Need help with E6400 + P35-DS3L

[rbinc]

I have my system right now at 400 x 8 = 3200 MHz. RAM is set at 1:1 synchronous mode. All timings are set to auto. I think I've hit a bit of a wall, as I can't increase my FSB any higher. I've tried to get stability at 405 FSB with no luck. I've tried setting both the VNB and VFSB at +0.3V to no avail. At 405 FSB, the RAM runs fine in memtest+ for 8+ hours, but fails Prime95 with Small FFTs within 2 hours. I haven't tried increasing the Vcore any further as I've been advised not to on other forums. My voltage settings are as follows.

Voltage settings:

RAM: Stock (1.8V)
FSB: +0.1V
NB: Stock
PCIE: Stock
CPU: 1.45000V (Stock is 1.32500V)

My temperatures seem fine. I'm using an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro with Arctic Silver 5. Plenty of airflow in the case even with a single 120mm Fan on my Sonata II. Here are my load and idle temps.

Voltages/Temps:

IDLE: 37°C 1.392V
LOAD: 53°C 1.376V
MOBO: 40°C

I have no idea why I'm hitting a wall at 400 FSB. While I am happy that I've been able to get > 50% overclock with the E6400, I'd still like to try and get further if possible. Is there anything else I can do other than increasing the Vcore further? And, is setting the Vcore higher (possibly 1.47500V or 1.50000V) going to be dangerous, with the Vdrop and Vdroop values?

My System:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13 GHz 2MB
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Rev 2.0 F8f BIOS
4x1GB Patriot Signature Line DDR2-800 5-5-5-16-2T

Btw thanks for looking

 

[rbinc]

Bump.

C'mon, someone must know

 

[colinstu]

1.45v on the cpu just for 3.2GHz 1.3750 works just fine for me and my E6400.

Try to just use 2x1GB ram, harder on the northbridge with 4 sticks of ram.

Check out this thread and see what other setups people are having with your chip.

 

[Salavat23]

I have the same set-up, but I did not increase the FSB voltage.

My CPU voltage is 1.3750 at 3.2ghz.

 

[Psycho Paul]

What's your bios version? A lot of folk hit an fsb wall on the F7 bios the DS3L ships with and fixed the problem by flashing the latest f8 beta bios.

 

[rbinc]

Thx for the replies.

The reason I have my vcore at 1.45 is that I couldn't pass prime95 with 1.4 at 400 fsb. So I incremented 0.05 instead of doing smaller steps. So I might be able to lower it to somewhere between 1.4 - 1.45, but it wouldn't do much.

I'm not sure why I need the extra voltage. Maybe PSU? Maybe my not-so-oc-friendly RAM? But I think the only choice for me to go > 400 fsb is to up the vcore.

Btw, my bios is F8f.

 

[Dangman]

I'm not sure why I need the extra voltage. Maybe PSU? Maybe my not-so-oc-friendly RAM? But I think the only choice for me to go > 400 fsb is to up the vcore.

Nah probably due to the E6400 itself. With overclocking, YMMV. My E6400 only requires 1.328V to hit 3.2Ghz with a 400FSB. So the amount of vCore varies.

Though you are getting better temps than I am with the AC7Pro and E6400. I get about 58C under load.

Oh keep the vCore at or under 1.5V. Any higher than that and you risk frying your CPU. Up the PCI-E to 102 and the NB to +0.1V. Also, stick a small fan on the northbridge/MCH to cool it down.

 

[rbinc]

Up the PCI-E to 102

Is that safe, even 2 MHz? Is there any chance it could damage my 8800GT?

northbridge/MCH to cool it down.

Any suggestions for a particular model? And is it really necessary since the mobo temp isn't really that high?

 

[colinstu]

Why up the PCIe at all? I've heard people run it higher no problem, but it isn't going to give you any performance increase...

 

[Dangman]

Upping the PCI-E might add a bit more stability. At least that's what I'm guessing from this Gigabyte motherboard overclocking thread:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1169366

The fan isn't too neccessary but it does help eliminate a potential cause or limitation of your OC. No recommendations for any small fan. Just about any small fan around 40mm, even 50mm even, would work.