OCing the E2180 to 3ghz recommended Voltage?

[asteldian]

Hi all, I was hoping I could get some help with my OC of the e2180 (using an Abit IP35 mobo)
I am not very experienced with OCing, so I read the sticky guide here to get a grip on things.

I believe I disabled everything I need to in Bios.
I set PCIE to 100Mhz (some guides mention this though I think the guide here said 101, is this important?)

The aim was to get the CPU to 3ghz. To cut a long story short (incrementing the speed gradually), at 3ghz I could not get it to start windows with less than 1.38V on the CPU. Given that people claim to get around that at stock Volts, is this a bit high?
The Multiplier is x 10
The FSB is 300mhz
The voltage is 1.38
The RAM is running at 700mhz (it is capable of 800mhz, so it is underclocked)
The RAM is running at 1.9v as recommended on the modules (I assume as it is underclocked there is no need to give more juice to the RAM?)
The suggested timings are 5-5-5-15 for the RAM (though thinking about it, I fear perhaps I left this all on auto)

I am using a Hyper212+ CPU cooler and temperatures on the CPU do not look to be an issue.
Due to the machine going to a friend I did not have time to do a thorough check on the OC (only managed a short while on Prime95 to make sure temps did not go too high, temps were peaking around 45C)

My friend took the PC and set it up at his place and started playing a game (Rift). Everything went fine but after 30 mins or so the machine turned off. It did this a couple times before he called me and asked for advice.
My first assumption was temperature, but according to Coretemp that was still fine (temps still below 50C while playing)
My next thought was maybe more Voltage required, which would mean 1.4v, my understanding is the CPU can handle up to a max of 1.55v, so increasing the voltage is not a big deal, but again, it seems like I am having to up the voltage a lot for this OC so I am concerned that I am missing a trick, maybe there is something else I have forgotten to adjust?
My only other thought was perhaps the case itself is getting to hot? I know the case is crappy with pretty poor cooling capabilities. Is there a good way to monitor the case temps? Or should I just have him try playing with the side off for a while to see if that helps?

Any help is greatly appreciated. As I say, I am not too familiar with OCing and a lack of time for proper stress testing did not help - if it were not for the fact the PC was destined for the bin before being given to my friend for free I would not have risked its health with a somewhat rushed OC

Edit: After increasing the voltage to 1.4 he played for 40 minutes before going to bed and had no crash in that time, so it looks like the stability has improved.

 

[4745454b]

First, remove the OC. If the game still crashes, you know its something else. It could be an issue with the PSU, or the video card. Usually a bad OC won't just shut off. Its more likely to be a power issue if it just turns off.

 

[asteldian]

I will have to check with my friend exactly what happens, I believe he said the game crashes and the computer restarts (which is similar to what happened while I was going through the OC process - at lower Volts the computer would get as far as starting windows then restart again)

Admittedly the powersupply is not a great one. It has plenty of juice (700W) but it is from PC World which tend to provide crap quality (I think it is just an EZCool or something like that).

 

[4745454b]

Did you catch that review from Jonnyguru of the Diablotek 1050W PSU? It could actually output only ~500W before it would shut down. I don't know what GPU your using, but "700W" might not be a big enough PSU.

 

[asteldian]

Yes, especially as the PSU is a few years old so has likely degraded.
I will check with my friend how things have been running at 1.4v, if it is more stable now then I assume the PSU is not the issue as technically we have increased its workload.

The card is a 5850. The PSU has certainly had a bit of a workout - after years of a stock 2180 and a 7800 it is now dealing with 3ghz OC and a 5850

 

[4745454b]

Exactly. That kind of added stress on an older PSU can be fatal to it.

 

[asteldian]

An update from my friend, since upping the voltage to 1.4v he played for 90 minutes before he had to go to work, but there have been no issues so far, so it looks like the CPU wanted more juice. Just seemed 1.4v seemed a lot, but I guess every chip has its own personality. I'll see how things go for him tonight to see if there are any other issues.
Thanks for the input so far, I hadn't really given too much thought to the PSU possibly having issues, so need to keep that in mind in future

 

[4745454b]

I said PSU because you said it turned off. If it locked up or rebooted it could just be more voltage needed. 1.4 isn't to bad, and keep in mind you added a 50% OC. Thats going to take some juice.

 

[asteldian]

True. Yes, the initial text I got from my friend mentioned turned off. But when I called him to get a better description from him he mentioned that it 'turned itself off and on again' obviosuly thats technical term
I was concerned by the voltage due what I had seen other people claim. I know it is dependant on various factors and each OC is different, I just wanted to check if there was anything obvious I had overlooked which caused me to need a higher voltage. I believe the 2180 can go up to about 1.55v? Not that I would want to keep it anywhere near that for full time use.

Anyway, I am glad you mentioned the PSU, I have not given it much thought before, but it is old, it is not a quality brand and I think I will get my friend to save some cash to replace it. Frankly I think at this point it was probably a ticking timebomb before the OC, so now that I have OC'd I definately don't like the idea of it hanging around in his PC too long

 

[asteldian]

Best answer selected by asteldian.

 

[4745454b]

One more thought. You might want to have him turn off auto reboot. This will cause the blue screen to be shown, and he can then give you the stop code. It sounds like the extra voltage bump fixed the problem, but just in case it didn't that stop code can help point you in the correct direction.

 

[asteldian]

Ah, good thinking. I will get him to do that. Thanks