C2D Overclocking Guide For Beginners P5K Add-On

[Skeet]

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

I am running my Corsair TwinX XMS2 6400 in the Yellow Slots, as from what I made of the manual, thsi is preferable for dual channel with two sticks.

Reckon I should try the black slots?

Also what is "Memtest"?

Any ideas about my previous post? Have ordered some Arctic silver and cleaner so will give that a try later on.

Is it worth/possible running 3 or 4 Gig ram with Vista?

[Clunk]

Dont worry about the vdroop, a lot of boards have it, and especially Asus boards.

Mine is the P5K deluxe, so the bios versions are different to yours.

Any voltage above stock voltage has the potential to kill your processor, there is no safe voltage.

Saying that, I ran an E4300 at 1.9v for over a week and it is still living

[Clunk]

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. Yes, thats right.
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. Nothing to worry about, apart from the core failing

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!). Might be too much on there.

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. No need to fanny around with cling film. Just nip to the arctic silver web site, there are instructions on there. I do it like that, only I use slightly less.

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? Doesnt matter either way.

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. Try turning the side fan off and see if it is interfering with the airflow.

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? I use arctic silver 5.

Also...do you know of anywhere I can get a Thermal probe, to monitor directly the CPU temp from teh Heat sink? You can pick up a fan controller with thermal probes for about 6 quid. Have a look on scan, but to be honest, there is little point in monitoring the heatsink temp really.

Cheers

Gaz

I am running my Corsair TwinX XMS2 6400 in the Yellow Slots, as from what I made of the manual, thsi is preferable for dual channel with two sticks.

Reckon I should try the black slots?

Also what is "Memtest"?

Any ideas about my previous post? Have ordered some Arctic silver and cleaner so will give that a try later on.

Is it worth/possible running 3 or 4 Gig ram with Vista?

Black slots are more stable for 2x1GB - at least they are for me, and a few others that have tested them

If you have vista x64, you can run 4GB+ - if you have vista x86, stick with 2x1GB. 4GB will still work, but it will show up as around 3.2GB, and the extra 1.2GB hasnt made any difference to vista for me at all.

[DavekeC]

LoL on auto setting for the cpu voltage my motherboard places the voltage to 1.36 volts to overcome the vdroop if i can believe the asus probe Will the processor burn out the second you overdo it on the voltage ? Or will it have a slow painfull death ?

Would the CPU live for 3-4 years at 1.5volts or is that doubtfull ?

Greetings

Daveke

[Clunk]

LoL on auto setting for the cpu voltage my motherboard places the voltage to 1.36 volts to overcome the vdroop if i can believe the asus probe Will the processor burn out the second you overdo it on the voltage ? Or will it have a slow painfull death ?

Would the CPU live for 3-4 years at 1.5volts or is that doubtfull ?

Greetings

Daveke

Its impossible to say, especially as retail C2D has only been out around 12 months, so no-one has done it yet.

If you are at all worried, dont overclock it, it really is as simple as that

[Skeet]

So what do i do about it? The core failure? Extra notch of VCORE? set to 1.4V perhaps?

Obviously I would prefer top get a higher OC. I intend to wait until the arctic silver 5 arrives, make sure the heat sink is flat, then refit it and see what happens to temps.

And swap my ram sticks around.

What is Memtest?

Thanks.

[Clunk]

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.

So what do i do about it? The core failure? Extra notch of VCORE? set to 1.4V perhaps? See the above quote, you already answered that yourself

Obviously I would prefer top get a higher OC. I intend to wait until the arctic silver 5 arrives, make sure the heat sink is flat, then refit it and see what happens to temps.

And swap my ram sticks around.

What is Memtest?

Thanks.

There is memtest for windows and memtest on a bootable cd/floppy..

[Skeet]

There is memtest for windows and memtest on a bootable cd/floppy..

The difference being? I am not familiar with all this "boot from here and there" milarky...

[Clunk]

One is a bootable cd or floppy that runs in DOS mode, and the other runs in windows.

If you use the bootable memtest, use test 5.

[xAmritx]

Well rigged everything up and it booted up first time with no faults! YIPEE!!!

My temp hover around 27-29c....is that ok for stock speeds with a Scyth S-Flex and a Ultra-120 Extreme? My cousins one is 19c but im not sure what the weather was like that day. Was abit hot in my room yesterday and slightly colder today but stays at 27c....

[Clunk]

Well done, looks fine to me

[xAmritx]

YAY! Rumours has it that the bios report temps wrongly. SO THERES STILL P{OSSIBLE HOPE THAT ITS LOWER!!!! *Runa round in circles with happiness*

[Clunk]

What are you and your mate measuring the temps with?

[xAmritx]

not 100% sure what he used.....atm im using just BIOS, want to flash eveyrthing first before i install a OS.

OH btw thanks for writing the guide up. Helped me sort out what needed to be done in BIOS even at stock settings.

Question: Do i need to manually set the cpu voltage even at stock settings or leave it at auto?

[Skeet]

not 100% sure what he used.....atm im using just BIOS, want to flash eveyrthing first before i install a OS.

OH btw thanks for writing the guide up. Helped me sort out what needed to be done in BIOS even at stock settings.

Question: Do i need to manually set the cpu voltage even at stock settings or leave it at auto?

Apparently, it is a good idea to leave Voltages on Auto (apart from VDIMM, which you should set as per manufacturer requirements), until you see what happens with your system, then add or remove VCORE to stabalise the system if required.

Clunk has a list of programs in the initial thread that you will want to download, for stress testing, temp monitoring and general system info.

[xAmritx]

Apparently, it is a good idea to leave Voltages on Auto (apart from VDIMM, which you should set as per manufacturer requirements), until you see what happens with your system, then add or remove VCORE to stabalise the system if required.

Clunk has a list of programs in the initial thread that you will want to download, for stress testing, temp monitoring and general system info.

Thanks for the Voltages information.

I got all the programs he recommended and will use them as soon as im done.
I read the first btis of both his guides (not OC'ing yet so sticking to stock settings) and already have the Memory Voltages set to 2.2v.

I did set the timingings manually to 4-4-4-12 and left the stuff underneath it to auto as i was unsure what they should be set at for a Ballistix PC-6400 2x1GB memory sticks.
I tested the memory too for 13hours and it passed 32 tests with no errors at all.


Thanks

EDIT:Reporting on the temps:they dropped to 22c average last night the bios reported...im not sure if it was due to the artic silver settling in (i heard only a few degrees drop when it does) or due to me giving those thermalright ultra-120 extreme spring screws a little more tightning...