First Ever Overclock

[Seeto]

I am about to dabble in overclocking for the very first time.
my system is;
Pentium Dual Core (E5500)
Gigabyte G31M-ES2L
XFX HD4670
Corsair 2GB DDR2(PC2-6400)VS2GB800D2
Samsung 512MB DDR2(PC2-3200)
M3 78T6553CZ3-CCC

I'm aware that my CPU has a locked multiplier and my RAM setup is not the optimal for overclocking.

With that in mind I would like to know;
1. If anyone has any experience with my particular CPU. what is possible with the E5500?
2. do I need to sort the RAM out by removing the Samsung memory and invest in another Corsair
3. Is system likely to bottleneck with the budget GPU, and what can it achieve with AMD overdrive.

please bear in mind I am poor, so I cannot afford a huge system upgrade. I could possibly afford a new CPU cooler if needed.

 

[sportsfanboy]

The samsung ram will limit you pretty much from the start. At the stock FSB of 800mhz, your Samsung ram is already at it's rated speed. Your other option is to loosen the timings a bit and opt for a smaller overclock. With slower timings the ram should able to run a little higher frequency.

 

[lowjack989]

Pull the Samsung stick....Get you another matching 2 GB stick of the Corsair...In BIOS set the mem back to 667 MHz or even 533 MHz...before turning up the FSB...This will allow for a higher bus speed to be achieved and still keep the RAM stable...I wouldn't play with the timings as that can get a little tricky if you don't know what your doing.

 

[jsc]

First of all, the E5500, like most Intel Core2 chips, has a locked internal multiplier. That's why everything past X14 does not work.

Second, the G31/G41 chipset is an economy, entry level chipset. Unless you get really lucky, you will not be able to push the FSB freq past about 360 MHz. I have a G'byte G41 board. FSB freq of 352 MHz works. 353 MHz doesn't.

Third, pull the Samsung RAM and throw it away. It's too old, too small, and most importantly, too slow for what you want to do.

This should be your first stop.
Core2 Overclocking Guide (generic guide)
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/259899-11-core-overclocking-guide

Next stop should be Shadow's Gigabyte motherboard OC guide:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-245679_11_0.html
It's for an EP35-DS3L but all the Gigabyte Core2 BIOS's are similar. The G31 will have much fewer settings.

Go through the guides. Then take your core voltage off Auto and set your memory voltage to factory recommended values. Change the System Memory Multiplier (or whatever your BIOS calls it) from AUTO to 2.00 or the lowest value over 2.0. At a stock FSB freq of 200 MHz (FSB clock of 800 MHz), your memory clock should be at 400 MHz.

Don't try to OC the memory. What little performance gain that you might get will not be worth any loss of stability. We talk about that here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251715-29-ratio-myth

Keep your core voltage under 1.45 volts and your load temps (Prime95 is popular for stress testing) under 70 C.

If you are going to use the stock cooler, you will really need to watch your temps. If you have a difficult time saving for even a mediocre cooler, I suggest you try to find an old cooler for the 65 nm first generation Core2 CPU's. It's the same design as the cooler that came with your 45 nm CPU chip, but it is twice as big.

The E5500 has a pretty high internal multiplier so the G31 FSB limit will not be the determining factor of how far you can OC the CPU chip.

That G41 board I mentioned up above? I have an E6500 (same basic chip as yours except smaller cache) running at 3.66 GHz (333 X 11) with a mediocre by today's standards ACF7P cooler. It is stable at 3.87 GHz, but the extra performance isn't needed.

More comments using budget CPU's with a G31/G41 board.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/255107-11-biostar-overclock-pentium-e5400

 

[Seeto]

Thanks for the advice.

when I get paid. I'm going to invest another Corsair stick and an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 rev 2, works out at about £35
I'm going to get a couple of new case fans aswell as they aren't too expensive.

I've had good read through the info here which was really helpful.

I'm going stick to a simple FSB overclock.

 

[Seeto]

I thought I would tell you how my first ever overclock went on my system.

CPU now runs at 3.36GHz (+560MHz over stock)
upped FSB to 240MHz (+40MHz over stock)
lowered FSBRAM to 3:5 (stock was 1:2)

I have kept most settings very simple such as auto voltages on the board which keeps it really stable.

Vcore is sitting at 1.34V which is about -0.0225V of the maximum.

Temps are 39°C Idle, 51°C Load.

I could possibly make it go faster than this if I were to drop the FSBRAM to 3:4 and manually controlled the Vcore, but I am happy with the current settings for now.

 

[Seeto]

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[jsc]

For my earlier post:
"Go through the guides. Then take your core voltage off Auto and set your memory voltage to factory recommended values. Change the System Memory Multiplier (or whatever your BIOS calls it) from AUTO to 2.00 or the lowest value over 2.0. At a stock FSB freq of 200 MHz (FSB clock of 800 MHz), your memory clock should be at 400 MHz."

You will gain more performance by pushing the FSB freq higher than you will by overclocking the RAM.