E6600 no more than 3.1Ghz max.

[Orbixx]

Hi guys, fairly new to overclocking, I've been OCing my E6600 for a few hours now and haven't been able to hit 3.2GHz due to my mobo shutting down and not liking my setting and defaulting back to 2.4Ghz.

System Specs:

Antec Nine Hundred Case (check the case fans out ^^)
Gigabyte GA-965P DS3 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (max clock 3.1Ghz, stock 2.4Ghz)
nVidia 8800 GTX 768MB Graphics Card
2 x WD Raptor 74GB RAID-0
Stock Intel HSF

So yeah, going entirely on air cooling, but it's not shaping too bad. I stressed it and it ended up at 67-68, which is slightly worrying, but it was stable.

What I want to know is:

Why does my motherboard not accept anything higher than 3.1GHz (344 x 9) and what can I do to get past it?

Also, since I obviously need better cooling, what would you guys recommend currently? I was thinking Corsair's new £100 water cooling kit, but it's a hefty price for a few extra mhz. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

 

[bkiserx7]

what kind of voltage you runnin?

 

[techgeek]

Ditto on the voltage bkiserx7.

There is a C2D overclocking guide written by Wusy here on the forums (sorry too lazy to find the link). The steps are pretty concise. The highlights are to make sure you have everything regarding EIST and thermal management disabled. It also has you raise certain voltages (one being Vcore which is taken up to 1.4V). This is the starting point of the write up. If you find it, give it a read and set up your system accordingly.

One important thing, before you continue, get better cooling. At the overclock you are running, hitting 67C is going the very highest I would be pushing my C2D. Sure it will throttle if it seriously overheats, but that temperature over the long haul is going to shorten your CPU's life. So before you attempt to get beyond 3.1GHz, find a good cooler. The one in my sig is pretty damn good, I'll vouch for that. Take a look at one of AnandTech's cooler reviews, in it you'll find a table with all the coolers (something like 20) he has reviewed and how they performed. Then you can make an informed decision.

By the way your math is off by a bit. 333 X 9 = 3GHZ not 3.1GHz

 

[Orbixx]

Thanks for the reply techgeek, I read that tutorial briefly but it did not specificly highlight my problem anywhere. My voltage set is 1.325.

Another thing, whenever the CPU is idle, it seems (or so it shows in CPU-Z) to downclock, is this a good thing to happen, does this happen by default? Because I certainly didn't set anything to do that in the BIOS. The BIOS is also at the latest version.

Thanks very much,
Orbixx.

 

[mboorman]

What ram are you using and what speeds and latencies are they running at.

 

[Orbixx]

Corsair Dominator XMS2 2GB PC26400 DDRII800 CAS 4-4-4-12. Motherboard automatically adjusts the memory as I changed the clock speed in the BIOS.

 

[djgandy]

Thanks for the reply techgeek, I read that tutorial briefly but it did not specificly highlight my problem anywhere. My voltage set is 1.325.

Another thing, whenever the CPU is idle, it seems (or so it shows in CPU-Z) to downclock, is this a good thing to happen, does this happen by default? Because I certainly didn't set anything to do that in the BIOS. The BIOS is also at the latest version.

Thanks very much,
Orbixx.

Speedstep lowers the cpu multiplier. This is normal.

 

[bkiserx7]

try something like coretemp or intel's TAT to measure the temperatures of both cores. if your resluts are the same, something is wrong with your contact between cpu and heatsink. one of your four push pins may not be properly seated, you may have a concave IHS, or many other things. Let us know once you get some temp readings from another app.

 

[Orbixx]

Is Speedstep a good thing to have enabled when overclocking? My instinct says no because of performance deficiency, but yes because of lower temps when idle.

All other programs other than Speedfan report a static 2.4GHz, but I'm thinking it just grabs the values from the BIOS settings rather than the actual current clock speed and am confident Speedstep is enabled, I'll have a look soon when I get back from work.

Thanks for everyone's advice.

 

[techgeek]

EIST=SpeedStep, this should be disabled during OC'ing. There is something called Vdroop which is in essence is a slight drop in Vcore during high CPU usage. Every motherboard has this to some extent and is actually mandated by Intel's VRM design guide. Now in a non-OC'ed system Vdroop doesn't cause a problem, but it can and does cause problems for OC'ers. The reason being is you may adjust the voltage so your system is stable when CPU is idle, but when the CPU usage jumps resulting in Vcore to droop (because of the raised clock speed, the swing between Vcore(idle) and Vcore(loaded) is greater), it can cause your system to BSOD, reboot, insert some nasty behavior here. So you continue to add voltage until it's stable under load. This is great while under load, but in some cases switching from loaded to idle suddenly can cause the same symptoms mentioned above when Vcore shoots back up. Of course OC'ers find a happy medium here and find where Vdroop doesn't affect system stability (or they mod their motherboards to reduce or eliminate Vdroop). Here is where EIST comes in, if EIST is enabled and lowers the multiplier (only happens when system is idle), the result is an even bigger swing from Vcore(loaded) to Vcore(idle). As you can imagine this increase voltage swing can cause your system to be unstable.

So in short EIST and any thermal management should be disabled to achieve a maximum stable overclock. This is one of the steps in Wusy's guide, although the reasons aren't explained.

Also with your voltages, these are important when overclocking. You will only go so far with stock voltages as you have discovered. If you are determined to get higher you are going to have to raise Vcore, MCH, FSB termination, and likely the southbridge voltage as well (read the guide carefully, all is explained although it's general as it refers to more than one motherboard). Also you have to make sure the PCI and PCI-E bus are locked at 33MHZ and 100MHZ respectively (also explained in the guide). Overclocking these will definitely affect system stability and could cause HDD corruption (for PCI) or graphics card instability or damage (for PCI-E). Overclocking these buses never really results in any performance gains anyway, but has a huge affect on stability. Some people have experimented with overclocking the PCI-E bus, and found little to no gain, but I have heard of damaged graphics cards by doing so.

Lastly I would not attempt any further overclocking (in fact if I were you I would go back to stock) until you get a good aftermarket cooler. Those temps are too high to continue.

 

[goldragon_70]

Corsair Dominator XMS2 2GB PC26400 DDRII800 CAS 4-4-4-12. Motherboard automatically adjusts the memory as I changed the clock speed in the BIOS.

with my 800 I hit a wall at about 3.0 Ghz, have you adjusted the ratio?

 

[Orbixx]

Yeah, I went back to stock last night. I'll buy a nice cooler relatively soon. So anything over 3.1GHz even with an aftermarket cooler you wouldn't recommend?

And I haven't touched my ratio, not sure what to do with it to be quite honest.

Also I read that my Northbridge ought to be cooled quite dramatically, is there a specific type of fan that will do this? I've never had to cool the Northbridge.

 

[goldragon_70]

with an E6600, I've seen people in these forums with after market coolers Ocing that CPU to 3.6 and have stable performance and good temps. I personally plan to eventually Oc to 3.2 with the after market cooler I have.

I dropped my ratio to 1:1 on my ram and I was able to get 3.4 before I ran into stability issues and a bit more heat then I liked (even then I probably could have messed around with the BIOS for several hours and get it stable above that, and drop the heat some).

 

[Orbixx]

Heh, I really need to read into this. I'm thinking of going watercooling, but is it possible to watercool a 8800GTX that already has a HSF on it?

I'll also look into the ratios, thanks!

 

[Orbixx]

Can not seem to find an option on the ratios on the motherboard, but as I was reading over this thread again, I realised I still did not realise why my motherboard was not accepting greater than 3.1Ghz.

Can anyone tell me in brief? Thanks.

 

[techgeek]

So anything over 3.1GHz even with an aftermarket cooler you wouldn't recommend?

Lastly I would not attempt any further overclocking (in fact if I were you I would go back to stock) until you get a good aftermarket cooler. Those temps are too high to continue.

No you should have plenty of room to overclock beyond 3GHz, just not with a stock Intel cooler. I would guess that you could hit 3.4 - 3.6 easily if you can keep your C2D cool. You managed to get a 25% overclock stable without touching Vcore, so you have plenty to play with.

Like I said if air cooling is enough for you, check out www.anandtech.com and pick any of their recent cooler reviews. The charts near the end of the review will have all the coolers they have reviewed. This will give you a good idea which perform the best (hint: ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme) and you can find one that performs well and fits your budget.

Let us know how you make out. Good luck.

 

[Orbixx]

Thanks, that looks like a good idea, I was thinking of perhaps going for the <a href="http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=492032>Gigabyte 3D Galaxy II</a>, to go that little bit further. Vcore must go up as I clock higher, right?

 

[Orbixx]

Yep, I've decided if I'm gonna bother cooling my system further, I might as well go water cooling. What would be the best thing for my system combination? I'd want a 8800GTX block and a northbridge block too, I guess I'd usually have to buy them as extras right?

 

[champclrk]

which is slightly worrying, but it was stable.

download zune
http://www.bestdvdtools.com

 

[Crashman]

Yeah, I went back to stock last night. I'll buy a nice cooler relatively soon. So anything over 3.1GHz even with an aftermarket cooler you wouldn't recommend?

And I haven't touched my ratio, not sure what to do with it to be quite honest.

Also I read that my Northbridge ought to be cooled quite dramatically, is there a specific type of fan that will do this? I've never had to cool the Northbridge.

Set your memory ratio to the lowest setting. Think about this: If you get your CPU to 400MHz FSB, the lowest memory setting (1:1, gigabyte calls it 2.0) will also be 400MHz clock rate, which is 800MHz data rate, which is what your memory is rated for.