So, I'm wanting to overclock

[DaJe]

I've never overclocked anything before. I have an Asus P5W DH Deluxe and a core 2 duo E6700. I know with the p5w dh deluxe it should be easy to overclock. I think there's a bunch of built in utility things for this. But anyways, I'm not sure exactly what to do. I think I'll start off by clocking it up from 2.66ghz to 3ghz.

[Drum Thumper]

Here's a pretty decent primer. (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1804) I'm not sure about the other brands of boards, but my Biostar board has built in preset overclocks. I took the easy way out and used one of their settings.

[.Maleficus.]

To OC, you need to change the FSB in your BIOS. (FSB means Front Side Bus). That, multiplied by you CPU multiplier gives you your clock speed. So, find your FSB setting, up it a little bit, restart, and see where you are. Run a program like Prime95 for a while to make sure it's stable, and do it again until you're happy. Some good advice Olen gave in another thread about OC'ing was, "If it isn't boring and tedious, you're going too fast" which is very true. It took me like 2 weeks to get my E6600 up to 3.1GHz. Just go slow, up it only a little at a time, and you'll be fine.

You'll also notice that your RAM gets OC'ed when you change the FSB. This is good and bad. If you don't want it OC'ed, change the RAM multiplier to a lower setting.

[Greco101]

it'd be sweet if you could just change the multiplier. I feel like im killing my machine when the fsb is getting higher and higher. Isnt yours in the 1400's mal?

I did a light oc to my gpu and my computer seemed to run slower. Plus ntune resets the settings on every restart so I just said screw it.

[.Maleficus.]

Changing the multiplier vs. changing the FSB would make no difference, because either way, the core clock speed is going up, and eventually the voltage would have to be increased as well. On some higher end CPUs, they multiplier is unlocked, meaning there is no cap to it, but I wouldn't use that feature too much.

And yes, mine is in the 1400s. It was around 1480 I think when I was at 3.3Ghz, but that wasn't stable enough for me.

nTune has profiles, right? Because then, you save a profile to the OC you did, and at the startup of the computer just load the profile. And it probably ran slower because of inadequate cooling. My OC'd X1600PRO (with a factory OC nonetheless) ran slower the higher I went because it was like, 90C. I swear, I could burn myself touching it.


Edit: The 1480 FSB is actually 370 for those people whose mobos don't show it x4.

[DaJe]

So, with my motherboard and BIOS, I have a few choices. I also would have a utility I could use, but it won't work on my 64 bit vista.



Here are some things from the manual


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock5.jpg

http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock7.jpg

http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock8.jpg



And then this is just a built in feature that it automatically does


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock9.jpg




So I started off by going here, and choosing manual


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock2.jpg



And I changed it from 266 to 280 which should bring it to 2.80ghz


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock.jpg



And then I can do this thing, and go up by percentages


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock3.jpg



And here's the menu for the AI feature


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock4.jpg







Alright, so I what I did was that first option, and set it to 280. When I startup the computer, I end up at this screen.


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock6.jpg



To get into windows, I have to restart and post the bios


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock11.jpg



Press F8 to get the boot selection menu


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock12.jpg



And then choose which device I want t boot from


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/overclock10.jpg




And then once I'm in Windows, it says only one core is at 2.80ghz


http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/28ghz.jpg






So, uh, a little help?

[.Maleficus.]

Don't worry, you did it right. What it's saying is that it is an E6700 @ 2.66Ghz, ACTUALLY running at 2.80Ghz. It's misleading that way, but both cores are at 2.80Ghz.

[DaJe]

Yeah, I thought maybed it saying 2.66ghz was just part of the name of the processor. But still, there's the other issue of getting that message when I try to boot.

[rendermandan]

Here is the guide I started with. Ultimate Overclocking Guide http://www.devhardware.com/forums/showthread.php?p=567765#post567765

[DaJe]

+rep for the guide

[rendermandan]

Thanks for the Rep! Glad you found it usefull.

[DaJe]

I figured out why I was getting that mesage to mak a disk and all that. A line of periods formed across the screen, as if someone was holding down the key. And I noticed that those wee going in sync with the light on my disc drive. Then I remembered. I had the disc for my motherboard in the drive, so it was booting from that.

[DaJe]

At 3.06ghz, it's running at 49°C - 51°C on stock cooling. Think that's alright? I also don't have it in the room it's usually in right now, which is a lot cooler than in here. If it gets too hot, it'll shut itself down. But still, too much heat exposure could shorten it's life.

[.Maleficus.]

Is that under load or idle? If it's idle, then it'll get a lot hotter under a load, which might not be good.

[DaJe]

Idle after exiting a game. I need to re-apply the thermal compound and the heatsink. It came loose last night, and ended up shutting down from overheating right after the BIOS posted.

[.Maleficus.]

How soon after exiting the game? If it's right away, you can consider it load still, in which case it isn't too bad.

[DaJe]

Yeah, it was like 53 after exiting. I'll run some tests tonight, and also re-apply the thermal compound. Slow steps.

[.Maleficus.]

Keep in mind, after reapplying the compound, it will take about 250 hours to take full effect. You can get around this by running heavy burn-in programs (Prime95 for example) but it still won't be as good as it will get.

[Indybird]

So wait, do you get more performance from an OC if you raise the FSB/multiplier than if you just raise the clock speed? If so I'm more of an overclocking n00b than I thought... :(

-Indybird

[.Maleficus.]

So wait, do you get more performance from an OC if you raise the FSB/multiplier than if you just raise the clock speed? If so I'm more of an overclocking n00b than I thought... :(

-Indybird
Wait, how did you just raise the clock speed? I was under the impression you _have_ to raise the FSB or multiplier to change anything... Because those are the 2 things that affect clock speed..

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

indybird...... with my best regards... u r a overclocking n00b :P mal ur right.... these r the only possible options.. FSB and multi..... tho there is the odd few motherboards which do it under another headin or title of sorts...

[Indybird]

I have the exact same Mobo as DaJe, Asus P5W-DH. All you do is go into the BIOS, go to "Jumperless Settings" or something weird like that. There is literally a "Clock Speed Box" right above the "CPU Multiplier", the mulitplier box is ten and i entered 320 for Clock Speed it overclocked it to 3.2GHz, I double checked w/ CPUZ. I didn't change anything but Clock Speed. Is that like a bad overclock, or do I have a really easy to use BIOS?

-Indybird

[.Maleficus.]

No, I don't think it is a bad OC at all. I imagine you just have a really easy board to OC. That is honestly something I've never seen before. After you do that, do you seen any change in the FSB? It's probably just another way to change the clock-speed-affecting part of the FSB.

[Indybird]

I just checked CPU-Z again, and it did automatically raise the FSB from 1066 to 1281.8 . Until this thread, I thought that's how you overclock on every mobo. Then again this is the only mobo I've ever OC'd on...

Heres a picture of the bios screen where the only thing I changed was CPU Frequency & CPU Voltage:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a29/Indybird/PICT3404.jpg

-Indybird

[DaJe]

I now have my processor idiling at an average of 43°C while at 3.06ghz on stock cooling.



Full load is about 47°C to 48°C