Do I really need to overclock?..truthfully

[reddragon0000]

ok guys, let me ask with my system do I need to overclock it to play the games of today like Crysis, COD4, COD World at War etc etc on high detail with good FPS?

System:
Q9400 quad core, 2.66 Ghz
Kingston 4 gigs of DDR2 Ram, 800mhz
500w psu with 32@12v
Gigabyte G41mF-S2H, 1066/1333 FSB motherboard
Graphics card: 8800 GT with 512 memory

I would love to get it to 3.00ghz, but I have never overclocked a system and I don't want to risk my computer if my system is good enough as is to play High Detail on the games of today.

Thanks for any opinions yea guys got

Oh, and if I need to overclock, then any good ideas on something simple that will get me to 3.00ghz

 

[calinkula]

Do any games you play run too slow or you would like some better frame rates?

 

[cjl]

Nobody needs to overclock. However, it might help your performance some if you are unhappy about it in any way.

 

[seboj]

do I need to overclock

Yes.

Do it now.

Stop reading this and go do it.

Seriously.

 

[reddragon0000]

Right now I only play COD World at War Multiplayer with no problems. I would like to get Crysis, but I heard people say it requires 3.0ghz, and since mine is only 2.66, i am hesitant about buying it.

PS Do you guys know of any programs that can be downloaded to test computers FPS rate and graphics card capabilites?

 

[roush2fast]

http://www.futuremark.com/

 

[nsimo86]

do a google search for FRAPS.

 

[reddragon0000]

Decided to try the overclocking. Gong to download me the CPU-Z and also the Prime95. I will try and bump up either the multiplier or the FSB slowly. I don't want to mess with voltage, so I hoping since I'm only going from 2.66 to 3.0, i will not come across heat problems with standard heatsink and fan. ^^

 

[roush2fast]

Download 3DMark 06 and run a benchmark prior to overclocking. This will give you a good reference point. Slowly raise your FSB and run 3DMark each increment. Keep going until your desired or max stable OC is achieved. Running 3Dmark is a good tool for testing mild overclocks as it helps you find that “sweet spot” while confirming stability. For more aggressive overclocking or voltage modifications I would suggest Orthos or some of the other programs.

It would be a good idea to download Real temp or equivalent . Leave it running while 3Dmark is running. It will give you the max temp that was reached while stressed.

Good luck

 

[reddragon0000]

Thanks.......Here I Goooooooooooooooooo! XD

 

[reddragon0000]

ok guys, ran into a snag trying to get my q9400 2.66ghz to 3.00ghz. I moved the 333mhz FSB to 343mhz and that increased me to 2.74ghz, but when I try to go beyond the 343mhz, the system drops me back down to 2.66ghz. I go into BIOS and it says "boot failure happened due to increased FSB or voltage" I heard that Gigabyte motherboards are easy to OC. Anyone got any ideas?

I do note an area that I can increase my "mV" from 700mv(set at now), 800mv, 900mv.

 

[jsc]

Two practical reasons to overclock:
1. Get the performance of a more expensive CPU with a less expensive one.
2. Hard core gaming.

Some Gigabyte motherboards are easy to overclock. I upgraded the CPU in my GA-EP35-DS3P to a Q9550 (2.83 GHz). Took me 5 minutes to reach 3.6 GHz - FSB to 425 MHz with an intermediate stop at 400 MHz. and vcore increase of .025 volts.

OTOH, my HSF is a ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme with an S-Flex fan and it's all in an Antec 900 case in an air conditioned room (not that important this time of year if you live above the Equator).

----------
Overclocking since 1978 - Z80 (TRS-80) from 1.77 MHz to 2.01 MHz

 

[reddragon0000]

Weird that my system does not crash, it just keeps pushing the FSB back to 2.66. The BIOS on this motherboard even has an area especially for overclocking ^^, but I can't get past 343mhz...... 2.74ghz isn't much of a gain :-(

I am running Crysis on High graphics, and it runs perfect, but when I ran the 3DMark 06 program, I really didn't like the numbers. When it got to the CPU test, it was really slow, only 1 - 3 FPS.

Anyone got an ideas to get my 2.66 to 3.0?

 

[jsc]

Weird that my system does not crash, it just keeps pushing the FSB back to 2.66.

Actually, that's a pretty nice feature. It wasn't too long ago that if you got too aggressive with your OC settings, the computer would lock up and you would need to clear the CMOS RAM. This is much better.

What kind of HSF and case do you have? If you are using the stock cooler, I am not surprised that you cannot go higher. I have noticed that the heatsink for my Q9550 is about half the size of the heatsink that came with my Q6600. It looks like Intel did not make it any bigger than it needed to be to run at stock speed.

At this point, you need to find a couple of OC'ing guides - one a general purpose for Oc'ing C2D's and C2Q's and one specifically for OC'ing Gigabyte motherboards.

 

[reddragon0000]

I'm using a NZXT Apollo Mid size case, comes with 2 120mm fans, 1 on the back and 1 on the side of the case.

I'm using the stock heatsink and fan that came with the Intel Q9400 chip.

I didn't think pushing the Ghz from 2.66 to 3.00 would cause much heat problems. When i had the chip at 2.74, the cores where running cool.

I did find a guide someone posted here, and it was pretty straight forward for increasing FSB at 20mhz intervals, but I can't even get past 10Mhz increase...lol

Should I get a better heatsink and fan to get to the 3.00?

 

[roush2fast]

That really is a nice feature. It saves you the trouble of resetting the CMOS 50 billion times. In retrospect though if it were mine I would actually disable it as I think it would be easier to just reset CMOS and "with care" re-adjust parameters to find the proper settings to at least boot.

Few Q's
1) Did you raise vcore?
2) What is your current vcore
3) What was your max temp when running 3Dmark?
4) Have you used cpuz or any other utility to determine vdroop?
5) Did you try a few MHz higher to see if you have hit a FSB hole?

You should be able to reach 3.0. A friend of mine has his at 3.4 using 425X8 @ 1.24v. Granted that is on an ASUS board but nonetheless you should still be able to hit 3.0.

As far as 3d mark, what was your score? Don't worry about the low FPS during CPU test 1 & 2. It is really taxing your CPU and that is normal.

 

[reddragon0000]

I will diffently take a look when I get home ^^

 

[reddragon0000]

1) Never touched the Vcore, just increased FSB
2) According to CPU-Z my core voltage is 1.056
3) I checked my core temps after running 3Dmark and they where 36, 35, 34, 34
4) I went from 333 -> 340 (gave me 2.67ghz), then I went to 343(gave me 2.74ghz)
then I went to 350 (dropped to 2.66ghz), then I tried 363 (dropped me to 2.66ghz)

any ideas anyone how to get to 3.0ghz? Should I jump my FSB to higher? like 370mhz or more and test?

 

[V3NOM]

"need" is not the question. does anyone NEED to have a car? NEED to have a house instead of a bark shack? do you actually NEED a PC full stop?

the question is whether you want the speed. i personally don't want to wait 1 minute for my PC to boot up. i want the max FPS and performance i can get with a game. I overclock.

 

[reddragon0000]

I double checked my vcore through BIOS and it is actually 1.188

If anyone has this motherboard and can let me know how they got it to overclock to 3.00ghz

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128367


Thanks to anyone who can help ^^

 

[V3NOM]

G41? thanks for making me feel like a noob... i didnt even know that existed. :lol:

wow thats a pretty low voltage... those 45nm chips can handle 1.3625v safely according to intel. if you got a better heatsink you could quite easily get 3.6ghz or higher

that bios resetting feature... i love it hey. my old asrock via based mobo had such a feature, but my brand spanking new msi p45 has a jumper CMOS reset -_-' i lost count of the amoutn of times i've reset my cmos.

kk, well imo the first step should be to set your RAM at factory timings and voltages.

next, try setting the vcore to 1.2-1.25v, and try 366, then 400mhz. i hope you have 800mhz RAM lol...

keep us posted

 

[reddragon0000]

Probably easier just to buy a quad core at 3.00ghz :lol:

 

[reddragon0000]

Hmmmm something I didn't think about. Updating the BIOS? I downloaded Everest Home Edition and according to that my BIOS is old. Should I update my bios? I've heard people say you should not flash your bios unless you are having hardware problems.....hmmmmm not sure

 

[roush2fast]

Hey dude , sorry I didn't respond yesterday.

Well now that you bring up your bios we now have 2 separate issues to address. I would definitely update to the most recent bios as it will contain fixes to any bugs associated with your board and give you a good head start to achieving your desired oc.

Go ahead and do that and post back when you have done so. if you have any questions please ask.

BTW I noticed you said you play BF , do you have xfire ?

 

[reddragon0000]

Yup, got me x-fire ^^ Love to play COD World At War

Yep, looks like I got me a F1 BIOS and they are already up to F3 update drivers for it....time to download!