E5400 + GIGABYTE GA-G41M-ES2L

its a crappy board even the g31 was a better overclocker

im pretty sure that board as 4x pcie as well

300 is usually the wall on that board.

Does the fact that I am using the on board graphics have any impact on onverclocking?

How can the fsb wall on the board be 300 mhz? A Q9550 for example has a fsb of 1333 (333 effective). So this board wont support a Q9550?

Nonsense. Like tekknyne says, the G41 supports the faster 45 nm chips. Admittedly, with them, the board is a poor overclocker.

I have two G'byte G41's that I can push past 360 MHz.

On board graphics have no effects on the overclock.

Your RAM ratio indicates that you are overclocking your RAM. Go into your BIOS and take your memory settings off Auto. Then set your system memory multiplier to 2.0. Your mem clock should then indicate two times the FSB frequency. With an FSB freq of 200 MHz, your mem clock should be 400 MHz.

Remember, with the relatively high internal multiplier, you do not need to push the FSB much past 300 MHz to get a significant overclock.

ahh gotcha. I think you hit it. I'm used to overclocking this chip on my Asus board, and the adjustments for fsb to memory ratio are a little easier to understand on that board. The ddr ratio settings on this gigabyte board show numbers 2.66 or 3.00 and each time I change those the drr freq changes.

Admittedly, even on my asus board, I would always change the fsb and ddr settings, then run CPUZ to verify what the actual ddr frequency was.

Thanks for confirming that the onboard graphics shouldnt be an issue. I thought certainly that was my problem, but i'll check the ddr settings, and start off with loose timings.

Oh I forgot, I should amend my first post. The ratio of 3:5 was with my Asus board and 2x 2gig OCZ Fatality ddr2 1066 mhz. The gigabyte board has 1x 2 gig ddr2 800 so the ratio will be different.

Yeah agree PCI 4x wont effect the OC but with a 4x slot it wont be quite worth it

i have an MSI g31m3-L mobo and i cant raise that frigging e5400 past 240 fsb.
my vcore is at 1.3 and i cant change it from bios, and the fsb:ram ratio is at 3:5
my mobo cant overclock well, unless its my ram being unstable.

If you cannot adjust the vcore, then you will definately be limited. That's one of the reason's that I bought the Gigabyte G41 because it boasted bios controls for vcore etc. However I'm still pretty disappointed. After a week of tinkering with it, I can get it to 240 x 12.5 = 3ghz. Vcore is at 1.4 volts and its stable under p95 for the first few passes. This is my server rig so I'm not doing any hard core gaming but still, Gigabyte, ferreal... 3ghz is it?!

In hindsight, I guess that's why G31 G41 motherboards are cheaper than p45 for example even though they have embedded graphics. They must give you bottom bin wafers or something.

Well, I know this is a little late but I figured out what was up. For some reason upping the bios had no effect according to CPUZ. Has anyone else had this problem? Is it my bios? Do you think a bios update would help?

My G41 board:
GA-G41M-ES2L | E6500 OC'd to 3.66 GHz (333 MHz X 11) | with the fairly average ACF7P cooler. It is stable (24 hour Prime95) at an FSB freq of 351 MHz for 3.86 MHz. The board dies at 352 MHz. The CPU wil run at just past 4GHz in my P35 motherboard.

I am using the system for just office apps so I backed it back down to 3.66 GHz. Even then, it hardly ever drops out of SpeedStep.

alhanelem, do what you can to get your FSB:RAM ratio down to 1:1.

tekkyne, the GA-G41 is an economy, entry level motherboard with a fair amount of flexibility in the BIOS. It is certified to be able to use the E8X00 and Q9XX0 CPU's. That means that the FSB freq will reach 333 MHz

Thanks for the insight jsc. yeah what's wierd is that when I change the Vcore settings in the bios, this is not reflected by even the smallest amounts in CPUZ. Even though the G41ES2L is an entry level board, the reason that I bought it was that it boasted the ability to up the VCore. I think my board must be defective, although I figured being a Gigabyte board it would be more reliable.

Another wierd thing about this board. In order to boot from a jump drive, I have to unplug all my IDE/Sata connections in order for the computer to recognize the drive. I have tested this numerous times. pretty strange.

You shouldn't resurrect an old thread. If you start a new thread, among other things, you get more points.  

I agree. The G'byte G41 is a great economy board. I have three of them, mostly being used in office systems.

The upper limit of your FSB clock is probably going to be under 1480 MHz.

The G41 is good for a stock speed HTPC, and is a horrible overcocker. Any G0 Q6600 can do 3.0 on stock VCore and shouldn't really be considered a great OC, 3.6Ghz is where it should be on any X48, X38, P35 or P45.

No NB voltage option is shameful, but not that it would matter, since the power phases on both G31 and G41 ES2Ls are to weak to support a Q6600 at 3.4+. At least a good OC on an E6600 could be had. I have both G41 and G31 ES2Ls in HTPCs, and people continue to buy these boards thinking they'll overclock their Core 2's, only to find out in forums that they're useless.

To everyone: DON'T buy these boards to overclock! Buy a good used overclocking 775 board on EBay.

True.


Depends on the CPU that you are using with it. Any quad core is not a good candidate for overclocking because of the relatively simple power regulator. Any CPU with a 333 MHz FSB freq is a poor candidate because of the G31/G41's limited FSB freq.

Remember, the G41 is an economy chipset.

The G41's work great with the "crippled" Wolfdales (the E5200's, E6400's, and the E7200's).


Again, it depends on what CPU chips you are using with them.

True, but most people turning up in the overclocking forums I post in are trying to run things like E8400s, Q9xxx, Q6600 on them. The board is fail for all the known good performance socket 775 CPUs and I've had to tell countless people they wasted their money on these motherboards.

I played around with the G31 and a Q6600, one of the chokes literally went up in smoke. For the E8s and Q9s it can't push the FSB needed. New overclockers with limited budgets typically pick up a 775 CPU they see alot of in forums, like the Q6600 or E8400, then they buy a G31 or G41, 'cuase they're still in production, instead of buying a good used board on ebay. They don't know about multipliers or FSB limitations etc.

Then they make threads asking why they can't overclock their Q9300 on a G41 ES2L.