Help me get my E4300 higher

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WalkedAirplane

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 19, 2005
Messages
378
Right now at 3ghz

System information:
Gigabyte 965-DS3 r3.3
4x 1gb A-DATA PC-800 DDR2
E4300
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Corsair HX520 PSU
Lan-Li PC-60 case (4x 80mm fans)


Current clocks:
333x 9
CPU voltage is at 1.36v

Ram is at 830mhz
+0.1v



Right now runs orthos very stable.
28C idle
53C load

My temps have a LOT of room to move I would say, but if I bump up to anything above 333mhz FSB, I either wont boot, or I will fail Orthos immediately.

I have tried bumping voltages all around, nothing. I have gone as high as 1.475v on the CPU without any success at 355x9 or higher.

Any thoughts that I may be missing?
My two top guesses are:
1) RAM (however I have tried running it at sub PC-800 speeds when clocking past 333x9)
2) I just have a chip that doesnt want to go higher :(
 
Oops I now see you did reduce your memory mulitplier.


Reduce your mulitplier to 6 and see if it will do 6x 405FSB with a 2.0 memory mulitplier. that will take your cpu out of the picture.
 
BillParrish said:
change your memory mulitplier from 2.5 to 2.0 and then try higher FSB speeds. You might have already but your post does not say so. Also go to 1.375 on Vcore.
Click to expand...

Tried both, no success. I actually have been running at a 2.00 divider for the RAM, but I have successfully and stabilized it up to 833mhz so far.

edit: :)
 
I hate to think its the cpu, and if 6 x 405 does not work I tend to blame the board. All I can suggest is to rework the cooling on the MCH/northbridge. It gets OCed too just like the cpu as you raise the FSB. It needs a fan, and even better, redo the thermal grease and then add a fan. trouble is you have to take the board out.
 
I havent had a chance to test 6x 405 just yet, but I will be doing so as soon as I am done with this run:

350x 9
CPU at 1.450
RAM +0.1
FSB +0.2
MCH +0.1

RAM is at PC-700
Running stable at 3.15 right now for ~5min. Are these voltages too high?
Peaking at 55C load, so temp is no trouble on the CPU.

Any thoughts on that clock?
 
the Vcore is at my personal limit, Intel spec say absolute max is 1.55V (you can degrade life at a voltage lower than 1.55 but how much /shrug_

Rest of the voltages are fine, you really should not need a lot of memory voltage you are under spec. and the FSB and MCH voltages seem not to help much anyway.

Well I would be shooting for 8 x 400 = 3.2GHz as that would put your memory right on spec. thats a nice sweet spot. But I am not up on what 4300's have been doing lately, first reports were they were OCing great, but lately I have not kept up.
 
Okay.

6x405 will NOT post. So its likely to be board related then, no? Will reworking the cooling be of significant help? My case cooling is really quite excellent, but if the board cooling looks to be the issue, I am not opposed to redoing it.
 
I cannot guarantee anything, but vast experience with all versions of the DS3 shows that putting a fan on the NB/MCH is the single best thing you can do to help overclock. It gets very hot.
 
Definitely noted then! Any suggestions for a NB cooler? I've never bothered with aftermarket cooling on a motherboard :)

(I am considering going water too, but I am not quite ready to bite the bullet yet)
 
I'd suggest just grabbing a spare case fan...even a 40/60/80mm fan, whatever you got to keep it cool. I also have an E4300, and have had it OC'd...what I'm interested in, with your posts, it that I have found mine to be stable your previously reported speed...355x9...oh how strange!? I killed my 680i board less than 2 weeks after having it, and was too busy goofing with my 8800SLi setup to attempt to OC the chip any higher than I knew if would go. My current running board, until the RMA return of the 680i A1is my P5B Deluxe/Ap-Wifi edition....lo and behold...another P965 based board, just like yours.

I can boot all the way up to 3.4, but 3206 is my max found stable OC. However, in comparison to my OC attempts on this chip, it sounds like you are actually hitting a wall at 355x9, as in, no boot after that. I personally have my voltage quite jacked up. Basically, my CPU is at 1.55V (because of ASUS vdroop...not modded for on this board, so under load it's 1.51v) and all my individual chips/onboard components are at 1 setting below max. My RAM is Firestix PC2-8000 kit 5-5-5-15@2T, 2.1v. I currently have them at 5-5-5-15@2T, 2.25v, at 1173MHz stable. I find it very strange that we're both finding commonality with P965 based boards from different manufacturers, but on the same model CPUs. My OC entry is in the Intel C2D OC database, on the current board that I am running on (P5B Deluxe), but a few things have changed since that C2D OC database entry, like my operating speed on my RAM.

Can Unclewebb or BillParish chime in here? And hey, what do you two guys actually do in real life, because your level of knowledge far exceeds mine, technically, and I've been a geek since I was 8. You guys amaze me!
 
Interesting idea. I may do that with a spare fan. Though I am also definitely considering a proper cooler.

I can say with utmost certainty I have hit at wall at 355mhz. Nothing I do will get it above that so far. Going to try some board cooling over the weekend to see if that helps.
 
Thirding (?) cooling on the northbridge. I have a similar set-up, I run 3.0GHz @ stock volts and have tested at around 3.25GHz @ 1.45V, but haven't had much time to test due to the heat. One thing I can recommend for the northbridge is to take off the stock TIM. On my DS3's I pick it off and take off the foam gasket (the springs don't exert enough pressure to hurt the chip) and then use a very thin layer of AS5. I also put a 60mm fan on 7V near it to actively cool it. It helped much more on my server that has an E6400.
 
When the E4300 originally came out it seemed that it had the exact same overclocking potential as the earlier revision B2 E6300 / E6400 but many users seem to be struggling to get to 3200 MHz with the retail versions.

Nordic Hardware had a great review which I took as gospel until I noticed that they were using an ES or engineering sample E4300 for their tests.

http://www.nordichardware.com/Reviews/?page=5&skrivelse=500

I also hit a wall with an early DS3 I bought but that wasn't until a FSB of 472 MHz with a revision B2 E6300. I gave the memory some extra voltage but pretty much everything else was left at default. If I played with the voltages I'm sure I could have went higher but given that I was building it for someone else I had to use a little bit of restraint. :D

The northbridge does get hot on the DS3, which is why I went with the P5B Deluxe. A fan will help but I don't think it will make any difference when it comes to boot up problems.

I like 2.15 volts for DDR2 memory. With good Micron chips you can go a little higher but even crap memory seems to like extra voltage for maximum stability.

On my P5B Deluxe I have the northbridge set to 1.55 volts which I believe is equivalent to +0.3 on the DS3.

I originally had boot problems on the DS3 when I was trying to run some memory with Elpida chips. Switching to Micron D9GMH chips made a huge difference. Gigabyte may have made some bios adjustments so it will work with more types of memory but it might have been a band-aid sort of fix and who knows, it might have even screwed up how it overclocks when using Micron D9 memory.

Here are the voltages that my P5B likes for running at my 24/7 setting of 450x8.

p5bvoltagesfm6.png


If I drop the multi to 7 these settings can still be reliably used at 515 MHz x 7 but I have to drop my memory timings from CL4-4-4-12 to CL5-5-5-15. I recommend CL5 timings when you are trying to overclock and get things sorted out.

These retail E4300 processors are making me curious. I might buy one and put it in a good environment and try and find out what the hell the problem really is.

sabregen: The company I was working for went tits up so I decided to stay home and be a house daddy for a while. The house is a mess, there's never anything for dinner and my wife is nagging me to get a job but I've learned lots about the Core 2 Duo during my time off. We all know what's really important!
 
:eek: just noticed the 4 x 1 GB, getting sloppy in my old age.

For fun, try just two sticks for a while until you sort things out. I am still thinking about your issues, but really want to get the NB/MCH cooled. Regardless of if it helps this situation or not, its a very good thing to do for stabiliy and just general karma.

The HR-05 is a popular solution, however new paste and hot melt glueing or just running screws (drywall screws work good, thin and sharp) down into the heatsink fins to hold on a fan probally does just as well. Replacing the push pins with #4-40 hardware (nylon screws nuts split lockwasers, etc if you can find it, no shorts) with a nylon or plastic washer under the head of the screw will allow you to snug the HS down for better thermal contact than the push pins. Be carefull, nicely snug to compress the split lockwasher + 1/4 turn is all you want. Dont want to crack the core. Better too little than too much. then run a second nut down to help keep the hardware from loosing up due to thermal cycling.
 
Alright.

Some updates:

1) The NB is very definitely getting hot.
2) Taking out 2gb of RAM doesnt help at all. I still cant post at anything above 333fsb

I am thinking that regardless, I am going to cool the NB today (running out to the store in a moment).

I am running the AC Freezer 7 Pro, which actually sits above the NB heatsink, making it so that I am defnitely going to do some work to get something mounted. I will see what I can do for the NB heatsink and report back.

Thanks everyone for the help, even if it hasnt gotten my FSB any higher I'm learning some new things and working towards it :)
 
Picked up a Zalman 9500 and a 40mm fan for the NB. Installing it all right now, will have an update later today hopefully!
 
Well, so far getting the same results, albeit really good temps! (20C idle at 3.0ghz - I keep my room AC'd really well, has its own AC et all)

Any suggestions? I am about to just take my 3ghz and take what I've got !


edit: Best I've gotten so far is 350x9 for 3.15ghz. Runs stable at 1.43v - I think this is going to my my resting point and just take it - thoughts?
idle is 25C
load is 50C

I think anything further isnt going to happen. I think I just either have a bad chip or bad board :sigh:


Edit2: 3.15ghz failed Orthos after an hour
 
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