Need Help Gettin Above 2.9Ghz on my E6420

[Matt26LFC]

Hi All, im having difficulty increasing my overclock from 2.9Ghz to 3Ghz my current settings are as follows

System Spec
E6420 2.13Ghz at 2.9Ghz
Asus P5N-E Sli 650i (BIOS Rev 0703)
2Gb GEIL PC6400 Ultra low latency (5-5-5-18-23-2T)
550W PSU
Nvidia 8500GT 256Mb DDR2
500GB HDD

I've disabled Speedstep in the BIOS along with C1E, my FSB and MEM are linked and in sync mode so 1:1
currently clocked at 362.5Mhz FSB Multi is 8

vcore 1.25v
vdimm 1.92v
NBvol is Auto

i've tried upping the vcore to 1.35 and vdimm too 2.159 and set the NB to around 1.5 also and no joy do i need more vcore etc or shud i raise the multi to say 9 and set the FSB to 333?

however my ultimate goal is 3.2Ghz 400FSB but if i cant achieve i cant achieve

any help appreciated

 

[raven_87]

If you've hit a wall its never a great idea to raise the multi.

Take both the vcore and NBvol up a peg; then get back to us with your results.

 

[Matt26LFC]

Ok jus POST'd and Booted in too windows at 2.92Ghz

Vcore 1.25xxx (cant remember the numbers now lol jus a little more was 1.25000
vdimm still 1.92
NB 1.203 i think

really shud have wrote those down!

gonna reboot and up FSB another 10Mhz at those settings and see wat happens, will write down exact numbs too, so i dont forget

 

[raven_87]

dont forget that NB voltage. People would be honestly surprised on how important it is for a serious overclock.

temps?

 

[Matt26LFC]

hey back, had some real probs at 2.93 jus couldnt get into windows! tried 15 different vcore settings, up2 1.38125 and had my NB at max 1.748 still no joy, tried upping the mem thats when things went bad!! didnt even post!
!! had to flip my bios battery out lol

so any suggestions on wat i shud try nex? do i jus keep puttin up the vcore and leave the NB on max?

as for temps Core Temp

 

[Matt26LFC]

they hit 51C and as far as i know never went over, when i woke up this morn they where steady at 48C so think thats ok.

cheers

 

[raven_87]

Not the best idea to max out the NB voltage without proper cooling...

and on air I wouldnt go any higher than 1.4v on a C2D thats for damn sure. You have several options. The first, you can accept that as your maximum overclock and test for stability. The next, you can address possible hardware limitations such as your RAM and your PSU.
If your PSU isnt the problem, then you can tweak your RAM to high hell, increasing the Vdimm somewhere around 2.0v+ and setting your CPU/RAM on a divider might be of some use.

 

[Matt26LFC]

no i didnt think it wud b, however thought i'd give it a shot, if it worked wud invest in cooling for the nb tonight from overclockers. however it didnt.

not sure my RAMs a limitation or not, its PC6400 DDR800 so its capable of 400FSB as i understand it, its currently at DDR730 so surely it can go up 70mhz more without a prob, unless its got issues. Not sure about PSU either its a 550w its a hec, never heard of it myself, but wud have thought it wud have been fine.

tried increasing the vdimm as soon as i went over 2v the comp wouldnt even post. so reset to 1.92v

as for the divider never used it b4 only got this mobo yesterday (for free) and not sure how those work, any input on wat settings i shud try wud b gr8

cheers

 

[Matt26LFC]

ok jus unlinked my fsb and ram left fsb at 1460 and set ram at 800 all booted up, only reported 796 during boot, but all seems to b workin, gonna stress test tonight orthos blend priority 9 see how it goes timings r 4-4-4-12-16-2t

since the ram booted up and loaded into windows can i assume the rams not the issue as to getting my cpu overclock beyond 2.92 from 2.13? jus cant seem to understand why it wont play at 2.93 and above?

 

[raven_87]

Some chips are just finicky, you never really know...

Don't rule out the possibility of your ram not being up to snuff though.

By the way, are you using orthos or Prime95?

 

[Matt26LFC]

jus booted up at 3Ghz! really dont understand how unlinking has worked, get an FSBRAM of 15:16 in cpu-z linked it always read 1:1

and i've not had to change any voltages vcore is still 1.25625 NB is back on Auto and MEM is still 1.92v

Im using Orthos, i run blend test and small ffts at the same time usually set on priority 9 for at least 8 hours for stability.

Gonna keep pushing my CPU see how far it goes, while keep an watchful eye on my temps (Core Temp) then try raising the memory when i cant raise cpu anymore.

wat ya think?

 

[raven_87]

not bad I guess, I still wouldnt keep the NB vol on auto...but thats just me.

 

[Matt26LFC]

only reason i've left it on auto is i dont know wat to set it too, and i dont know how to monitor the temp of the chip, so a bit worried about setting it and it running too hot and giving way.

do you know how i can monitor the temps of the NB i have speedfan too, but dont know wat all the temps displayed in there are?

 

[raven_87]

well, there should be motherboard tools for monitoring the NB temps...including in the bios; however those tend to have a margin of error.