Core 2 Duo Overclocking 101

CitizenDC · Post by **CitizenDC** » 09 May 2007, 15:19

KillerByte wrote:i'm glad i asked you to make this thread.

After reading in this forum about the OC ability of the C2D chips i decided to try OC my new e6300.

I am glad to say that its not even a week old and its already sitting at 3.0GHz with a FSB of 430. my ram is at 860MHz. Had to drop it to 2x instead of 2.5x

Awesome! I'm getting my E6300 next week (hopefully), been doing my home work. Check this out, these guys at overclockers.co.za have managed to get an E6300 running at 3.5Ghz.
Cant wait to try do that!

I34z1k · Post by **I34z1k** » 09 May 2007, 16:17

Why not get a 6700 ES?

Frozenfireside · Post by **Frozenfireside** » 19 Jul 2007, 10:00

OK I think this is a good guide but sucks as I own a 680i chipset

I push my little E6300 medium lengths.
I know that if you up your CPU voltage to 1.3 you can get to 3gh/z with a E6300.

Thats waaaay more then AMD can manage which shows that Intel finally used netburst to help core 2 duo a bit.

I'm sitting at 2.45ghz-I dropped from 2.65 as I thought that was screwing with my XP install (I hate Vista) but I was wrong and it was somthing else.
Basically if you own an E6300/6400/6320/6420-you can get more bang for your buck with a little volt modding.

Now I know this might have been written before but hear me out bkas what you do by getting to 3ghz is shorten your CPU life span.
What you also probably didn't realise is that if you go to extreme lengths (3.5ghz) you get a similer effect if you went from 6500RPm (3ghz) to 7500RPM (3.5ghz) in a car. Your life span halves of your CPU.

Buy DFi-Its a rare board in RSA but its the best for lots of reasons.
I have never read a bad review of a DFi board.

Also don't use the Asus turbo booste A.I. pile of azz that you can enable in windows boot-It screws with your CPU voltage. Edit the regedit value and stop it in its tracks.

It can tell your overclocking but over compentsates by pushing your CPU voltage to like ~1.4v which is good for 3.3ghz

(1.5 is good for 3.5ghz-Can you see how extreme high end overclocking is on power? 1.3 is good for a ~50% performance improvement but 1.4 is only good for a further ~15% performance improvement)

Post by **KillerByte** » 19 Jul 2007, 12:32

Frozenfireside
I can get my E6300 to 3GHz on air using stock voltage.
and I can get my chip to 3.5 using 1.4v.

How much experience do you have with OCing? If you keep your chip cool it will last for as long as you need it, since the normal life span of a chip is longer than your life span, so reducing it to around 30 years seams reasonable.

I34z1k · Post by **I34z1k** » 19 Jul 2007, 13:32

Pffft.....

Fire, get some proof to what you are saying. Show me results as to the life span shortening.

@ 1.2v I can get 3ghz so yea...

Frozenfireside · Post by **Frozenfireside** » 19 Jul 2007, 16:46

K.
You asked for it and frozenfireside giveth

"General disadvantages
These disadvantages are unavoidable by both novices and veterans.

The lifespan of a processor is negatively affected by higher operation frequencies, increased voltages and heat. Overclockers argue[citation needed] that with the rapid obsolescence of processors coupled with the long life of solid state microprocessors (10 years or more), the overclocked component will likely be replaced before its eventual failure. Also, since many overclockers are enthusiasts, they often upgrade components more often than the general population, offering further mitigation of this disadvantage."

"Aging effects previously discussed may also result in stability problems after a long period of time. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocki ... advantages

I34z1k · Post by **I34z1k** » 19 Jul 2007, 17:18

Frozenfireside wrote:K.
You asked for it and frozenfireside giveth

"General disadvantages
These disadvantages are unavoidable by both novices and veterans.

The lifespan of a processor is negatively affected by higher operation frequencies, increased voltages and heat. Overclockers argue[citation needed] that with the rapid obsolescence of processors coupled with the long life of solid state microprocessors (10 years or more), the overclocked component will likely be replaced before its eventual failure. Also, since many overclockers are enthusiasts, they often upgrade components more often than the general population, offering further mitigation of this disadvantage."

"Aging effects previously discussed may also result in stability problems after a long period of time. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocki ... advantages

Nice

Thats really intersting!!! Now, will you please show evidence on the life of a c2d cpu and how overclocking effects its life span? Specifically.

WiK1d · Post by **WiK1d** » 19 Jul 2007, 17:37

Frozenfireside wrote:What you also probably didn't realise is that if you go to extreme lengths (3.5ghz) you get a similer effect if you went from 6500RPm (3ghz) to 7500RPM (3.5ghz) in a car. Your life span halves of your CPU.

oh puhlease. excuse my english, but whatfriggenever. In a microprocessor there is NO moving parts, it's just electronic pulses where with a car there is movement (pistons, gearboxes) and all of those get general wear and tear because of friction.

Sure, the extra volts may degrade the purity or something, but it will sure as hell not half the lifespan

*waits for moses to correct me*

Samaya · Post by **Samaya** » 19 Jul 2007, 22:14

The only way that I could possibly think on how you would shorten the CPU's lifespan, is by having insufficient cooling. But it is like that with other electronic components as well. Take your HiFi's output transistors for instance, they have MASSIVE heat sinks on, yet they last for 10 years (I am not talking about Singer or some other obscure brand).

Some people will tell you anything to make them selves look intelligent. Intel a while back tried to discourage Over clocking their CPU's with exactly this same argument, they termed it as electron migration. The only reason they did this was to stop people buying cheap processors, OC'ing them and getting the same performance from ther cheap processors as they would have gotten from the more expensive CPU's. All to "save the consumer".

I34z1k · Post by **I34z1k** » 19 Jul 2007, 22:19

Yea. Its bull, even if it does shorten its lifespan, in 7 years, they will be the p1s of today. So yea

oukie · Post by **oukie** » 20 Jul 2007, 07:36

Can you guys recommend a good overclocking board on a tight budget?

DarkRanger · Post by **DarkRanger** » 20 Jul 2007, 08:35

BioStar TForce 965PT - Prophecy - R1200.

WoolyBadBaba · Post by **WoolyBadBaba** » 20 Jul 2007, 12:24

Guys, I have an e4300 on an ASUS P5B-MX wifi. Any likes/dislikes ? I also wanna know whether you guys keep your cpu's OC'd all the time, or do you OC only when you game/encode, etc?

I also wanna know...

My BIOS has two options for RAM frequency. (namely 533 and 667). Now, if i push the bus up, will the RAM frequency change accordingly, or does the mobo keep it at 533/667? Coz i wanna push up the bus to 250, which translates to CPU = 2.25 and RAM (if I'm actually selecting a multiplier when i choose 533 in the BIOS) = 667. Can't find waht i'm looking for on googly.

I34z1k · Post by **I34z1k** » 20 Jul 2007, 14:28

Don'y know the mx....

But keep multi at lowest and push fsb up

Not sure of the 4300, is it 9x multi? Sounds right

I have 2 setting basically, only for "24/7" which I run daily, 533fsbx7. Other is OC which is for benches and stuff which I try stay over 4ghz.

Samaya · Post by **Samaya** » 20 Jul 2007, 14:35

I think the whole ASUS P5B range is good OC'ers. But dont take my word for it. Its only cause I have a P5B that I am saying that...

I34z1k · Post by **I34z1k** » 20 Jul 2007, 14:45

Samaya wrote:I think the whole ASUS P5B range is good OC'ers. But dont take my word for it. Its only cause I have a P5B that I am saying that...

OMW Didn't even recognise you with a new av

This must be your.... 3rd or so one?

The p5b-v is dreadful oc wise

But the p5b and p5b-d are great

getting 475 + 505 respectively when I had them

Frozenfireside · Post by **Frozenfireside** » 21 Jul 2007, 10:44

I think I've damaged my motherboard.
It's not posting half the time, the windows install keeps being corrupted.
Win32k.sys keeps failing checksum.

Oh well.
Another thing people-If you overclock and damage your motherboard, reset the CMOS settingsbefore you take the mobo back.
That way if any tests are done on it by the manufacturer, there is nothing to finger you for damaging the motherboard.

I work for an IT store and so I don't have to have an excuse and I also know that motherboards have a 3year warrantey-Not the 12 months that they usually give you.

So if you have any motherboard problems, give me a bell and i'll see if I can't get it swopped out for a small sum (just to cover traveling expenses.)

Post by **KillerByte** » 21 Jul 2007, 11:45

it seems Frozenfireside's OCing skills have been brought to light. lol

I34z1k · Post by **I34z1k** » 21 Jul 2007, 12:58

Hehehe yea

ROFL!

Frozenfireside · Post by **Frozenfireside** » 18 Sep 2007, 17:58

Hactually it was ok.
Had some dirt on the motherboard and it wasn't happy.
Got my CPU to post at 2.92Ghz but didn't leave it there.
Sitting at 2.65ghz due to summer arriving.

As for WoolyBadBaba-Please tell run and tell us yer 3Dmark06 CPU scores.
I want to know what the difference is between your CPU and the E6300.
Your CPU RAM multiplier needs to be adjusted accordingly-Unlocked means that as you increase the FSb, you wont increase the RAm speed-Locked will increase it but at a ratio that you choose 1-1, 2-3, etc.

Choose unlocked if you are going to overclock your FSB heavily.
Try get an FSB of 300 if you can-shouldnt do much damage and the perfomance increase will be very nice.

I just saw a picture of a motherboard with a FSB of 610+-.
C2D @ 5.4ghz.

I34z1k · Post by **I34z1k** » 18 Sep 2007, 19:29

Um @ the c2d screen. So what? 5.9 was the highest like a week ago.

Frozenfireside · Post by **Frozenfireside** » 19 Sep 2007, 14:58

I34z1k wrote:Um @ the c2d screen. So what? 5.9 was the highest like a week ago.

Ja I just saw that.
They got a Pentium 4 to 8ghz a while ago (yes I'm sure they got it further since) but I say 6ghz is insane considering its now dual core.

If they get a quad core to 6ghz it will be mental.
Still it should eventually be possible.

VoodooProphetII · Post by **VoodooProphetII** » 19 Sep 2007, 16:41

Nice read I34z1k..

Well I manage to get:

E6420
ASUS P5N-E SLI
2GB Team Xtreem DDR2 800 4 4 4 10

Stock Vcore and Vdimm and the stock Intel cooler.
I managed 350 FSB putting the CPU @ 2.8Ghz and then I run the system unlinked and put the memory at 900Mhz 4 4 4 10 and it's Orthos stable and superpi 32M. Now seen that this board is sitting with a "lekker" or lets call it bad Vdroop I can't really go higher with the stock Vcore.

Bumping the Vcore up to 1.45 (reading 1.38 - 1.41 under load in Everest) I managed 400FSB CPU @ 3.2Ghz and memory 900Mhz 4 4 4 10 and it's stable running Orthos for about 30 minutes. No errors or lock-ups just had to quite as I needed to do something else. The core temps under load was around 57 to 59 but the cpu temp reads 50C. Yup it seems really hot, but hey it's the stock cooler and I'm in Swaziland with lovely warm weather.

The person I bought the cpu, mobo and mem from ran it easily up to 3.6Ghz on the stock cooler with about the same Vcore, but I think my 500Watt Aopen might not be able to handle it.

DoOb · Post by **DoOb** » 19 Sep 2007, 16:56

No its just the temps , what are the ambients around your pc, must be about 28-30 or more. thats your problem, you wont be able to run at that speed on a stock cooler, i wouldnt

I34z1k · Post by **I34z1k** » 19 Sep 2007, 19:19

Frozenfireside wrote:
I34z1k wrote:Um @ the c2d screen. So what? 5.9 was the highest like a week ago.
Ja I just saw that.
They got a Pentium 4 to 8ghz a while ago (yes I'm sure they got it further since) but I say 6ghz is insane considering its now dual core.

If they get a quad core to 6ghz it will be mental.
Still it should eventually be possible.

If you say so

@ VP. Thanks. Yea. Temps are high no matter what bud. Either get some AC or a bit better cooler. Try keep cores under 50c.

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