Overclocking (Main Thread)

Honestly, I wouldn't mess with the Latency... I tried it myself and it was a disaster 😉 ended up with a corrupted CMOS 😉 there are just way too many parameters and I managed to screw something up...

My board ran an Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 at 300x9 (it hit 333, but it was running a bit too hot for my liking) and right now I've got an Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 running at 280x11... and that's with pretty mediocre cooling, just a Blue Orb II which isn't much better than the stock cooler... so I think you've still got plenty of headroom left...

Just download Intel's TAT and check those temps. You can actually use it to stress the CPU, too—it pushes the processor harder than Orthos does, so you won't be sitting there waiting forever... Personally, I think you should try running it with stock settings first. Look, if you haven't messed with the voltages, it isn't going to hit critical temperatures while idling. Just boot up, run TAT, and put a load on it... If you see things climbing past 65°C (and honestly, nothing bad happens if it hits 70°C for a second), then just kill the load...

Then you'll know for sure you need a better cooler...

Running it 24/7 like you’re doing now should be fine... honestly, even though I’m no expert at overclocking, my two cents is that you could probably squeeze more out of the stock settings. Getting those Prime95 or Orthus scores to actually reflect real-world usage is a struggle in just about any workload...

Once you bump it up by maybe 30%—which I think is totally safe and reasonable, provided you keep an eye on the temps since every chip is different—try loading up one of your heavy games. You'll notice the difference in both smoothness and raw speed immediately... your GPU will finally have some room to breathe...

Thanks, much appreciated..
Like I said, I’m going to stick with 2.6 GHz for a few days and see how things go. I'm already hitting the frequency of an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750, which is pretty much my end goal here..😁Maybe later I'll try pushing to 2.8 GHz and set the Latency to 4-4-4-12, assuming I don't have to bump up the voltage. I'm a total novice at this, so messing around in the BIOS scares me a bit, and even just applying thermal paste or tinkering with the cooler feels like a massive chore right now. 🙂
What's the ideal TAT I should be looking at to verify stability?
Orthos has been running for 2.5 hours now without any issues; the PC is passing every test..nice.

Don't touch the Latency; you won't notice any difference... by the way, is it just me, or am I the only one running an Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 at 2.93GHz on this piece of junk motherboard?🤣

@vividhound19/">@@vividhound19

Your Intel is sitting at just 237MHz, while your memory is actually running at 569MHz. You should definitely be able to hit CL4 at stock settings. Try bumping the JEDEC up to at least 3.33 and set it to CL5.

You can push that Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 to 266x11 without breaking a sweat. Just set the JEDEC to 3 and CL5, and you’ll have a solid, reliable clock for 24/7 use.

So, I have my Intel Core 2 Quad running at 3275.33 MHz now (218.35 x 15.0), and according to the core temp readings, here is what we are looking at: Core #0= 37c
Core #1 =36-37 C

Kyle Sanchez4 said:Don't touch the latencies. You won't see any difference anyway. By the way, is it just me, or am I the only one running an E4500 at 2.93GHz on this absolute piece of junk motherboard? 🤣

😁 Honestly, from what I've seen on most forums, people rarely bother overclocking with boards like that... so I'm leaning towards thinking it's your fault. 🙏

I get it, but it's weird to me. Take someone with a P35-DS3, for instance—they either won't overclock at all, or they just leave it sitting at 2.4

Harold Lopez31 said:@peroždero

Your FSB is only 237MHz, while your memory is running at 569MHz. It’ll definitely handle CL4 at stock settings. I guess you should bump the SPD up to at least 3.33 and set it to CL5.

The E4500 can probably handle 266x11 without much trouble. Just set the SPD to 3 and CL5, and that should be a decent clock for 24/7 use.

Oof... those numbers seem a bit risky.😁
I read somewhere that this CPU can hit about 3.0 GHz on stock, but we'll see.
So, you're suggesting if I go with 266x11, I should stick to 5-5-5-18, but if I stay at my current frequency, I could drop to 4-4-4-12?
In both scenarios, I can push the SPD to at least 3?
Oh, one more thing... what temperature threshold should I set in the BIOS to trigger an alarm before things get dangerous?

Forget about latency for a second. Just let the motherboard handle the Democratic Party settings on its own and focus on playing around with the multiplier and FSB... 😉 We can worry about the RAM later...

There’s no need to wait a few days; nothing is going to change. Your board is solid—you could definitely bump the FSB up to at least 333 without any drama, maybe even higher. Just mess with the multiplier a bit to find that sweet spot where performance is high but things aren't overheating...

And look, I use Prime95 just to see if my temps are going to go off the rails. If the temperature stabilizes for a few minutes and stays within a range I can live with, then I know I'm good. Regardless, once you settle on some final settings that actually satisfy you, you still need to run Ortho or SuperPI for a few hours to make sure everything is truly stable...

George Ross41 said:My AMD 6000 is currently clocked at 3275.33 MHz (218.35 x 15.0) and my core temps are sitting right here: Core #0= 37c
Core #1 =36-37 C

What about temperatures under load? Like running Orthos?

Looking at those idle temps, I think you could push it even further...

@ darkowl72

I’d just run it at 300x9. You’d have to manually set the memory to 2.4, which puts you at 720—honestly, that seems fine. If that holds up, then maybe try 333x9 to hit 3 GHz with the 2.4 memory for 800... provided your temps don't spike too hard. That would be killer... 😉

HWMonitor is off by about 5 degrees... my BIOS is set to trigger an alarm at 60, but it didn't trip until HWMonitor hit 65...

So, I just decided to throttle my E4500 back down from 2.75GHz to 2.2GHz just to see what would happen with the thermals.
At 2.75GHz (11x250), I was seeing temps sitting right between 29-33°C.
But now that I've dropped it to 2.2GHz, the temperature has jumped to about 40°C.
That seems... counterintuitive...
I'm tracking everything using HW Monitor and Core Temp.

Check it against Intel’s TAT... and honestly, maybe it isn't even weird. Maybe the CPU just isn't getting hot enough to trigger the fan speed increase? Then once you crank it up, it finally hits the threshold and the fan kicks into high gear?

darkowl72 said:Check it using Intel's TAT... and it might not even be anything strange. Maybe the processor isn't heating up enough to trigger the fan speed increase? Once you push it harder, the temps climb, and then the fan finally kicks into a higher gear...

Temps are back down to 29-32C now.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, but after I uninstalled and reinstalled TAT, Vista just refuses to run it; it keeps throwing an error saying TAT has stopped working...
I'm having the same issue with ATY Tray Tools—it won't let me launch it at all.
Maybe I should try bumping the CPU overclock up to around 2.80GHz just to see if the temperatures end up lower or higher?

darkowl72 said:And what about the temperatures under a full load? Specifically while running Orthofix?

Looking at those idle temperatures, I honestly believe there is still some more breathing room left in this setup...

The system hasn't even crashed after... well, 22 minutes of testing. You should try pushing it further, though I haven't quite figured out where the temperature readout is located within the Orthofix interface myself.

Jason Hall18 said:Whoa... those numbers are getting pretty sketchy 😁
I read somewhere that this processor can hit about 3.0 GHz if you use the stock settings, but we'll see how it goes..
So, are you saying if I bump it up to 266x11, I should stick with 5-5-5-18? But if I just stay at my current frequency, I can drop down to 4-4-4-12?
In either scenario, can I crank the SPD up to at least 3?
Oh, one more thing... what temperature should I set as the "danger zone" in my BIOS to trigger an alarm?

Look, just push it to 266x11 or try 333x9. For the first option, set your SPD to 3 (2:3), and for the second, go with 2.40 (5:6). Keep the latencies at 5-5-5-15 for both, and leave the performance enhancement on standard. Don't mess with the voltages. And whatever you do, don't leave the SPD on "auto" like some people are suggesting here—if you do, it'll default to 4.00 automatically.

George Ross41 said:It doesn't even move after... 22 minutes. If you want to try again, I couldn't find where the temp readout is in Orthus.

You need to let it run for a few hours. It takes about 20 minutes just for the temps to stabilize. Grab the core temp reading—or better yet, use RightMark CPU Utility.