Overclocking (Main Thread)

ASUS AI Suite seems alright... though I went ahead and installed that I-COOL software too...
I figured it might help out with better cooling and managing my power usage...

I honestly don't have a clue when it comes to the rest of this...

Current status:

E6750, MSI P35 Platinum

455 x 8 = 3540 MHz
Memory timings 5-5-5-15
FSB : DRAM 1 : 1 (auto)

CPU 1.40V
Mem 1.90
FSB 1.30
NB 1.45
SB I/O 1.8
SB Core 1.15

All this is running on the stock cooler. It’s been a bit of a game. I couldn't hit anything decent with the factory settings—stuck around 420 FSB—so I had to crank up the voltages.

The question is, where do I go from here?

I have a Thermalright 120 sitting in a box waiting to be installed.

How high can I actually push these voltages before things get ugly?

The biggest mystery for me right now is the memory.
The BIOS on this board won't let me set the memory speed exactly how I want (thanks, DFI), so it just gives me these ratios that make zero sense to me.
It offers ratios starting at 1:1 and then goes up, like 1:1.2, 1:1.5... (FSB : DRAM).
There’s nothing for the reverse, where the FSB is higher than the DRAM.
I'm worried the memory is going to be my bottleneck.

Any recommendations on next steps?

As far as I can tell... Nvidia boards usually offer an unlinked option for the 🙂

The memory is Kingmax, right?

If you decide to throw on a Thermalright cooler along with an extra fan up top... then for testing purposes, you could definitely push the voltages to something like this 🙂

CPU - 1.6V max - though if you're seeing a significant vdrop, you might want to bump that up to 1.625 (personally, I've even gone as high as 1.675 🙂)

Front Side Bus - 1.5V

Memory - 2.2V for the Kingmax / or just generally for any memory where the default is 1.8V

I'd suggest bumping those other voltages up to about 60% of their maximum, which would be roughly 0.3V higher than the factory defaults.

That Kingmax memory might actually be capable of hitting 1000MHz, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to squeeze anything out of it beyond 920MHz...

The motherboard should easily handle a Front Side Bus over 500 MHz, and the processor likely will too... but the memory might end up being your bottleneck unless you can find some tighter timings or perhaps a newer BIOS?

When you're running tests, temperatures might climb north of 70 degrees, but if you're looking at 24/7 stability, you really shouldn't let it get any higher than 61 under load...

I usually just run SensorsView Pro to keep an eye on temps. It's a pretty solid little tool, I guess. 👍

For AMD processors, there's this handy little utility an Insider mentioned once—I can't quite wrap my head around the name right now...😁

wiredmarlin5 said:As far as I know... Nvidia boards have an option for unlinked memory 🙂

The RAM is Kingmax, right?

Man, you're really feeding my Nvidia obsession here, aren't you? And honestly, I deserve it.
Though, I’m starting to feel a little something for this MSI board.
Not that I actually like them—I've hated them since day one. I only picked this up because it was my second choice; Abit was impossible to find, which just shows how much of a mess our market is, and even my old favorite, DFI, didn't have anything worth recommending at the time.

It's OCZ memory. Please tell me that won't be the bottleneck.

Hey, I have a quick favor to ask if you don't mind!?🙂 ...😁
I'm looking at putting together a new PC and I've got a few rough ideas in mind
but honestly, I'm not totally sure what I'm doing—so some folks suggested I come here 🙏
to see if you guys could help me out. 🙂
Here's the general gist of what I'm thinking:
2GB of DRAM
for Core 2 Duo
320GB HDD
a 22" widescreen monitor
I'm trying to keep the whole thing around $150 or so... any advice?

Roger Wright94 said:Man, you’re really rubbing it in with that Nvidia talk, aren't you? And honestly, I can't even blame you! Since I'm running OCZ memory, I'm hoping that won't be the thing that holds me back...

I've always been a huge fan of Nvidia boards, though I suppose that might just be because I'm already running one myself...

That said, Intel's boards—or more specifically their chipsets—really do tend to perform better when you start pushing the overclocking limits, so you might actually find that going with Intel over Nvidia is the smarter play here...😉

Which OCZ kit are we talking about exactly? If it's the Gold or Platinum series rated at 800MHz, you should realistically be able to push that memory up toward 1050MHz, maybe even higher if you're feeling lucky... you could try bumping it up to 2.4V and just see how far it carries you...

All things considered, you've got a fantastic rig for overclocking, and I truly believe you could probably hit somewhere in the ballpark of 3.9 to 4.0GHz...

wiredmarlin5 said:All things considered, you've got a great overclocking rig here. I'd bet you could push it toward 3.9 - 4.0GHz

I was worried about cranking up the voltage.
Honestly, I already hit my main goal (460 FSB ~ 3.7 GHz) without breaking a sweat or taking too many risks.
But now that I've seen the data and followed the advice, I feel emboldened to push further. It's pulling at me.

The Thermalright 120 was installed yesterday, all the monitoring software is ready to go, so everything is set for the next phase.
(I have to say, installing that Thermalright 120 was a traumatic experience)

I bumped up my daughter's GeForce 7300GE from 580/800 to 650/900

Michael Morris56 said:I bumped my GeForce 7300GE from 580/800 up to 650/900

I pushed my 7300GS from 305/425 to 606/842... I guess that's as far as it goes.

Hey, wiredmarlin5...
Does my Everest look like this to you?

Processor Speed: 1002.3 MHz (Original: 2100 MHz)

Peter Young said:hey wiredmarlin5...
why am I seeing this in Everest??

CPU Speed 1002.3 MHz (original: 2100 MHz)

You've actually got a whole bunch of different options tucked away in your BIOS for tweaking things like voltage, multipliers, and all sorts of other little settings designed to shave down power consumption while the PC is just sitting there idling... so don't you worry one bit, everything should be performing exactly how it ought to when you're actually putting it under a heavy load 🙂

EDIT: Just wanted to share some exciting news, because if God wills it, my new power supply and a second 8800GTS 320 are arriving next week, so please stay tuned for some testing on those 8800 GTS 320 cards, maybe even running them both at once so we can finally see firsthand just how much of a difference SLI really makes... 🙂

What kind of PSU are we talking about here?
Can't wait...

northerncrane33 said:Wait, what kind of power supply are we talking about here?
I am seriously counting down the days until this arrives...

It’s probably going to be a Corsair Vengeance HX 520... though I should probably shoot you a direct message tomorrow with all those specific details you're looking for regarding where I grabbed it and how, since you know how I am with the details 🙂...

Honestly, the specific model isn't my biggest concern, as long as it's got enough juice to handle the load, everything else is pretty much secondary to me.

And man, looking at those sockets, I can already see myself hitting somewhere around 17,000 on 3DMark 06 😁

wiredmarlin5 said:Probably a Corsair Vengeance... anyway, I'll probably shoot you a DM tomorrow with all the specifics on where to get it and everything else, you know how it is 🙂...

The PSU isn't really my main concern, just as long as it's got enough juice. Nothing else matters much to me.

Scores? I'm already seeing people hitting 17,000 on 3DMark 06 😁

Come on, man. I'm losing sleep here... I can barely scrape together 1,700 on 3DMark, let alone an extra zero. 🤣

fadedorca66 said:Come on, give me a break... I swear, the girls are practically drooling over this stuff... meanwhile, I’m sitting here struggling to even hit 1700 on my D3 Mark, let alone squeeze out an extra zero...🤣

I should hopefully have some more specific details coming my way tomorrow, though I’m really holding out hope that the full testing phase will be ready to go by next Monday at the latest... It would be absolutely incredible if I could finally get everything running in SLI and actually see if I can push Crysis up to high settings without any hiccups! 🙄

Hey, let me know when you get 😁

I managed to hit 485 MHz, which puts me at 3880 MHz. I even touched 490, but PCMark05 crashed after just 10 minutes. I usually run that during a break just to get a quick baseline.
Couldn't quite break under 13 seconds on Super PI (13.109).

Here are the voltages:

CPU 1.55
Mem 2.20
fsb 1.40
NB 1.45
SB 1.8
SB 1.15

Keep pushing? 😁 I'm feeling pretty drained.

Obviously, I haven't run any actual stability tests yet. So far, this has just been a desperate hunt for more MHz.