Help--P5B SE-q6600 / 9600gt overclocking

[deezdrama]

Ok I bought/built this system from a barebones a couple years back. I been trying to squeeze a little more performance out of it for gaming to get me by for another year or two before i build a new system.

Specs,
Raidmax smilodon case, 600w cheap power supply, Asus P5B SE mobo, q6600 cpu, 9600gt vid card,running vista 64 ultimate, 4 gigs ram not sure what the ram is but here is what 3dmark 06 is saying it is when i scan my system...


Form Factor DIMM
Frequency 533.0 MHz
Slot DIMM_A1 [BANK0]
Manufacturer Manufacturer0
Type SDRAM
Type Details Synchronous
Enabled Size 1.00 GB (4.00 GB Total)
Total Bit Width 64 b
Data Bit Width 64 b

I thought my barebones was suppossed to come with 800mhz ddr2 ram but not sure if this ram is crap or what?

Anyway i have not flashed new bios- still using the ones the mobo came with, Today -I just downloaded latest nvidia drivers for my card, defragged, and in bios set CPU to 20% overclock, I then overclocked my 9600gt using 3dmark 06 to check for stability.

My vid card stock specs were 650 core 900 memory and found 750/1050 to be stable in 3dmark 06- although I only let it run once- not for hours as I read some ppl do.

Anyway- fired up AION to play for first time since overclocking, went fine for about an hour then the game crashed and system froze. So - I dropped the vid cards core and memory speeds down to just a little over stock (700/1000) and loaded up the game again- same crash/system freeze after about 2 hours.

I went into my bios and dropped the overclock profile down from 20% to 10%.

Havnt tried it out yet - I figured I would come here and ask first before I screw things up.

The problem Is- every few years I decide to build a new PC and go all ocd - reading researching about everything- but then a year or so later when I go to tweak anything with my system I already forgot everything i learned from when I built the thing- LOL.

Anyway- Im wondering if the ASUS bios on my p5b se mobo are decent enough to achieve decent overclocking.
I would like to get my Q6600 running at 3.0ghz with stock air cooling.
In my bios I can choose from
5%
10%
15%
20%
30%
overclocking...

Is this all there is to it or will I need to adjust memory voltage timings ect?
Any idea why im getting game/system crashes?


Thanks for any help! 😀

 

[rockyjohn]

I will leave the OC issue to someone more familiar with your mobo.

With that system - especially if you can OC the CPU - you can get substantial performance improvement by purchasing a new graphics card now - then just move it into your new system later. Your system will easily support a GTS 250 or GTX 260 - assuming you want to stay with nVidia. It is my preference also, althought right at the moment AMD is ahead in some price ranges.

Are you familiar with the monthly video card rankings by budget level done by THG:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-310-5970,2491.html

Note that the 9600 GT is still on the list - you made a good choice - of course it is at a lot lower budget level probably then when you purchased it.

And the graphic card charts:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-2009/benchmarks,54.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-2009/compare,1195.html?prod%5B2480%5D=on&prod%5B2464%5D=on&prod%5B2465%5D=on&prod%5B2473%5D=on

Also you might want to download the free software CPU-Z which will provide information about your memory as well.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

 

[deezdrama]

thanks for the links- I downloaded cpu-z ....

Im not sure what to do to get my cpu to overclock to 3.00ghz

I have googled "p5b se overclock" but cant find much info on this specific mobo.

In the bios it lets you pick overclock, 5%,10%,15% ect- up to 30%

Ive used 20% before and the system didnt blue screen or nothing- booted up to windows and ran fine till I played a game and system crashed- but that may of been due to vid card overclocking speeds that i have since scaled back.

Anyone overclock one of these mobo's?

Do I just select 20% and thats it- or do I also have to go in there and adjust voltages, ram timings ect?

heres some additional info ...

q6600 family 6 model f ,stepping B, revision G0

the ram i have is made by STT supertalent? =(
DDR2
pc2-6400 (400mhz)

then it lists timing tables...
200mhz= Cas Lat/3.0=== Ras#toCas/3 ===Ras#pre/3===tRAS/8===tRC/11

266mhz= Cas Lat/4.0=== Ras#toCas/4 ===Ras#pre/4===tRAS/10===tRC/14

400mhz= Cas Lat/5.0=== Ras#toCas/5 ===Ras#pre/5===tRAS/15===tRC/21

1.8v


...
...


Are these ram modules complete trash?

Any suggestions on how to time these/overclock the cpu to run stable at 3.00ghz
or should I just try the...
"20% overclock" option in the bios again- and be happy if its stable?

 

[rockyjohn]

That seems to be saying your memory is working at pc2-6400 which is 800 Mhz (since it is DDR2 - or double data rate - that is 2 times the 400MHz nominal rate - for an effective rate of 800 MHz. There is no reason to assume your memory is trash - Super Talent is a reputable brand and your timings are average.

The tables on the SPD tab are the standard timings that your memory can run at.
Since you are at 400MHz (800Mhz) - then you want timings (set in BIOS) of :

Cas Lat/ 5.0
Ras#toCas/ 5
Ras#pre/ 5
tRAS/ 15
tRC/ 21

What are the actual timings reported on the memory tab?

The 1.8v is obviously the voltage required by the memory. This is pretty standard so most likely not an issue, but you should be able to check the setting in BIOS to make sure.

You can test the memory with memtest:

http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

Note that you can first try it the easy way - using a floppy disk if you have one that lets you do it after Windows has booted. If not, then you need to create a bootable CD and use that - so Windows is not even open. The site has instructions.

A basic test is to run it for 10 passes. If it seems OK - then the final test is to run it overnight. It should be able to run for 8 hours without a single error if memory is stable.

To test the CPU you can use prime95.

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

This will load CPU to 100% capacity. You will need to open two instances of the program - one to run each core. A stable computer will run this for hours with no errors or issues. While running it, you can open Task Master to verify cores are working at 100%. You should also have an open some temperature monitoring program just to make sure CPU is not getting too hot. Off course, no need to run this if your computer is still crashing on its own.

Again, I am not familiar with your mobo. But if you think it is stable with no OC, I would run both the memory and CPU tests to confirm this - including overnight memory test - then I see no reason not to try the OC, but perhaps move up a little slower.
If stable, I would go ahead and move OC to 10% and test CPU again. Also, you need to check and see if that is overclocking the memory as well - which might be happening automatically, depending on how it is OC. CPU-Z will tell you if memory is running faster. If memory is not running faster - no need to test it, but if it has been OC too, then you need to test it as well - maybe just for 10 passes (wait on overnight testing until you think you are were you want to be). If everything passes, then move up to 20% and test again. When OC and running CPU test - make certain you are watching the CPU temperature.

 

[deezdrama]

Thanks for all the help- im having to relearn all this again- but its coming back.
slowly

my ram is running at 4,4,4,10

I just tried running bios at 20% oc again and it booted into windows fine- but then ran cpu-z but didnt see any gains,
im getting tired but tomorrow I may flash the newest bios and see if I get more OC options in bios.

May have to manually set everything.

Im sure I will be asking more questions when that time comes -hehe

thanks again-

and if anyone else has OCed the p5b se please chime in as well

 

[rockyjohn]

Hmmm - the 4-4-4-10 timings are for the 533 MHz memory. It should be picking up the slower timings if it is running at 800 MHz.

 

[deezdrama]

I think it was either 3dmark06, or rivatuner but i also remember seeing it saying my memory was running at 533MHz. Now im even more confused

 

[deezdrama]

yep- look up at my first post- it was 3dmark06 that said my mem is running at 533mhz when doing system scan.

Another weird thing is my bios only state 3 gigs of ram- and i have memory remap option enabled - but in windows it shows 4 gigs of ram and any other pc scan shows 4 gigs.

 

[rockyjohn]

Have you checked the memory voltage?
Does it seem to be running stable?

 

[deezdrama]

My bios (older) only allow 1.8 and 1.9 voltages for ram-
I think Ive read that newer bios will allow more ram voltage options.

I downloaded the newest bios but dont have a floppy drive, could i flash bios using my mp3 player as a usb drive?

 

[rockyjohn]

Sorry, I don't know if an MP3 player will work to flash the BIOS. It appears that 1.8v is what your memory wants - in which case there might be no reason to flash BIOS - which is always a risk anyway and should only be done if necessary. Althoug it might be helpful if there is a memory issue - but you have not confirmed that yet.

Please provide answers to the questions above.

Also,
What does BIOS state is the memory speed?
What memory and CPU stability tests have been completed and what is the result?