Help With my First Overclock

E

effward

n00b
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Messages
9
I just built a new system:
-XFX nForce 680i LT SLI Motherboard
-Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 @ 3.00 GHz (stock)
-Tuniq Tower-120
-4x1GB OCZ Platinum Revision-2 PC6400 DDR2 (4-4-4-15)
-XFX 8800GT 512 Alpha Dog Edition (640 MHz)
-OCZ GameXStream 700-Watt PSU

I overclocked it to 3.11 GHz by increasing the FSB, ran ORTHOS, everything was stable. Then I upped it to 3.22 GHz and the ORTHOS CPU stress test runs fine, but the Blend test (to stress the CPU and RAM) fails within a few minutes. Currently all the voltages are on "Automatic" in the BIOS and the memory timings are set to 5-5-5-15.

What is causing the Blend Stress test to fail? I assume it is something with the RAM, but what can I do to fix it?

Thanks in advance.
 
Did you make sure the voltage for the ram is right. Some motherboard are reading it wrong in the BIOS. Take it off auto and set it to the right voltage
 
Ok, I will try that. Will edit with results.

EDIT: I set the Memory Voltage to 2.2v. ORTHOS still fails after 2 minutes.

Any other ideas?
 
loosen the timings to 5 5 5 15 and lower the FSB/mem divider to 1:1. After it's stable you can try tighter timings/higher memory frequency
 
the timings are already set to 5-5-5-15, Earlier today when I lowered the FSB/mem divider to 1:1 my system would get to the windows boot screen, then crash.
 
Then I doubt the issue lies with the RAM. 3.22GHz means a FSB of 357 if I'm not mistaken, and at 1:1 that would make the RAM run at 714MHz, considerably lower than the 800MHz it is designed for (and at tighter timings). The only issue the RAM should give you is if the voltage is incorrectly set or you've got a bad RAM block.
 
If you want to test your ram download MEmtest 86 and burn it to a CD. Set the BIOS so that the computer boot off the disk and let the program run.
 
Ok, I downloaded MEmtest86 and I will try it out soon and Edit with my results.
 
- 4gb on a 680i board can sometimes be tricky to properly overclock
- If the Small FFT test is failing you'll probably have to provide more voltage to your cpu

Prime 95 v25.3 is better for stability/stress testing.
 
The small FFT test doesn't fail, but the Blend test does fail. I will try using Prime 95 v25.3
 
Have you upped the northbridge voltage? If Prime small ftt is passing but blend is not, then the problem is most likely in your RAM, or the transport system for RAM data, which would be the NB. I had similar problems when I went to 4 GB of ram, and a touch higher NB voltage cleared me right up.
 
I ran Memtest and everything passed with no errors.

When I go in the BIOS to change the voltages I have only 4 options:
-CPU Core
-CPU FSB
-Memory
-nForce SPP

Which one do I change to increase NB voltage?
 
effward said:
I ran Memtest and everything passed with no errors.

When I go in the BIOS to change the voltages I have only 4 options:
-CPU Core
-CPU FSB
-Memory
-nForce SPP

Which one do I change to increase NB voltage?
Click to expand...

The SPP is the northbridge, and CPU FSB what you want to increase the voltage on (not sure why there are two values there) - I'd sy bump them both and see if it helps, then you coan try backing off one or the other and see if it stays stable.
 
Lets start from the beginning. What is your Fsb, multiplier, ram divider, vcore voltage .ram voltage. What did you start with and where do you have them now.
 
Currently they are at stock, so that my computer doesn't hang/crash.
Here are some screen shots of CPU-Z:
cpuz1lr9.png

cpuz2km2.png


So,
-FSB: 333.3 MHz
-Multiplier: 9x
-RAM divider: 5:6 (I think?)
-VCore Voltage: 1.296 V
-RAM Voltage: 2.2 V
 
I'm no expert, but I've seen the same issues on my striker, which is another 680i board.
Running 4x1GB (or even 2x1GB in dual channel), puts more stress on the memory controller, and creates stability issues. Playing with voltages on memory, vcore, and NB until you find just the right combination for your hardware is what eventually gets you stable. But there's a ton of complexity in this - some memory prefers to be undervolted, the NB runs hot and must be cooled adequately, etc.
I think this is the real fun / challenge of overclocking ;)
 
When I had it overclocked I had these settings:
-FSB: 370.3 MHz
-Multiplier: 9x
-RAM divider: unlinked, kept RAM at 800 MHz
-VCore Voltage: 1.4 V
-RAM Voltage: 2.2V
 
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