fldash

I haven't overclocked anything since my Celeron 300A that easily went to 450. Remember those days?

Anyway, I just got a E6600 with the Gigabyte 965P-DS3 motherboard and I need some advice.

What are the best programs (that work in Vista) to check CPU temperatures and do a stress test to make sure all is well?

Furthermore, is anyone running an E6600 on this board? What voltage, bus, and multiplier are you using?

Is it better to do 8x400Mhz or 9x355Mhz?

I'm running the F9 bios on Rev2 of this board. I hit Ctrl-F1 to get the memory timing in the overclock menu but there are a crap-ton of settings. I did my best to set my memory to 4-4-4-12 with 3 CAS but I'm not sure I did it correctly, why are there so many settings? Anyone able to help me here? It had in parenthesis what my RAM was reporting and one of the values was 42, Pre-Charge or something crazy. What is that?

Thanks!

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fldash

I found an article at AnandTech:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2854&p=1

It seems decent and they stated the best setting was 8x450 (1.213v) with memory timings of 4-4-3-15.

I think I'll start somewhere around there. One more question however, what are the best temperatures to keep under? 55C LOAD?

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=Sarc=

Try out CoreTemp for temp readings. You're pretty safe up to about 65C load but it's really how comfortable you want to be running your processor. Running it hotter will shorten the life span of the processor. Although, the hardware should last a long time and you'll probably upgrade well before reaching the halfway of the part's expected life.

Start out with a lower multiplier like 6. Raise the FSB until it crashes. Back it off a bit and test for stability. This is searching for your max FSB. You can then bump up the multiplier until you lose stability. Raise core voltage to stablize but check your temps whenever you raise FSB and voltage.

Another method is keeping the multiplier as is and raising FSB until you lose stability. Then raise core voltage to regain stability. You may want to lower the multiplier if you think you can raise the FSB more.

Either way, be prepared to spend hours rebooting and running stress tests.

Google for more info on mem timings and what each number is that's printed on your mem sticks. The DS3 BIOS will label each type of memory timing clearly so you should be able to match it up once you know which numbers are which for your memory.

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fldash

Yikes, not having any luck. My temps are too hot 65-70 full load with TAT.

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jaymind

I've got the same board and the same proc but running the F10 bios.

What kind of RAM did you buy? I've got 800mhz ddr2 which is effectively underclocked even with the proc overclocked, which is why you don't really need to lower the multiplier to try to get a higher frequency on the ram (fsb).

If you are running stock cooling, don't bother trying to get above 2.66, you may (stress may) hit 3.0 if you have great cooling in your case.

With after market cooling, it's basically set it and forget it up to about 3.2. I've had mine running with an FSB of 333 since day 1. At about 3.2 you'll probably need to give it a bit of voltage, both on the cpu and northbridge probably but not much and that should get you to 3.4.

I personally wouldn't go higher because it's iffy at 3.6 (400mhz fsb) but very doable with the correct setup and a good proc - they usually start eating more and more voltage at that level which is really going to spike your temps.

As for programs, I use the Intel Thermal Analysis Tool to check temps and Prime 95 loaded on both cores to check stability.

fldash

According to this: http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardw...ict221745.html

65-70 in TAT isn't that bad.. Interesting..

Thanks for the input Jay...

Do you mind telling me what voltages you are running for MCH and FSB. I know it's only like +.1 thru +.3 but thats the part thats throwing me off...

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It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9/NIV

Satertek

OK, a couple must have programs:

CPUZ - shows all the info you need on you CPU and RAM (looks like this)
Prime95 - tests stability, you'll want to run this for as long as you can for each change you make to ensure its stable (what it does is calculate prime numbers, if the CPU makes a mistake resulting from an unstable overclock, it'll catch it)
You'll probably also want some kind of benchmarking program like 3DMark, you can browse though some here


Extreme Overclocking is an awesome website with amazing support forums that you can browse though or ask your questions about overclocking.

Most important thing to remember is to do your research before you go playing with voltages and clock frequencies in the BIOS. Tons of guides on that site that should help.

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fldash

Hi guys, I got it stable at core voltage unchanged, at 360x9.

I have FSB and MCH at +.1v and DDR at 2.0 running at 5-5-5-15 - any faster and I can't boot.

Load temps are 50c.

Is this sound good?

Still running prime95, two separate instances, one on each core.

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It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9/NIV

=Sarc=

Good as in safe to continue? Keep going. You haven't even raised the vCore.

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Zoopy

Are you running your RAM as unlinked? If you set it to unlinked you can manually set your RAM frequency value. For example if you have DDR2-800 you can manually change the RAM frequency to 800 (or higher or lower).

=Sarc=

I don't think the DS3 has the option of running RAM frequency async. I've never seen that option in the BIOS.

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fldash

My RAM is running at 900 due to the 360 FSB.

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It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9/NIV

Satertek

Thats probably why you are having to run your timings up so high, its best to keep your RAM as close to its default settings as you can until you get the CPU at a stable speed, then you can mess with the RAM.

What you'll need to do is adjust the RAM/FSB ratio (though I don't know how this would be done on an Intel chipset), and I've never used DDR2 RAM, but my RAM is only stable with the low timings when clocked less than ~20MHz higher than the default (200MHz to 220MHz)

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fldash

Yea, I have my RAM/FSB ratio at 2.5 ( I think ). If I have it at 2, it runs at default 800 speed. I guess the question is what's more important? An extra 100Mhz on the speed of 4-4-4-12 timings vs 5-5-5-15?

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It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9/NIV

=Sarc=

One way to find out is to bench it. Sometimes it's better to have more Mhz than tighter timings and vice versa.

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