my 1st overclock - e2140 & P35c DS3R

[GaryRW]

Hi everyone. It's one of those 'can I have your general comments on my overclock' type threads again

I built my first computer from scratch over xmas, which consisted of:

CPU: e2140 1.6ghz
Mboard: Gigabyte P35c DS3R
Graphics: Asus 8800GT (the one with the non-standard cooler, not that I knew when I bought it!)
Ram: Geil Ultra DDR2 PC6400 4-4-4-12 (1gb x 4)
HDD's: Samsung Spinpoint T166 500Gb x2
PSU: Corsair HX520w
Case: Antec P182
CPU cooler: Thermaltake big typhoon vx

Firstly, I guess I'm going to get questions over the typhoon. I based the decision on the socket 775 round up review on Hexus. Having read the forums since, I think most people would advise something else.

Anyway, I have clocked the e2140 to 3.0ghz. With the 8x multiplier, the FSB is 1500mhz (ok with this board??). The Memory is at 1:1 so is 750mhz. I've got it at 2.1v and 4-4-4-12 as per the Geil specs.

my CPU voltage is 1.225v in the bios, but reported as 1.184v in CPU-z and 1.18v in speed fan. Apparently this gigabyte board suffers from vdrop/vdroop??? quite badly.

My temps are around 50-52c in the middle of an orthos run which has been going for 16 hours so I'm fairly happy.

I have tried to push it further by knocking up the voltage a few notches but Orthos started failing quite quickly so I think I'd have to raise vcore quite a bit to get the 3.2ghz (I really liked the idea of a 100% overclock ). Pushing the vcore though brings the temps up quite quickly to the mid 50's, and it wasn't stable so I guess needed more. But that vcore is still really low isn't it?

So what do people think? Am I likely to see any real world benefit out of an extra 200mhz? Are mid 50c temps high?

One general point - I've seen people talk about affecting the lifetime of an overclocked part by pushing it too far. My plan is to replace the e2140 when the prices of the quads have dropped a bit so I'm not too worried about that, but what about the motherboard? Does performance drop off or are you just increasing the chances of total failure?

[cptwhite_uk]

Unless you're benchmarking, rendering, or encoding movies you won't notice the 200Mhz. Mid 50s temp is fine, although sounds high given how much voltage you're using. Do you have 120mm front (suck in) and rear (blow out) fans on the case?

If it's stable I wouldn't even bother trying to increase Vcore anymore. A E2140 @ 3Ghz is similar in performance to a Conroe 4Mb cache at 2.6Ghz. As you have probably realised you have bought yourself one of the best bargain CPUs of the last 5 years. It will sufffice for a good year or two. Had my Conroe 18 months now, and it's still a demon as far as I'm concerned and I don't feel any need to replace it in the near future.

Good to see you've good high quality components - that PC should last you a good while.

[GaryRW]

Thanks cptwhite. (did you use to be on DVD forums???)

Anyway, I've just got the standard fans on the P182 - 1 in the bottom compartment with the PSU and then 2 in the corner by the CPU - 1 on the back and 1 on the top. In hindsight, I think maybe a different cooler with a fan on the side would have been better - could've got a push pull effect going like you say.

As it is, I think the down fan on the typhoon isn't the best, but at least it's blowing some air over the motherboard bits and pieces.

I've got space to put a fan in at the front of the case though, so will probably get one to try next time I put an order in somewhere.

Re the motherboard, as you say, I'm hoping to keep this going for a while. I've assumed that as the board is rated for 1333mhz, 1500mhz isn't pushing it too far for a long term overclock?

[Hunain]

Hey there, nice parts, the PC will last you quite enough, as for the OC, pretty good, you can push it up to 3.2 if you want, but thats just for feeling better, lol, anything above 2.6Ghz should be enough for normal day2day gaming and media IMO, as for the board, whats with the 1500Mhz FSB?...do you mean the CPU FSB shown by CPU-Z? that is okay, mine is rated at 1066, I run it on something around 1700 at times, anyways, temps are fine till 60C under 100% load, even 65 is okay for 100% load, shouldnt top that.

[GaryRW]

do you mean the CPU FSB shown by CPU-Z?

Yep.

It's the bit I'm not 100% comfortable about. The CPU I can measure the temps, the ram is rated for what I'm running it at, but I've got no way to check on the northbridge temp (or at least, not that I've found.) thanks for your reassurance!

[Hunain]

what is ur mobo temp? Im using an ASUS board, you can see my system in the sig, my temps are 36-ish idle and 55 at full load, that is pretty good, considering its not very cold here either, anyways, my motherboard temp used to cross 45, then i installed 2 fans to directly blow over the motherboard heatsinks, now my motherboard temp rarely goes above 34C, that is pretty cool for a mobo, perhaps you could get a fan to blow over the mobo heatsinks? but what is ur mobo temp?

[GaryRW]

I not sure I'm getting a motherboard temp reading. Speedfan lists three other temps - 1 is always -2c so I ignore it, 1 is in line with the 2 core temps so I guessing that's another CPU temp. (Actually, just started Orthos and it went up in line with the 2 core temps as well).

So i'm guessing the last one is motherboard? that's currently 41c which seems higher than I recall it being before. I have only just stopped a 24 hour Orthos test a little while ago, so maybe that's it.

[Hunain]

umm, didnt you get some tuning, monitoring utility with your motherboard software CD? Plus maybe you could look it up in the hardware monitoring option in the Bios? Anyways, its a good OC, dont worry, ull be fine, u have a good PSU too.