Help with C2D Overclocking

[Spirital]

Uhm... guys i have a problem with overclocking my processor, i bet it's a noobish question, but i really am a newb. So i read Clunk's guide (great stuff, by the way, i found a lot of answers i was looking for from a long time) and i tried (for yet another time, because i've had this problem for about 2 years now) to overclock my processor. So, i run a Gigabyte 965P-S3 motherboard with a C2D e2160, running at default speeds. I'm aiming at 2.8-3.0 ghz, so i boot up the bios (flashed with the newest revision) and i set the FSB at say 280, memory multiplier at 2, pci frequency is 101, memory timings are set at 5-5-5-15, and the Vcore is 1.38 (real value). Sometimes the windows boots, but there is this inexplicable lag and drop of framerates, and cpu-z doesn't recognize the clock - according to it the core speed is 1801 mhz, the bus speed is 200, etc, while the first dos screen at pc startup (the one at which you have to press "del" to enter the bios) shows that the C2D is running at 2.8 ghz. When i have to restart the pc, it shuts down completely, then starts again (doesn't even reach the dos screen), this sequence is repeated 2-3 times, then dos boots up and the bios settings are averted to stock. I tried playing around with the fsb and the memory multiplier, but i couldn't stabilize the system, or sometimes even start it up. If someone could explain to me what i'm doing wrong, i'll be forever grateful, and u'll have a couple of beers on your amazon shoplist from me

[GT-R]

Whats your ram running at? just make sure your not overclocking that at the same time as your cpu and you can bump vcore up to 1.5v if that helps.

[cptwhite_uk]

The FSB affect your CPU speed and RAM speed like this:

RAM Speed = FSB (280) x Multiplier set in BIOS (2) = 560. You have DDR2 memory. This comes in different speeds (PC5300 = DDR666 = FSB333, or PC6400 = DDR800 = FSB400 for exmaple). In both these cases you're settings wouldn't be overclocking the memory. If you're running PC4200 RAM though (which = DDR533 = FSB266) then you ARE overclocking the memory. As you're running at 560, and it's rated for 533 only, admittedly it's only a small overclock, but if it's cheap memory this is potentially the issue.

If you can set a lower multiplier in your BIOS to check if this is the issue. Alternatively set the FSB to 266 to start with, that definitely won't overclock your RAM with a 2x multipler.

The e2160 has a 10x multiplier so 2Ghz comes from

FSB (200) x CPU Multipler (10) = 2000Mhz = 2Ghz
FSB (266) x CPU Multipler (10) = 2660Mhz = 2.66Ghz (gauranteed to not overclock memory)

Check what speed your memory is with CPU-Z (memory tab).

You might also want to check the HT Multiplier (not sure if this is relevant on C2D set-ups, someone might be about to clarify that). On older AMD Socket 939 systems there was something called the hyper threading multipler. This was something like the FSB (typically 200 back then) x 5 = 1000 HT speed. When you increased the FSB, you wanted to drop the HT multipler to keep it at 1000 or there abouts (no higher than 1050 for example). Otherwise the overclock could become instable. In newer motherboards overclocking tended to just have "auto" settings for things like this, but it's something you can check.

Also try increasing the Motherboard chipset voltages by +0.1V if possible, this can aid stability. Make sure you have good cooling though as this all adds extra heat.

Finally maybe your motherboard isn't a good overclocker, I've no idea what FSB speeds it is meant to be capable of, maybe you should do some research and find out (do a search for reviews).

Edit: Lastly, is the power supply good enough to hope with the extra demand of overclocking? Not a likely cause of problems I suspect, but worth checking.

Hope this helps