Couple of questions

[deehoC]

Hello, recently I've been wondering if there is anything I can do to help give my PC a slight boost.

For starters here is what I'm running on:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 @ 2.33 GHz
2 GB of Single Channel DDR2 ram (DRAM Freq 400.8 mhz, FSBRAM 5:6, CAS# Latency 6.0 clocks)
NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GTS
ASUS P5K Motherboard

I don't recall what kind of power supply I've got in there now but I can check if that information is needed.

Is my system being bottle necked anywhere? (i.e less than capable processor with a decent video card or vice versa)

I'm also curious about some of the features my motherboard has. These include: ASUS Super Memspeed Technology, AI NOS, and the Precision Tweaker. Do these have any merit for overclocking?

Would overclocking my system be viable?

 

[HostileDonut]

The Core 2 series overclocks VERY well. Although, your board doesn't look like a great overclocker, but I am sure you could defenatly overclock to a noticeable level. If you plan on gaming I would add at least to more 2gb RAM (by the way, that is not your RAM, you linked laptop RAm and you are using a desktop), get a CM hyper 212+ and overclock the CPU a bit, and a GTS 450. What is your PSU? Brand, watts, 12v rails?

Also, Precision Tweaker is just what ASUS calls there overclocking section.

 

[deehoC]

Ah I see. Thanks for the quick reply HostileDonut I appreciate it. I was actually planning on buying 2 GB of ram yesterday but the local place I go to is totally shut down for renovations and I can't afford to order online till I get my next check.

My PSU is an OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W Modular High Performance Power Supply linked here http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341016


I'm unsure what exactly 12v rails are but this image here depicts what this psu is capable of I think..http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-341-016-16.jpg

Just writing this message here and with my comp being on for hours its sitting at 26-28 degrees (According to my case's temperature readout). Just used Core Temp 1.0 and it says my cores are running at 22 and 25 degrees Celsius respectively. What kind of temperatures are too hot, and do you think I'd be able to overclock my cpu without the addition of the Hyper 212+? (again can't pick it up till my next check)

and finally is there any point to overclocking my measly 2 GB of ram? Sorry for all the questions and if they are lacking any information.

I should also mention that I mostly do gaming on this machine, but nothing very intensive.

 

[HostileDonut]

Ah I see. Thanks for the quick reply HostileDonut I appreciate it. I was actually planning on buying 2 GB of ram yesterday but the local place I go to is totally shut down for renovations and I can't afford to order online till I get my next check.

My PSU is an OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W Modular High Performance Power Supply linked here http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341016


I'm unsure what exactly 12v rails are but this image here depicts what this psu is capable of I think..http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-341-016-16.jpg

Just writing this message here and with my comp being on for hours its sitting at 26-28 degrees (According to my case's temperature readout). Just used Core Temp 1.0 and it says my cores are running at 22 and 25 degrees Celsius respectively. What kind of temperatures are too hot, and do you think I'd be able to overclock my cpu without the addition of the Hyper 212+? (again can't pick it up till my next check)

and finally is there any point to overclocking my measly 2 GB of ram? Sorry for all the questions and if they are lacking any information.

I should also mention that I mostly do gaming on this machine, but nothing very intensive.

What CPU cooler do you have? Those sound like pretty good temps. As for overclocking RAM, if won't really give a performance gain, it you won't notice the difference. That PSU should will support s GTS 450 and some overclocking. What games?

 

[deehoC]

I mostly play Alliance of Valiant Arms (free to play FPS game), a little bit of Skyrim but not much, SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online and once in a while I'll pickup Borderlands or Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I also really want to play Counterstrike: Global Offensive when it comes out.

I was eating my lunch but decided to try something and let Alliance of Valiant Arms run in the background and my temps seemed to peak at 46 and 47 degrees Celsius. I'm not sure if the 47 degree temperature is totally accurate since my computer is about due for a cleaning but I suppose its a fairly good indication.

My CPU cooler seems to be a stock Intel one that came with my CPU since it has the intel logo ontop of it. Having realized this I will definitely be purchasing that Hyper 212 plus sometime in the future.

Totally forgot the mention of the GTS 450 but I didn't really have any plans to spend on a videocard in the future, for like $110 I guess its something to look into.

 

[HostileDonut]

Yeah, I would grab a Hyper 212+. Those games I don't think are too taxing besides Skyrim. I would get the cooler, 2gb more RAM, and a GTS 450 like I said. That should boost performance a lot.

 

[deehoC]

Yeah, I would grab a Hyper 212+. Those games I don't think are too taxing besides Skyrim. I would get the cooler, 2gb more RAM, and a GTS 450 like I said. That should boost performance a lot.

Well surprisingly AVA runs worse than Crysis 2, Skyrim, or Deus Ex: HR. Even if I run it on all the lowest settings once in a while I'll experience random hangups and I've never had that issue in any of the 3 games I just mentioned, all of which are graphically more intensive and system taxing than AVA should be..Weird stuff. In the mean time though how would I go about OCing my system properly without damaging anything?

 

[HostileDonut]

The maximum temperature for that CPU is 72C. Don't go past 70C for safety. What you do is you raise the FSB (front side bus) which will be multiplied by what is called a multiplier. (pretty easy huh to remember, huh? ) If you have a 200Mhz FSB with a multiplier of 15, you get 3000Mhz. 3.0Ghz. See? Then you will boot into windows by increasing the FSB by 5 each time until you get crashes booting or you pass 3Ghz. (I wouldn't go too far past 3Ghz, maybe 3.2Ghz with that board, but that would really be pushing it) If you get a crash, raise the voltage a little bit. I am not sure the max voltage for that chip, but don't exede .1v from stock for safety, or you can degrade the CPU life. Then, use OCCT to run a stress test. It will tell you the min/value/max temps, voltages, etc as it runs a test. Run that test anywhere from 5 to 7 hours to ensure stability. I just ran mine 6.5 hours last night on my overclock. If it all passes without any errors, your good my friend! By the way, if you smell smoke, turn it off.

 

[deehoC]

The maximum temperature for that CPU is 72C. Don't go past 70C for safety. What you do is you raise the FSB (front side bus) which will be multiplied by what is called a multiplier. (pretty easy huh to remember, huh? ) If you have a 200Mhz FSB with a multiplier of 15, you get 3000Mhz. 3.0Ghz. See? Then you will boot into windows by increasing the FSB by 5 each time until you get crashes booting or you pass 3Ghz. (I wouldn't go too far past 3Ghz, maybe 3.2Ghz with that board, but that would really be pushing it) If you get a crash, raise the voltage a little bit. I am not sure the max voltage for that chip, but don't exede .1v from stock for safety, or you can degrade the CPU life. Then, use OCCT to run a stress test. It will tell you the min/value/max temps, voltages, etc as it runs a test. Run that test anywhere from 5 to 7 hours to ensure stability. I just ran mine 6.5 hours last night on my overclock. If it all passes without any errors, your good my friend! By the way, if you smell smoke, turn it off.

Awesome stuff thanks again for all this info Hostile. I'll be attempting this and if I manage to not fry anything through the course of start to finish, I'll post back my results.

 

[HostileDonut]

Awesome stuff thanks again for all this info Hostile. I'll be attempting this and if I manage to not fry anything through the course of start to finish, I'll post back my results.

No problem! I hope i all works and you can get a good OC. Those chips are known for hitting 4Ghz, so I doubt 3Ghz will be an issue. Just don't fry your board.

 

[jsc]

You can reach 3.0 GHz, but you are not going to reach 4 GHz with that chip.

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

Next stop should be a guide for your particular motherboard. Google is your friend.

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 - whatever you need to do to set the Memory Frequency to twice the FSB. For optimum memory stability, you want a 1:1 FSB:RAM ratio.

To reach 3.0 GHz, you will need to run the FSB past 400 MHz. This will cause problems if you have DDR2-800 RAM. You can run the RAM at a max of 2.2 volts. Then you relax the timings for 4-4-4-12 to 5's-15 or 5's-15 to 6's-18. DDR2-800 RAM will generally run at -1066 under those conditions.

Keep your load temps under 70 C. You can go into the PC Health tab in the BIOS and set the thermal alarm.

Intel's max recommended core voltage for the 65 nm CPU's is 1.50 volts.