My First Overclock

[donedoknow]

I'm really new to overclocking, although the concept isn't new at all, 3 years ago when I bought my PC i bought it with OCing in mind (never did it until now, and boy is it tricky at first...).

I'm Running a Q6600 on P5E Asus board, OC'ed to 3.4 (9x378)

I had so many questions to ask but after taking a look through this forum (which is so god damned awesome >.<) most of them are answered, I have just a few last questions which I've been unable to find (at least not without spending ages... unable to find easily should be the correct term, as I'm sure its answered somewhere... but I must be blind...)

Question 1.
How reliable is [Auto], because I've OC'ed this system leaving so many things on auto, that I'm thinking its not such a efficient way to OC

Concerns: These are the settings which I've left on auto which I believe I may want to change (I left on auto because I really didn't know what to do with them)

D ram Frequency
D ram timing control
Dram command rate
Dram static read control
Transaction booster
CPU PLL voltage
FSB Termination voltage

The only settings which I've altered in the bios are:
9 x 378
Vcore voltage 1.42500
2.02 Dram Voltage
1.45 NB Voltage
1.075 SB Voltage

Upon loading on bios I can see that auto has put the Dram Frequency at 757

Actually, even tho I've read that increasing the FSB increases ram speed etc... and all that... but I never understood how ram speeds actually work when I overclock the FSB... is there more potential for me to overclock the ram?

(I'm assuming I'm at my OC'ing limit with my CPU as it runs rather hot at the moment, If i take everest's cpu temp, then at 60ish under load from what I've read is safe, but the problem is here in Queensland Australia... it get REEALLYYYYYYYYY hot during summer >.< so... better not to try push the upper limits)

I've read stuff like 2x400 = 800 mhz... (which is my ram)

and other stuff like 16 x number = pc 6400 kind of ram... (also my kinda ram)

as well as some other explanations all never made sense too me...

All I know is:
1. the speed of the ram 800 mhz, 1066 etc, the faster the better,
2. the clock speeds 5-5-5-15 or 4-4-4-13, the numbers are supposed to represent latency... and the lower means the better (are these concepts correct?)

Question 2.
How do I know the actual Temperature of my CPU which I should be concerned about? (I'm aware of the difference between core temps and cpu temps mentioned in the stickied guide) the many different cpu temperature sensors have this option [Set TJ Max] and when i set that to 90... my temperature is at for example 60... if i set that to 105... my temperature is 75 degrees Celsius.

Here is a screenie of me running prime and the reported CPU speeds between Real Temp 3.6 and Everest UE's

(whoops... I didn't know screen capture captures both screens... else I would have trimmed the screenie in half sorry)

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh117/donedoknow/Screenie.jpg

Also, the minimum figures on real temp 3.6 was skewered as I reset the meter AFTER i started prime.


Help answering my 2 questions would be awesome!


So right now what I've been doing in the past day (this whole journey has lasted me 4 days now... last couple of days just tinkering with voltages and prime testing)

I've found that going down 1 increment (that bios allows me) from 1.425 vcore voltage (prime stable for 6 hours) to 1.416 ish leads to prime to be unstable (almost immediately errors, no BSOD tho)
I've found that going down 2 increment from 2.02 dram voltage down to 2.00, results in prime errors in the 'Blend' Tourture test, however the Small FTTs test is still prime stable.

Right now I'm testing prime (just lowered my NB voltage from 1.45 down 1 increment to see what it'll do)

Am I doing the right thing? lowering each voltage and testing if its still stable? Might be silly question, but seems kinda logical to me (I'm completely new to overclocking, didn't even know it was done in the bios until just a few days ago)

 

[d1rtyju1c3]

Keep doing what you are doing and you should be fine.
Keep temps under 70c at 100% load.
Try setting the memory in the bios to its native speed, voltage, and timings or as close as you can.

 

[donedoknow]

~ what about the temps.... how'd I know which temps are the actual temperatures... you neither of my 2 questions were answered.

Update: I ran the large FTT or what ever test on prime last night, turned out it errored (it was prime stable under small TFTs or what eva) So i upped the Vcore 1 more increment, primetesting right now (im at uni, so no access to computer)

You're advice of "try setting memory in the bios to its native speed, voltage and timings" can you explain what you mean by that? native speed? Don't quite understand, but about the speed... its supposed to be 800mhz, but the auto settings has it running at 757 Dram Frequency, however, I can't set it to 800, since it only has options such as 757, 890, etc huge interval differences.

 

[55Range]

Yeah, you should be fine.
thought the vcore was too high, but intel suggests up to 1.5
So you doing just fine-

 

[55Range]

Q1-
Yeah the higher the mhz, the better, the lower the latency the faster it is.

Q2 -
Get a good monitoring program, core temp or hw monitor...-
You should be fine till the temps reach 70 c.
I personally suggest it doesnt go over 70 under full load

 

[55Range]

As for the temps, cpu and core any of them , dont let them over 70
Stress test the system further. Btw, cant see the image you posted.Unclear

 

[donedoknow]

Reuploaded my screen shot

please take a look as this is probably the main reason that i needed help with (Q2)

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh117/donedoknow/Screenie-1.png

Still a little blurry, but if you zoom in you can see the numbers just barely.

Here is another attempt... dammit why's it always upload blurry? Is it photobucket resizing my images or something?

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh117/donedoknow/Screenie2.png

 

[donedoknow]

Please note the huge difference in temperature between the different softwares (real temp 3.6 says 68 degrees Celsius when TJmax is set to 105. While Everest says 51-53 degrees Celsius. thats 15 degrees difference...

I'm thinking I may need to change the TJMax for Real Temp 3.6, but what do I set it too?

Also for some reason, I've found that my OC isnt stable in prime 95 when I do the In-Place large FFTs, it is stable for more than 12 hours when i torture test under Small FFTs and Blend tests, this means I'd have to set the Vcore higher dosent it?

 

[d1rtyju1c3]

You might try HWmonitor or coretemp to monitor temps.
I dont think I would try to raise the vcore anymore if the temps are right.
Just because it aint large FFT stable doesnt mean that it wont be stable.
I have seen people who couldnt pass large FFTs at stock frequency.

 

[donedoknow]

? so it doesn't matter that i cant pass Large FFT test?

Also, After spending almost 3 hours... I've found the answer to my Q2, since no one really answeres it... I should set ream temp TJMax settings to 100 degrees... which gives me the optimal settings for degrees celsius of my cpu.

That means underload my temperature goes up to as high as 70-73 degrees celcius, I'll probably have to lower my clock from 3.4 down a bit, considering I'm only using a cheap 25 dollar aftermarket cooler (I bent the pins on the stock cooler, so it wont sit on the mobo)

 

[sportsfanboy]

I don't think you need 1.45 on the nb for 378. I personally don't like leaving any of the voltage settings on auto, when going above fsb of 350. Motherboards love to overvolt for stability sake.

I would tweak all the voltage settings one at a time to find the lowest stable setting.

You want to set pci to 100 or 101 as well. You don't want to overclock things related to your hard drives or video card.

 

[jsc]

At an FSB freq of 378 MHz, the memory clock for running sychronomously (in step with) the FSB freq is 755 or 756 MHz. So you are good there. I wouldn't change your memory freq.

Overclocking RAM in a Core2 system yields little, if any, real world performance gain. We discuss that here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251715-29-ratio-myth

Failing the large FFT or blend test in Prime95 mostly indicates a problem with the memory. You can try increasing the RAM voltage .05 or .10 volt up to a max of 2.2 volts. You can also try relaxing the memory timing.
----------
Overclocking since 1978 - Z80 (TRS-80) from 1.77 MHz to 2.01 MHz

 

[donedoknow]

Best answer selected by donedoknow.

 

[donedoknow]

thanks I'm done ^ _ ^ prime stable large FFTs 3.4 ^ _ ^ thanks for the hint of the ram voltage, I was tring to lowerer it more because i thought it might have been too high. TY

(to sports fanboy, when i lower nb anything below 1.45, i get prime errors~~~ I've tried lowering the voltages already, apparantly, raising the voltages was what i needed to get large FFT's stable)