Moving Beyond First Overclock

[Kiltman67]

I've overclocked my E6300 to 2.28GHz (333MHz FSB), on the basis of going for a 1.1 ratio with my PC5300 RAM (4-4-4-12). I want to push beyond this though so what do I need to with my RAM?

My motherboard is an ASUS P5K

 

[deranged]

You can try pushing the fsb up leaving the ratio at 1:1 at stock volts in
small increments, then stress test for stablility. If your not stable you can either back the fsb off or add voltage. Don't add too much too the
ram. I'm usually comfortable with .5 to .1 of an increase as long as you keep them cool and shouldn't compromise the longevity of the part. a higher fsb speeds you may also need to add some extra voltage to the north bridge, but prob. not on that mobo.

 

[Kiltman67]

If your not stable you can either back the fsb off or add voltage.

Just to be clear, is that adding voltage to the CPU, RAM or both?

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

CPU, Vcore

 

[deranged]

There are over clocking guides on here for core 2. And what company makes your ram? go to newegg find ur ram and copy and paste the specs on the ram. It will help to know what we have to work with. I can tell you your board overclocks well cause I have the same 1 exept it's the deluxe wifi. So worst case is you have to get faster ram, but ddr2 is really cheap now so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Kiltman67]

Here are the specs for my RAM:

http://www.geil.com.tw/products/showSpec/id/50

I've got four 512MB

 

[deranged]

You should be able to overclock that ram alittle. I would leave the ram multiplyer alone and slowly (checking for stability) raise the fsb up. You
are alittle limited with that ram, but you can get alittle more out of it.
Another trick is relaxing the memory timing alittle. This will allow your ram in theory to run with slightly higher clocks. This however is not alway the case but you can give it a shot. Another thing is adding some extra voltage to the ram. But I do not recoment this unless you have good cooling in your case or perhaps a fan blowing on them.
you should be able to add .05 volts to the ram and still be covered under warrenty, sometimes .1 will also be covered you have to look it up. These numbers are obviously beyond stock rated volts so make sure you start at what ever the manufacturer default voltage is. good luck

 

[Kiltman67]

Another trick is relaxing the memory timing alittle.

When you say a little, would you recommend only 5-5-5-15?

 

[deranged]

5-5-5-15 or even 6-6-6-18 just untill you overclock the processor to where your happy. then you can always go back and tweak the ram.
Just keep in mind that you are limited by your ram but you should still be able to up the fsb alittle. I know I shouldn't have to ask but... are you making sure your temps are good? North Bridge/cpu/and other important parts.

 

[Kiltman67]

are you making sure your temps are good? North Bridge/cpu/and other important parts.

I'm getting about 58 on each core under load, I think I could lower the VCore even further though so could probably get it cooler. As for other parts I can't get much information from either SpeedFan or the ASUS Probe, I'm getting a MB temperature of 36 though I don't know where the sensor is located (The temperature isn't influenced though so I'm guessing it's not too close to anything important)

 

[Kiltman67]

Also, I don't really know all that much about memory timings, so if I did change the timing what kinda of effect is that likely to have on performance? Just asking since as you said DDR2 is cheap and so if it was going to have a significant negative effect I could always pick up some PC6400 for a good price which in theory should let me overclock to ~2.7GHz if I keep the 1.1 ratio.

 

[deranged]

I think there's a free version of Everest. It's a good program that will give you cpu, core temps, gpu, and motherboard(which is usually the north bridge) you shouldn't notice much of a difference moving from 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-15, and like I said you can tweak it further, or maybe new ram it's up to you. check out the sticky on cpu temps. at the main
site is will tell you if your temps. are within specs. Also when you say load, is that orthos or prime 95 load? Because if thats just gaming or even encoding thats alittle warm. And I would deff. continue to tweak the volages, as you can prob. lower temps a little, give it a shot.

 

[Kiltman67]

I tried Everest and it gave me temperatures for the Motherboard (Which seems to be the same 36 as SpeedFan and ASUS Probe were giving me), GPU and the hard drives.

As for the load, it was Prime95.

Is there any rule of thumb about the relationship between Vcore and temp? I'm at 1.368V without any adjusting so I should be able to bring it down a reasonable amount.

 

[deranged]

I don't know any specific rules, some might I don't. I do know that just overclocking without votage increase will still up the temperatures.
So add that thought process and add voltage into the mix and you prob. get the idea. Is that 1.368v in the bios or cpu-z? Also I forgot to mention that on your board you should makre sure that voltage damper is enabled. This will help with v-droop and help you lower your voltage and temps as a result.

 

[Kiltman67]

The 1.368 V came from CPU-Z

 

[deranged]

My cpu-z says 1.232 and in the bios it is 1.265 thats stock and I'm at 3.0 with a q6600 with lower temps than you (I'll go higher when I need to but don't need it right now). You should be able to deff. lower the voltage. put voltage damper on enabled, and start working the voltage down untill you get a failure in pime95 small fft.
Then add 1 back and test again. you can also bump the pll voltage alittle if still not stable. And obviously keep an eye out for the ram frequency.

 

[Kiltman67]

Is it okay to reduce the voltage by .01 (at least until fine tuning) or should I go for a smaller interval?

 

[deranged]

Thats up to you... as long as your going down and not up, you stand no chance of breaking anything. if it doesn't boot you will know to add more voltage. If it does boot up, start stress testing and keep working the voltage down.

 

[Kiltman67]

Thanks for all the help

 

[deranged]

Not a problem good luck