(My n00b) e6850 overclock thread

well, decided to make my own thread. this is my first time overclocking btw. system is:

e6850 w/thermaltake ultra 120 extreme and scythe s-flex sff21f
asus p5k-e
crucial ballistix pc6400
MSI 8800GTX OC
antec trio 650 ps
1 nec dvd-rw
1 seagate 320g hd
1 maxtor 500g hd (really a seagate 72.10)
antec 900 case

i used these 2 overclocking guides which are both extremely helpful and pretty similar:

http://i4memory.com/showthread.php?t=4027

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1213038

the cpu's run ~20C idle and 35C under full load stock. with my oc's (notes below), the cpu's run ~22C idle and ~40C full load. i am looking at the cpu temps thru TAT, speedfan, and rmark and all of the readings are pretty close. vdroop looks like 1.31 (speedfan) and 1.32 (cpu-z) and it's set to 1.35 in the bios.

notes:
-i ran orthos stable for over 1 hour at stock voltage of 1.35 and put my ram on stock settings in the bios at 4/4/4/12 at 2.2v, cpu was run at 400x9 = 3.6.
-next, 410x9 posted but i couldn't load windows
-next, 405 posted but orthos crashed after 1 minute on cpu 0, cpu 1 was still running
-now i'm back to testing orthos to see if it is stable at 400x9 for maybe around 6-10 hours, will update with screenies and see if i can go any higher at stock voltage, if not, i'll bump it up to the next setting.

does anyone think i should change my ram timings to 5/5/5/15 to start off? maybe i'll try that and see if it's more stable at 405 or 410 fsb at stock volage. any help or input is appreciated, like i said, i'm a total overclockin n00b.


edit: i'm running winXP pro-32 bit and have all of the case fans running at 100%, not sure about the ps and vid card fans tho. i might see if i can use ntune to set the vid card fan at 100% later.

If anyone is interested in my progress, here is the update. I will post screenies after I get home from work tonight. I hit the wall at stock voltage at 400x9 which makes sense considering I was running the ddr2 ram at exactly the stock rated speed at 1:1. It crashed orthos at 405x9 after 5 minutes. using 5/5/5/15 rather than the ram's stock speed of 4/4/4/12 seems to be more stable as I go to higher clocks, although I couldn't run orthos for more than 15 minutes at 405x9 with 5/5/5/15 at stock voltage.

I have the rig currently running +4 hours in orthos stable at 420x9 for 3.78ghtz at 1.45vcore. I'll see how high I can go tonight at 1.45vcore. The temps have risen almost 10C but it's still under 50C.

Asus p5k tip?...use the black (the "B") dimm slots for a higher clock according to the australian overclock guide linked above. This doesn't matter as much for me since I have a 9x multiplier, but might help guys with the e6750/6550 get a higher fsb.

well...topped out at 420x9 for a 3.78 ghz stable overclock (4h 40min in orthos) but needed 1.45vcore setting to get there. i'm sure i could hit 4ghz easy but i don't know how much power it would take, probably closer to 1.5 like everyone else. i'm just gonna run my rig at stock voltage at 3.6ghz right now. my roommate pays the electricity bill and i'm not trying to kill him with it.

not gonna post any screenies cus this isn't anywhere near 4ghz but 4ghz is easily possible with this chip.

Impressive stuff! That is a good overclock for a newbie.