First OC: please comment

[Moebius078]

Hi all,

I just wanted your advice to see whether or not I'm doing my first OC correctly.

My system: E6600, Scythe Ninja (rev. B), asus P5B mobo (vanilla, green edition P965) 2 sharkoon silent eagles (1000RPM), Thermaltake Matrix VX Case, OCZ Modstream PSU (520 Watt)

So here's what i did:

- Initially, i tried to set the FSB to 320Mhz (x9 = 2.9 Ghz) and the Vcore on auto. I ran Orthos for about 10 minutes without any errors, with a temperature of 59°C.

- Then, i raised the FSB to 334Mhz (3Ghz), while keeping Vcore at auto. No problems so far (7 min orthos)

- During my third run, i raised the FSB even further, to 355Mhz (3.2 Ghz). At this point, the computer wasn't functioning well: it passed POST, but got stuck while loading Windows XP and rebooted. As Vcore was still on auto, does this mean that one of the CPU's upper limits is 3.2Ghz? (other limits might be lower)

- I reduced the cpu frequency to 3 Ghz and fixed the vcore at 1.3V. The temperatures were better than during the second run (50°C under load), but orthos failed after 12min30secs.

- At the moment, I the CPU is running at 3 Ghz, with Vcore fixed at 1.325V. Orthos has been running for over half an hour, without any problems.

Please comment on this approach Any flaws/improvements? Do you think that I could get the conroe at 3.2Ghz, if i fix the Vcore at e.g. 1.35V? How should i interpret the windows crash? If this OC would work, should i try to further improve the OC or set the power saving options?

Many thanks,
Moebius

 

[Moebius078]

BTW: after 40 minutes @3Ghz, the temperatures are 50°C (according to TAT, Core temp and speedfan)

 

[Raketta]

Automatic vcore is the worst thing you can do to your cpu, on automatic the mobo overestimates the voltage needed to the cpu and gives slightly more than necesarry... Be patient and test manually the voltages...try to find the lowest voltage possible. Forget about automatic volting.

Run orthos for several hours, my pc was "orthos stable" (3hours of orthos run- 0 errors) and in games sometimes it freezed,than i tested for 9 hours and it gave to me some errors, so test it at least 9 hours, leave it for a night, just to be sure!!

 

[Moebius078]

Tnx for the reply! Indeed, the auto vcore didn't feel quite right. Orthos has been running for 2 hours now, without any errors and a nice 50°. Tomorrow, I'll raise the FSB even further, say to 350Mhz and let orthos run for a night, as u mentioned.

 

[Evilonigiri]

Don't forget to stress test the RAM using blend test for 8hours.

 

[Raketta]

at first oc leave the memory divider 1:1 it is the most stable way to oc the cpu,than if stable you can choose what you want

 

[Moebius078]

My current settings are FSB=356Mhz, DRAM = 444.8Mhz and Vcore = 1.3750V. Are these settings acceptable? The temperature on idle is 40°C, whereas on load, it's 54°C.

at first oc leave the memory divider 1:1 it is the most stable way to oc the cpu,than if stable you can choose what you want

Do you mean the FSBRAM ratio? According to CPU-Z, it's currently set at 4:5. I'm not quite sure how to change this. Probably in the bios?

Don't forget to stress test the RAM using blend test for 8hours.

I'm planning to run Orthos for at least 8 hours: will this do? Or do i also need to run super pi or memtest?

 

[Raketta]

Memtest is neceasary, super pi is a benchmark... at first be stable and then you can run benches...

 

[Moebius078]

I assume that i can change the divider by just changing the RAM frequency to 712Mhz (being FSB of 356 x 2?) Currently, Orthos has been running for 10 minutes without any errors, with the RAM clocked at 445 (5/4*356Mhz). Should i lower its speed or use the higher frequency if Orthos continues to run well? If i lower the RAM freq, would noticeably it deteriorate the performance?

 

[Evilonigiri]

I assume that i can change the divider by just changing the RAM frequency to 712Mhz (being FSB of 356 x 2?) Currently, Orthos has been running for 10 minutes without any errors, with the RAM clocked at 445 (5/4*356Mhz). Should i lower its speed or use the higher frequency if Orthos continues to run well? If i lower the RAM freq, would noticeably it deteriorate the performance?

Lower RAM freq can be countered with tighter timings. I prefer to keep my RAM speeds as low as possible, then tighten the timings as much as possible.

Either way, you will not see a large performance difference.