E5200 Overclock

[Montsegur97]

I just recently started overclocking my new e5200 after reading that so many people had done it without a hitch. This is the first time I ever do anything like this, so was just making sure it's gone somewhat right.

I have the chip currently running at 3.3ghz with stock voltages, and I think I've correctly changed my ram timing as per the manufacturer.

This is what I have

Now I'm not entirely sure if it's all done right, I've read the stickies along with another guide for my motherboard specifically which is a EVGA 750i FTW. The RAM is OCZ Platinum XTC 4GB Dual Channel PC6400 Memory - DDR2-800MHz, Enhanced Bandwidth, 4096MB (2 x 2048MB). Coretemp and speedfan give me temps of about 56-57 with orthos and prime95, which I am happy with.

Anyhow, even with reading all the guides, there's still a bit of confusion on my part, this stuff can get pretty customizable, and I don't want to touch any voltages since I'm not that confident. Also, in my BIOS I believe I have the ram and cpu to linked and sync so that it slows the ram down accordingly (at least I think that's what it does). Do the numbers look ok with CPUz? Are there any other numbers I should be aware of?

Thanks.

 

[megamanx00]

That's a pretty darn good overclock, especially at stock voltage. Anyway, yes you are running your FSB:RAM ration 1:1. Right now your RAM is running at DDR2 550. If you're happy with your FSB speed, then you way want to adjust the ratio to increase the speed of your RAM and set it's timings accordingly.

 

[Montsegur97]

Well I just turned it down to 3.2ghz since Prime 95 stopped after 24 mins. So for the ram, once I'm happy with my overclock setting... I have a bus speed of 266.7mhz or rated at 1067. What should I change my ram to in terms of the rated speed? Should I just use the 3:2 option, 5:4, etc. The other thing is timings, should I keep the 4, 4, 3, 15 that I have?

Or should I just keep the 1:1 CPUZ is showing me with my motherboard settings at linked and sync and not worry too much about the ram.

 

[MaDMagik]

If I were you I would keep the 1:1 ratio, further drop the cpu multiplier and raise FSB. For example 10.5 x 300 will give you 3150mhz and ram speed of ddr2 600(instead of ddr 550 you have now). My e5200 maxes out at FSB 330 and refuses to go even 1mhz higher. Some will go higher, some wont even do 330, the slowest Ive seen maxed at fsb 316, but 300 is pretty much granted in every case.

I would keep the timings as they are, generally memory speed/timings have very low impact on your PCs overall performance. Of course you can fine-tune your ram if you want to but, as megamanx00 said above, do it as a last thing once youre happy with your FSB/CPU speed.

When you run CoreTemp, what VID does it report?

 

[Montsegur97]

Alright, well I'm at work right now, so I'll try lowering the multiplier once I get home. I'll just leave the ram as is too. As for the VID, I want to say 1.176, but I really don't know until I get home.

Thanks.

 

[Montsegur97]

I double checked, and my vid is 1.1750. Also, I just ran Prime95 for 10 hours, and 3.2ghz had 0 errors (that's with the multiplier of 12 and 1:1 ratio). So can I keep that and just increase my ratio to 3:2? Which essentially puts my ram at 711? I figure for all this, I don't have to touch any voltages if it's all stable.

 

[Mugz]

You only touch voltages the moment it starts getting unstable. Until then, leave them alone.

 

[MaDMagik]

You only touch voltages the moment it starts getting unstable. Until then, leave them alone.

Amen to that


Yeah, you can raise the ratio to 3:2 which should put your ram at 800 if my math is correct((3:2)x266=400mhz=ddr2 800)

And I must say, thats a really good chip you have there, it runs 700MHz faster than stock speed when its effectively undervolted(vid is 1.175v and it runs stable on 1.136v) When you decide to go for more you will see theres a lot more that chip still has to offer.
Im a bit surprised with the temperatures, but i assume you use the stock cooler?

 

[Montsegur97]

I'm using this for cooling, not stock, but not significantly better either: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3302739&CatId=493. Also have two case fans, and using Zalman thermal grease.

From what I've read though, people have OC'd this chip to 3.0+ghz on stock cooler with temps under 60, and I think it can tolerate up to 76C of heat. I ran a stress test overnight with 0 issues, temps through coretemp were 54, and 55 on speedfan.

Also, I think my Bios ram divider is a bit different since it's giving me 711mhz right now, or 355. CPUZ gives me a ratio of FSBRAM of 3:4 while my bios says 3:2, which is probably backwards. I'll see if I can set it manually to 800.1.

 

[Montsegur97]

Apparently I can't set decimals in my bios. Does it matter if it's off by 0.1? (dumb question, I know). Cause technichally I'm at 266.7, which= 400.05 =800.1.

CPUZ is reading my ram at 400 or 400.1mhz, and my bus speed at 266.7. So if that 0.1 doesn't matter, I'll just leave it at 800mhz and leave everything as is cause I'm quite happy with an overclock like this with minimal effort.

Thanks again guys! Always fun tinkering with this kind of stuff.

edit: Actually, I wonder if it'll matter at all as Coretemp read it as 266.67, meaning 800.01 which I don't even think I could set if I wanted to.

So 800mhz it is.

 

[MaDMagik]

0.1 doesnt matter, clock generators are not 100% accurate. If it runs with no problems than keep it as it is

 

[Montsegur97]

Ya, everything's been running great, ran Prime 95 for 12 hours after my final 3.2ghz settings, and the ram at 800mhz, 0 issues. Been playing games all day with no problems either. Thanks again for the help, quite happy with these settings, no to mention the chip cost me 80bucks.

 

[prelude2250]

yeah I've got one in my desktop at work and have it running at 3.5ghz with just one notch up on the v-core. I have not had one blue screen and temps have been fine. I have been very happy with the 5200 for what it is.