personal rule, I UNLINK the ram and FSB.

I do have 1 issue at my end however. I cannot take my OC any higher than where they are and I do NOT want to mess with the voltages I have thus far. If anyone browsing this thread has a similar setup like eternicus and I, please post your voltage settings and freq. Thanks!

 

[zervizer]

I have a e6420 running stable at 3.2ghz (8*400fsb) with a gigabyte ds3 rev3.3. My voltage on the vcore 3.75. It works for me. I have OCZ platinum ram running at 4 4 4 15 at 2.1 volts. I'm have a tuniq tower 120 heatsink/fan on my cpu. Cpu never gets above 25c with load, normally idles around 15c.

 

[mykim01]

I have a e6420 running stable at 3.2ghz (8*400fsb) with a gigabyte ds3 rev3.3. My voltage on the vcore 3.75. It works for me. I have OCZ platinum ram running at 4 4 4 15 at 2.1 volts. I'm have a tuniq tower 120 heatsink/fan on my cpu. Cpu never gets above 25c with load, normally idles around 15c.

Hey Zervizer, you should check your temperatures with Core Temp or the newest version of Speedfan. Running at 15C idle sounds too low. What is your ambient temperature? If it is lower than 15c, I'd understand the temperature. Otherwise, there's something amiss with the way you're reading them. I'm not familiar with Gigabyte mobos but if it is an Intel chipset, download TAT and check your idle/load temps with that.

 

[kaver]

Well I’m kind of new in OC but i have read thousands of guides so far this what has worked for me

380x8 1.38Vcore

Memory hyperX set to 5-5-5-15 2.0V try leaving your memory settings on auto and just make sure the voltage is right I was having problems with that and couldn’t go hier then 2.7 like you and then i set up the memory voltage to 2.0v (witch is the factory setting for it) it was on auto and the MOBO was setting it to 1.8 witch was to low and couldn’t get a stable OC

all other voltages in auto the only ones i need to set up is my memory voltage and Vcore that’s it and im at 3040mhz I don’t have orthos do to test stability but so far i have played every game i have with no problems amd great performance at full settings

I play a lot of CoH and im at full graphics with no problems and my temperatures rearly get to 34C but its stays from 18c to 27 usually im a the coast do so here temp is low and when the ambient temperature is hi i never go pass 34c

Also don’t forget to disable any thing your Mobo is not using like serial ports, any unused Ethernet adapters, etc. helps your mobo run more stable when OCing (or so i hear)

_____________________________________________________________


Intel Core 2 Duo 6420 @ 3040mhz 380x8 1.38Vcore
Zalman 9700 (18-27c idle up to 34c load) NICE!!
1GB Kit HyperX DDR2 @ 735 Dual Channel
Asus P5WDH DELUXE Digital home
WD 250GB SATAII 16MB buffer
ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB Zalman VF-900CU (35-40c idle 45-50 load)
Enermax Noisetaker 701AX 600W
Lite-On DVD-RW 16x SATA
Sound Blaster Audigy 4 7.1
Logitech X-550 5.1 speaker system


AMD 64bit X2 4600+ @ 2.65 HTT 1319mhz!! Stable!!
1GB kit Kingston Valueram 667mhz
Asus M2R32-MVP AMD 580X CrossFire Chipset+ATI™ SB600
Maxtor 250GB SATAII 16MB Buffer
2 ATI X1600XT Crossfired 256MB
Plextor DVD-RW 16x

 

[zervizer]

I have a e6420 running stable at 3.2ghz (8*400fsb) with a gigabyte ds3 rev3.3. My voltage on the vcore 3.75. It works for me. I have OCZ platinum ram running at 4 4 4 15 at 2.1 volts. I'm have a tuniq tower 120 heatsink/fan on my cpu. Cpu never gets above 25c with load, normally idles around 15c.

Hey Zervizer, you should check your temperatures with Core Temp or the newest version of Speedfan. Running at 15C idle sounds too low. What is your ambient temperature? If it is lower than 15c, I'd understand the temperature. Otherwise, there's something amiss with the way you're reading them. I'm not familiar with Gigabyte mobos but if it is an Intel chipset, download TAT and check your idle/load temps with that.

Yes. My cpu temp does run cool. I should have added that my core temps are 23c to 30c idle and 37c load. Keep in mind that i have a tuniq tower 120 at high rpm and an 80mm fan right behind it as an exhaust. I'm not really sure if my ds3 (Intel ga 965P chip) reports an ambient temp. In the bios, i see the temperature that speedfan shows for the cpu and ambient. My ambient reported is normally 40c, when i took this screen shot, it was a few degrees warmer in my room(22c).

Here is the rest of my specs: Specs

 

[mykim01]

Ah okay then, that makes sense. The ambient reported which is at 40C is probably the mobo temp and I *think* it's related to the temp of the chipset. Anyway, those temps at 22C room temperature is great but of course what could you expect from a Tuniq.

 

[zervizer]

Before I overclocked to 3.2ghz, the cpu temp was about 12c and the cores were at 18c. I thought it was wasn't accurate, but i guess that is the power of the tuniq tower.