C2D Overclocking Guide for Beginners

[Chunter]

guys what would i need to change to get my ram running at 1:1 ?

[moogle]

you'd need to change your divider to 1:1
but then it'd run at lower speeds. why not have your cpu at 3.6ghz? then 1:1 would be fine and you should also set your timings in bios. its quite high for ddr2.

[Chunter]

my ram is 6.6.6.18 thats what its supposed to run at,what would i change to get either to run at 3.6 or to get my ram at 1:1 ?

plz bear with me ,totally new to what the words all mean and do.

[moogle]

you'd have to overclock your cpu, hence what this guide is about. but if you dont want to overclock your cpu, you'd have to change the fsb to 400 (which is 800 in ddr terms ie your ram speed) but then you'd have to lock your multiplier at 7 by which you'd lose 200mhz on the cpu speed, or if you wanted run it at x8 with a speed of 3200 (a mild overclock)

But those chips can easily do 3.6 from what alot of users have it running at on XS. If you don't want to mess with your cpu speed then you don't need to have a 1:1 ratio. As long as your ram and cpu are running fine its okay.

I thought your ram was 5-6-6-18 as in cpu-z it's showing the profiles set on the ram.

[Chunter]

damn you're right,just noticed that 5 myself.whys that i wonder ?, i set them then rebooted,shoulda saved.will look again tonight when at home.either i didn't set the first 6 or it didn't like it.remind me never to take screenshots late at night.
when i set my fsb to 400 last night my bios "projected" that the ram would run at 840.
this stuff is confusing the hell out of me.slowly slowly catchy monkey with this overclocking stuff methinks.

[moogle]

your ram should be 800 if you have 1:1 on 400 fsb.
if you'd like to overclock your cpu then say so and I'll try and help. then you can run your cpu at 3.6ghz and have a 1:1 ratio for ram/fsb.

[Chunter]

yes i'd very much like help.

[moogle]

Before you overclock what heatsink are you using?

[Chunter]

zalman cnps 9500 led with arctic silver 5,8800 gt with zalman vf1000,thermaltake kandalf with just the front and back 120 fans on. have just ordered a HR 05 sli for my southbridge.
i'm not new to pc's but just very very new in the black art of overclocking.

[moogle]

well thats good,
I thought you had a stock hsf on

Do remember there are risks in overclocking, but I'm not gonna be telling you to set the voltages at mad settings though.

You should download CPU-Z, Prime95 and CoreTemp. I use Everest too as it shows the overall CPU temp as the cores are always hotter. I'll find some download links for you.

[Chunter]

got them already,may just have to find what disc everest is on.also have realtemp.

[moogle]

Well what I'd do is set the FSB to 400 and put the VCore at 1.35 which is within the safe limits from Intels Spec page

http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SLAPL

Then run prime95 (with error checking on) and everest open (I check the main cpu temp not the core temps). Check the temperatures aren't going beyond 72, and run it for about 30 mins I'd say. If it hasn't thrown an error then go back to the bios and lower the VCore a notch or two, then stress for another 30 mins. Keep repeating this until you get to a Vcore that causes prime95 to give an error then move the voltage up 1. Then you can stress it for as long as you like till you consider it stable. Most people do it for hours on end. Remember set your ram voltage and timings manually in the bios and disable spectrum spreading.

Some people hit 3.6ghz with 1.3 - 1.35 so hopefully yours is a good chip and can do that within that range.

Remember to run CPU-Z too and watch the voltage as you stress the CPU. If you have a VDroop option enable that too. It'll keep the voltage more constant under load.

[Chunter]

cheers mate,i'll try to get on this tonight.watch this space.

[moogle]

Originally Posted by Chunter

cheers mate,i'll try to get on this tonight.watch this space.

Watching
Let us know if you need any more help

[Chunter]

bfore i do this how much hotter should it run ?

[moogle]

I don't really know but what I suggest you do is run prime95 with your current settings for about like 10-20 minutes. Check the CPU overall temperature with everest and the core temperatures and see what they are on load (ie when prime95 is running). On stock heatsink it would be 60 but I'm guessing with your CPU cooler it may be 50 - 40 on load. Might be less when you look at the CPU overall temp.

Report back on the temps if you can. Hopefully they aren't too high. If the temps are good right now then you're good to go to the next step if you wish.