Overclocking (Main Thread)

Cleared CMOS. FSB hit a wall at 272; I'm stuck at my old record of 260 on this junk motherboard. Now it’s struggling to even hold 255 (2.81)

Kudos to my friend wiredmarlin5....

266 max FBI. Just saw it listed right there in the manual too... lol

If you recall—and I’m sure you do—I told you a long time ago that the motherboard was going to be your weak link...

I get it. But honestly, I don't even need it anymore. 2.93 is just fine enough.

I mean, who am I to judge? If we could just get a motherboard that actually pushes a higher FBI... that would be the dream.🙂

Honestly, I’d much rather just stick with the motherboard and settle for a maximum of 266MHz FSB myself.
😲 😲 😲 😲 😲 😲

At least you have the advantage of a high multiplier on your side, right? 👍

Alright, here’s the setup: just slapped an E4300 into a new Gigabyte P35-DS3 with a Zalman CNPS-8000 cooler... RAM is currently 2x 1GB AData at 800MHz (until Monday, then I'm adding two more because I want to try Vista), and the GPU is a Gainward Bliss 8800 GTS with 320MB...

So, I need some help... Look, I did a messy job putting this together. I get the basic vocabulary and the general principles, but beyond that, I'm out of my depth...

Specifically, what exactly do I need to do to push this E4300 close to 3GHz? People say it can handle it without needing massive tinkering, messing with voltages, or swapping out the cooler...

Also, Gilbert mentioned once that this card can be overclocked like crazy. Well, I don't need "crazy," but if I could bump it up a little bit without too much pain, I'd love to—if anyone knows how...

Before this, I was running a GA M55S-S3 with an X2-4000+. Now that I've swapped the board and the CPU, even without touching any settings, my kid tells me the graphics look noticeably better. In WoW, TFT, COD, and even that Crysis demo—almost everything on High—there's zero stuttering or lagging, and it looks way cleaner. It actually surprised me; I didn't think the difference would be this obvious until I upgraded the CPU. Usually, in these gaming benchmarks, the E4300 and the X2-4000+ are pretty neck-and-neck, sometimes the X2 even pulls ahead. But in Crysis, the whole scene feels sharper, more detailed, and the textures are definitely much clearer... I don't really get how that connects to the processor? You'd expect it to be the GPU's doing... but then again, if the old CPU was choking the card that badly, the jump is insane, especially since they're supposed to be similar in power. Maybe I'm just imagining things, but with this new CPU and board, it feels like the whole system just "woke up."

Oh, and yeah, after my son plays for several hours, temps are sitting at 35°C for the CPU and 37°C for the GPU...

Your processor is almost identical to mine, a 9x200

In most cases, you’ll just need to head into your BIOS and check the CPU frequency; it will likely be sitting at 200 right now.
You'll want to bump that up to 333, but please, do it incrementally. I'd suggest raising it by no more than 5 or 6 MHz at a time, then saving your settings and booting into Windows. If everything runs smoothly without any issues, then you can jump back into the BIOS to push it further.

While you're in there, you should also look for the PCI Express frequency and set that to 100.

If you notice your computer keeps restarting during the boot sequence, does that mean the CPU needs a bit more voltage? Exactly.
Alternatively, if the system refuses to boot altogether, you might have set your memory latencies a little too low.

Once you're in the BIOS, hit Ctrl+F1 to unlock those advanced overclocking settings...
Aaaand then head straight to the bottom of the first row. Everything’s laid out there—you can tweak the multiplier, voltage, whatever...
Just go up in increments of 5, then boot back into Windows...
It should stay stable up to 3GHz without needing to bump the voltage...
Oh, and make sure you set the voltage to manual...

You can also mess with the memory-to-CPU ratio. Have some fun with it...

I’m not entirely sure; reaching 3GHz might be out of reach unless I bump up the voltage. Personally, I don't think it'll happen without a little extra juice, so I'll likely have to increase it.

It could potentially be due to using an older chipset like the 965, though I honestly have my doubts about that being the main bottleneck.
I can tell you one thing for certain: hitting 2.8GHz is definitely doable without touching the voltage settings.

By the way, you really need to keep an eye on your memory frequency ratio. You can't just crank up the FSB and expect the RAM to follow suit every single time.
If you leave everything at the default ratio, you won't be able to push your Windows performance any further because the memory speed will skyrocket past 1000MHz.

He says this:

BIOS version: F6

CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) - disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor 2 (TM2) - disabled
CPU EIST function - disabled

9x333, PCIe lock at 100

The Democratic Party settings offered me 2.40 and said the memory would run at 800 MHz

Vcore left at standard 1.325

Robust Graphic Booster - Turbo

It boots up fine. It reports the CPU is overclocked and says the memory is running in interleaved mode—what the hell is that?

EVEREST is reading everything wrong; it says the clock is 7x429 = 2996.75, which is a 66% OC

Temperature readings are also totally off.

External sensors: the CPU temp on the heatsink fins doesn't go over 38, and the GPU on the case doesn't cross 40.

The BIOS sensor shows the CPU at 35, and after struggling with it for half an hour, the highest it hit was 51.

That Nvidia software is also half-wrong, though maybe it gets the GPU right; after thirty minutes of playing Crysis on almost all High settings, it says it's 61...

Everything seems okay, nothing's glitching, for now... My son is playing and hasn't complained yet... 🙂

Oh, yeah, I didn't even gradually bump it up; I just jumped straight to these values...

I think I'm done touching it. It's great as is. The jump in speed and graphics quality(!) is obvious, even though I saw online that this board can actually hit 490 FSB...

And honestly, what's the difference? I've seen people OC with 8x400, but then there's the memory and heat issues—is it even worth it?

darkowl72 said:they actually state this:

Windows Home Edition is reading the data incorrectly; based on the clock speed they've reported—where 7x429 equals 2996.75, which is roughly 66% utilization

I would recommend using CPU-Z for checking the CPU and memory, and GPU-Z for the graphics card.

If you're aiming to maintain a perfect 1:1 ratio between your FSB and your memory, I’d recommend setting it to 8x400.
After all, not every processor can handle a 9x400 configuration without running into issues...

--------[ Windows Home Edition (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. ]------------------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST v2.20.405/US
Computer GAMER
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (Windows XP Retail)
Date 2007-12-16
Time 00:14 Computer

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Installed Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0 C)
Computer Name GAMER

Motherboard:
Processor Unknown, 3000 MHz (7 x 429)
Motherboard Model Unknown
Motherboard Chipset Unknown
System Memory 2048 MB
BIOS Type Award Modular (09/06/07)

Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS (320 MB)
Monitor BenQ FP202W (Digital) [NoDB] (1708963)

Hard Drive Hitachi HDT725032VLA360 (298 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-112 SCSI CdRom Device

Hard Drive SMART status OK

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 94593 MB (39356 MB free)
D: (NTFS) 210649 MB (87099 MB free)
Total Size 298.1 GB (123.5 GB free)

--------[ Overclock ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor Information:
Processor Unknown
CPUID (Processor Name) Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 4300 @ 1.80GHz
CPUID Revision 000006F2h

CPU Speed:
CPU Speed 2996.80 MHz (original: 1800 MHz, overclock: 66%)
CPU Multiplier 7.0x
CPU FSB 428.11 MHz

CPU Cache:
L1 Instruction Cache 32 KB
L1 Data Cache 32 KB
L2 Cache 2 MB (On-Die, ATC, Full-Speed)

Motherboard Information:
Motherboard ID 09/06/2007-P35-ICH9-6A79OG0NC-00
Motherboard Model Unknown

BIOS Information:
System BIOS Release Date 09/06/07
Video BIOS Release Date 01/16/07
Award BIOS Type Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Award BIOS Message Intel P35 BIOS for P35-DS3 F6
DMI BIOS Version F6

--------[ Sensor ]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sensor Information:
Sensor Type ITE IT8712F (ISA 290h)
GPU Sensor Type Driver (NV-DRV)

Temperature:
Motherboard 30 °C (86 °F)
Aux 51 °C (124 °F)
GPU 63 °C (145 °F)
Hitachi HDT725032VLA360 42 °C (108 °F)

Cooling:
CPU 4500 RPM

Voltages:
CPU core 1.39 V
+2.5 V 2.08 V
+3.3 V 3.30 V
+5 V 5.00 V
+12 V 0.90 V
+5 V Standby 5.16 V
VBAT battery 3.10 V
Debug Info F 96 FF FF
Debug Info T 51 30 254
Debug Info V 57 82 CE BA 0E 00 05 (77)

--------[ Windows Graphics ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS ]

Graphics Card Info:
Device Description NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
Card Name GeForce 8800 GTS
BIOS Version Version 60.80.0D.00.02
Chip Type GeForce 8800 GTS
DAC type Integrated RAMDAC
Installed Drivers nv4_disp (6.14.11.6375 - nVIDIA ForceWare 63.75)
Memory Capacity 320 MB

Clock speeds: Riva tuner http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

To adjust my memory and the core, you basically just slide that little arrow to the right... if I recall correctly, the factory defaults sit right around 575/1780MHz... and you probably won't be able to push the core extremely high—maybe hitting a ceiling around 620-660MHz—but the memory should be able to reach up to 2200MHz if my memory serves me right...

Now, when you're overclocking, there is one absolutely vital link in the chain, and that is your cooling setup... You’ll want to switch your fan settings from Auto over to Fixed (setting it to about 60% usually does the trick)... One really great thing about Riva is that it includes a super handy feature which is hardware monitoring—this lets you keep a close eye on your frequencies and temperatures while you're running through something like a 3DMark stress test... Just make sure those temperatures don't climb past 80 degrees Celsius...

You even have the option to create your own custom startup profile where you can set specific fan speeds and frequencies all at once...

CPU Overclocking

There isn't really any need to get too fancy here:

Keep your CPU voltage somewhere between 1.35V and maybe 1.5V max, at least until you actually figure out what you're doing...

The E4300 has a 9X multiplier, so if you take 300 FSB * 9X, you get 2700MHz, which should run quite smoothly at 1.3V... That’s more than enough for 24/7 usage, and with that voltage, your temperatures shouldn't even cross 45 degrees when you're running Orthos... You can check the temps using Core Temp (definitely try version 0.95.4 first)

You likely already know about the PCI-E lock and how the memory ratio depends on the FSB frequency... just try to keep it between 700-900MHz while aiming for the lowest possible latencies you can manage (anywhere from 4-4-4-12 up to a maximum of 5-5-5-18)... And whatever you do, don't push the memory voltage higher than 2.2V...

There is a much more detailed breakdown described over here: http://forum.pcekspert.com/showthread.php?t=88200

I haven't messed with the graph yet....

Didn't touch the voltage either. I set it to 9x333; the SPD offered me 2.4, claiming the memory would run at 800...

Everything's a 5/5. It works, no errors popping up. The POST only mentions that the memory is interleaved. From what I can tell, it's some mode where they fill the memory using specific channels for every block (not quite dual-channel—even though it says dual-channel is enabled). Seems like one of those high-end motherboard features, some kind of server-grade trick....

Temps after heavy gaming: the GPU doesn't go over 60 and the CPU stays under 50...

But once I run Orthos, everything goes to hell—the processor spikes aggressively toward 80 within just 10 minutes. Clearly, I need to fix my cooling, but I honestly can't believe this...

The second I boot the computer, CoreTemp shows 45, regardless of whether I have the Zalman CNPS-8000 on low or high.... Doesn't matter to him. Then the CPU temp climbs to 50-51 and just sits there....

Look, I know Zalman isn't top-tier, but it shouldn't be this bad that it can't keep the CPU under 45 while idling. This thing is a beast with a massive aluminum heatsink and a 120mm fan.... Even if I just had a standard 120mm fan, it should be able to cool it down. On top of that, I'm running the case completely open, and I've got another Zalman 80mm fan running at 7v right next to the CPU.... Something's definitely not right here.

Anyway, as long as I don't run Orthos, everything's a 5/5.....

Man, those temperatures are looking pretty rough. How on earth is it hitting over 70 degrees Celsius???

So, here’s what I’d suggest... take the heatsink off, wipe away all that old thermal paste, and go with some Arctic Silver 5 and Ceramique... just a tiny, tiny amount, okay? Like, just a little speck... Also, try lightly sanding the base of the heatsink with some fine-grit sandpaper, then make sure you tighten everything down nice and snug at the end...

I have a quick question. I haven't been following this thread from the very beginning, so if you guys have already covered this, please excuse me.

Just a moment ago, I tried overclocking my graphics card (an ATI Radeon 9200—it's a bit of a relic, but I did what I could) and I think I pushed the clock speed a little too far, because the screen just went black. I restarted the computer and everything went back to how it was. Now the MHz isn't quite as high as I intended, but they are still a bit elevated, I guess.

A few months back, some friends were telling me about how they overclocked their CPUs, doing this and that, so I figured, why not me? So, I went into the BIOS, bumped up the frequency, saved, and rebooted. The computer just started beeping at me and wouldn't boot up. A friend of mine fixed it for me by reverting everything to the original settings, but I'm wondering (and asking you all) how he actually did it. He opened the case, messed around with some components inside, and the computer started up normally. What exactly did he do? I asked him, but he says he doesn't remember (?!).

You can always perform a CMOS clear by toggling that jumper from the 1-2 position over to 2-3—or whatever specific configuration your particular motherboard calls for—or, if you're feeling a bit more hands-on, you could just pop the battery right out of the board for a moment to force the BIOS back to its factory defaults... though I should mention that most modern boards these days are actually smart enough to automatically revert to the default settings if they detect two failed boot attempts in a row!