overclocking? help pls ( memory ) e2180

[stephanis]

hello,

First of all i am quite new to overclocking and must say how great both reviews ( guide to temperature and quide to overclocking) were. They helped me to take the first steps, without them all i would have keep seeing were blue screens or more probable nothing at all.

Yet after these first efforts i remain with some huge questions.

system: ga-p35-ds4 rev 2.0, e2180 ( stock cooler ), ati radeon x1900 GT all in wonder,
ddr2 800 team value, seagate 250G 7200 16Mb, intake fan, powerS 450W Trust 12cm fan.
(e2180 stepping D revision M0)
I have studied both guides and successfully overclocked to 2.6Ghz stable.

I would like to know if i should manually reduce my Vcore because now it is put on 1.40.. (auto setting in bios)
Would that be the reason my temp are between 60-65 ( both measured by core temp and speedfan)

My second and more important question is what to do with my memory ddr2 800?
In the guides you try to put them 1:1 that i understand but gigabyte bios has quite other settings
for my spd i have to choose 2 or 2.40 or 3.20 or 3.00 or 4.00+ or 4.00~ on the side it says + = 800 strapping and ~= 1066 strapping and one more with 1333 strapping.
So i stay quite in the dark what would be optimal settings for my memory.
I can overclock 260 x 10 but than i have to choose what for my memory? or 333 x 8 but than what? If i choose 2.00 for exemple than the line below in my bios says Mhz 800 677. If i choose 3.00 it says Mhz 800 999 which appears faster than my memory 800 ( is this dangerous? )

And then i have the problems with my timings. My timings table of ram says 400 Mhz 5 5 5 16 for 266 4 4 4 11 for 200 3 3 3 8 this is what i see in cpuz. what does this mean? Can i go 400 Mhz at 4 4 4 12 or is this impossible ( Ram is Team Value)
Or do i better overclock with 266 x 10 and choose 4 4 4 11.

anyway i would like to run 3.200 so 320 x 10 would that be possible if on 2666 i have 60-65 temp but with Vcore 1.4 on 333 x 8 i have also 60-65temp and Vcore 1.4.
Would my temps go up because it seems like for 3.2Gh i don't have to put higher voltage nor will my bus go higher than 333 so temp should stay relatively the same ( or not )

Any help would be most appreciated because i would not like my first overclock to end with a certain not so great smell.

Thanks

 

[CompuTronix]

Never use Auto Vcore when overclocking, as it applies an excessive level of voltage, which is why your temperatures are elevated. Also, use 333 x 8 with memory at 2.4, which equals 800.

Comp

 

[stephanis]

thanks,

i was able to get my Vcore back to 1.200 and remain stable at 2.666 ( 333 x 8 )
temps didn't go higher than 52° ( core temp )a lot better than first time. Now i have tried 3Gh 300 x 10 and that remained stable at 1.3875 Vcore with temps around 65-66° ( core temp ). I guess this is still acceptable. But here my memory is at 750. would it be an idea to bring my ram to 900 and run a ratio 3.00 instead of 2.50 or would i be pushing it a little to fast.
( i have been trying 3.2Gh but it doesn't remain stable and temps go up to 67-68° core with Vcore 1.4 )
Yet i have checked my specs with intel and there they say that temp tcase can be up to 73.5 and at 3.2 i have only 57-58° which would suggest i am not overdoing it yet.
Can my ram go lower to 4 4 4 12 if timings say 5 5 5 16 @ 400 Mhz?

Any suggestions.
thx

 

[CompuTronix]

stephanis, what is your ambient room temperature? If it's 22c which is normal reference temperature, then you still have a few degrees of headroom with Tcase (CPU) 58c and Tjunction (Core) 68c to add a little more Vcore to stabilize your overclock at 3.2Ghz.

If you set 3.0Ghz at 333 x 9 with memory at 2.4, which will run at 800Mhz. Keep in mind that value ram with (C)lock (L)atency 5 doesn't overclock well, so you may want to declare victory at 3.0Ghz with memory at 800Mhz, and go have a beer... OR... try 3.2Ghz at 356 x 9 with memory at 2.4, which will run at 854Mhz. This setting will probably require you to increase memory voltage, in addition to Vcore of 1.425 to achieve stability.

Comp

 

[stephanis]

allright, i'll give that a try later on this night.
My ambient temp is 20-22 degrees.
I guess that cl 5 5 5 16 will not work at 4 4 4 12 with memory at 2.4 ( not? )
But why wouldn't i try to take 400 as bus speed and multiplier 8 that way i wouldn't have to overclock my memory.
Yet i have noticed in trying that bus of 400 is not easily accepted ( multiple reboots ) could that be because of to low voltage in fsb?

thanks a lot you have been a great help. i'll let you know if i got it to 3.20

 

[CompuTronix]

My ambient temp is 20-22 degrees.
I guess that cl 5 5 5 16 will not work at 4 4 4 12 with memory at 2.4 ( not? )
But why wouldn't i try to take 400 as bus speed and multiplier 8 that way i wouldn't have to overclock my memory.
Yet i have noticed in trying that bus of 400 is not easily accepted ( multiple reboots ) could that be because of to low voltage in fsb?

thanks a lot you have been a great help. i'll let you know if i got it to 3.20

You can "try" to tighten timings, but as I said, CL5 value RAM typically doesn't respond well to timing tweaks or overclocking, even when seriously overvolted. Also, don't become obsessed with memory tweaks, since it's been repeatedly documented that the difference in DDR2 RAM performance between 5-5-5-15 and 4-4-4-12 is less than 2%, which is imperceptable and barely measurable in terms of overall system performance. It's simply not worth heat stressing your chips.

The P35 chipset (FSB) typically doesn't require a voltage increase until about 440 Mhz, so it's more probable that your 200Mhz FSB processor is instead encountering an FSB wall at 400Mhz, assuming that you Vcore remains constant at both 400 x 8 and 356 x 9 settgings.

Comp

 

[stephanis]

I tried it last night and i have settled at 2880Mhz ( 320 x 9 ) that way i could keep my Vcore at 1.2850 which gave me temps of cores after 20 min prime95 at 60° . I won't burn my chips any time soon.
Yes indeed i think FSB 400 is a brick wall
so i didn't have myself a beer but a good glass of wine instead,
i'll try to tighten timings as i know i can't really burn or oc them at fsb 320
try some 3dmark to see which combination goes fastest.

thanks for all your help
cheers

 

[CompuTronix]

Looks like you've got it worked out, so enjoy your rig!

Comp

 

[stephanis]

absolutely true

 

[usmanhussain1987]

i say increase the fsb multiplier to 10 then increase the FSB frequency to about 320mhz and that will give you 3.2ghz. then add a bit more POWAAAA to the CPU (about 1.385) and bobs ur uncle it should be alright.

the memory i got my timings down to 3-4-4-11 and its running sweat with the voltage to about 2.25v.. but now their more like 1-2-2-4 SWEAT at about 2.40v

another thing do some research and find out wot all the settings are for. if anything neva leave anything on auto. its a bit advance but u can get quite alot from the P5K and the E2180 if the settings are good. i booted mine at 3.8 for about 1hr and the temps where high 69 degrees (love that number)

it did Pi 1M in about 16.678sec. but be carefull when i ran OCCT the system crashes after 19secs. then i had to step it back down 3.2ghz and ive bin running OCCT for about 26hrs and no crash so far.

 

[cnumartyr]

What memory?

 

[usmanhussain1987]

i got the OCZ Platinuim Rev 2 for about £40 at www.overclockers.co.uk.

dont waste time on timings just set them to 4-4-4-12 and the frequency lower then 800Mhz. the ram becomes unstable when overclocked.

but if possible get the gold edition that more stable when overclocked.

P.S. your asus baord is better with Mhz then tighter timings

 

[usmanhussain1987]

one more thing. you might want to invest in some better cooling. i suggest the Tunic Tower Titan. thats what i got.

IDLE = 31 degrees
Load = 50 tops

(if and when you get the heat sink make sure that you sand down the copper that touches the processor to get a mirror finish. start with 1000 grit then 1500. use some cleaning liquid to finish up and then apply a very small amount of thermal paste for better cooling)