Noob e5200 OC questions

[hoopslam]

Hi, I just bought myself an e5200 + MSI G31M3-L V2 motherboard for $79.99 at Fry's and now I need some help overclocking it. This is the first time that I'll be overclocking so I want to be careful not to go too crazy with it. Personally, I don't think I'll need the extra OC'd performance, as I only play CS:S if I do play games but since every review of the e5200 talks about how beastly this thing overclocks, I thought it'd be fun to try it.

First of all, I will be using the stock cooler and if at all possible, I want to keep my electric bill down so stock voltages?

I'm not expecting to hit 4ghz but 3ghz would be nice and I'd be very happy with that.

What is the easiest, safest way to reach 3 ghz with this cpu and mobo?

Here are my specs:

e5200
MSI G31M3-L V2
4 gb (2x2) crucial ballistix ddr2 pc6400
Antec 380 Watt PSU.

Edit:

I see that habitat87 got his e5200 to 3ghz stable on stock hsf and voltage @ 300fsb x 10 multiplier. Does that seem like a safe setting? Again, I'd be happy with a 24/7 cpu at 3ghz. If I change the multiplier to 12.5, what would be a good fsb setting for something between 3ghz-3.5ghz? Is 3.5ghz even possible with stock hsf/voltage?

 

[g3force]

Hi, I just bought myself an e5200 + MSI G31M3-L V2 motherboard for $79.99 at Fry's and now I need some help overclocking it. This is the first time that I'll be overclocking so I want to be careful not to go too crazy with it. Personally, I don't think I'll need the extra OC'd performance, as I only play CS:S if I do play games but since every review of the e5200 talks about how beastly this thing overclocks, I thought it'd be fun to try it.

First of all, I will be using the stock cooler and if at all possible, I want to keep my electric bill down so stock voltages?

I'm not expecting to hit 4ghz but 3ghz would be nice and I'd be very happy with that.

What is the easiest, safest way to reach 3 ghz with this cpu and mobo?

Here are my specs:

e5200
MSI G31M3-L V2
4 gb (2x2) crucial ballistix ddr2 pc6400
Antec 380 Watt PSU.

Edit:

I see that habitat87 got his e5200 to 3ghz stable on stock hsf and voltage @ 300fsb x 10 multiplier. Does that seem like a safe setting? Again, I'd be happy with a 24/7 cpu at 3ghz. If I change the multiplier to 12.5, what would be a good fsb setting for something between 3ghz-3.5ghz? Is 3.5ghz even possible with stock hsf/voltage?

Have you read the numerous guides/stickies in the overclocking forum?

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Right after you press the power button and the system starts to post, hit the DEL key to enter setup. Go to your BIOS screen, cell menu page, disable eist, then right under that line is the adjust CPU FSB, put that value to 266, leave everything else on default or auto and save. When you boot you should be at 3.3 GHz! 12.5 multi X 266 = 10ss fsb and cpu freq of 3.3 Ghz. I only had to adjust these two items on my ECG G31 motherboard and it's completelly stable and doesn't overheat.

I doubt that the motherboard supports CPU core voltage adjustment so I don't think you'll be able to get to a 1200 fsb (300 mhz quad pumped).

 

[hoopslam]

Right after you press the power button and the system starts to post, hit the DEL key to enter setup. Go to your BIOS screen, cell menu page, disable eist, then right under that line is the adjust CPU FSB, put that value to 266, leave everything else on default or auto and save. When you boot you should be at 3.3 GHz! 12.5 multi X 266 = 10ss fsb and cpu freq of 3.3 Ghz. I only had to adjust these two items on my ECG G31 motherboard and it's completelly stable and doesn't overheat.

I doubt that the motherboard supports CPU core voltage adjustment so I don't think you'll be able to get to a 1200 fsb (300 mhz quad pumped).

Thanks for the quick reply!

I did try messing around with the fsb a little and I was able to get it to 220. Then I started to get uncomfortable and went back to the default speeds. I guess if people are comfortably pushing the fsb to 266 then 3 ghz (240x12.5) would be a safe bet.

Also, my motherboard came with MSI's Dynamic Overclocking Technology (DOT). Is anyone familiar with it? I tried installing the Dual Core Center and it seems like they make setting up clock speeds relatively easy.

Edit:

Woot! I got my desired 3.0 ghz by upping my fsb to 240 and setting my memory ratio to 1.67. The default automatic adjustment for the memory by my bios when I changed my fsb was 960mhz, or a 2-1 ratio. I'm not sure what that means but I know my memory (Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC6400) is rated for 800mhz so I wanted to play it safe there, the 1.67 ratio gets me 799mhz. Temps are at 33-35 idle and 53-56 after running prime95 for 30 minutes(suprisingly, it was around the same temps when I was running prime95 at stock settings). Think I can push it more safely?

I went into the memory settings in my bios to try and set my memory timings but then all these settings popped up and I didn't know which ones to adjust and which ones to leave alone.

tRCD
tRP
tRAS
tRTP
tPFC
tWR
tRRD
tWTR

I know that my memory is rated cl-4-4-4-12 but I don't know which ones are tRCD or tRP or whatever... Can someone help me out on this? I don't think it's that big of a deal but I might as well learn about this stuff now.

 

[jsc]

... Temps are at 33-35 idle and 53-56 after running prime95 for 30 minutes(suprisingly, it was around the same temps when I was running prime95 at stock settings). Think I can push it more safely?

I went into the memory settings in my bios to try and set my memory timings but then all these settings popped up and I didn't know which ones to adjust and which ones to leave alone.

tRCD
tRP
tRAS
tRTP
tPFC
tWR
tRRD
tWTR

I know that my memory is rated cl-4-4-4-12 but I don't know which ones are tRCD or tRP or whatever... Can someone help me out on this? I don't think it's that big of a deal but I might as well learn about this stuff now.

Aftermarket heatsink would help a lot.

Memory settings: Others may disagree with me, but after the 4-4-4-12 or "whatever you need to make it run" settings, I think you reach the point of diminishing returns. I leave all that stuff on AUTO or let the BIOS select what it thinks it needs. I've been doing this a while and there just comes a point where if you need a good memory benchmark to tell the difference, you have reached a good place to stop.
----------
Overclocking since 1978 - Z80 (TRS-80) from 1.77 MHz to 2.01 MHz

 

[hoopslam]

Aftermarket heatsink would help a lot.

Memory settings: Others may disagree with me, but after the 4-4-4-12 or "whatever you need to make it run" settings, I think you reach the point of diminishing returns. I leave all that stuff on AUTO or let the BIOS select what it thinks it needs. I've been doing this a while and there just comes a point where if you need a good memory benchmark to tell the difference, you have reached a good place to stop.
----------
Overclocking since 1978 - Z80 (TRS-80) from 1.77 MHz to 2.01 MHz

Yeah, that's what I ended up doing and everything seems pretty stable right now. Did prime95 again with new overclocked settings for 4 hours and no errors, max temp hitting 57c:

fsb @ 240
multi @ 12.5
Cas @ 4
tRCD @ 4
tRP @ 4
tRAS @ 12
RTP @ 12
everything else default

The memory frequency right now is set at 799, or a 5/3 ratio to front side bus. If I let my bios adjust my ratio automatically, it gets set to something like 960mhz when my fsb is at 240mhz. I've read that adjusting your memory timings a little higher (example, going from 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-15) will allow you to bump up your memory frequency a bit more. Since this RAM is factory rated for 4-4-4-12 @ 800mhz, would it be alright if I were to set my timings to 5-5-5-15 and raise my frequency to around 1066 so that I can raise my fsb a little more?

This is turning out to be way more fun than I'd imagined :lol:, I'm starting to understand why there are so many overclockers now. I'm kinda curious if I can push this chip to around 3.33ghz stable with stock cooling and stock voltage.

 

[MaDMagik]

I totally agree. Unless you do it for the fun of it and trying to see for yourself how certain settings affect(or not) the overall performance, than I also dont see a point in fiddling with it.

 

[hoopslam]

I totally agree. Unless you do it for the fun of it and trying to see for yourself how certain settings affect(or not) the overall performance, than I also dont see a point in fiddling with it.

Well, I kinda do want to do it for fun now, as this is turning out to be too much fun :lol: . At the same time though, I want to keep things practical and try to find the perfect balance between power/power draw/risk/reward. If I were to invest 10-20 bucks on a aftermarket cooler, which one would you guys recommend and how much further should I expect it to push my OC?

What's a good point where performance, energy draw, etc are well balanced out? I'm thinking somewhere in the 3.3ghz-3.8ghz range.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

I don't jhave access to see the manual for your motherboard but of you have a pge in the BIOS for power, look for a CPU fan profile and disable that. This way your CPU fan wil run near 100% full time and won't throttle with temps. Overclockers disable this feature to help cool the CPU.

 

[MaDMagik]

What's a good point where performance, energy draw, etc are well balanced out? I'm thinking somewhere in the 3.3ghz-3.8ghz range.

Thats for you to work out depending on your needs. Games depend on GFX card power more than cpu, and i believe e5200 even at stock is more than enough for CS, web browsing and pretty much everything else that doesnt rely heavily on cpu(like video encoding.) If i were you I would just only push it as far as it will go(stable) on stock voltage.

But if you want to play a bit than get something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200035 and have fun! Just try not to exceed 65 Celsius under full load. My e5200 went all the way to 3.98ghz stable @1.58v(!) with temps of around 75C in prime. Now i have it at 3.45ghz 1.3v, runs cool and quiet as i keep the fan at 900rpm only.

 

[hoopslam]

If I don't tamper with the voltages, does that mean my system's power draw will not be effected by an overclock? I've got this beauty to a stable 3.3 with fsb @ 265 x 12.5 multi, without changing my voltages but if there's a moderate hit in power consumption between this at 3.3 and 3.0, I think I'm going to scale it back to 3.0 and just leave the stock heatsink/fan on it.

Edit:

Well, so much for stability...After running prime 95 for a few hours without errors, I thought that my settings were okay so I stopped testing and proceeded to installing apps. While trying to install AVG antivirus, I got a blue screen and windows vista(64) crashed. All I could make out of the blue screen was something about a dram core dump as it was only up for a brief second.

Could this have something to do with my memory settings or am I just not giving this cpu enough juice at 3.3? Settings upon crash:

265x12.5 for 3.3
882 mhz memory frequency (factory rated for 800mhz)
timings 4-4-4-12

I have since set my cpu to 3.0 (240x12.5) and memory at 960 (automatic bios setting) with auto memory timings which the bios set at 5-5-5-15 according to cpu-z

Also, thanks for that link to the fan, I think I am going to get it if it runs at around 900rpm. I can't stand the noise this stock fan makes running at a constant 1700rpm.

Edit #2:

So I'm 99% sure that the cause of my instability is my RAM being under-powered. My motherboard seems to only provide 1.8 volts for DRAM and the memory I currently have (crucial ballistix pc6400) requires 2.0 volts to operate at the specified 800mhz 4-4-4-12 timings

I wish there was a way I could up the voltage on my motherboard but I can't find an option for that anywhere in my bios. Looks like I'm gonna have to underpower my RAM and lower the frequency and or timings.

 

[MaDMagik]

Lower ram speed. Its more likely it will run stable with lower voltage at lower speed and its not going to make any difference where performance is concerned. I know it may sound strange but thats how it is. I made few simple tests some time ago, have a look at my first post in this thread http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-257355_12_0.html