E5200 overclocking.

[revol68]

Okay I recently purcahsed the rather brilliant e5200 with an ASUS P5KPL-AM and have got it running as high as 3.45ghz with stock voltage, though dropped it down to the much nicer and rounder figure of 3.33ghz. I'm more than happy with this overclock as it is really my first time attempting cpu overclocking but now I've got the bug and am curious to how high I can get it.

I dropped my ram down to 677mhz (i think) and have my FSB at 266 x 12.5, anyone any suggestions as to where I can go from there. I'm really hoping to hit 3.7ghz though I doubt that will give any boost in real life game performance as my gpu is a 8800gt.

[cmndr_andi]

Hi there, the e5200 does look like a remarkable chip for the money. I think you may find better stability at higher clocks by running the RAM sychronously with the FSB. I believe the FSB wall of that chip can go down to 333MHz but could be as high as 400MHz. Probably would be a good idea to set the CPU multi down to the minimum, sychronise the RAM and slowly bring the FSB above 333 and up to 400MHz. When you find the highest fsb the system can run Prime 95 at, make a note of it. Then slowly increase the multiplier up to your target (3.7Ghz) increasing voltage as required and keeping temps safe.

I'm sure you know most, if not all of this as you have already got a significant overclock, but my main point is see if running the RAM synchronously helps hitting your target.

[nightkhaos]

May I ask what cooling you have used on this system?

[revol68]

cheers for the advice, I always thought it best to run my ram at a slower ratio as pushing up the FSB overclocked it to but I'm a noob at this stuff.

I'm using the standard intel hsf that came with it but it's all in a nice breezy Antec 900 (so breezey it can make my legs cold!)

[revol68]

okay i went looking for memory ratio options but the only ones I could find where to set memory at 677, 800 or auto. Trying auto and 800 wouldn't boot at my previously stable 266 x 12.5.

There is also latency settings but I didn't want to mess with them.

[nightkhaos]

Okay, if you intend to get over your current speed you will need to greatly improve your cooling systems. This will allow you to push your processor up even further and make sure it remains thermally stable (if a CPU if too hot it tends to produce random errors due to excessive heat).

You case sounds fine, however the stock CPU heat-sink will not be ideal. It would be best to buy an after market cooler, as well as a new thermal compound.

For the Heatsink I would recommend a TRUE Black with 2 Noctua Fans. (You will also need 2 Fan Clips).

For the thermal compound you will probably want to use Artic Silver 5 which is generally regarded as one of the best thermal compounds. (It is also wise to clean your CPU and heatsink beforehand, however I could not locate any of the recommending cleaning solutions on Scan, I recommend Arcticlean).

Once the heatsink is applied you should see a decrease in average temps of around 10-15 degrees C.

[revol68]

I don't think the issue is cooling cause it just refuses to boot when I move the fsb from 266 to 275 and my temps haven't changed, when it blue screened in windows at 274 the temps where grand, sitting at around 41 idle.

[nightkhaos]

I believe cmndr_andi is better verse in actual configuration for OCing your system. I do not recommend improving the cooling simply because it will make OCing possible, I suggest it because if you exceed your current settings you risk burning out your chip!

[revol68]

my max temp at 3.4ghz was 62 (whilst playing GTAIV)which seems safe enough. i don't want to tae the chip past 3.7ghz and I reckon my current cooling isn't a hinderance to that, though my settings or motherboard (or maybe even the chip itself is)could well be.

I wouldn't intend to run it at 3.7ghz anyway, I just want to get it there for the curiousity.

[cmndr_andi]

In terms of the memory speed - the RAM is DDR2 ie. Double data rate. So when using a synchronished FSB and RAM the DDR speed will be twice that of the FSB. Hence 266Mhz FSB results in 532Mhz memory speed.

The RAM is likely rated to 800Mhz (PC2-6400) hence to achieve this an FSB of 400MHz is required. You can check if the board and memory will run at this speed by setting the RAM-FSB to be linked and synchronised and setting FSB to 400MHz with the CPU multiplier set to minimum (likely 6), moving sowly up to this 400MHz speed is advisable. If this runs stable - increase the CPU multiplier while increasing the voltage to allow the system to be prime 95 stable. This method will give the best overclock with the best memory speeds.

Note: you may need to increase your Northbridge volts to heavily overclock your FSB. Reseating the Northbridge with Arctic silver 5 is always a good idea to gain some free cooling as these heatsinks are ususally mounted with bad quality thermal compound.

[arthurleung]

my max temp at 3.4ghz was 62 (whilst playing GTAIV)which seems safe enough. i don't want to tae the chip past 3.7ghz and I reckon my current cooling isn't a hinderance to that, though my settings or motherboard (or maybe even the chip itself is)could well be.

I wouldn't intend to run it at 3.7ghz anyway, I just want to get it there for the curiousity.

You'll likely need a large increase in voltage to hit 3.7Ghz and the heat generated therefore grow exponentially with frequency.

If you're at 62'C at 3.4Ghz it will certainly go past 80'C at 3.7Ghz.

[nightkhaos]

62 degrees in GTAIV is good, but you would really want to test the system by completely loading it for in excess of 6 hours using a program like Prime95. This will determine how your CPU handles itself under constant load, and weather or not the heat-sink is able to dissipate the heat quicker than the CPU can generate it.

I would expect a at least 10 degrees more on your CPU when running Prime95 as this is a constant load, whereas GTAIV only spikes to full load (i.e. if the CPU becomes loaded for a short time, while the CPU is under less load the heat can be dissipate and the CPU will cool).

I also expect when you increase the overclocking you may not even be able to run Prime95 for over a few minutes before the CPU will begin to error with your current cooling.

A good tool for doing these tests is OCCT as it will load up all cores (a stand alone version of Prime95 will only work over one thread, hence only load a single core).

If your system can run Prime95 without an error for 6 hours or more it is considered "Prime95 stable" and thus you will never have any problems with errors when it comes to general use.

Remember you can make your system Prime95 unstable when gaming but there is a risk that it will error and cause the game in question to crash. This will be very noticeable with GTAIV as it is a CPU intensive game.

[sadbuttrue]

You'll need somewhere near 1.35v to get 3.7ghz prime95 stable. I'm running 1.4v in a 24/7 system here with nps. I wouldn't recommend that many volts on a stock cooler tho.

The E5200 wont go much further than 330FSB. Mine conks out at 320, so atm I've settled for 320x11.5 = 3.68ghz, running at DDR800 (4:5 ratio).

IMO I wouldn't aim for higher than 3.5ghz on the stock cooler. Don't forget to add 10c to current load figures for summertime use.

[nightkhaos]

are you sure there isn't a hole in the FSB? I find that with some processors they have places where they cannot go with the FSB, but a couple of MHz above that you find another place where it is stable?

[sadbuttrue]

are you sure there isn't a hole in the FSB? I find that with some processors they have places where they cannot go with the FSB, but a couple of MHz above that you find another place where it is stable?

From the reading I did at the time, a number of people managed to get it working at 400 and above, but the heat and stress that would put on other components prevented my from trying.

[nightkhaos]

Yes that can be a problem, however that sometimes can be fixed by placing active heat-sinks on the north and south bridge, or placing the multiplier of the system low (i.e. not using the maximum 10).