C2D Overclocking Guide For Beginners P5K Add-On

[DavekeC]

Ok i did some testing with CPU-Z and either my motherboard is screwed ir CPU-Z is giving me the wrong numbers

Bios FSB set at 266 and Bios Vcore set at 1.3vcore
--> Going to windows and run cpu-z and orthos
CPU-Z Giving me idle Vcore of 1.264 vcore
CPU-Z Giving me stress Vcore of 1.240 then 1.232 and 1.224 in this order and then starts switching regularly ( every xx seconds ) between 1.232 and 1.224.

I also noticed Vcore's dropping with other FSB Settings on AUTO. They always drop a bit when comming from idle. And for example my MOBO Vcore set to 1.4 shows an idle of 1.352vcore idle in CPU-Z and a stressed 1.320vcore stressed.

It got me really confused now Is this an error in CPU-Z , Mobo , Not enough Power ?

Anyways Greetz

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by DavekeC

Hellow there all !

I am pretty new to all the overclocking but i learned a great deal over the past few days and i owe it all to Clunck for the biggest part So a huge thanx is in order i suppose. I tried posting a 5€ bill here on your name but i couldn't find your bankaccount number so maybe another time

Anyways i had some question for all you readers here on this busy forum.

I have the following setup

E6600
P5K Basic with Bios 603 installed from asus site ( autoupdate doesn't show this version ) Avoid using the auto update thing, it can kill your board.
EN8800GTS 640MB
Corsair TWINX 55512 DDR2 800Mhz 2024GB
Sonata III Case
Antec Earthwats 500W ( 2 rails of 17ampere 12volts )

The following thing happened.
I followed this guide to the letter except for 1 thing i don't know about ( Clunck read private message concerning the FSB - Strap to Northbridge setting ) Dont worry about the strap setting for now, leave it as it is.

At 3000Mhz i have a stable setup 333 FSB and memory at 667Mhz with both the vcore and MemV on AUTO settings ( idea here is to obtain my 400FSB clock and then search for ideal vcore starting from the vcore shown in CPU-Z ) 400x9 is quite an unrealistic goal for 24/7 usage. You may be lucky and have a CPU that doesnt need much voltage to do 3.6Ghz, but it isnt very common. I have set the Latencie for the Memory as indicated tough. Just not very comfortable with setting the voltage of the memory since i can't get a reading of it anywhere. It should work at 1.9v but if i put it manually to 1.9 the system is unstable at 3Ghz. Are you sure that it should be 1.9v?, you need to double check, either on the sticks of RAM themselves, or on the manufacturers website.
Note: Coretemp shows 48 degrees as max for 3000Mhz setup on both cores and goes back to 45 after a few seconds - Temps are ok.

Anyways i decide to try 3200Mhz setup and go to 350FSB. Ram is at 700 Mhz. System boots and i start testing with orthos. Not even a minute in the test the system reboots. So i decide to wait for reboot but he doesn't get to windows before he reboots again. Then just before loading windows he reboots again so i go to bios to put back the old settings. This could be a lot of things, but it sounds like you are running the RAM too high - please post some bios shots of all your settings.

So i have 3 questions : Is the reboot that i describe here to be blamed on my 500W PSU ? - Possibly, but check the RAM first.
After some research i had the feeling 2 rails of 17A for 12Volt is very low when trying to overclock. Also 500W all in all might be a bit low for this system but not sure. The PSU specs are fine, it just depends if the PSU itself is flakey or not.
If not what else could it be ? I followed the guide every step of the way with exception of setting my Vcore and Memory voltage manually. - You absolutely need to set the ram voltage to what the manufacturer says it should run at. The board will set it to 1.8v by default.

Second question is something i noticed with CPU-Z
Stock settings Idle : Vcore 1.30
Stock settings Full Load : Vcore 1.28 Never use cpuz to check CPU voltages.

3000Mhz Settings Idle: Vcore 1.40
3000Mhz Settings Full Load : Vcore 1.36 - This is vdroop, enable the voltage damper in the bios (if your board has one, which im not sure if it does or not).

3200 Settings Idle : Vcore 1.42
3200 Settings Full laod : Vcore 1.38 --> 1.34 Reboot described above

Question here is if the drop in Vcore is normal ( caused by the function CPU Voltage Demper to enabled ? See above, enable it if you have it) or if it's because my powersupply just gives less when it's getting stressed ?
Also what voltage should i use when i take manual voltages in the bios if this drop is normal ? Use Asus probe to check the voltages, or if you really want to do it properly, use a DMM. If you google it, you will be able to find the correct points to test at.

Question 3:
Memory basic voltage is 1.9 according to site
When leaving it on auto my 3000Mhz systems is stable but when setting it manually on 1.90 it gives me a blue screen when running orthos ( i read this is caused by lack of power and the memory changes stuff that it shouldn't resulting in the BSOD ) but if i get it right for my 800Mhz memory i should not up the voltage untill go over 400 FSB right ? I did set the timings manually for 5-5-5-12. So i don't really know if i should get higher manual voltage and to what voltage i'm allowed to go. The infinity cooler is pretty big and hangs directly over the first memory bank of my computer so the cooler almost touches one of the memory sticks. So not sure if it has optimal cooling to up the voltage.
The XMS2 memory has passive cooling on it tough. So to what voltage should i be allowed to go with my memory ? The bottom line here, is that you need to get your system at least 12 hours stable with orthos at STOCK SPEEDS BEFORE you start overclocking. Put it all back to stock, and get it stable first.

Anyways hope some1 can help me out here because i really want to get my system at 3600 Mhz

Greetz and thanks in advance.

Daveke

Answers in bold.

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by Skeet

Morning Clunk...

Bit the bullet last night so have some results, if you dont mind having a gander.

So....I set FSB to 333, 2672Mhz giving me 1:1 at 667Mhz. Didn't adjust anything else ( previously setup as per the guide, memmory timmings 1.9V VDIMM as memmory requires).

Ran ORTHOS....

After 4 mins or so it stopped with a fatal error. (as below)

After looking around a bit and seeing what other people have clocked to...I thought this odd..so I ran it again...all looked ok with temps on Core Temp and TAT running at 54-59 Degrees roughly....overnight.

That was started at 23:40...this morning I checked it, and it had run for 8 hours 1 min 42 Seconds, stopping due to 1 Fatal error on Core 1#, so at about 07:40 this morning.

Error reads as:

1:Self-test 1280K passed!
1:Test 1, 2500 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M29311553 using 1536K FFT length.
2:FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
2:Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
2:Torture Test ran 8 hours, 1 minutes 42 seconds - 1 errors, 0 warnings.
2:Execution halted.

1:Torture Test ran 8 hours, 1 minutes 42 seconds - 0 errors, 0 warnings.
1:Execution halted.

What does this error mean?

V Core at idle at the moment is 1.38V, I seem to remember it being around 1.34V during the testing.

I read that you suggest upping V Core by .125V to see if that induces stability etc..so.

I'm a touch concerned that my temps appear to be so high, the air coming from the back of my case, is nothing like warm, not even slightly.

As the PC is only 5 days old, I wonder if the TIM on teh heatsink has bedded in yet..also...the TIM was ASUS stuff and was very thick and hard to apply smoothly, thinking of getting Arctic silver.

Can I get some sort of drive bay device and a temp probe that I could mount on the conductor plate of the heat sink, to monitor its temp?

Anyway...I am going to let my poor, tortured PC have a sleep while I am at work!

Many thanks...do you have Paypal?!

Have you got your vcore at auto?

Temps do seem a bit high, what cooler are you using, and have you tried reapplying the thermal paste?

If you could post some bios shots to show your settings, that would be good

[DavekeC]

Thanks m8

With everything disabled/enabled and all FSB and voltages on stock i did a 9 hour Orthos test with no problems whatsoever. I also had the voltage damper enabled already (i did read your guide first ! )
The voltage for the ram isn't shown on the product itself but on the site they say the duo kit is tested at 5-5-5-12 at 1.9v so that's what i have set it to now

I will try setting everything manually and do a 12 hour test with orthos for 3000Mhz and then put the next post Also a dumb question but how exactly do you post screens of your BIOS ?

Furthermore i installed the Asus probe and it still shows a Vdroop of 0.8 at full load running orthos and vdroop of 0.4 on idle. I guess there is nothing i can do about it then i just wonder if people say max 1.5volts if they mean 1.58 -0.8 vdroop
CPU Temp of 29°C and MB temp of 35°C at 305fsb, quite a difference with coretemp ! who shows 36°C for both cores

Sorry for the noobisch questions but i really got hooked now that i started reading and trying these things myself As long as i keep learning and stuff don't burn up ... it's fun !

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by DavekeC

Thanks m8

With everything disabled/enabled and all FSB and voltages on stock i did a 9 hour Orthos test with no problems whatsoever. I also had the voltage damper enabled already (i did read your guide first ! )
The voltage for the ram isn't shown on the product itself but on the site they say the duo kit is tested at 5-5-5-12 at 1.9v so that's what i have set it to now

I will try setting everything manually and do a 12 hour test with orthos for 3000Mhz and then put the next post Also a dumb question but how exactly do you post screens of your BIOS ? - You need to run orthos for about 12 hours at stock speeds before you atrt overclocking. This way, you know you had a stable computer to begin with. Grab a camera and take a picture of the relevant screens in the bios, then upload them to somewhere like photobucket

Furthermore i installed the Asus probe and it still shows a Vdroop of 0.8 at full load running orthos and vdroop of 0.4 on idle. I guess there is nothing i can do about it then i just wonder if people say max 1.5volts if they mean 1.58 -0.8 vdroop - Did you look if you have the voltage damper thing?, if you do, enable it, this will reduce the droop.
CPU Temp of 29°C and MB temp of 35°C at 305fsb -Ignore the CPU temp in asus probe, it is wrong, quite a difference with coretemp ! who shows 36°C for both cores

Sorry for the noobisch questions but i really got hooked now that i started reading and trying these things myself As long as i keep learning and stuff don't burn up ... it's fun !

Answers in bold again.

[DavekeC]

P5K Settings

Advanced CPU Settings
C1E Support Disabled
Max SPUID LIMIT Disabled
VanderPool Technology Disabled
CPU TM FUNS Disabled
Execute Disable Bit Disabled
Intel SpeedStep Disabled

The main tab for adjusting the FSB etc is as follows

AI Overclocking Manual
CPU Ratio Auto
FSB Strap To North Bridge Auto
FSB Frequency 333
PCIE Frequency 100
DRAM Frequency 667
DRAM Command Rate AUTO
DRAM TIMING CONTROL MANUAL
Cas# Latency 5Dram
Ras # To CAS # 5Dram
Ras# precharge 5Dram
Ras# active time 12Dram
RTRD AUTO
RRCT AUTO
RRCT AUTO
WRT AUTO
WTRD AUTO
RTPT AUTO
Dram Static Read AUTO
Transaction Booster Disabled
CLOCK overcharging mode AUTO
CPU SPREAD SPECTRUM Disabled
PCIE SPREAD SPECTRUM Disabled

CPU Voltage 1.4V
CPU Voltage Reference Auto
CPU Voltage Damer Enabled
CPU PLL AUTO
DRAM Voltage 1.9V
FSB Termination Auto
NorthBridge Voltage Auto
NorthBridge Voltage Reference Auto

This is my bios as it is when overclocking
I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the bios here is there ?
Asus probe shows 1.36Vcore on idle 1.32Vcore on full load and after 10mins of Orthos the Vcore drops to 1.30Volts resulting in immediate lock up of system followed by reboot.

Thx for fast reply's btw

[kietsmark1975]

Originally Posted by Clunk

Looking at your system specs, it seems that you have a Gigabyte board, this is a thread for the Asus P5K boards, so not much info about that here.

I dont use overclocking software, sorry

too bad for me i guess... tnx anyway... wrong thread... i reli like to know how to overclock my pc but anyhow, i will follow ur procedure and see if i can make out of it... thanks for sharing ur knowledge

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by DavekeC

P5K Settings

Advanced CPU Settings
C1E Support Disabled
Max SPUID LIMIT Disabled
VanderPool Technology Disabled
CPU TM FUNS Disabled
Execute Disable Bit Disabled
Intel SpeedStep Disabled

The main tab for adjusting the FSB etc is as follows

AI Overclocking Manual
CPU Ratio Auto
FSB Strap To North Bridge Auto
FSB Frequency 333
PCIE Frequency 100
DRAM Frequency 667
DRAM Command Rate AUTO
DRAM TIMING CONTROL MANUAL
Cas# Latency 5Dram
Ras # To CAS # 5Dram
Ras# precharge 5Dram
Ras# active time 12Dram
RTRD AUTO
RRCT AUTO
RRCT AUTO
WRT AUTO
WTRD AUTO
RTPT AUTO
Dram Static Read AUTO
Transaction Booster Disabled
CLOCK overcharging mode AUTO
CPU SPREAD SPECTRUM Disabled
PCIE SPREAD SPECTRUM Disabled

CPU Voltage 1.4V
CPU Voltage Reference Auto
CPU Voltage Damer Enabled
CPU PLL AUTO
DRAM Voltage 1.9V
FSB Termination Auto
NorthBridge Voltage Auto
NorthBridge Voltage Reference Auto

This is my bios as it is when overclocking
I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the bios here is there ?
Asus probe shows 1.36Vcore on idle 1.32Vcore on full load and after 10mins of Orthos the Vcore drops to 1.30Volts resulting in immediate lock up of system followed by reboot.

Thx for fast reply's btw

All looks right to me. You may need to up the CPU voltage a touch.

[DavekeC]

I will try that then but it seems so weird to me having to up the Vcore to 1.44Vcore to end up losing 0.8Vcore to Vdroop on full load.
Isn't that like insanely high ? Well i guess thats the reason why not many cores get to 3.6 Ghz but isn't that to be blamed on the Motherboard since that's the cause of the vdroop ?
Guess i'll aim for 3.2 Ghz Tops then from my computer If i get it right i can go up to 1.50volt safely in bios as long as the processor doesn't overheat right ?

Greetingz

Daveke

[Skeet]

Originally Posted by Clunk

Have you got your vcore at auto?

Temps do seem a bit high, what cooler are you using, and have you tried reapplying the thermal paste?

If you could post some bios shots to show your settings, that would be good

Yes, left VCORE at Auto as suggested in your thread, I was assuming that once you have an idea what is happening you can then adjust your VCORE as you see fit, incrementaly.
I did notice during ORTHOS, that teh second Core ( the one that failed) did seem to fluctuate marginally in stated speed, wheras the first core didnt.

Cooler is an ASUS Silent Square Pro...I dont have any more thermal paste...the ASUS stuff was very thick and very little was supplied. I also only applied it to the Processor (was running out!).

Plan being, get some Arctic Silver and cleaner, CPU and Heat sink, then apply Arctic Silver as described in Custom PC recently...bit of cling film, grain of rice sized amount, and just polish it into the surface...and do the same to the heat sink.

The Silent Square, comes with a fan controller to go in 3.5 inch bay..looks good, but..seems a little pointless now as running it on full, makes sod all difference to noise, so I would think it best to plug this back into the MOBO direct?

I have 120MM Coolermaster intake fan, 120mm Thermaltake output fan, as well as teh PSU fans and also a 90mm intake on the case window, which is blowing down the side of teh cooler.

So...maybe the TIM hasnt worked well and thus, heat isnt being pulled out of teh CPU.

What is your recommendation for TIM and using it?

Also...do you know of anywhere I can get a Thermal probe, to monitor directly the CPU temp from teh Heat sink?

Cheers

Gaz

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by DavekeC

I will try that then but it seems so weird to me having to up the Vcore to 1.44Vcore to end up losing 0.8Vcore to Vdroop on full load.
Isn't that like insanely high ? Well i guess thats the reason why not many cores get to 3.6 Ghz but isn't that to be blamed on the Motherboard since that's the cause of the vdroop ?
Guess i'll aim for 3.2 Ghz Tops then from my computer If i get it right i can go up to 1.50volt safely in bios as long as the processor doesn't overheat right ?

Greetingz

Daveke

3.6Ghz is doable for most, but not for 24/7 use. Some can do it with no extra voltage, but most cant.

Upping the vcore is a last resort. If you follow the guide, it will be on auto for the first part, that will give you an idea of how it all works, and when you have got that sussed, you can start tinkering with the voltages manually.

To start worrying about vdroop at this stage unnecessary.

Have you done the 12 hours of orthos at completely stock speeds, with only the RAM timings and voltages manually entered?

[Phonoflux]

Originally Posted by Clunk

This can be a few things.

Drivers. - clean out all the old drivers with driver cleaner, and reinstall the new ones.
Heat. - grab a desk fan and blow it into the case and see if it makes a difference to the stability.
Power - its unlikely as its a relatively new and good psu, but not impossible.
Memory - Very likely suspect. Do the memtest test 5 thing on each stick at a time, in the black slots for a few hours each.

Well Sir Clunk... Turns out that after testing the drivers and heat issues, it may be one of the sticks of memory as I took out the two sticks in the yellow slots and it appears to be working nicely now. I've either got a unhappy stick that somehow passed all memtests before or the 8800 doesn't like 4gb of memory; as the problem would happen almost to the second at 5 mins in game.

I also created a new auto fan rule in riva tuner for the poor graphics card so the thing actually uses the fan before 92c *urgh*. Stupid board partners overclocking the cards stock and not changing the fan speeds.

Thanks guy. I'll continue doing some tests and let you know. What was the reason for suggesting the black memory slots?

[Clunk]

The black slots give better stability when using 1 or 2 sticks, and the yellow ones caused errors even at low speeds when used on their own.

If you grab UBCD, it is bootable, and there is a version of memtest on it, and you can leave it running overnight.

Its an idea, if you havent already done it, to get a fan over your RAM. It doesnt have to be anything powerful, you just need a bit of airflow, and when there is 4 sticks close together, they get hot quickly

[Phonoflux]

Heh yeah I thought of that when buying the system so I stuck one of the dominator fan kits on the shopping list. It's a bit too high over the sinks but it seems to do the job nicely. If I was really anal I would tape around the edges but hey i'm sure it'll be fine.

Man you know too much about this board, very impressed

I'll have a hunt for that CD and give memtest a go. What's the UB stand for? Thanks again.

[Clunk]

Ultimate Boot CD.

Good luck with the RAM

[DavekeC]

Hellow Clunk

I have managed to clock the E6600 to 3.0Ghz stable now on a bios Vcore of 1.425volt.
Orthos has been running for 7hours now and i will leave it running till i get home tonight to be 200% certain that it's stable . The Vdroop is still 0.08-0.09volts ( CPU Volt Dampener Enabled btw !! ) so i went to my friend who has the exact same computer bought on the same day in same store etc and i checked his vdroop. Turns out he has the exact same thing going on so i suppose that it's normal. Just wondering if the bios has something to do with it. We both have bios v603 running for the P5K.

What version are you running on Clunk ?
And what is the maximum voltage i should keep in mind for the E6600 ? 1.5vcore Max ?
Or is any voltage above the stock voltages already claiming life-time from the processor ?

Greets all !