Overclocking (Main Thread)

Nah, let’s not start any flame wars now...

Check this out... easily the best board for overclocking DFI LP UT P35... hitting a 664MHz FSB with an E6700 🙂

Man... just absolutely incredible 🙂 🙂 🙂

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...54#post2423254

Hey, I could really use some help getting this thing to run a bit faster...
http://img521.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ntitledmp0.jpg
Where should I even start tweaking things? I'm trying to see if I can push it up to at least 2.6GHz somewhere...

Peter Young said:someone help me get this thing running a bit better...
http://img521.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ntitledmp0.jpg
not sure where I'd even start... maybe hit 2.6GHz if possible

what's the CPU, RAM, and motherboard setup?

Bump the voltage from 1.25V up to about 1.45V, then take that 1.8V and push it toward 2.1V, and once you've done all that, you can start nudging the FSB up by maybe 20 or 30 points... just make sure you don't let the memory climb past 950MHz while keeping those timings tight at 5-5-5-15...

AMD Athlon 4000+
Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H motherboard
Kingmax 800MHz RAM

Does anyone know if I can actually tweak the timings on this setup?

In the BIOS, they’re likely already set to 5-5-5-18 by default, so you probably won't even need to touch a single thing...

So, my memory just hit 900 and I'm sitting at 2,367 MHz
now...
that's my current...

It can actually get even more intense than that, because once you hit the absolute limit on your RAM, you’ll find yourself diving straight into the BIOS just to manually tweak the memory multiplier and the FSB ratios...

So, does that mean I'm running this up to 950MHz?

Peter Young said:So, does that mean I can just push my setup all the way up to 950MHz?

Well, you might as well run it as far as it’ll go... technically anything from 920 MHz up to a 1000MHz ceiling is on the table, though I suppose the real question is just how much stress your specific gear can actually handle before things get interesting...🙂

What’s the worst that could happen if he goes a little overboard?
I’m not some hardcore overclocking enthusiast or anything, just genuinely curious!

Jamie Jones19 said:What’s the actual risk if someone pushes it too far?
I’m not some hardcore overclocking enthusiast or anything, just genuinely curious about the limits.

That's actually what I was wondering about, too.

Honestly, you aren't going to get anywhere if you try to overclock directly through the BIOS... because Windows just won't want to boot up properly, and even if you attempt to push it using ASUS AI Suite—well, the whole system will likely just freeze right up on you...

And then, after you restart the machine twice, everything just resets itself back to those boring original factory settings...🙂

http://img527.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ntitledaf4.jpg

Should I keep pushing this further?
Or is it better if I just go ahead and tweak those BIOS settings now?

Personally, I wouldn't push it any further if I were you, though you might want to head into the BIOS and tweak that ratio so the memory runs at a slightly lower frequency instead...

Are you keeping a close eye on your temperatures?

http://img357.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ntitledoq3.jpg

I honestly wouldn't advise pushing those frequencies any higher while you're still running that stock cooler... it just seems like asking for trouble...

plus, there's a pretty decent chance those temperature readings aren't even giving you the full story... you might want to do a little digging online to see which monitoring software is actually considered the gold standard for tracking temps on AM2 processors... just to be safe...

Alright... I think I'll leave it at that for now...
Hey, can you tell me if that i-tool software you get with Gigabyte motherboards is actually any good?
Is it useful for monitoring things like fan speeds or cooler performance?

ASUS AI Suite is honestly such a fantastic little tool 🙂

When you're working with Core 2 Duo processors, it gives you the most spot-on core temperature readings out there... though I can't say the same for AMD systems, as I haven't really tested them enough to be sure...

If you get the hang of overclocking and decide to pick up a beefier new heatsink... you could realistically push that processor up to 3 GHz... maybe even squeeze out a few extra megahertz beyond that if you're feeling lucky...