e6400 overclocking help! desperate

[sr87dot62]

I am a noob overclocker and I seek guidance from the overclocking gurus.

My system

400w
antec 900
asus p5ne-sli
patriot ddr2 6400 elk (1gigx2) 5-5-5-12 2t 2.1v (placed next to each other, it wont boot when they are seperated for some odd reason)
c2d e6400 (oced to 3.2) 1.4v
zalman 9700 led
inno3d geforce 8800 gts (570/1800)stock
2 samsung 320gig 16mb buffer

Anyways, I have my dram:fsb ratio at 1:1 ofcourse. My temperature "seems" to be fine.
Idle 35c.-full load 56c. (ran orthos for 60 minutes) @ 3.2. (temperatures were taken using everest)
When i play games, for around 30-40 minutes or so, it either crashes or gives me BSOD. My system used to be rock solid when it was only oced to 2.6 with crappy samsung generic rams. When i underclocked my ram to 375 (750) to match 3.0gig. It simply wont boot. the patriot ram refuses to underclock. So when i lowered just the CPU to 3.0, and got a ratio of 15:16, it gives me errors. What am I doing wrong?? Can someone plz help me?

 

[Matt26LFC]

Hey, i've got a p5n-e sli maybe i cud b of some help, 1st off 1 hour of orthos testing doesnt make ur sys stable, u need to test for at least 8 hours to find out if ur stable or not.

seems you've got a nice overclock there ive got a 6420 @ 3.23Ghz nice and stable. i;ve got my mem in both yellow slots and have no probs booting, wat bios rev r u using? maybe u shud get the 0803 if your not running that.

wat is ur NB voltage? and RAM voltage set too exactly? u cant set too 2.1000 on the P5N-e sli.

Wat is ur LDT set too? its x5 by default had to set mine to x3

Do u have things like intelspeed step turned off? CIE Off etc?

Wat PSU r u using, is it a good make? 400W seems low, but if its of good quailty shud b fine, or so im told

 

[sr87dot62]

thanx for your quick reply matt. I am running on 0401. I am going to update it to 0803. my nb voltage are on auto. I will reply again with the exact ram voltage. intel speed step is not turnedd off. As for ldt.. i dont know what that is. My power supply is a korean brand. sky digital something... it is capable of sli so I think its a decent power supply. obtw.. can you share with me your settings??

 

[sr87dot62]

after the mobo update to 0901 and setting everything back to default (2.1), I am still facing instability (i played a game and it crashed in 5-6 minutes). why is this???

 

[sr87dot62]

and also I also ran memtest and memtest showed no errors. I ran memtest for windows for 45 minutes.

 

[Mondoman]

First, it sounds like you have a junky power supply. This may be the source of at least some of your instability. With an 8800gts power-hog, and OCing, you'll be much happier in the long run buying a decent *quality* power supply (just watts doesn't count). If you shop around, you can find a decent quality PS for under $100 (check out the power supply forum). Here's a decent one for $80 after rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

Second, "memtest for windows" doesn't help much. The "memtest" that everyone mentions is "memtest86+", freely available as a bootable floppy or CD image. Burn it to disc, then boot from it, and let it run for at least 2 complete passes (this will likely take a number of hours).
Third, don't forget to clear your CMOS and then "load defaults" in the BIOS after your BIOS update. You will then have to set all the BIOS settings from scratch.

Third, remember that you need to run Orthos in both "small FFT" mode to check just the CPU, and "blend" mode to check both CPU and RAM.

 

[Evilonigiri]

I'd like to add run small FFT for at least 6hours and blend for at least 8hours.

 

[sr87dot62]

my patriot's default timing is 5-5-5-12 at 2.0v.. but i decided to loosen the timing to 5-5-5-18 at 2.0v and it seems to be running more stable. WHy is this??

 

[sr87dot62]

nevermind... it gave me a BSOD when i restarted my computer. This is so frustrating... is it possible to even acheive stable OC of 3.2 on a e6400 with zalman 9700 or do i need a better cooler? Something tells me that it is not the CPU but the freaking RAM!!! this is seriously the first and THE LAST time i am ever going to buy patriot!

 

[Matt26LFC]

It is possible to achieve a stable OC mines a e6420 same as yours, but only with a little more cache memory i believe, and im stable at 3.23Ghz. It could well b your RAM im using GEIL ULL DDR6400 seems pretty good stuff.

Mondoman is possibily correct in that your PSU isn't up too it, but im sure we can try a few things to get it working without the need to spend anymore money

My BIOS Settings;

Vcore 1.4000v
Mem 2.0035v
NB 1.393v
LDT x3
Mem timings r 5-5-5-15-23 2T

Dont forget to turn speedstep off and CIE as these can affect your overclock stablility

Oh and im currently using Stock HSF at the moment, so its not likely cooling, wat type of case cooling do u have? any fans?

Wat error msg does the BSOD give you? wud give some clue as to whether its RAM or not

 

[sr87dot62]

i ran memtest86+ for 10+ hours and it had found no errors. the only things turned on in the bios are execute disable bit and virtualization tech. The BSOD is shown for about one micro second and it reboots so i dont know. The problem is not the ram. yeah.. perhaps the power supply...but why doesnt my computer work at lower speeds then? (BSOD occurs anything other than 1:1 or stock)

 

[sr87dot62]

my power supply does not seem to be a problem. It seems that i bought a 500w one. v2.2, +5v 40A, +12v 36A, +3.3v 34A.

 

[sr87dot62]

okay i think i have it stable now. I think my problem was the voltage. Its on 1.45 and i think its okay now. I ran prime for little over an hour and played games for 2 hours. The idle temp is 42-45 which i think is little high. On full load it goes up to 66. Should i be concerned?

 

[Matt26LFC]

My temps went up to 69C, bought a new HSF snd some AS5 now i idle at around 30c and 54-55C load. Not sure that its a huge concern at that temp, but dont really know the long term affects of staying at that temp.

dosent cost much to buy an aftermarket HSF and some AS5 cost me like £40 for both

 

[Matt26LFC]

Oh and run prime for at least 8 Hours to find out if ur sys is really stable, let it run overnight, thats wat i do

 

[sr87dot62]

yay.. well my system is finally stable. Its stable at 3.2 vcore 1.47.(much higher than i anticipated) I ran prime for 6 hours and 30 minutes. I think its fine now. Thanks everyone!

 

[Matt26LFC]

blimey 1.47vcore thats way higher than mine, im like 1.39xxx try lowering it one notch at a time until its unstable again then obviously put it back up one notch so its stable again.

wat temps r u getting now? wat cooling do u have in place?

 

[sr87dot62]

i have a zalman 9700, low 40s on idle and up to 66 on full load. I really dont want to lower a notch because its stable as it is. I read an article on tom's hardware sometime ago, where they did an overclocking with the exact same spec as mine. They acheived their 3.15oc on a e6400 with a vcore of 1.48 with a zalman 9700. I am aware that not all chips are the same but mine seems to need a little more juice than the most. While I would love to have a chip like yours, i am pretty convinced that 1.47 is required to keep my cpu from stumbling. O BTW, thanks for your replies Matt, they were very helpful.

 

[sr87dot62]

call me an idiot... i am now down to mid 30s on idle and 55 on full. I had my 9700 backwards.(this is what i get for trusting those computer shop guys) The airflow wasnt going in one direction on my beautiful antec 900. just by turning the fan position around, I lowered almost 10c. I think thats quite an improvement!

 

[Matt26LFC]

Lol, now thats funny, well ya temps are a lot nicer now glad to have helped u hope u enjoy, have u run 3dmark06 wud love to know wat ur scoring?

 

[sr87dot62]

hmm.. it came out to 9656, not too satified with the score. Oh and btw.. i did lower the voltage to 1.40v and it is running stable (ran prime for 7 hours). I have no idea why it didnt run stably before.

 

[Matt26LFC]

yeh that does seem a low score for the GTS r u running the 512Mb Version or the 320mb/640mb?

At 3.23Ghz and my GTS oc'ed to 735/1822/982 i scored around 12.5K, so yours does seem low to me 2. Actually booted into Windows at 3.6Ghz and ran 3dmark06 and hit 13021 i believe it was. Jus gotta try and keep 3.6Ghz stable now may need PC8500 yet, i'll have a play with the settings see wat i can achieve

Wat Forceware drivers r u running?

 

[sr87dot62]

maybe its because I am running vista and some background programs. I have the 320mb version.( i dont play games at higher than 1280x800 rez) its oced at 570/1800/ (unsure about the pixel shader clock). Do you own an aftermarker vga cooler?

 

[Matt26LFC]

Im Running Vista also, doesn't give quite as much performance as XP in that department no. That cud b wat it is, 320mb version. dont know much about it. but those freq's seem low. dont know how many SP and ROPs it has either. So score could b ok for wat ur running. You should compare it on the website, u can search and view other peoples results with the same hardware.

No dont own an aftermarket VGA cooler, the one on the card seems fine at the mo, although it does get rather load when i turn the fan up so may investigate thermalrite i believe have an excellent passive cooler which u can attach a fan too. but doubt i will in the near future.