First overlock on an e5200. Asking for a little help :)

[krisskross1029]

Heyy my first post on this site.. I have many questions actually. I've spent a good deal researching about overclocking over the last month and I've actually had very little success. I'm still very much new to this and thought this was the place to ask for help.
Specs: 4890 ati video card
e5200 cpu
Khx8500D2/1gn *4(so 4gb total) ram
550 watt power supply
running windows 7 32 bit.
P35-DS3L motherboard
Now as i said earlier I had very little luck overclocking so far. I've read the P35-DS3L guide on overclocking here and they mention that any ddr ram faster then 800 has caused issues. I've increased the multiplier to 12.5. Fsb increased to 230.Have voltage on stock for cpu and ram. Have ram timing at 5-5-5-18. The memory mult. at 3.33 so my memory speed is 766mhz(almsot 800). I can rum Prime95 for 5 hours fine, but when playing games it crashes. I hear people overclocking close to 3ghz on stock voltage all the time, why can't I? My FSBRAM ratio is 3:5. I really don't understand this part and wonder if my ram speeds is causing the system to crash. Should I raise voltage?? Can someone please help me.

 

[jsc]

Trying to overclock the memory is probably the most common beginner mistake.

The 3:5 means that your memory is running much faster than the CPU FSB. Change your System Mem Mult to 2.0. Yes, you will be running your memory slower than specs. So what?

In a Core2 system, overclocking the memory gets you very little useful speed. We talk about that here:
Overclocking RAM:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251715-29-ratio-myth

Typical OC limits of an E5200 is about 3.7 - 4.0 GHz with halfway decent cooling. Your RAM will be running far enough below spec that you can use the default 1.8 volts.

Intel's max recommended CPU voltage is 1.45 volts. Max recommennded load temps are 70 C.

 

[krisskross1029]

Ah thank you jsc.I finally got understand it. With the 1:1 ratio i'm completely stable and overclocked to 2.8ghz. I'm not sure how much further I can go on stock cooling and voltage. Does increasing the VID voltage slightly usually increase temps by much, or since i'm on stock cooling should I not mess with voltage as heat becomes an issue?

 

[jsc]

I detect a little confusion here.

You cannot increase the VID. The VID is fixed at the time the CPU die is packaged:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_Identification_Digital

You can increase the core voltage, though. If you are using the stock cooler (or any cooler for that matter), you can increase the voltage up to the point where the load temps hit 70 C.

 

[krisskross1029]

Seriously I appreciate the responses and help. So far i've gotten up to 2.8 ghz. But now my games crash again and I dont know what else to do. I've got 1:1 going, stock voltage and even raised it a bit to 1.25 with no luck. What else should I look at? my fsb can't seem go beyond 225 without crashing in games. My ram speed is way below its limit. Should i change timings? I just don't get why i'm having so much trouble. I'm worried its my ram speed. its 1066 and I've heard issues with my motherboard and this ram speed.I've been using this guide http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-245679_11_0.html .