C2D Overclocking Guide for Beginners

[Clunk]

No worries, from what youve said, it just sounds like you have forgotten to set something.

If you can take a picture of your bios settings for the main bit where you change cpu settings etc, and one of the memory settings please.

[Clunk]

Changed a couple of things and added to the troubleshooting bit.

[Areku]

Hey Clunk as promised her are some screens of my settings

Screen 1
Screen 2
Screen 3

Let me know if you can see anything which I may have screwed up. Bear in mind that the memory timings have been put back to 5-5-5-15 due to the nasty crash I had with 5-5-5-12.

[Clunk]

Those look ok, but youve posted pic03 twice need the one with fsb settings and stuff on.

[Areku]

Haha so I did sorry about that.

Screen 1

That should be the one your after.

[Clunk]

All looks fine to me.

Next to do memtest.

Are you familiar with memtest? Test 5?

On the P5B you have to disable legacy usb in the bios before you do memtest.

Run it over night. leave it overclocked. We dont want any errors.

[Areku]

Ive heard of Memtest been mentioned before. Should I leave the settings as they are now and run memtest or put the settings to how they were when the system crashed before?

[Clunk]

Yep, do the 300/600 thing and leave it how it was when it crashed.

Its the memtest86+ v1.65 that you need. You can download a bootable iso cd image from the memtest website, or it is also on UBCD.

Boot from the cd, itll give you a menu, choose the memtest86+ v1.65 then it will start, press c to get to the menu and from there follow the instructions for test #5. Leave it overnight, or until you see any errors.

If your memory is ropey, this should uncover it.

You might want to post in the corsair forum ^^up there and double check on the voltage and timings for you ram, just to be sure

[Harkin]

Hi Clunk, thanx a million for makin this thread, helped me alot to clear things in my head.
I just want to tell u what Im gettin, will have it all within a month as im buying bit by bit, then cud u just say if it sounds ok or not.
1. Corsair 620w PSU
2. Asus Commando
3. 2Gig Dominator C3DF 3-4-3-9-2T at 2.4 VDIMM(rated volts)
4. Zalman CNPS9700-NT Cpu Cooler
5. 7900gt (8800gtx shortly afterwards)
6. e6600

Ok, so I want to overclock it to 3.2ghz, maybe 3.6 if I get lucky. First off I set the Ram 1:1, start at 266/533 and start increasing the FSB, hopefully getting to 400mhz with Ram at 400mhz (800mhz). So it wud be running at 3.2ghz (x8 multiplier) and maybe 3.6 (x9 multiplier) with some luck. Do u think with this list of components it wud be possible. Any suggestions or comments wud be greatly appreciated..

[Clunk]

Hi Clunk, thanx a million for makin this thread, helped me alot to clear things in my head.
I just want to tell u what Im gettin, will have it all within a month as im buying bit by bit, then cud u just say if it sounds ok or not.
1. Corsair 620w PSU Great
2. Asus Commando Get a P5B deluxe instead, the commando is problematic
3. 2Gig Dominator C3DF 3-4-3-9-2T at 2.4 VDIMM(rated volts) Save your cash and get some decent branded 4-4-4-12 stuff, the tight timings wont do much for gaming and overall performance and you are paying a premium for the dominator name. Cas3 ram will run slower than cas4 in a lot of situations.
4. Zalman CNPS9700-NT Cpu Cooler Not used one of these sorry, the scythes are always a winner if you have the room
5. 7900gt (8800gtx shortly afterwards) If you can get a working 7900gt then great
6. e6600 yes, and wait a few days and watch the prices drop

Ok, so I want to overclock it to 3.2ghz, maybe 3.6 if I get lucky. First off I set the Ram 1:1, start at 266/533 and start increasing the FSB, hopefully getting to 400mhz with Ram at 400mhz (800mhz). So it wud be running at 3.2ghz (x8 multiplier) and maybe 3.6 (x9 multiplier) with some luck. Do u think with this list of components it wud be possible. Any suggestions or comments wud be greatly appreciated..

Just aim low first until you get the hang of it, the higher you go, the more other variables there are to consider, so just take your time and get an idea of how it all works

[Harkin]

Ok wow, with your suggestions it wud save me alot of money. So perhaps the Dominator Twin2X2048-6400C4D 4-4-4-12 (2Gb) would be good? saves me many ££'s and I trust what you say about the performance.

Which Scythe do u recommend? Price is not an option, the one with best performance is the one I will get, plently of room in case as Ive pre-ordered a CM stacker 832.

About the Commando, is it not better equipped for OC'ing, are the problems you are referring to about the Jmicron controller as I will be getting a Sata Dvd/Cd to sort that problem out, or are u referring to the Bios in general? I do like that board so much with its huge copper heatsinks, but if you still insist on the P5B Deluxe I will go with it, is the Asus P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP iP965, S775 model the best?
Thanx again

[Harkin]

Is the 'Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B Heatpipe CPU Cooler' a good model or is there a better Scythe? Does it fit on the P5B Deluxe?

[Areku]

Ok so it passed Memtest fine. Although on my UBCD which I already had it had Memtest 86+ 1.70 on it, so was that still ok to run?

It ran for 10hours with 365 passes and no errors. This was at 300/600.

[chuckskull]

Is the 'Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B Heatpipe CPU Cooler' a good model or is there a better Scythe? Does it fit on the P5B Deluxe?

Thats a very good cooler. I have the Zalman 9700NT one you were considering. It's fine up to about 3.0, beyond that the fan will be spinning at a higher speed at idle, which gets quite annoying, so go for the scytche and a decent fan(or 2)

[Clunk]

Ok wow, with your suggestions it wud save me alot of money. So perhaps the Dominator Twin2X2048-6400C4D 4-4-4-12 (2Gb) would be good? Yes, these will be ok, but you can save money further by just getting some 4-4-4-12 ram that isnt dominator. Shop around and you can pick up some OCZ PC2-6400 for around £100 saves me many ££'s and I trust what you say about the performance.

Which Scythe do u recommend? Price is not an option, the one with best performance is the one I will get, plently of room in case as Ive pre-ordered a CM stacker 832.

About the Commando, is it not better equipped for OC'ing, are the problems you are referring to about the Jmicron controller as I will be getting a Sata Dvd/Cd to sort that problem out, or are u referring to the Bios in general? I do like that board so much with its huge copper heatsinks, but if you still insist on the P5B Deluxe I will go with it, is the Asus P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP iP965, S775 model the best?
Thanx again

I had 3 commando boards and all of them had multiple problems. They have some good features, but overall they were quite poor. have a search of the forums, there are a few threads with loads of info on them. The reason I suggested the P5B deluxe wifi is that I have had one of those since last september/october and I've used quite a few boards since, and I keep goign back to the P5B, it is the most solid performer of the lot without doubt. It lacks some of the bios tweaks of the commando, but it still overclocks the same.

On the scyth heatsinks, just make sure that your case is deep enough to accomodate them, otherwise you wont be able to gt the side on

P.S. There were several of us started off with commandos and there appears to only be 1 that hasnt had to RMA.

[Clunk]

Ok so it passed Memtest fine. Although on my UBCD which I already had it had Memtest 86+ 1.70 on it, so was that still ok to run?

It ran for 10hours with 365 passes and no errors. This was at 300/600.

My next job would be to take out the board, take off the northbridge heatsink and check if it is making contact. Quite often on these boards, they arent. Clean off the old thermal stuff, and apply some new. If the cooler isnt sitting flat, you'll have to bend the heatpipe slightly until it sits flat.

Can you tell me if you are able to run orthos overnight at stock settings?