[Help] Need advice on my E6600 OC

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qzj

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Apr 11, 2007
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I just built my new PC. I got P5N-E mobo. I am new to OCing, so I need some advanced users to give me some advice on this. Thanks in advance.

All I did was went into BIOS and try to increase the multiplier, it was defaulted at 9, I tried to increase it to 10 and restared my computer, but nothing changed, it was still at 2.4Ghz, so I went back into the BIOS and checked. The multiplier was still at 9. I have changed it several times and saved it, but it seems that the multiplier was locked at 9, and I had no idea how to unlock it. My friend said the CPU probably locked the feature in factory, so I had to try to increase FSB. I increased FSB from 1066 to 1333, and the CPU jumped to 2.99Ghz. Vista ran smoothly, everything seemed quite stable. And I went into BIOS again, and checked the setting, VCore increased from 1.34 to 1.42 by itself. I was gonna do it manually if the system was unstable or something, but I didn't have to do anything, which I thought was weired because from what I heard, I am suppose to adujst the voltage myself. So here's my questions:
1. Is this normal? Should I be the one doing the voltage adjustment or the computer does it itself?

2. Why can't I change the multiplier? Is there anything I have to do before I adjust it? Or is it just my CPU's problem?

3. Does the FSB numbers have to follow some kind of pattern, like 800, 1066 1333 etc, or it's up to the user. I increased it further to 1380, now my CPU is running at 3.11Ghz, and everything still seems to be very smooth, so I'm sort of comfused... is this all I need to do to OC my E6600? Is it this simple?

4. What things can I do to check the stability of my system to make sure that the new OCed CPU can handle the change.
 
You can allow the motherboard to adjust the voltage automatically ("Auto" setting), but you often don't need as much voltage as the mobo thinks you do. I run my e6600 at 3GHz on less than stock voltage.

Only the "Extreme" processors have an unlocked multiplier. Your e6600 goes between 6 and 9 (you can downgrade the multiplier but not raise it). You are correct to change FSB speed instead.

You will get best results running your memory and FSB "in step", so 400 FSB / 800 memory or 333 FSB / 667 memory. However you don't have to. I personally am much more stable "linked-and-synced".

Orthos Prime. Download it here: http://www.overclock.net/downloads/138142-orthos-v20060420.html and run it while running a temperature monitor at the same time. Watch your temperatures to make sure they don't exceed ~60 degrees Celsius. If they do, you need to back off on the voltage. Voltage = heat = bad :p

Once I am Prime stable for a couple hours on Blend I usually call it good since Prime stresses things out much more than you ever will.
 
This overclocking stuff really is simple.

You can change the multiplier on your processor but only lower not higher. A 9X multi can be changed to 8X or 7X or 6X but not to 10X.

Lock your cpu voltage at a fixed value. The AUTO or default setting on some motherboards is too gernerous with additional voltage which can lead to too much heat.

CPUz does a good job of reporting MHz and is OK for core voltage up to about 1.40 volts. After that it can get screwy so try SpeedFan which always seems to be right.

CoreTemp 0.95 or SpeedFan for core temperatures and Orthos for stability testing.

1.40 volts while running Orthos is usually sufficient to run about 3400 MHz with one of these Core 2 Duos. Fantastic processors that love to overclock so have fun. :D

SethKinast: 60C is pretty conservative. 70C is a better upper limit while running Orthos. In normal usage you will never load like Orthos does so there's no problem pushing it a little further. Even 80C is possible without hurting anything though of course not recommended. Don't worry too much about temps as long as you're Orthos stable.

Here's some dumb ass :D bouncing his cpu off of the Intel thermal throttle so normal people will realize that there's lots of head room in these processors as long as you're stable.
bakinghotqk0.png
 
Thank you so much sethkinast and unclewebb. I am so much clearer now. By the way how do I know what's the multiplier range for a cpu? Also, I noticed an option called CPU Thermal Controller(if I remembered it right) which is defaulted at disabled, does that have anything to do with OC?
Thanks.
 
Great OC guide here:http://www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/45121/nforce_680i_sli_overclocking.pdf

This guide discusses a ton of concepts familiar to C2D processors.

It was written to help with the nvidia 680i boards but is great for OC in general.

CPU multipliers in general are all usually locked at the top end except in the Intel Extreme versions or the AMD FX versions. You can always go down, but you usually cant exceed the standard multiplier you see when you first fire up CPU-z.

Also remember, your motherboard must also be willing to allow you to OC, some are better than others.
 
Definitely enable any Thermal Monitor options. If your temps never get over 80C then it will have no negative effect on your overclock so it might as well be enabled.

In the event of some high temps, over 80C, it will allow your computer to keep running by throttling the MHz and lowering the core voltage. No one likes to throttle but I think it's better than a hard crash.
 
thx magoo, the guide was amazing, very detailed.
unclewebb, did u reach ur 3.4ghz with the thermal control enabled?
Generally, do u guys just OC ur cpu or u guys OC RAMs and GPUs as well?
 
I would overclock the powersupply if it was possible.

Generally I like to tinker with the CPU and RAM, once in a while I'll up the videocard if it starts to get long in the tooth.
 
magoo said:
I would overclock the power supply if it was possible.
Click to expand...
Very true. This overclocking stuff is definitely a sickness. Instead of AA I think I'll start the first chapter of OCA, overclockers anonymous! :D

I built up a C2D for a friend and she barely does anything more stressful than surf the web and check her e-mail. With the 70% overclock I set it to I can guarantee you that she does those tasks damn fast. I originally had it overclocked 77% but I figured I would back it off to "only" 70% overclocked. That seemed like a good "default" speed to me. No complaints so far after 6 months. Someday I'll have to tell her what I did.

qzj: did u reach ur 3.4ghz with the thermal control enabled?
Click to expand...

Not only did I reach 3400 MHz but I went over 3500 MHz with TM2 ( thermal control enabled ) I also had C1E and SpeedStep and Vanderpool all enabled while running Orthos for 4 hours and got into the [H] OC database as one of the quickest Intel cooled C2Ds. I admit that I had to cheat a little by moving my computer to a nice cool basement in the middle of winter to run over 3500 MHz reliably but I'm not the only one in the database who has bent the rules a little.

You might want to turn C1E and SpeedStep off until you have reached your overclocking goal. After that you can try turning them back on and see if they save you any power. They won't save you a hell of a lot so now I leave those two items disabled.
 
unclewebb, are those applications(orthos, speedfan, cpu-z etc) compatible with Vista 64?
Also is there any difference when overclocking under a Vista platform rather than an XP platform?
 
OK I tried them out, only TAT and CoreTemps are not working under Vista 64. So...I am having troubles getting a temp read from my computer. SpeedFan's working, but I don't trust just one read, and I don't know the temp limit of my cpu. Anyone's got any suggestions? Thanks.
 
To run Core Temp in Vista 64, press F8 while your computer is booting (after POST, before Windows starts to load) and choose 'allow unsigned drivers to be installed'

Right click Core Temp installer -> Run as Administrator.

Now Core Temp is properly installed. You can reboot if you want to turn driver signing enforcement back on and it will still work correctly.
 
thank you so much calebb. I didn't know that you have to disable the signature enforcement thingy. Anyway...big thanks.
 
Which tests are more precise? Orthos or TAT? Since I can't run TAT under Vista, I dunno which one is better? Or maybe both of them are good so going through any one of them would suffice? Any opinion would be appreciated.
 
My computer passed 3300Mhz with 1.43v, when I pushed it up to 3400Mhz, I got BSOD, and I raised the voltage to 1.45, BSOD's gone, but it failed the first test in Orthos after 10sec. The message says: Fatal Error: Round 0.5, expected 0.4 or less... bla bla. So I raised the volt to 1.46v, now it fails after 20 sec. I made it 1.475v, it failed after about 30sec. Every .02 volt only lasts about 10sec more, and this worries me, my temps are still at 62-65C on both Core Temp and SpeedFan. So I thought I can push it a little further, but I hit this wall, and I dunno know what to do. Should I raise more Voltage? I solved a silimar problem when I was going from 3200mhz to 3300mhz, I got a BSOD, and after raising 0.1v from 1.41 to 1.42, BSOD was sloved and it failed about 4 minutes after the test starts. And I adjust the voltage from 1.42 to 1.43, and it solved the problem. But this time, the change in voltage is not holding the test significantly longer. If anyone had silimar situations, please give me some advice on this. Thank you.
 
qzj: Sounds like you're hitting the maximum capability of your cpu. When you have to start raising the voltage by large amounts to maintain stability when the MHz are only going up by a small amount then that's pretty much it.

Nothing wrong with 3300 MHz. Adding extra voltage and extra heat to your cpu to get beyond this level really isn't worth increasing your MHz by only 3%.

Orthos is a good all around stability testing program.
 
The Vdroop of the board could be a limit here. I was getting around .06-.07v drops with this board until I pencil shaded a specific resistor lowering it to .03v drops. I can't get it stable above 3400 so you'd only be gaining 100 mhz by doing this anyway.
 
appreciate your help unclewebb! situation went worse, I kept it at 3300mhz, ran orthos for about 1 hour and it was alright, and I thought it was okay then. So I installed Kapersky Antivirus Software cuz I didn't want my computer running around naked. So when I rebooted my Vista, my Kapersky started to scan, and after about 1 minute, my computer froze. backed it down to 3.2ghz, and use auto for cpu voltage and it was stable. I thought if Orthos was good, other applications should be fine. My core temps are only at 60-62. I thought maybe it was my GTX8800 releasing too much heat?
Base on the problems I described above, what chould be causing the constant freeze? I am toally lost.
 
BTW, Kaspersky for Vista is evil. It alters some low level kernel level functions. With Kaspersky installed you cannot copy more than 16,384 files per reboot. I haven't heard anything about them fixing this known (serious) bug. I've also read (but haven't confirmed) issues installing nvidia drivers correctly while kaspersky is installed. Incidentally, neither problem was resolved by disabling kaspersky - it needed to be completely uninstalled.

I recommend NOD32 or AVG until they get things worked out.

However, you aren't experiencing either of these problems. Have you locked your PCI bus to 33MHz and PCIe to 100MHz? If you don't lock them, they scale with your FSB and will definitely cause stability issues. And it sounds like this might be your current problem. (Orthos doesn't stress your PCI bus much AFAIK)
 
How do you lock'em? I can see my PCIe is at 100Mhz. I never touched it. But I don't know how to check my PCI frequency...
 
calebb, I think u r exactly right. I tried to see if it were my GPU that was causing the problem. I watched movies at FSB1467, it froze after 10 seconds. But changing it to 1423, I had about 1minute - 2 minutes before it froze. And because Orthos doesn't test PCIe, so that's why my Orthos tests went fine, and it freezes every other 10 - 20 minutes. So how do I solve this problem? By locking the PCIe frequency? Just to make sure, are you talking about the one under Advanced -> JumperFree Configuration -> System Clock? There's only one option in there -> PCIe [100MHz]. And I never changed it, so I thought isn't it locked by default?
Let's assume it's locked(since there's no option letting the user to lock it), maybe it's because my video card was overheating due to the high temperature my CPU is creating?
 
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