Just did my first cpu OC. I'm not a noob with computers or hardware, in fact I built this one myself, I just never OC'ed before because I had been using Intel boards and liked stability, plus I couldn't take even the slightest chance of something going wrong. I had no problem just upgrading my cpu, selling off my old, when I needed a power fix.
Not to mention with how hot the pre-C2D cpu's were running, spending $$ on cooling was something I didn't want to do, aside from getting a good case and a good $30 HSF just for stock clocks.
Anyhow, it felt great to OC something other than my graphics card!
My specs are in my sig, working with e6600 and DS3 board. I used the Gigabyte DS3 overclocking guide, which that thread is now locked and I don't know why. Was stickied, great guide for a noob!
I mostly followed everything that guide said. Except I didn't try for a 350 FSB OC right off the bat plus the cpu in the guide was an e6300 w/7x multiplier, I have the e6600 w/9x.
The FSB I tried was 333. The only other thing in the guide I didn't follow was upping my DDR2 voltage since my goal was to get a decent OC (and being a noob I think going from 2.4 to 3.0ghz is decent for sure) without upping any voltages, which I accomplished.
Plus, while the guide said to loosen timings of RAM to 5-5-5-15, my Mushkin DDR2-800 timings were already 5-5-5-18. So I actually tightened the Tras to 15.
Now I don't know if doing that makes changing the ddr2 voltage more important, less important, or maybe it doesn't matter.
If this isn't the right way to go about this then somebody please let me know and I'll change it. And I'm not against changing voltages if I need to, if it means more stability.
But then again, like I said I only went for a 333 FSB instead of 350.
So I restarted the computer, everything booted fine, went into windows fine. Temps were still good and my new timings stuck on the RAM according to CPU-Z. And my OC was successful now getting a 3.0ghz cpu!
When I first got the board, it had the F10 bios. My cpu temp idle was as low as 20c. A few days back I upgraded to the F12 bios where my idle was around 30c. What a difference! These were windows readings. In the F10 bios, rather than 20c I was seeing like 25c. With the F12 bios rather than 30c I was seeing like 36c.
So I've seen my cpu temps all over the place. And that sucks because I don't know which reading is right, or which bios has the more accurate readings. Does anybody know?
Regardless, I still have yet to see my cpu temp really get much above 40c under full load for about 30 minutes with the new overclock, so I think I'm in good shape. Temps in general only rose on the cpu a few degrees with the OC, and the SYS temp only up 1 degree. It idle's around 40c now. I did the "touch test" with my northbridge. It is barely even warm! I can hold my finger on it all day long.
This is a good thing, right?
I still have yet to do a long torture test, but I will get to that. I'm thinking I will have no problems. If not, I'm thinking about getting greedy and upping the FSB to 350!
However, before I do that I just wanted to run this past any of you more experienced people. Would like to hear from at least one person that can tell me if what I did so far is OK. Mainly with how I tightened the timings rather than loosen (just the tras) and how I didn't change any voltage.
So, what do you think? Assuming I pass the torture test, of course.
Not to mention with how hot the pre-C2D cpu's were running, spending $$ on cooling was something I didn't want to do, aside from getting a good case and a good $30 HSF just for stock clocks.
Anyhow, it felt great to OC something other than my graphics card!
My specs are in my sig, working with e6600 and DS3 board. I used the Gigabyte DS3 overclocking guide, which that thread is now locked and I don't know why. Was stickied, great guide for a noob!
I mostly followed everything that guide said. Except I didn't try for a 350 FSB OC right off the bat plus the cpu in the guide was an e6300 w/7x multiplier, I have the e6600 w/9x.
The FSB I tried was 333. The only other thing in the guide I didn't follow was upping my DDR2 voltage since my goal was to get a decent OC (and being a noob I think going from 2.4 to 3.0ghz is decent for sure) without upping any voltages, which I accomplished.
Plus, while the guide said to loosen timings of RAM to 5-5-5-15, my Mushkin DDR2-800 timings were already 5-5-5-18. So I actually tightened the Tras to 15.
Now I don't know if doing that makes changing the ddr2 voltage more important, less important, or maybe it doesn't matter.
If this isn't the right way to go about this then somebody please let me know and I'll change it. And I'm not against changing voltages if I need to, if it means more stability.
But then again, like I said I only went for a 333 FSB instead of 350.
So I restarted the computer, everything booted fine, went into windows fine. Temps were still good and my new timings stuck on the RAM according to CPU-Z. And my OC was successful now getting a 3.0ghz cpu!
When I first got the board, it had the F10 bios. My cpu temp idle was as low as 20c. A few days back I upgraded to the F12 bios where my idle was around 30c. What a difference! These were windows readings. In the F10 bios, rather than 20c I was seeing like 25c. With the F12 bios rather than 30c I was seeing like 36c.
So I've seen my cpu temps all over the place. And that sucks because I don't know which reading is right, or which bios has the more accurate readings. Does anybody know?
Regardless, I still have yet to see my cpu temp really get much above 40c under full load for about 30 minutes with the new overclock, so I think I'm in good shape. Temps in general only rose on the cpu a few degrees with the OC, and the SYS temp only up 1 degree. It idle's around 40c now. I did the "touch test" with my northbridge. It is barely even warm! I can hold my finger on it all day long.
This is a good thing, right?
I still have yet to do a long torture test, but I will get to that. I'm thinking I will have no problems. If not, I'm thinking about getting greedy and upping the FSB to 350!
However, before I do that I just wanted to run this past any of you more experienced people. Would like to hear from at least one person that can tell me if what I did so far is OK. Mainly with how I tightened the timings rather than loosen (just the tras) and how I didn't change any voltage.
So, what do you think? Assuming I pass the torture test, of course.