My Adventure in overclocking

TheThreeDegrees

Where do I start?
Do you need Processor/Ram specs?

I have managed to use the AI overclock options which gives it 20% more.This recorded a core of 2900MHz.
If I can achieve 3300MHz i'll be well happy.

dont be afraid to ask me to push the limits cause the reason I bought all this equipment is to do exactly this.
Thanks.

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PogMoThoin

Specs? that looks like a bios i'm v familiar with.

Dont use ai overclock, adjust all your settings manually.

Get these: memtest, ooct, coretemp, cpuz

TheThreeDegrees

Ok,have coretemp cpuz and memtest.
will go find ooct now.

specs are as follows:

Asus P5N32-E SLI 680I
Crucial ballistix ddr2 6400 (I have set this to 2.2V in the bios)
Q6600 (g0)
SilverStone PSU ******* OP 850

Current Temps at stock speed(2400MHz)are under the 40's.(usually in the morning when the heating is not on in the room).

I have disabled Nvidia GPU,SpeedSpectrum(all),Executive Disable Bit,Virtualisation Tech,Speedstep and legacy USB support.

Thats about as far as Ive got.

I'm struggling to find ooct.its kinda the same as prime but friendlier?

awhir

TheThreeDegrees wrote: »

Ok,have coretemp cpuz and memtest.
will go find ooct now.

specs are as follows:

Asus P5N32-E SLI 680I
Crucial ballistix ddr2 6400 (I have set this to 2.2V in the bios)
Q6600 (g0)
SilverStone PSU ******* OP 850

Current Temps at stock speed(2400MHz)are under the 40's.(usually in the morning when the heating is not on in the room).

I have disabled Nvidia GPU,SpeedSpectrum(all),Executive Disable Bit,Virtualisation Tech,Speedstep and legacy USB support.

Thats about as far as Ive got.

wow nice psu

try and find ur fsb wall

PogMoThoin

Open task manager, cpuz, occt & task manager performance (you'll see it testing all 4 cores when you start occt), start occt, take a screenshot at max temperature & post it here. This will tell us how hot this cpu is at stock before you push it.

Loosen your ram timings, set them manually to something like 5-5-5-15, leave all other timings on auto. Unlink your memory & change your memory ratio to have your ram running slow....200mhz each channel, 400mhz effective


Set your vcore manually to 1.325V. Add 10 to your fsb, boot to windows & run 30mins occt with cpuz, coretemp & task manager performance screen open. Note your max temp. Take a screenshot & post it here showing temps or if ya wanna keep going, add another 10fsb & test again. When you get a fail or windows doesn't boot move your vcore up 1 notch (but i dont expect this for ages as you got a g0, 3Ghz+ should be realistic on this voltage)

TheThreeDegrees

My screen capture techniques are not great but here goes..Are they any better than Anti's:)
this is running at default level.

TheThreeDegrees

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Loosen your ram timings, set them manually to something like 5-5-5-15, leave all other timings on auto. Unlink your memory & change your memory ratio to have your ram running slow....200mhz each channel, 400mhz effective

hi,i'm not sure what to do about this section.here is a screen shot of the options available to me.I have unlinked the memory.

Just to understand better what I'm doing the timings for the ballistix are 4-4-4-12 (Tcl-Trcd-Tras-Trp).Why loosen them?

TheThreeDegrees

Log:

first use of the bios reset switch:)

Note to myself:too aggresive with the FSB!

Note 2 to myself:

second use of reset switch.

How do I know when ive reached the FSB wall?
Is this when you cannot raise the FSB at the current voltage?

TheThreeDegrees

This is the best i can do.If I raise the FSB any higher it doesnt go anywhere.

I think my memory timings and speed are arseways cause I dont know how to set them properly.

TheThreeDegrees

Ah ha ive broken the 3MHz barrier!!!!!!!!!!!!

had to revert to an older bios.using version 1103.
yahooo yippeee!!!!!!!!!!!

Temps are nice too..will post results after a thorough thrashing of the cores.;)

L31mr0d

TheThreeDegrees wrote: »

Ah ha ive broken the 3MHz barrier!!!!!!!!!!!!

had to revert to an older bios.using version 1103.
yahooo yippeee!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow 3 whole Mhz??? thats like 3000 Khz.

also, what made you think to change the BIOS version?

TheThreeDegrees

was reading the Asus forums and a number of people having trouble with the latest revisions to the bios.
Soo newer is not always best.

so for the moment with my current cooling setup thats about as far as i'll go.

PogMoThoin

TheThreeDegrees wrote: »

Just to understand better what I'm doing the timings for the ballistix are 4-4-4-12 (Tcl-Trcd-Tras-Trp).Why loosen them?

You loosen the timings to take the memory out of the equasion, you can push these later, concentrate on the cpu for now & find your max fsb


Edit, and screenshots just after starting the stress testing are no good (occt doesn't really start proper till after 4mins), take them 20-25mins in2 test when your temps will be higher. Remeber that 30mins is just a quick test for stability, gives you a rough idea, to be properly stable your gonna have to run it over night, but keep pushing the fsb for now. Decide how hot your gonna let your chip go

L31mr0d

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Remeber that 30mins is just a quick test for stability, gives you a rough idea, to be properly stable your gonna have to run it over night, but keep pushing the fsb for now. Decide how hot your gonna let your chip go

agreed, you need to stress test it over night. I've had OCCT fail on me after 7 hours of stress testing, it bites but that's life.

TheThreeDegrees

over night?you cruel ***tards!
gonna fry some fish and chips on that mofo board when i'm done!:D

PogMoThoin

What, u think u'll oc it in a few hrs, it often took me 2 weeks 2 find my most comfortable oc. L31mrod has the right idea, have a look @ his thread & see he's in no hurry.

TheThreeDegrees

yeah but i need proper cooling to go further.

i'm happy i broke the 3MHz barrier today..i was begining to think the board couldnt go any further..

i did have a look at L31mrod and he was having a frustrating time also.

today done my head in but in the end all is good.

Onwards and Upwards!

thanks for the help BTW.

PogMoThoin

3000Mhz, as in 3Ghz

L31mr0d

TheThreeDegrees wrote: »

i did have a look at L31mrod and he was having a frustrating time also.

3/4 of the time overclocking is hitting brick walls, its finding that sweet spot that makes it all worth while.

the 680i is a frustrating mobo anyway as to give people higher FSB speeds they've added a load of locked settings which reduce the effectiveness of an overclock.

btw, why aren't you benching that CPU? You seem to be only stress testing it. You should be benching it at each clock increase to see what kind of performance increase you are getting.

EDIT: Actually that raises a question I hadn't thought of... what program should I use to accurately bench the CPU, testing all 4 cores?

TheThreeDegrees

L31mr0d any joy in finding a decent benchmarking utlity?

PogMoThoin

Occt or new prime 95 (now supports multicore)

TheThreeDegrees

Log:

Replaced Ninja heatsink with a Zalman CNPS 9700.10 degrees cooler on idle.

Will begin to benchmark at 3Mhz..ehhem sorry meant 3Ghz:D


Here she is running stock speed with the new zalman.full throttle 15mins into the test.In fact it was getting cooler as the benchmark was going on!

L31mr0d

btw... I found this site from a link on the XS forums to a list of banchmarking programs

you might find it usefull

http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/b_e.html

TheThreeDegrees

New settings.

Vcore 1.35
1.2HT 1.25
NB 1.35
CPU VTT 1.55

FSB 1425
Unlinked
DDR2 950
Timings 4-4-4-12



Will run an over nighter when I find my ideal settings.

TheThreeDegrees

managed to eek out another couple of hz's

but my core voltages are scary!

Anti

drop back to 1.5 That an awfull ammount of voltage running through that cpu.

PogMoThoin

2 much vcore m8, i wouldn't go over 1.45v. These quads get very hot. You dont want an expensive bonfire

TheThreeDegrees

Ok ive done two things:
Voltages all set at auto.
found a better bios called 1203 beta and it rocks!
straight up to a bus clock of 355.76 *9.
voltages are much lower.

TheThreeDegrees

tightened up the ram timings and will tighten more as I slowly increase the fsb.

So all volts on auto and the FSB on 1423.
RAM is unlinked at 800.
Timings are 5,5,5,18.

yet again it appears the bios versions have a big impact on clocking abilities.

have to say i',m enjoying also the challenge this board gives.

TheThreeDegrees

holy smolly this thing just wants to get higher and higher!

PogMoThoin

Why dont you open cpuz a few times on the desktop, set 1 tab on memory, one on mobo etc and take one screenshot

Nice oc m8, keep going
I'll not be happy till i see your cpuz screenies drippin in sweat

TheThreeDegrees

:d

have to say the new zalman is doin a great job.the fan is only at 50% and keeping temps below the 40's on idle.

had an old amd cpu fan and stuck that on the northbridge which is hot hot hot on these mobo's.

Anti

get a hr-05 and stick that on there with a 60mm fan.



Not sure why the muppet in this pic put it directly intop of another heatsink though. Must be a german !

TheThreeDegrees

LOL!
thats some serious heatsink.

have to report some side effects with this overclock.
The sound was crackling and hissing in game play.
did a little googling and found out that these boards when overclocked can give these issues.
So I reset the bios to default clock and the sound problem is gone.

Must be a voltage thing on the PCI bus?
not sure will have to investigate further.

Chosen

Your Q6600 has a VID of 1.225, which is a very good thing (the lower, the better). What it also means, is that it's not all vcore. These babies can do wonders with less than 1.35-1.4v, just make sure you find the sweet spot between vPLL, vFSB, vMCH and ofcource vCore.
vPLL is far more important in Quads than vcore.
Have a look at what my 737 baby can do (VID=1.250):

PogMoThoin

TheThreeDegrees wrote: »

LOL!
thats some serious heatsink.

:rolleyes: Its the small heatsink (hr-05) he was showing you, for your northbridge, notice how the gob$hite in the pic stuck it on top of the stock heatsink doing absoutely nothing

TheThreeDegrees

The sweet spot!
Well I said at the begining if i achieved a stable oc of 3300MHz i'd be well pleased and hey presto i did just that.
Final settings:
FSB 1470
Unlinked RAM at 800,4,4,4,12.
CPU Voltage 1.325
Mem voltage 2.2
All other voltages on auto.
Leave everthing else default.
I suppose a thorough 9 hours thrashing would be even further justification but not on air.
For me its time to say over and out and onto the next challenge.;)

PogMoThoin

You're stopping at only 1.325vcore & your ram at stock speeds :eek: Some of us would loose a testicle 2 have a chip as good as yours

Dissapointed in you :mad: You've let the side down. Maybe anti will ban ya for being a big girls blouse

Anti

I should ya know. If he swaps me his q6600 for mine ill let him stay

Also, as l31mr0d has pointed out there is a point where overclockign your ram actually makes it slower. 900-975mhz is thee sweet spot, then 1000-1100 seems ****ty ( well on l31mrods and some other people ram ) And above seems okay

TheThreeDegrees

b..b..but..but i'm afraid to push it

PogMoThoin

I'm not telling ya leave it there, just push & see how far you can get the chip, I wouldnt worry as long as the chip doesn't go over 75-80'. You'll easily get that chip above 3.6Ghz, ffs i got my b3 to 3.6 (chosen had it @ 3.9 on water) so 3.7-3.8Ghz could be possible for u. You'll not blow anything up with low voltages like that


Better still, gimme the chip & i'll warm it

awhir

just test it,it doesnt have to be ur 24 hour clock !

L31mr0d

Chosen wrote: »

vPLL is far more important in Quads than vcore.

pardon my ignorence, but what is PLL? Here are the voltage options I have on my board.

PogMoThoin

You don't have this setting, cos you got a $hite mobo (only kidding) Your mobo adjusts pll voltage automatically & doesn't give an option to adjust it, a new bios could give you the option tho as its probably just hidden from you.
The bios for Asus mobo's have alot more settings for voltage. Here's a pic:

Btw, you'll notice I'm @ stock settings, reseated my cooler few days ago, lettin As5 bed in, flashed 2 new bios, just waitin for my new ram 2 come before i push this baby. I've changed my 3 120mm fans to Yate loons also

L31mr0d

PogMoThoin wrote: »

You don't have this setting, cos you got a $hite mobo (only kidding)

no you're right, this mobo is rubbish... for my next upgrade i'll be steering clear of the nvdia chipset. I only really got it for SLI, which i'm probably never going to use, as by the time I get a screen with a larger monitor i'll probably be upgrading to a better graphics card.

Oh and OP... PUSH FURTHER!!! Without hitting a thermal barrier or stability wall its pointless. You aren't going to kill you chip if you overclock safely, you'll get red flags such as BSODs or stress program crashes long before your CPU dies. I'd keep pushing until you fail then drop it back a little. That should be your everyday overclock. As long as you don't exceed ~80'c under load and keep your volts at a max of ~1.5v you should be fine.

TheThreeDegrees

Anti wrote: »

Also, as l31mr0d has pointed out there is a point where overclockign your ram actually makes it slower. 900-975mhz is thee sweet spot, then 1000-1100 seems ****ty ( well on l31mrods and some other people ram ) And above seems okay

I have taken ANTI's advise and set the ram to 900 which is working really nice at the 3300MHz clock.

As for reaching the "wall" well it will just have to wait for my new mobo.;)

TheThreeDegrees

Well well well what can I say about the new mobo.Fookin brilliant!

will never touch another asus board again doesnt even matter if they have the intel chipset.

the attention to detail on the Abit IX38 Quad is second to none,and its all of 20 yoyo's dearer than the heap of **** p5n32 sli i had?
SLI is a con in my opinion.

No issues with the install.sound works beautifully.and as for the current overclock,I keyed in the bus clock and bang off she runs.Well recommended.
Its an overclockers dream.

Anti

yeah i think thats gonna be my next board too.

TheThreeDegrees

real nice Anti.
promise ye you'll not be dissapointed.and the temps are so low.
dont be surprised if water cooling is phased out:)

Anti

I think im going ot have to watercool as my TR ultra dosent look like it will fit within the Ix38's maze of heatpipes. But its something i have been planning on for a while now.

TheThreeDegrees

my zalman had to be coaxed in between the heatpipes.nothing too dramatic:)

water cooling i would say would be a great help though.
i have to $ave up for it:cool:

my first stress test went well.