Question Help with OC: Core 2 Duo + old GA motherboard

Jan 14, 2022
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Hello guys,

New here and so on the OC thing. After reading about OC in different sites, recommendations, and so on, i tried to do some twerks about it. Results? CPU frequency didn't change, at all.

Specs:
CPU: Core 2 Duo E8600 @ 3.33Ghz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-945GCMX-S2
RAM: x2 2GB DDRII 800 PC2-6400 (the maximum that the motherboard would hold)

Extra:
Thermal paste recently changed (over 3 days ago, more or less). Model: NOCTUA NT-H2
Air cooler: I guess it's the GA default cooler. Pic here:
photo-2022-01-11-17-35-26.jpg


Yes, i know it's not the best cooler out there, but i don't have any plans to change it by other more powerful because i don't want an extra-overclocked system. I would like to see how many Ghz i can increase the CPU with the characteristics set (without changing the motherboard or the heatsink).

OK, so this is the scenario, but there are a few things that i don't get. First, the CPU frequency. It's supposed to run at 3.33Ghz as the official Intel website says, but it only goes at 2.67 Ghz. Why?
cpu.jpg


Rebooted, i entered the bios and this was the set config:
bios-core-2-duo.jpg

Turned off some recommended things here and there:
config-1.jpg


config-2.jpg

Then, changed to "Enabled" the third option, as my CPU has the FSB 1333Mhz option. Rebooted, not only nothing happened, but also that option automatically changed back to "Unabled". Assuming I had to raise the voltage, I changed the values:
bios-final.jpg


Started Windows, opened CPU-Z again. Nothing changed. HWMonitor voltages obviously changed as well as the fans RPMs (the sound is annoying) and so the temperatures, 34ºC.
Again and a bit frustrated, rebooted the PC, entered the bios and changed some voltages:
bios-final-2.jpg


Honestly, i don't know what i'm doing wrong. Why doesn't change the CPU frequency? Why does the bios change the O.C. FSB1333 option to "disable" when clearly it's supported by the CPU? And why does the CPU frequency on the bios (pic above) is set on 2.80Ghz but Windows>properties/CPU-Z says 2.67Ghz?

Sorry if I haven't been understood correctly. English is not my native language.
Thank you for reading my blog.
 
Jan 14, 2022
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0
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And why are you doing all that?
Well, you know i'm kinda bored, so instead of watching Netflix all day I decided to do something useful and try to learn something new about PCs. Such as how to perform OC over an old PC and see if it works or not and why.
What do you hope to achieve there?
Honestly, try to get some more Mhz's or even Ghz's, i dunno.
For what purpose?
The base frequency is supposed to be 3.33Ghz and the CPU only is at 2.67Ghz, definitely there's something wrong. Then there's what i previously said about the difference between the frequency of 2.80Ghz shown in the bios and the one shown by Windows or CPU-Z. Last but not least, Why does the bios change the O.C. FSB1333 option to "disable" when clearly it's supported by the CPU?
So, purpose? At least i expect to receive some quality answers.
 
Sometimes you are just unlucky, and well overclocking depends on luck.

945GC does not actually officially support the 1066 (267 x 4) FSB you are running at right now, so it is already running at 33% overclocked. 1333 (333 x 4) is a 67% overclock and apparently a bridge too far from the maximum supported 800 (200 x 4)

See, 945PL and 945GC are "feature reduced" versions of 945P and 945G, respectively. Intel removed support for both 1066 FSB and 4GB total memory from these (or binned the chipsets that could not handle those properly to create these). Technically the chipset only supports up to 2GB of memory but some motherboard manufacturers did get the usual 3.25GB usable to work (in a 64-bit OS)
 

Amddefector

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The core 2 duo was pretty good for overclocking. I'm not sure with a gigabyte board though. From memory this was many years ago so may be wrong. These cpu had speedstep that needs to be disabled. I still have mine with the asus board somewhere that I cranked up to 5.5ghz with some extreme cooling.
 
Jan 14, 2022
4
0
10
Sometimes you are just unlucky, and well overclocking depends on luck.

945GC does not actually officially support the 1066 (267 x 4) FSB you are running at right now, so it is already running at 33% overclocked. 1333 (333 x 4) is a 67% overclock and apparently a bridge too far from the maximum supported 800 (200 x 4)

See, 945PL and 945GC are "feature reduced" versions of 945P and 945G, respectively. Intel removed support for both 1066 FSB and 4GB total memory from these (or binned the chipsets that could not handle those properly to create these). Technically the chipset only supports up to 2GB of memory but some motherboard manufacturers did get the usual 3.25GB usable to work (in a 64-bit OS)

So, the fault is the NorthBirdge chipset? I've changed some parameters here and there on the bios, but after the reboot nothing changed and all went to deafult:

photo-2022-01-16-13-21-14.jpg

photo-2022-01-16-13-21-18.jpg

photo-2022-01-16-13-21-19.jpg

photo-2022-01-16-13-21-22.jpg


Well, in fact, CPU frequency did raise a little. Now it's 2.68Ghz. Not so much, but it's something. As you can see by the pics, even with the base freq (3.33Ghz) it didn't help at all.

The core 2 duo was pretty good for overclocking.
Indeed. That's why i'm so frustrated about this...
 
Clear CMOS, reset everything to default.

Set memory frequency to rated and then increase the host frequency incrementally. Try 1.45v for CPU vcore voltage.

Just the other day I got an E8400 to 4.7ghz, but that was with a much much better board and cooler, granted it wasn't stressing the cooler much at all.