What determines how far you can Overclock?
This is a question I've been wondering about for a while, because my CPU used to be OC'd at 3.4GHz, then I lowered it to 3.2 for a test and now the highest I can go is 3.3... What can I change to overclock to higher speeds? chipset cooling? Better CPU cooling?
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2) Luckier parts
3) Temps
+ PSU - high quality, plenty of amperage available to the 12v 'rails'
+ motherboard - high quality, BIOS designed for overclocking, good voltage regulation, good quality capacitors
+ RAM - high quality, 'headroom' to increase frequency beyond its specifications (if FSB overclocking, otherwise use motherboard 'dividers' to keep the RAM at close to rated speed)
+ heatsinks - northbridge and CPU that can dissipate excess heat created through increased voltage to those components
+ CPU - headroom for increasing speed - some have it and some don't, but there are trends
+ computer case + good ventilation and room to accommodate large CPU heatsinks
+ skill - getting all the voltage, ventilation, and cooling device variables lined up for optimum performance
BTW, what you you using for monitoring your temps, Core Temp? Your idle temps sound low for your present speed and vcore to me.
My Specs:
E6750
ASUS P5N-E Sli
Kingston HyperX DDR2 Overclocking RAM
Antec 900 and a truckload of cooling, except for the chispset and CPU cooling which is stock level.
My motherboard has a problem in that I'm limited to a heatsinc 10cm in diameter MAXMIMUM before it can't fit thanks to the northbridge- If anyone can reccomend any smaller NB heatsinc/fan combo then that would be fantastic
For a hsf, you should be able to mount a U-120X or U-120 on it with the stock nb cooler with no problems. The TT120 will fit too, but it's tight with one of the capacitors near the socket and the mounting bracket. I don't remember if I tried the XP90-C on it. When I get it back from RMA I can definitely check it for U-120 and XP90-C mounting though as I plan to take the XP90-C off my E6750 and run the U-120 on it and I can just wait until my P5N-E gets back from RMA to do the switch.
EDIT: I was still using the stock nb cooler but I did remove it and clean that factory tim off and reinstalled it with Ceramique. I also added an old cooler I had laying around to the sb too, which might help at high fsb speeds.
A better choice would be this one, which was pretty highly rated in Anandtech's testing. I don't think you would have any clearance problems with it either.
EDIT: Here's the Newegg reviews page for the Freezer7 Pro if you want to read more on what people think of it also. Linky to Newegg reviews
The cost to get to 3.5-3.6 on a C2D based CPU isnt all that much more than stock but going above and beyond that is where costs really start to add up. Usually it takes some bleeding edge equipment to get the bleeding edge speeds.
I find it more cost effective and better for folding if I dont care to push 1 machine to its complete max by buying the best because I could spend quite a bit less on motherboards, RAM, motherboards w/o the frills, etc and buy another system. Plus going to the extreme it takes more electricity and heats the apt in the summer...
Try to find of these for cooling if it'll fit:
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3210
I even linked him to one there at the store he had found the Zalman at.
BTW, that Ballistix you guys makes kicks ass. I've had that cheapo PC2-5300 Ballstix up to 560+ MHz at 5-5-5-15 2T timings at 2.1v in my E6750 rig.
As long as you attach it correctly the weight will be spread out across the board enough with all the screws in the mounting holes.
Thats a nice OC for that part. It sure was conservatively binned out. I'm looking forward to the next gen DDR2 we will be producing in the future with a (much) smaller feature size.
Thanks for the help all