C2D Overclocking Guide For Beginners P5K Add-On

[Skeet]

It was Nero 7...just burnt some P*rn, mainly MPEG's, to DVD (for a mate, poor guy!)...toook about 45 mins, start to finifh, with the actual writing to disc, very little time.

Would you advise I add soem V COre maybe, depending on what ORTHOS does?

What next...MEMTEST?

Where can I get 3d MArk and what do I do with it?

What is the weight, of an unnladen Swallow?

[Clunk]

It was Nero 7...just burnt some P*rn, mainly MPEG's, to DVD (for a mate, poor guy!)...toook about 45 mins, start to finifh, with the actual writing to disc, very little time.

Would you advise I add soem V COre maybe, depending on what ORTHOS does?

What next...MEMTEST?

Where can I get 3d MArk and what do I do with it?

What is the weight, of an unnladen Swallow?

Dunno about nero, dont use it for encoding. Maybe it needs an update?

You only need to add vcore if it fails.

You only need to run memtest if you are having problems.

just google 3dmark06 and grab it from the futuremark site.

Depends on the weather, if its been spitting, itll be lighter.

[robucf4]

You havent mentioned what model/speed the RAM is, but the thing that stands out from your settings, and it is something that is mentioned a few times in the guide, and that is to keep your RAM at 1:1.

You have the RAM set at 800Mhz, and if you are following the guide, it should be set to 667 if the FSB is 333.

The ram is corsair c4's ddr-800 ram, these I believe:

Model
Brand CORSAIR
Series XMS2
Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4
Type 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
Tech Spec
Capacity 2GB (2 x 1GB)
Speed DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Cas Latency 4
Timing 4-4-4-12
Voltage 2.1V
Heat Spreader Yes
Features EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) and also SLI certified
Recommend Use High Performance or Gaming Memory

In my orginal post, I mentioned I had the RAM at 1:1, the the end of your guide talks about dividers and getting the ram to run at the fastest possible speed. I thought that meant to go back in after everything was stable and choose the fastest speed for the ram, guess I misinterupted that section, I will go put it back to 1:1.

But going back to my orginal posts what are you thoughts on temp and not being able to get stable on anything other than VCore AUTO?

[Clunk]

Well, firstly, not all the dividers are stable at all speeds, and it could just be that that particular divider, isnt stable at 333. Try a higher fsb with the RAM 1:1..what happens then? Or a slightly higher FSB with a lower divider?

Have you added some extra voltage to the NB?

I havent heard of a board not being stable on manual vcore before, so if it isnt a faulty board, it may just need a long cmos clear.

[robucf4]

Well, firstly, not all the dividers are stable at all speeds, and it could just be that that particular divider, isnt stable at 333. Try a higher fsb with the RAM 1:1..what happens then? Or a slightly higher FSB with a lower divider?

Have you added some extra voltage to the NB?

I havent heard of a board not being stable on manual vcore before, so if it isnt a faulty board, it may just need a long cmos clear.

When I was orginally trying to get a higher FSB, there was a 1:1 ratio, but no matter how much I upped the VCore (max of 1.45) Orthos would fail even at an FSB 333. On AUTO it would run for hours without errors. I did not mess with the dividers until I decided to stick with the 333 FSB.

BTW, when I went to 1:1, the memory benchmark in Sandra dropped by 1/3, so once you have a stable OC which ratio is better?

I have not messed with any other voltages but RAM and VCORE, I am just afraid of something ging wrong, its been a few months but I am stll new to this DIY AND OC scene.

Also, what do you think of the 1.38 VCore for 3.0? Your guide does say leave it on AUTO unless you want to tweak the voltages, so I guess its ok?

[Clunk]

It is impossible to say what is reasonable to expect from your particular cpu at a certain voltage because they are all different.

Dont worry about the memory bandwidth for now. That is in the more advanced parts of the guide. Have a read of the first part of the guide that is based on the P5B, it should fill in any gaps, as the P5K guide assumes that you have read the first part

Dont be scared of adding voltage to the NB, I have been running this at full whack since day one, and the same for the P5B's before it. All you need to do, is make sure that there is some airflow through the case, and youll be fine.

Same with the CPU voltage, dont be scared of adding it in small notches, just keep an eye on the temps.

So, in a nutshell, dont worry about too many things at once while you are learning, and see how high your cpu will go at temps that are acceptable for your cooling, and once you settle on an overclock that is good for you, THEN you can go and mess around with the RAM and timings/speeds

[robucf4]

It is impossible to say what is reasonable to expect from your particular cpu at a certain voltage because they are all different.

Dont worry about the memory bandwidth for now. That is in the more advanced parts of the guide. Have a read of the first part of the guide that is based on the P5B, it should fill in any gaps, as the P5K guide assumes that you have read the first part

Dont be scared of adding voltage to the NB, I have been running this at full whack since day one, and the same for the P5B's before it. All you need to do, is make sure that there is some airflow through the case, and youll be fine.

Same with the CPU voltage, dont be scared of adding it in small notches, just keep an eye on the temps.

So, in a nutshell, dont worry about too many things at once while you are learning, and see how high your cpu will go at temps that are acceptable for your cooling, and once you settle on an overclock that is good for you, THEN you can go and mess around with the RAM and timings/speeds

Thanks for the replies, 3.0 is good enough for me (I want higher but...), 1.38V does not seem like overkill, temps are 30C idle and 45 load -- so I am not worried about it. I just wanted to make sure I was not doing anything blantantly wrong. Now that I think back on it, I think I was messing with too many things at once, mabe one day I will retry. I am just a little shy right now, a month ago I followed a guide from extremeforums and somehow my CPU got hosed, Intel sent me an e6600 in place of an e6420 cause they were out of stock So once again I thank you and keep up the good work!

[5aboy]

That is a strange one, and it is the first time Ive heard of it. What make and model of drive is it?

Also, the black slots are the jmicron controller, and unless you actually use the IDE slot, esata, or have run out of red sata slots, it is always best to disable the jmicron controller in the BIOS as they are well known for causing problems.

If anyone else has similar problems, I will add it to the troubleshooting bit.

i think the black slots are also Intel RAID - i have all six of the slots being used, and they all install under intel. The eSATA is Jmicron.

[Skeet]

So...I'm watching "The Rock", all of a sudden, Alarm bells start ringing....literally.

ASUS Probe tells me that my VCORE fluctuated to 1.72 V from around 1.4 then returned to normal, I assume instantly.

Currently been running ORTHOS for 7Hrs 21Mins at 3Ghz...everything normal..

Does this happen?

Likely cause?

Temps still 54 Degrees.

[Clunk]

Sounds like possibly a duff board or PSU. It shouldnt fluctuate like that, and it certainly shouldnt go to 1.72v.

[robucf4]

So...I'm watching "The Rock", all of a sudden, Alarm bells start ringing....literally.

ASUS Probe tells me that my VCORE fluctuated to 1.72 V from around 1.4 then returned to normal, I assume instantly.

Currently been running ORTHOS for 7Hrs 21Mins at 3Ghz...everything normal..

Does this happen?

Likely cause?

Temps still 54 Degrees.

Holy crap, your luck your chip is ok. Hopefully the mobo detected the spike and hopefully protected the CPU but who knows how that stuff works. The P5K Asus forum posted the voltage should go down as the load rises, not spike like that.

[Skeet]

Could it just be a freak occurence...maybe during a test change in ORTHOS or just crap monitoring from PC Probe?


ORTHOS didnt error, now been running 8hrs....

Obviously...I know that my PSU has been deemed to be potentially ****e...but...

EDIT: Just to remind you, that ASUS Probe has also told me that my CPU is at 230 Degrees before...when obviously it wasn't.

[Skeet]

Well...had ORTHOS running for 16hours 16 mins, no errors...no further alarms on PC Probe...so...looks like 3Ghz is stable.

Idle temps are 35 Degrees in 20-22 Degree ambient...load was 52 Degrees.

So that looks OK

[Clunk]

Looks fine to me, but keep an eye on that voltage fluctuation

[Skeet]

Looks fine to me, but keep an eye on that voltage fluctuation

All seems to be OK. Will have to keep ASUS Probe open for a while, see if anything happens....I will probably get a better PSu and gonna get a mains conditioner as well.

My folks want me to build a rig for them, so may use my current PSU in that.

Now, I guess its time to get 3D mark and see what that says...how do I test Frame rates in games?

Should I be looking to tweak my memory now? Have memory cooling so that will help.

Memory 2x 1024 Twinx XMS2 DDR800 5-5-5-12 running 1:1 750Mhz at the moment.

[Skeet]

Right then.

Downloaded 3D Mark 06, free version.

Looking at it, I cant change anything, settings wise...so was testing at a resolution of 1280x1024.
My screen is 1440x900 (widescreen 19 inch).

I got a score of 9008.

This puts me towards the top end off all systems, but towards the very bottom of the top 248 similar systems.

Is the resolution likely to affect my score (I think very much so, despite having only an extra 14000 or so pixels)?

Main Test Results
3DMark Score 9008 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 3998 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 3788 Marks
CPU Score 2534 Marks

Detailed Test Results

Graphics Tests
1 - Return to Proxycon 33.446 FPS
2 - Firefly Forest 33.181 FPS

CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.798 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 1.288 FPS

HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 34.498 FPS
2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 41.263 FPS

It doesnt seem to recogise that my CPU is running at 3Ghz, whjen it compares my system to others.

Is it worth registering to get the best results?