E4300 - What Voltage is "Safe"?

B

bznotins

n00b
Joined
Nov 5, 2004
Messages
63
OK, total overclocking noob here.

E4300 @ 3.25 ghz, 1.425V
Corsair DDR2 800mhz 5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v (2x1GB)
Thermalright 120 Ultra
Gigabyte 965P-S3, F8 Bios

I like the idea of overclocking, but I don't like the idea of overvolting to the point that my CPU is going to croak in a year. Is 1.425 a reasonable overvolt or should I tone it down some? Is running at stock voltage (I think I can hit 2.8ghz, maybe 3.0 at stock) really the only way to go without risking the health of my CPU?

8886 on 3DMark06 with an 8800GTS, btw. WoW sure is pretty at 2560x1600 too.

Z
 
Voltage isn't going to hurt anything as long as your temperatures are reasonable. Temperatures are typically what can damage chips, and these Core 2 Duo chips can take a lot of heat. Doesn't mean you want them to. As long as your load temperatures stay below 70 Celsius, your chip is really quite happy.

Some questions / suggestions for you:

What are you using to cool the chip? For stock cooling 1.425v is probably high. For a beefed up aftermarket heatsink, 1.425v should be completely manageable given adequate case airfflow. But again, it boils down to how cool that chip is running. (heh, "boils" down to? get it? har. har.)

A great way to measure temperature is to use Intel's Thermal Analysis Tool. This takes temperature readings straight off the die of the CPU and gives you a more accurate reading of what temperatures really are. Make sure you run a stress testing program, such as Orthos and watch the temperatures. (Sorry I don't know how much of a n00b you think you are, so I have to assume you might not be using a stress-testing tool :p)

I would say that if you can load your CPU with Orthos, have no errors / crashes, and keep your CPU temperatures below 70C for 12 hours, you are not going to be causing any damage at all to the CPU with your overclock.

Finally to answer your question, is 1.425 too high? That depends on if you can stress test your system at lower volts at the same speed and still have no issues. Typically, once I dial in a speed I like (applying liberal voltage), I start to inch the volts down and see how low I can go with still remaining stable. Less volts = less heat = more happy if it's stable.

I ran my E6300 @ 3.33ghz and 1.425v on my Gigabyte S3 and had no problems. (well actually I did have problems but it wasn't related to the CPU OC) Keep it cool and you'll be fine :)
 
Zinn,

Thanks so much for the feedback! I'm using a Thermalright Ultra 120 / Panaflo L1A HSF combo. Based on reviews, that seems to be among the best air-cooling setups available. I use Prime95 to stress-test the CPU and CoreTemp readings hover around 50-55 degrees under load. But that was only for about 10-15 minutes of testing so I should probably test for hours and see where the temps end up.

I was just looking for the point at which "reasonable" overvolting becomes "crazy" overvolting, and would probably like to stop just short of that.

Thanks!
 
Again not sure if you know this, one thing about Prime95 (at least the version I have) is that you have to run two instances of it, one for each core. So you actually have to have two copies of the EXE file in different locations and run them both to get accurate 100% loading. The nice thing about Orthos is that it stresses both cores simultaneously.

Also, in my configuration, Coretemp reports usually 3 to 7 Celsius cooler (varies) than Intel Thermal Analysis tool.

Out of curiosity, what case are you running?

And BTW if you get around to overclocking that GTS, it should get your 3dMark06 up by about 2000 points. Worked for me :)
 
Voltage isn't going to hurt anything as long as your temperatures are reasonable
Click to expand...

INCORRECT

go to intel.com and download the product spec sheet for your processor, I havent done it for the E4300 but in this thead I provide Intels engineering documentation and guidance on the issue for the "other" C2Ds.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1149369

You are below the absolute max Vcc of 1.55 volts and the functional limit of 1.5 volts listed for the other conroes so I think you are ok.
 
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