overclocking help with Abit AB9 QuadGT & Intel E6600

[jasyn]

system spec:
intel e6600
abit ab9 quadgt (bios:13)
2gb g.skillz hz ddr2-800mhz

i currently have it running at cpu vcore 1.50v
max cup htt = 350
divider = 9x
memory divider = 1:1

my temps are looking around 45-50/load on air when doing superpi .. it isn't stable running orthos blend or small FFTs.

i have a couple questions regarding my bios options

what exactly do these voltages do in regards to getting stability?
which do i know to raise if the system fails to run?
what should the max voltages be fore these?

1) CPU VTT
2) MCH (northbridge)
3) ICH (southbridge)

for safety measures but are these max ranges for a computer that is on 24/7, but nothing extensive, gaming, word processing, internet usage?

1) max cpu core voltage = 1.5v
2) max ddr voltage = 2.2v (even if the box on my memory says 2.0-2.1v)? or would i be frying these chips?

if anyone has this board can you give me some tips please.

[Richh]

Welcome Jasyn!

About the first and best suggestion I could make is that you also join the Abit USA forums if you haven't already done so. You will find a much bigger pool of experience there than here, and a lot of the questions you're going to have will already have been asked - and answered - there before. As such, you'll be able to learn a lot in a very short space of time with a bit of judicious reading.

To address your questions:

i currently have it running at cpu vcore 1.50v

An obvious question maybe, but is this the voltage it needs to be stable at 350MHz FSB? In other words, did you go straight for 1.50v, or did you work up gradually from the default?

my temps are looking around 45-50/load on air when doing superpi .. it isn't stable running orthos blend or small FFTs.

If it isn't stable running Orthos, many will take the view that it isn't stable, period. However, you're perfectly entitled to make your own mind up on that one. If it doesn't crash during "normal" usage, then you'll probably be happy.

Where are you seeing those "45-50" temps? Is that the CPU temp as reported in uGuru? If so, what about your PWM temps, and have you tried CoreTemp/SpeedFan/something else that reads the DTS values?

what exactly do these voltages do in regards to getting stability?

The long answer is very complicated. The slightly shorter, layman's answer is that some of them are "supply" voltages. If you feed a device more power, it will be able to work faster - but will produce more heat.

The others are "signal" voltages. If you raise the level of a signalling voltage, you will theoretically make it easier for the components on the board to talk to each other - a bit like turning the volume on your stereo up makes it easier to hear the music, especially over background noise. However, the stereo analogy also applies in that if you turn the signalling voltages up too far, the sound can get distorted, and in extreme cases you can blow the speakers. Very similar applies here.

So, in general, increasing voltages can increase stability as operating speeds increase, but if you can't control the extra heat that results, you might not get where you want to be.

which do i know to raise if the system fails to run?

You don't, until you experiment on your system to find out where its own little bottlenecks are. Raise one voltage at a time and see what the effects are. If your system stability doesn't change after you raise the first one, set it back to its previous value and raise the next. Work through them one at a time and you'll soon start to learn which affects what.

what should the max voltages be fore these?

1) CPU VTT
2) MCH (northbridge)
3) ICH (southbridge)

This is not as black and white a question as you might think. A hell of a lot depends on the quality of your cooling solution and the temps inside your case. What you can get away with on a modified air- or liquid cooling solution is markedly different from what is safe in a stuffy, inadequately ventilated case, so at this stage it wouldn't be as helpful as you'd think for one of us to reel off some numbers that just happen to work for us. Again the best I can suggest is that you cruise over to the Abit USA forum and see what other guys with similar setups to you are using.

This is especially true in the case of your memory. There have been more than a few instances of DDR2 DIMMs dying very young as a result of running on higher voltages. 2.2 shouldn't be hugely dangerous but again I'm not running the same brand of RAM, so your best bet would be to look at the USA forums and see what the guys with the same stuff as you are running, use that as a general datum point.

Speaking of cooling, the standard thermal solution is a bit, well, cr*p. If you are going to be running it overclocked, you may benefit from paying this area some attention.

[daza]

Hi there, all of what richh has said tbf, then the c2d guide on overclocking might explain a abit more.