GUIDE: Overclocking On EP/P35-DS3L v1.3.1 [UPDATED: 10/2/2008] - Page 2

F5

^ Agreed. You should upgrade the BIOS, BUT not through Windows (seen so many bad flashes via Windows). Just use Q-Flash or DOS. I would recommend Q-Flash.

^It has to be formated in FAT not NTFS.

But is the reason Static tRead Value is not shown is because of my old BIOS. I know it's old but I heard there is no need to update BIOS unless the specified fixes in the update notes are ones that pertain to a problem you are having. Or are there other things behind the scene that are happening that will say, improve my OC?

Hmmm I knew it! Well, maybe I'll go F7, I don't like the word Beta..especially when paired with BIOS. I'll wait for the real F8 to come out and unlock my uber leetness super clock and make my E2180 go to 4Ghz on stock voltage! Actually maybe I'll test my 3.33Ghz speed again when I get the update. that would be so nice, but my voltage already has to be to high for such a clock, should got a 2140....

Generally having 4 sticks limits OCing capability

I would say 3.0+....ram timings make little difference but to be sure u can just benchmark both and see which is better

2.8GHz at 4-4-4-12. Performance wise the higher clockspeed should be slightly faster, but not enough to justify the added heat and power consumption (in my opinion).

Well I would just shoot for 2.8GHz and try to minimize voltage. Of course it is a cheap processor, so longevity might not be that much of a concern...

I'm stable at 2.8 with timing at 44412, Vcore is around 1.35V. Temps stay around 54C under load.

I was stable at 3.2GHz until I added the extra 2x1GB of memory.

1. Should I leave timings at 44412 while going to 3-3.2GHz?

2. Should I loosen the timings to 55515 first, before shooting for 3-3.2GHz?

My RAM is rated at 2.0V so I am currently adding +0.2 to get there from 1.8V.

Is it safe to increase the voltage more? There is literally no space between this Kingston HyperX for airflow.

As Evilonigiri has already stated, running 4 sticks is much more stressful that running 2. For Intel processors the stress is placed on the northbridge, or MCH, where the memory controller resides.

I wouldn't raise the RAM voltage yet, it's probably the MCH that is limiting you. If your cooling is really good you could try increasing the MCH voltage, but mine runs hot as hell as it is. Maybe yours is better.

How should I go about testing the NB temp?

Thanks for the input.

I've tried playing with the MCH voltage when I tried 8x400(High FSB no?) still crashed but check this out...At 10x320 I was able to run prime for almost 6 hours.... When I was at 8x400 I tried increasing the MCH voltage to +.2 and it didn't grow a bit more stable, I really believe that the MCH/FSB voltages aren't really usefull.

BTW I got the F8a BIOS and the timings layout is much different and I now see the Static tRead value, I set it to 8 and everything seems good. Will have to test though...

I have a couple of questions. In this OCing guide you leave PCI Express set to auto. In the other guide referenced it says to manually set the frequency to 100. Does this board ALWAYS keep the frequency at 100 when on auto or do I need to set it.

I am currently running a E4500 at 333 FSB with a 9x Multi. tRD 6 and have been able to back on the speedstep settings and remain stable. (prime 95 torture 12 hours, no errors no warnings)

The other guide suggests to run memory in synchronous mode so I have the System Memory Multiplier set to 2 for 667. Am I right that this is synchronous? Just want to make sure since the memory was set differently in BIOS on the other guide. This did seem to help drop the north bridge temp 2 degrees when running prime 95 (51 down to 49 max)

The other guide seems to suggest that I might get lower temps by running a higher Muti and a lower FSB. Would 300 with 10x multi or 270 with a 11x give lower temps? (current 61 max when running prime 95)


Sorry for the newb questions and thanks for all the great info that has gotten me this far

Thanks for the reply and help Homerdog

I locked it just to be sure also

Would Boinc set to use less than 100% cpu be a good test for this. I noticed that when I ran it that way with my cpu at stock speedstep would kick in and out. Or it there a better program someone can suggest?

Also a couple more Questions: E4500 @ 333x9

CPU-Z and Speedfan showed my VCore at 1.37 to 1.39 when on auto. The other guide suggested trying to lower the VCore under manual. I tryed locking it at 1.3125 and that was not stable. 1.325 booted but I got an error in prime 95 after about 5 minutes. I bumped it to 1.35 and am in prime 95 now for a couple of hours with no errors so far. CPU-Z and Speedstep show VCore at 1.328 to 1.34, this is normal right due to Vdroop right?

Also my memory is C4 but running at 5 5 5 18 with 1.9 V under auto. CPU-Z shows it as 1.8 V for 5 5 5 18 timing and 2.1 V for 4 4 4 12 timing. So if I try and tighten the timing to 4 4 4 12 I should set the DDR2 overvoltage control to a +0.03 correct? or will auto put it there when I change the timing?

Screen shot:http://www.flickr.com/photos/24601 [...] 3/sizes/o/

Explain more. If SpeedStep is disabled in the BIOS it SHOULD never kick in to effect when running Prime95. SpeedStep will how ever kick in to effect (even if you disabled it) if the CPU is over heating. What CPUZ is showing under "SPD" are the values from the RAM's built in SPD table. To see the current values look under "Memory" in CPUZ.

You probably will have to manually set the memory voltage to +.3V to run at the tighter timings. I don't know where you're getting +.03 from

I'm afraid I can't answer your question about Bionc since I've never used that program before.

Yeah just use the thing for few days and see if it's stable. I wouldn't do anything too important on it during those few days though unless you keep good backups...

While you can potentially ruin your vidcard, it can also boost your vidcard speed. Apparently, up to 120MHz is safe, according to MSI's site.

According to quite a few people, increasing the PCIe bus helped achieve higher OCs. For example, at 100Mhz, the vidcard could only OC to 700MHz. At 120Mhz, it can now OC to 715Mhz. Apparently, it's not the same for everybody, and I do not know how it works or why it does.

My point was to set it to something manual, don't just leave it on auto. People who haven't done their research and come across this thread wanting to jump right into overclocking could potentially ruin their video card if they follow the OP...

Yeah, point taken. I don't think auto will bring it past 120MHz, but anyways you're right in locking the PCIe at 100MHz

8MHz? By the way we're way off topic now

Hey, it's an improvement. 3dmark score increased too!

Any guesses?

Yes, here it is: http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php [...] tech_p35_1

I figured if MSI said it was okay up to 120MHz, why not? Seems like when I did it, there was hardly any improvements. If could differ for others, however.