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e6420 overclock

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Bigbacon

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Jul 12, 2007
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So, it's been years since I've overclocked any of my PC (like since my pIII 750)
I just never had a reason to do so because of cheaper stuff and more money.
Well that just changed. Its strange to buy a CPU with the intention of overclocking it just to save money.

Anyway, I got a e6420 (sadly I should have waited for the 1333) and it overclocked to 3ghz on the retail heatsink without any issue. Thing is rock solid and idles at 95F and hits 125F under load (I guess this is good). i didnt have to up voltage either

Completely amazing to me, I dont remember overclocking be that easy ever in the past. I thnk the best overclock I ever had before was a celeron 533 that would hit almost a 1 ghz stable.

So I ask.... Would getting a better heatsink/fan (say a Zalman) let get more and what the average ceiling people are hitting with air cooling? I think i'd be happy with 3.5ghz (not that Im not happy with 3!) Just thinking for future because I will not be able to upgrade again anytime soon. (cept to get my 2nd GTX)
 
Adding a Tuniq got me up to 3600 MHz for 24/7 use. Do some research before going for the Zalman. The Thermalright's are the best air coolers as long as they are installed snugly.

A sweet spot for your processor is 400 MHz x 8 = 3200 MHz. This allows you to run your memory at DDR2-800 and you should be able to run stable at a bios setting of 1.35 volts for the CPU which is basically default Intel setting after you boot up into Windows. I ran my similar E6400 at 425 x 8 with the OEM cooler during the winter but with summer coming I decided to step up to a Tuniq and it's been stable even at room temperatures of 30C. :)
 
Yes, getting a quality heatsink will increase your potential to overclock substantially. Since you're already getting a 900Mhz overclock without upping the voltage, it seems you got lucky with your chip. With a better hsf you'll be able to raise the voltage and really start to see some big numbers. Good luck.
 
Hey guys, not to sound like a noob or anything but i havent done much overclocking. So basically i was wondering if maybe someone could tell me what to set the values to if i want to achieve 3.2ghz speed.

Here are the specs of my PC:

Intel E6420 2.13 dual core with stock fan
Asus P5B-VM mobo
Antec 700 Watt Power Supply
DDR2 4gb PC6400 Dual OCZ (2x 2gbs) speed 800MHz
160gb SATA HD

Specifications set within Bios:

JumperFree Config:
CPU Freq: 266
DRam Freq: Auto ( options are DDR2-533, 667, 800, 889, 1067 MHz )
PCI Express Freq: Auto ( options are 90-150 )
Spread Spectrum: Enabled
Memory Voltage: Auto ( options are 1.8, 1.85, 1.9, 1.95 )
VCore: 1.35

CPU Config:
Modify Ratio Support: Enabled
Ratio CMOS Setting: 8 ( options 6-8 )
C1E Support: Disabled
MaxCPUID Value Limit: Disabled
Vanderpool Technology: Disabled
CPU TM Func: Enabled <-- what is this??
Execute Disable Bit: Disabled
PECI: Disabled

Chipset:
North Bridge Config:
Memory Remap Feature: Disabled
Config DRAM Timings by SPD: Enabled
Initiate Graphics Adapter: PEG / PCI
Internal Graphics Mode Select: Enabled, 8mbs
DVMT Mode Select: DVMT Mode
DVMT / Fixed Memory: 256MB
PEG Port Config:
Peg Force x1: Disabled


Here is all of my information, if you know what i need to do please respond. :)

Thanks,
Mike
 
Set the FSB to 400Mhz, set your CPU multi to the highest, set the memory to 2x multi. As others said, you might need more volts to be stable.
 
So, not 100% if this is correct, but this is what i think i " should " aim for when trying to get a working 3.2ghz out of the e6420. Default is 266mhz with an 8x multiplier, making it 2.13 ghz. The FSB:DRAM is defaulted at a 2:3 Ratio. And Im using ddr2 800mhz ram (ocz 4gb kit).

So what i think is that i should up my Bus Speed up to 400mhz, which with the 8x multipier that will become 3.2ghz. and then change the Mem Multiplier to a 1:1 ratio making the ram 400mhz, which for ddr2 ram is 800mhz which is idle.

So is this correct, or no?

The only thing is, is that i cannot find in the bios where i can change the ratio of the FSB:DRAM.
 
The multi is controlled by setting DRAM Frequency to DDR2-533. Every board is different but I'm pretty sure that will work on your board.

If 1.95 volts is the maximum your board can be set to for memory then I would go with that. Your cpu core voltage should be enough for 3200 MHz but you might need to bump it up to 1.375 or 1.400 volts in the bios. You always end up with less after you boot up into Windows and then you end up with less again when you are running a demanding benchmark like Orthos. A little extra in the bios covers this reality.
 
Yeah, you've got the gist of it, you can just open up CPU-Z to check you've got the memory running at the divider/latencies that you want btw. The way you set the divider in the BIOS can sometimes be a little obscure (sometimes the BIOS will even automatically force a divider to keep the memory in spec if you don't select one manually).
 
yep, figured out last night that the Mem Frequency was the DDR2-533 ( for 1:1 ), DDR2-800 ( for 2:3 ) and so on. I tried last night several time to overclock and failed each time. The settings i tried were:

Bus Speed: 400mhz
FSB:DRAM : DDR2-533 ( it is 1:1, verified in CPU-Z )
Multiplier: 8x
VMem: 1.90
VCore: 1.30, 1.3125, 1.325, 1.3375, 1.35, 1.3625, 1.375, 1.3875, 1.4

Everytime i hit F10 for save and exit and press enter, the system shuts down and reboots runs for 1-2seconds then shutsoff again( no beep or anything ), reboots one more time this time it runs for a while but doesnt display anything.

Earlier today i read that ppl actually had their VCore up to 1.5, so when i got home i tried to OC it again. This time with these settings:

Bus Speed: 400mhz
FSB:DRAM : DDR2-533 ( it is 1:1, verified in CPU-Z )
Multiplier: 8x
VMem: 1.90
VCore: 1.4125, 1.425, 1.4375, 1.45, 1.4625, 1.475, 1.4875, 1.5

Again, Everyone of them failed to boot.

Normally the settings on the e6420 is 266mhz with 8x multiplier, a 2:3 ratio which makes the ram at 400mhz ( 800 with the DDR2, which is what i have ). And it boots fine with any of the 4 memory voltages. I read the specs on my memory and they are rated for 2V, so.


Well, ANY help would be great, this thing is starting to piss me off :(

Thanks in advance :)
 
Umm, for starters, you should probably try testing some lower FSB speeds first... It's quite possible your proc simply won't do 3.2GHz with the stock cooler, are you even looking at the temps? Overclocking is trial and error, not some easy process w/a number of pre-determined steps... You can't prove stability, you can only prove the absence of it, etc.

I'd probably come back down to 325-340 and see if that's stable, run Prime/Orthos/3Dmark/whatever for a while and find out if it crashes while monitoring your temperatures... You can just leave your memory at 1:1 for the time being even if it means it's underclocked, you want to isolate the CPU and mem OCs when you're testing for stability initially.
 
I have tried setting the fsb around 300-350 aswell ... nothing is working. Iv read on other sites that ppl have OC with stock to 3.2 no problem.
 
What do you mean nothing is working, does it crash in Windows or what? If your system is failing even at 300x8 I'd say something else is seriously wrong, chances are it may not even be stable at stock settings... You're gonna have to provide more details, but your mileage will vary with every processor/mobo/pair of mem sticks.

Hell even ambient temp and case temps/airflow varies a lot from user to user, just because a couple people can do 3.2 on stock cooling doesn't mean you will be able to
 
After i change the data in the bios i hit F10 for save and exit and press enter, the system shuts down and reboots runs for 1-2seconds then shutsoff again( no beep or anything ), reboots one more time this time it runs for a while but doesnt display anything.

anything over 280mhz does this.

cant even get into windows at all .... after i have fail a few times i boot normally to windows and the temps are mid 30's ... so its not getting hot at all.
 
Your motherboard with on board video sucks for overclocking. You likely won't be able to obtain 400 x 8 which would be dead simple on something like a P5B Deluxe. You can try some more chipset voltage but you might have hit a wall with your motherboard. See if you can use something like ClockGen from within Windows to see if you can overclock that way. Sometimes this works when bios settings don't.
 
It sounds like an issue that I recently helped someone with.. I think you have got your dividers down and you understand what those do, but, do you know if you are LINKED vs UNLINKED? If you don't know, you might want to check on that.

Oh, just FYI, I just purchased the e6420 today.. I also purchased the following: I am pairing it off with 2gb's of GSkill DDR2-800 memory. The board I chose for this little setup is a simple eVGA 650i and the Coolermaster Gemini II CPU cooler.. It should be here on Wednesday or Thursday and I will see what I can do with the e6420.
 
unclewebb - tell me how much I can get with this specs:

CPU - E6420 with stock cooler
MB - ASUS P5B Premium - Vista Edition
Video - Gainward 8600GT Golden Sample
Power - Chieftec 550W power suply
RAM - 2x512 Sycron 1066mhz dual
Case - Raidmax with 2 x120mm coolers (fron side and back side) and 2x ~60mm (I guess) coolers on the side

I'm new in this and all I could get last night was 2,4ghz 300FSBx8 without touching CPU Vcore in Bios. I guess I didn't set up right the memory I don't know.

Thank you
 
lucaiuli said:
tell me how much I can get with this specs:
Click to expand...

It's obvious. I see an easy 3600 MHz out of your parts. :D

Start by setting your memory to conservative timings like CL5-5-5-15, 2.2 volts and use a multiplier setting so it doesn't run too fast. Don't waste time bumping the FSB up by 10 MHz here and there. Go straight to 8 x 400 MHz and set your memory so it is running at 1:1 or DDR2-800. Set core voltage to 1.40 volts in the bios. You'll probably be able to drop it a little but it's better to start with a little too much so you don't hit a wall.

Send me a PM and I'll try to get you up and running at a decent speed.
 
hi unclewebb thank for your advices, here it is what I was able to get:

on CPU Vcore, no matter what amount of voltage I set in BIOS the sistem hangs with black screen, only AUTO works, maybe the videocard doesn't support it.
As you can see from the screen ASUS AI Suite - CPU Vcore is 1,5200.
Othros was running for about 39 sec and the CPU jumped to 80C.

My BIOS settings:




I know I did something wrong in this steps, or maybe my stock cooler can't face it. :(
 
Your memory needs more voltage and you are giving your cpu WAY too much voltage which is creating too much cpu heat.

PCI Express = 100
Memory Voltage = 2.15 volts
CPU VCore = 1.40 volts ( if stable then slowly drop this until you lose Orthos stability )
FSB Termination = 1.30 volts
NB VCore = 1.45 volts or 1.55 volts
SB = 1.50 volts or 1.60 volts
ICH Chipset Voltage = 1.215 volts <--- important

A stock cooler can't take 1.50 volts of cpu core voltage. You need a better cooler for 3600 MHz but the Intel cooler is OK at 3200 MHz if you can keep your core voltage down.

Use a program like MemTest86+ so you can try different settings without having to boot up into Windows.

Disable C1E

DRAM RAS# Activate to Precha = 15
DRAM Write Recovery Time = 6

Edit: I just set my computer to 3200 MHz and it is running Orthos stable with these settings.

voltagemm5.jpg
 
He said he's using the stock cooler, so between that and the high voltages, it's no surprise that his temps are exceedingly high...
 
yes I use only the stock cooler from the box.
I stoped Orthos because the CPU went to high, it didn't crushed.

Ok I will try with this setings and with memtest.
Thank you...I'll be back with results :)
 
The stock cooler is crappy. The most important thing is not to ever set your cpu core voltage to AUTO when overclocking. It will automatically add way too much voltage and an Intel cooler can not handle that.
 
I reached without problems 3,2ghz, but Orthos crushed instantly
here, my screenshot:


I followed exactly your instruction, maybe my sistem it's not ready for 3,2ghz
 
Try notching up your Voltage.

Also a good investment would be a aftermarket cooler like the Tuniq Tower 120 for $45 shipped @ TehEgg.
 
Try boosting your core voltage by approximately +0.05 volts and try again. Use CoreTemp 0.95 to report your core temperature.

Also try SuperPi mod and see if it can run without any errors.

What is your exact memory and part number and post the tab in CPUz that shows what timings and speed it is running at. I think you are getting pretty close now.
 
unrar an archive in 4 minutes aprox. 7gb


I will increase core voltage and I'll be back, I hope :)
 
Increase core voltage as much as you need for Orthos stability.

At your present memory speed you might be able to run CL4-4-4-12 timings which will increase performance a little. Winrar has a benchmark in it that is memory sensitive so try running that with CL5 timings and then reboot and try it at CL4. You can also run SuperPI and you should see an improvement there as well with better memory timings.

It's looking very good so far. 1M in SuperPi in less than 16 seconds is excellent at your speed.
 
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