Core 2 Duo Overclock help

HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
edited December 2007 in Hardware
Hullo again everyone :)
I've got enough cooling, so I thought heck, why not :P After reading about the lack of risk when it comes to overclocking CPUs I decided to try it... I don't have a clue how to do it though. Can you guys reccomend any tools for doing it, and how to do it/what to change? I don't want to make any mistakes and asking you guys is better than any online manual can do.
Thanks in advance
Haru



EDIT: I understand I've been asking for help and advice alot on here lately, but this is the kind of stuff I want to do for a job and I'm keen to learn as much as possible about everything I can :D

Comments

  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited November 2007
    Go into your BIOS and raise the FSB. Do that 5-10 MHz at a time until it fails. Up the voltage a notch and keep going if you want.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Here's a decent guide with an explanation of overclocking terms and the fundamental principles and dynamics involved. We have overclocking guides here at Icrontic as well, but they are for Athlon 64. That might get a bit confusing for you.

    If I were you, I'd read and understand the fundamentals before actually starting to boost frequencies and voltages.

    To start with some fundamentals of hardware, you must have a good quality PSU and good northbridge and CPU cooling. Forgive me if it's already posted and I missed it, but what is in your system:

    PSU
    motherboard
    CPU cooling
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I don't know what my PSU is
    ASUS P5N-E SLi
    Intel Standard CPU fan, but my load temps are 42/42 and ~19 or 20 idle
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Leonardo wrote:
    Here's a decent guide with an explanation of overclocking terms and the fundamental principles and dynamics involved. We have overclocking guides here at Icrontic as well, but they are for Athlon 64. That might get a bit confusing for you.

    If I were you, I'd read and understand the fundamentals before actually starting to boost frequencies and voltages.

    To start with some fundamentals of hardware, you must have a good quality PSU and good northbridge and CPU cooling. Forgive me if it's already posted and I missed it, but what is in your system:

    PSU
    motherboard
    CPU cooling


    Okay, thanks :D I'm reading that now
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Hey guys
    It's now running comfortably at 3.1GHz :D I tried to go to 3.2, it worked, but when it got to the Windows "Welcome" screen I got a BSOD and had to reset my CMOS :mad: Anyone know why that is? It was working fine up until that point. Oh, and my HyperX RAM has a normal clock of 800MHz But you purchase them already overclocked to 1066- My current RAM speed is 1033MHz- Is my RAM slower or has it increased the 800 to 1033?


    EDIT: World Of Warcraft, Live messenger and my entire CD drive aren't working >.>
    EDIT2: After saying comfortably, it crashed- I guessed that was due to not being enough power as it was being really slow before it died. I'm fiddling with the Voltage settings now, but for a 3.2GHz would anyone know what Voltage it should be at? 2.85 or something at the moment
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I am not aware of pre-overclocked DRAM. Perhaps what it means is that it is rated at 800, but has been pre-tested at a higher speed. (maybe I'm wrong)

    Don't try to overclock everything all at once. You will never be able to isolate variables and determine exactly what is prohibiting further clock advances. For now, just work with the CPU, and only FSB boosts. When you hit a wall, such wall in this case being your BSOD, increase the CPU vCore. Once in Windows, you MUST observe the CPU core temp. If the temps start getting crazy high, your overclocking must cease, regardless of your system's capabilities.

    A blue screen crash such as you described is usually indicative of RAM running above it's capabilities or of insufficient voltage to the RAM. Indicators of insufficient voltage to the CPU core and FSB are usually program crashes or black-screening before Windows is fully loaded.

    Look in your BIOS for what are called dividers, that is, settings to for a ratio between the FSB and memory, whereby you can leave your memory at close to default speed. Do that - keep your DRAM close to 400/800DDR. This will let you concentrate on the CPU FSB, to determine it's limits. Once you've nailed down the capabilities of your CPU, then you can start testing the memory.

    You will find that overclocking is fun, but it takes patience and attention to detail. You read about people just "dropping in" components and immediately going to high overclock settings and resultant fast, stable systems. Sure, that is possible with experienced overclockers.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I've not been overclocking everything at once, fortunately, and I've been increasing the clock speed gradually. Unfortunately I have not been changing the Voltages for anything as admittedly I haven't got a CLUE when it comes to power inside computers. I literally don't know where to start, what should be the optimum voltage, minimum voltage, I dunno what the hell rails are etc :P I'll increase the RAM Voltage though, as I' working my way up from the bottom of the Voltage list: If the Voltage is too high will it break the RAM?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I haven't got a CLUE when it comes to power inside computers
    I must be blunt: you are not ready to start overclocking. Look again at that guide I linked. Do some internet searches for "overclocking guide." You must understand power distribution - specifically vCore, FSB voltage, and DRAM voltage before you continue.

    Just as important, you must have a means to monitor the voltages and temperatures in Windows. What are you using? Have you installed anything? Recommend Core Temp for CPU core temperatures and SpeedFan for voltages.

    Please, also, open the side of your case and read the label on the power supply. Brand? Model? Total wattage?

    You stated your computer is well cooled? Perhaps it is, perhaps it is not. Please tell us about it. What CPU heatsink are you using? What thermal grease did you apply?

    Look, I/we are not trying to discourage you from overclocking. We just want to make sure that you are prepared for success and not failure! :)
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Fair enough, I knew what I was doing until I had to do it :P My only weakness is knowledge about power, so I'll read that up now. I'm fine with reinstalling some stuff, but any idea why I have to? >.> Most of my harddrive is fragmenteded and some applications won't work. I'm degragmenting now too.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I'm fine with reinstalling some stuff, but any idea why I have to?
    Sorry, Sir, I don't quite get your meaning.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Here's my speedfan results: Anything drasitcally wrong?
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Weell... Quite a few of my applications, annoyingly, have stopped working
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    You have a corrupted hard drive, possibly from crashes. First, perform a Checkdisk operation on all partitions. Check both boxes for "fix" and "bad sectors." If there are still problems, but just very minor problems, reinstall the programs. If you consider it more than 'minor,' it's possibly time to whip out the Windows CD and perform a Windows "Repair" installation.

    Checkdisk is a great tool. In my experience, when working up new overclocks with new hardware, I accept that there will be some BSOD and Windows program crashes. It's par for the course in aggressive overclocking. Almost always I will perform a Checkdisk on the drive to repair any files damage that the crashes may have caused.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I did a defrag and that fixed everything- nearly everything was fragmented :P
    Small thing... My system clock is 4 hours wrong, how do I change it?
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I overclocked it as Unlinked, and left the RAM at the speed it came at and I'm running 3.4GHz without crashes so far and relatively stable temps (32 idle) but I'll be adding some more cooling soon :)
  • MAGICMAGIC Doot Doot Furniture City, Michigan Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    Harudath wrote:
    I did a defrag and that fixed everything- nearly everything was fragmented :P
    Small thing... My system clock is 4 hours wrong, how do I change it?

    Double click on the time and it will bring up a window to change your time date and you will possibley need to change your time zone or it will change your time every time you do a windows update.
    Harudath wrote:
    I overclocked it as Unlinked, and left the RAM at the speed it came at and I'm running 3.4GHz without crashes so far and relatively stable temps (32 idle) but I'll be adding some more cooling soon :)

    If you increased your fsb and are not using a divider it will increase your memory speed. if it's stable than sweet. kingston makes nice memory so you might not have a problem.
  • HarudathHarudath Great Britain Icrontian
    edited December 2007
    I fixed the time in the BIOS, since the date was wrong too and It's been perfectly stable and running smoothe as a baby's bottom. Thanks for all your input and help guys :D
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