E6420 + DS3 Overclock

J

jkawar

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May 4, 2007
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I'm having a hard time getting past 3.0 (376x8) with my setup. My ram is not the problem at all since I have ran it at higher speeds. It's rated for 800 mhz and I have already pushed it to 875 with no problems. I could run the cpu at 400x7 no problem either. At 3.0 ghz my temp are 30C and 55-58C at load. Anyone have any ideas???? I'm thinking it might be a bios thing.....maybe have to wait for an update. If I try 400, 401, 402 and 410FSB, the computer reboots before even going into the bios. I'm running the F11b bios right now and I was having the same problem with the F10 bios.

Any suggestions?? Thanks!!
 
well.....I'm at 3.0 ghz stable now at 1.485v.
vdimm: +3
FSB: +3
MCH: +2
PCI-E: +1
HSF: Artic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro
Memory is at 5-5-5-15, but can run stable at 4-4-4-12 no problem

These were the only settings I could get this clock to be stable. Anything high.....the computer keeps restarting. Temps at my current OC are just fine. Any suggestions?
 
jkawar said:
well.....I'm at 3.0 ghz stable now at 1.485v.
vdimm: +3
FSB: +3
MCH: +2
PCI-E: +1
HSF: Artic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro
Memory is at 5-5-5-15, but can run stable at 4-4-4-12 no problem

These were the only settings I could get this clock to be stable. Anything high.....the computer keeps restarting. Temps at my current OC are just fine. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Those are quite some voltages for a "mere" 3.0 ghz. Maybe it's the limitation of the particular chip you have, some people get unlucky. If you have to settle for 3.0, lower the voltages a little bit at a time until you start crashing at 3.0. Then just be happy with the near 50% overclock.
 
Could also be the northbridge. That heatsink is crap for OC'ing. A fan would be good for it.
 
I just got the exact same combination (ds3 + 6420)
My ram is Geil 6400

I am still waiting on my video card (arrives tomorrow), so we will see how it goes.

I hope I can help you when I start (and you help me if I got stuck :) )
 
Sounds good. I hope it's not just a bad chip. I have a 40mm fan actively cooling the NB, and it's pretty cool to the touch. I have a 644G chip......which I've heard that they were duds, but also heard some people got them to 3.4-3.6. Ifanyone has any othe ideas....my eyes and ears are wide open! Thanks everyone for helping out a noob :D
 
L644 huh?

Yea I have a L644G231 chip, and I think I was one of the lucky ones. They don't clock too high. Sometimes people will get a lucky chip but most of the L644 batch were pretty bad at OCs.

The only other thing I could think is that your temps are getting high.

For me I noticed when my load temps got up to ~55c I noticed some instabilities. Try a better cooling method. Theres no real fix all for it. Make sure you set all the bios settings right, and go from there. Just keep messing with voltages up and down maybe you'll find it was something you overlooked. The guide is very helpful.

Good Luck Bud! :D
 
I am thinking you have hit the infamous FSB "hole". As you raise the FSB you are actually overclocking your MCH (northbridge) as well as the cpu. Around 400MHz the strap on the MCH is changed (much like raising the mulitplier on the cpu) so that it can go higher, but with somewhat relaxed internal chip timings etc. This is not documented by Intel so some of it is speculation. Anyway it would explain why you cant get past about 375 but can jump to 400x7 just fine.

Unless you have other cpu mulitpliers available you are stuck with seeing how high you can get it on x7 which will be limited by your memory, loosen the timings a bit and perhaps you can get 450 x 7 3.15GHz or even a bit higher.

If the above is true your only viable solution is to help the MCH overclock by providing better cooling, remove the heatsink and redo the thermal compound and put a fan on it. If you continue to overclock heavily without properly cooling the MCH you will probally shorten the board life anyway. Several posts exist on how to easily plop a 40 or 50 mm fan on the MCH heatsink.

good luck.
 
I think I'm hittin the same hole. The best completely stable speed I can do with my e6420 and msi sli-fi is 3.1GHz (387.5 x 8). I tried 3.2GHz, but I'd get errors with Super Pi 32M. Turning the Vcore, Vnb, Vsb etc. didn't really help. My cpu is the same batch as above. My NB gets hot as hell though, so I'll probably try and find a replacement for that. Only thing is, I've got a Tuniq Tower so can't get anything really tall.
 
I have a 40 mm fan attached to the NB heatsink, hopefully that helps. I ended up changing the multiplier to 7 and the FSB to 400. MCH, FSB and PCI-E volts are at +1 and 1.4v for the chip. Now running at 2.8ghz. I really only wanted 3.2 out of my proc, but that doesn't seem like it's gonna happen. If anyone else has any suggestions, I'd appreciate it. If not, thanks for all the help!
 
The performance increase in going to 3.2GHz will far outweigh any performance penalty from loosing the ram timings. Personally I would set the ram at 5 5 5 18 and set the dimm voltage at the highest value recommended by the ram manuf (if info unavailable add .1 V then .2V and using the trusty "finger" probe monitor the dimm temps), and see how high you can go with 7x , 460 x 7 will get you 3.22GHz and that is not a huge OC on your memory. Once you establish how high you can push the MCH you can go back and see about tightening the memory timings (see memset).
 
jkawar said:
I have a 40 mm fan attached to the NB heatsink, hopefully that helps. I ended up changing the multiplier to 7 and the FSB to 400. MCH, FSB and PCI-E volts are at +1 and 1.4v for the chip. Now running at 2.8ghz. I really only wanted 3.2 out of my proc, but that doesn't seem like it's gonna happen. If anyone else has any suggestions, I'd appreciate it. If not, thanks for all the help!
Click to expand...

You already did what I was going to suggest, backing down the voltage on the MCH & FSB to only +.1v. Too much is actually bad and can limit your overclock.
 
I took BillParrish's advice weeks ago about redoing the thermal paste and it did wonders. Went from a max of 485ish on my FSB to 505MHz and probably higher although i can't get my memory to go any higher than that.
 
I picked up a Thermalright HR-05 to replace the stock NB heatsink on my DS3 rev. 1. Been stable at 3.2Ghz at 8 x 400 with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.

So just cool down that northbridge and you should be fine. Also, tone down those voltages. I only increased voltages by .1
 
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