First time overclocking story so far. (E6600)

I just thought that I would write a bit about my first experience with overclocking an E6600 or anything for that matter. My system is the one in my sig and I can tell you now, it didn't blow up (YAY!)...

So I decided that I wanted a new computer a while ago and started looking for the money to make that happen, apparently the "you're a student -forget it!" sentiment wasn't true this time around and last friday (Feb. 16th) around 40 kgs of computer hardware arrived on my doorstep.

After a bit of Dremeling into the motherboard tray of the Antec P180 (never used a Dremel before either -beginning to see a pattern here) I got the system assembled and to my pleasing it actually posted the very first time I powered it up. This was another happymoment for me, as the first POST means I didn't forget anything. Into the DVD drive goes Vista 32bit, a half hour later I was running Vista. So now I had a fully functional PC running at stock speeds, that's pretty damn fast compared to what I was used to (P4 2,4GHz, ATI9600, 512MB SDRAM), still not what I wanted.

So I read all the advice I could find on OC'ing the Core 2 Duos and got started, disabled a bunch of stuff that I read I should disable and set my FSB:RAM ratio to 1:1. Then I set my vCore to 1.3V, the FSB to 333, all other Voltages to "Auto", rebooted and crossed my fingers. Guess what it started and it tested stable with OTTC YES! My first overclock.
Yesterday I was looking at PC Probe II and getting a little perplexed as I kept getting warnings about too high NB voltage and FSB termination voltage, so today I decided to force them to stock! Guess what, it worked and was stable.

After my last endavour I got brave, so I entered the BIOS once again and upped my FSB to 367MHz (vCore =1.3 : NB volt = 1.25 : FSB termination voltage = 1.25V : all other on "auto"), saved and rebooted, and guess what, it didn't make it into Windows I guess I need a little more vCore, NB and FSB voltage for that...

I'm currently running my E6600 at 3GHz@333FSB, vCore at 1.3V, NB voltage and FSB termination voltage at 1.25V, memory at 4-4-4-12@667MHz and 2.1V. I'm idling at around 36C which I think is a little high, still waiting for the AS5 to cure, and loading at 52C (Temps are from TAT).

If you read this far I salute you and want to say thanks to the people who was kind enough to ever reply to any question, not just mine, about OCing -especially the C2Ds here on these board, you have helped me a lot and for that I'm grateful! Thanks!

I'll probably try to shoot for 3.3GHz in the near future, but for now I'll enjoy my modest 25% OC a bit and play some games!

Overclocking is fun when it is this easy with C2D chips...

Remember that the Bios CPU Voltage and the Windows CPU Voltage will be different (V-drop)

What does the Asus probe show for CPU Voltage in Windows?

Set it to 1.4V in the Bios and raise the FSB again!


Nice start for you and I'm sure you won't stop @ 3.3ghz

orion23 said:

Overclocking is fun when it is this easy with C2D chips...

Remember that the Bios CPU Voltage and the Windows CPU Voltage will be different (V-drop)

What does the Asus probe show for CPU Voltage in Windows?

Set it to 1.4V in the Bios and raise the FSB again!


Nice start for you and I'm sure you won't stop @ 3.3ghz

Click to expand...

From setting my CPU voltage to 1.3V in BIOS to getting into WIndows and PC Probe I loose around 0.05V, not that bad I recon. Funny thing is that I get approx. +0.03V on the northbridge from BIOS to Windows according to the probe...

I think I might stop at 3.3GHz, I'd like to keep my system fairly quiet... First I think I need to improve airflow in the case, I drop to 27C Idle when I take the side off my case which I think is a lot!

Thing is 1.4V is not that high, if you decide to use such settings, you'll be able to tell the effects of it, temperature, noise Vs higher frequency. Might not be that big of a change.

Try it. If temperatures / noise get out of hand, go back to your 3.3ghz!

Weird i was in the same situation 1 week ago. just started building my computer and it ran perfect but i like overclocking so ran it up to e6700 speed stable so far. i am a little curious why your idle temperture is so low 35C and load is 55C my idle is 40C and load is 48C on a tuniq tower 120 but none the less you might want to consider buying better memory. my patriot pc5300 was really holding me back get some D9's or check the memory subtopic. Good luck

elyrly said:

Weird i was in the same situation 1 week ago. just started building my computer and it ran perfect but i like overclocking so ran it up to e6700 speed stable so far. i am a little curious why your idle temperture is so low 35C and load is 55C my idle is 40C and load is 48C on a tuniq tower 120 but none the less you might want to consider buying better memory. my patriot pc5300 was really holding me back get some D9's or check the memory subtopic. Good luck

Click to expand...

My memory is good for 4-4-4-12@800MHz/2,1V so I don't think there's any problems here. Personally I think my temps are a bit high but that might be either bad luck, bad seating of the cooler or the AS5 not curing yet. Also My 8800GTS heats things up nicely in my case, so after an hour or so I cannot get idle much lower than 37-39C, load under Orthos / OCCT is still around 55C though.. TAT can actually push me up to 60C currently.

Well, I have done two things this far today.

Firstly I have gotten my Corsair sticks to run at 3-3-3-9 timings on 2.1V ar 333MHz FSB passing memtest for approx an hour, ofcause I'll have to test more later, but that's not for now.

Second thing I did was that I succesfully booted into Vista and completed OCCT 30min test at 3.3GHz with 1.35vCore and 366MHz FSB, 1.35V to the FSB and Northbridge. I'm topping out at 64C under load though, so I'm going back to 3GHz until I have figured out my cooling, saving the BIOS settings ofcause!

Overclocking as a standalone activity is turning out to be much more enjoyable than I expected.

Surely I have some info here....



I never recieved any help cause people don't know or don't want...that's what I don;t know?

I had one advise tough and that is that the max. Vcore on the E6600 is around 1.545V.

I am running (400x9multiplier) 3,6 GHz with the Vcore running 1,41 Volt. I had the Vcore higher and it is true that highering the Vcore doesn't make the system instabel only your coretemps higher.

My Temp readings in Windows with the Asus Probe II tool are accurate with that of the readings in the BIOS.

It seems that my RAM doesn't want to function higher than 2V but still have to check this out.

Didn't do anything with the RAM timings yet it seems that the P5B-DL takes care of that.
Still have to check out the RAM timings anywayz.

Good luck with your OC.

Ran superPI 32M and thought I'd screenshoot the bugger

Can you do 1M on PI cause that's the standard everybody uses to compare.

I am very curious about that.

Your temps are very nice and you are able to OC much more easely. Sustem bus can be put much higher like I proved.
65 Celsius on full load is not ashame I think.

Is the Scyth Ninja better than the Infinity which I used?
I think I have to remount it again your temps are much better than mine even on the lower OC.

Already did it earlier, here's the shot of SuperPI overview:



18.018 seconds, don't know if that's good though...

edit: Cooler is in my sig, Scythe Ninja+ -I think I might have to reseat it though as I'm not all happy with my temps.

18 seconds is not bad at all considering your OC.

I am on 14 somewhat now...the record for the E6600 is around the 10 sec...but with special OC conditions.

I don't think your temps are that bad at all ....at leat when you compare them with mine.

Don't forget an Intel is not an AMD in temps.....Intel can sustain much more heat like they use to.

If you want to calculate that faster, make sure to shut down all non-needed programs before you do so. That might give you a faster re-calc.
SoulMan901

soulman901 said:

If you want to calculate that faster, make sure to shut down all non-needed programs before you do so. That might give you a faster re-calc.
SoulMan901

Click to expand...

Hmmm.... I'll try that, thanks for the advice

edit/update: It did give a little

Yep, but fractions of a second on PI 1M is realy a lot.

Makes much difference from 18.....learned something again today.

I went fom 15 sec on OC 3,2 GHz to 14sec when on 3,6 GHz OC so this is realy amazing.

Not to hijack this hread, but I am in the same boat as far as I am about to start my first OCing on a C2D setup. Could you reccomend any manuals, posts, or whatnot that I could read to make sure I am up to spec and don't blow anything up?

Basically, what did you read?

aces155 said:

Not to hijack this hread, but I am in the same boat as far as I am about to start my first OCing on a C2D setup. Could you reccomend any manuals, posts, or whatnot that I could read to make sure I am up to spec and don't blow anything up?

Basically, what did you read?

Click to expand...

I started here, the post that made me think "That doesn't look so difficult":

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Core2Duo-Overclocking-Guide-v1-ftopict197995.html

Then I read about all other peoples overclocks on these forum, about what programs to use in regards to benchmarking, temperature monitoring and stability testing.

Then I continued to read and google more to read about OC'ing... However the one I linked is the one I more or less followed in regards to what to disable in BIOS.

Something I can confirm is, that if you leave your volts on "auto" in bios, the Asus boards tend to give more power than what is needed at a given OC, my current OC at 3GHz is done on 1.3 vCore, NB and FSB (I started and testet stable with 1.25v on the NB and FSB but decided to give it a little more to be on the safe side.), all other volts on auto, at auto these were at 1.35 with regards to NB and FSB. Anyways, if you don't go overboard with voltage, then you shouldn't really ever end up worse that resetting BIOS.

Hope this helps any

Which Asus board do you use? I am gonna have a pretty cluttered case and I want one that can handle SLI and a sound card, and I stil lwant to be able to hit the CMOS reset button easily... just in case, ya know?

And I got enough power, dont worry. I got myself a one KW PSU.



STupid keyboard, the number keys wont work anymore. I need to get money to buy my logitech.

reading this...as a 64 X2 4400+ owner...i'm astonished....just speechless...with a stock E6600 of 2.40ghz...you can OC to 3.3 ghz with air cooling and even 3.8ghz!? that must be water cooled...

Actualy 4,0 GHz with aircooling.

Myself 3,6 GHz fully stable on the Scyth Infinity. Just over 14 sec on 1M PI.

But over 5,0 GHz is possible on the Conroe.

I found the PI 1M record which is just under 10 sec:



But this has been done under special cooling conditions and on just one core to get more stability.

holy crap...AMD blows now...i'm just hoping there will be a benefit of having the AMD/ATI setup sometime in the near future..

Well, now I have gotten 3-3-3-9 timings at 2.2V, 366MHz FSB, the RAM have initially passed one loop of memtest so I don't know if it's stable yet but I managed to pull a SuperPI 1M score:



Now I'm off to do a bit of OCCT and maybe also Orthos testing.

Well, two hours of Orthos, it seems stable so far

Looks great so far man! I cannot wait for the summer when I get all my pretty new parts and get to do this myself. Be prepared for a lot of PMs. Us newbies must stick together! ^_^;;

Looks great on the CPU voltage as well, but I don't understand the max temp on 65 celsius.

But It will not change that much getting higher in CPU I predict so than it's ok.

Try getting a little bit higher 3,3 -3,4 see what happends whit the Temps.

You have to higher your CPU Voltage a little bit I run 1,35v exactly (9x370=3,33 GHz) in BIOS setting gives 1,31v in Probe II VCore readings on the desktop.

@Aces: Knock yourself out, OC'ing this processor was surprisingly easy I'll be glad to help.

@Youri: Well, I actually tried 3.6GHz today, just for the hell of it at 1.4vCore in BIOS, it wouldn't even boot into Windows, didn't have that much patience today, so I just got my memory running 833MHz at 4-4-4-12 Timings and called it the day.

Either way I think I should get myself together and update that BIOS, I'm running 0601 and the newest is 0803...

Yall are making me want to build a C2D!

FWIW, I noticed in the OP sig the note about Vista and not sure if you like it yet. I've been on it a few weeks now and it definitely seems to grow on you. It annoyed me in various ways at first but now using an XP system feels "old."

SuperPi 1M @ 35s on my poor old OC'd AMD. That USED to be good!

Nice job for first shot at everything!!

LanceDiamond said:

FWIW, I noticed in the OP sig the note about Vista and not sure if you like it yet. I've been on it a few weeks now and it definitely seems to grow on you. It annoyed me in various ways at first but now using an XP system feels "old."

Click to expand...

I have to admit it has grown a bit on me too. My Vista moanings for the moment is mainly getting it to play nice with my mac, I don't want to do ftp connections just to get to my desktop on the mac and snip a file, IP and a password should do it... All in all though my Vista experience have gotten a lot better after I got the user account control thingie disabled (cancel or allow anyone?)

LanceDiamond said:

Nice job for first shot at everything!!

Click to expand...

Thanks!

As confirmed elsewhere on these boards, ATItool now runs in Vista.



The 600/900 OC of my GTS was just to try it, I have no real ambition of OC'ing my 8800GTS at the current moment as it is plenty fast.

I'm surprised at the difference OC'ing the 8800GTS does for my 3Dmark06 score...

Before:


After:


More than 1000 3Dmarks extra just from OC'ing is crazy, maybe I can get 10K 3Dmarks under Vista after all...

Darth Bobo said:

@Aces: Knock yourself out, OC'ing this processor was surprisingly easy I'll be glad to help.

@Youri: Well, I actually tried 3.6GHz today, just for the hell of it at 1.4vCore in BIOS, it wouldn't even boot into Windows, didn't have that much patience today, so I just got my memory running 833MHz at 4-4-4-12 Timings and called it the day.

Either way I think I should get myself together and update that BIOS, I'm running 0601 and the newest is 0803...

Click to expand...

Putting the CPU Vcore higher doesn't do any harm, you have to put the Vcore higher when running 3,6 put 0n 1,6v I think 1,4 just doesn't do that's why it didn't startup.

Darth Bobo said:

I'm surprised at the difference OC'ing the 8800GTS does for my 3Dmark06 score...

More than 1000 3Dmarks extra just from OC'ing is crazy, maybe I can get 10K 3Dmarks under Vista after all...

Click to expand...

Yes, it does increase the 3DM06 score, but you won't see that large of a difference in REAL games.....unfortunately.

I got better increases by overclocking the cpu on my X2, and then getting a C2D rig. Now nothing will increase my scores since my C2D maxes out the poor overclocked GTS But damn it's smooth!