Overclocking a AMD E-350?

[Phonetek]

I've been reading about doing this sort of thing to a PC but I have never done it before. I'd like to give it a shot but yet I don't want to just dive in blind. I'd rather know exactly how to do this safely. Forgive the metaphor but I'm not interested in turning it into a dragster if the result will be flipping it and crashing into the wall. Turning it into a street machine would suffice for my first time. I would still like it to be reliable to where constant tweaking isn't required, just turn the key and go. That said, I'm not sure what all specs are needed to get started. I would assume the basic config and what's under the hood.

AMD E-350 Zacate 1.6Mhz
Manufacturer - Pegatron
Chipset - K12IMC

Memory - 16GB (8x2) G-skill Ripjaws

Storage 1 Seagate SATA 4TB Hybrid HDD & 1 Seagate SEAGATE 5 TB HDD

DVD burner SATA (Probably irrelevant on the details)

No IDE interface only 4 SATA Ports

Also 1 4-port USB 3.0 Adapter card

Onboard video at this time, no added video card (Haven't gotten that far yet)

According to CPU-Z the GPU is AMD Radeon HD 6310

So if anyone wants to give this a shot I'd love to get some sound advice. For starters I will install additional fan on the front to suck more air in because I know this process heats things up a bit. Another question, would it be recommended to apply a fresh coat of thermal compound to the processor since it's original before getting started. The heat sink has never been removed. Thank you in advance

 

[Deleted member 217926]

This is a PC or laptop? Either way with an OEM motherboard the BIOS will be locked to prevent overclocking. If it's a laptop it's a low end one to come with an E350 ( I have a cheap Toshiba with one ) and the cooling in low end laptops is iffy at best. Certainly not sufficient to overclock with.

 

[Phonetek]

It's a desktop. Isn't there a way to unlock them? I saved the CPU-Z report I can paste in here if it would help further

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Just look in your BIOS and you will see any sort of overclocking options if they are even listed will be locked or greyed out. Pegatron motherboard means it's an OEM or prebuilt machine like a Dell or HP. Only their high end purpose built gaming stuff allows for overclocking.

 

[Phonetek]

Apparently I have a lame duck here. Looked at the bios and there is nothing. I can't even adjust fan speed. So much for that idea LOL I guess it's just the normal, upgrade RAM, install SSD and tweak the OS to give it a kick in the pants. I'll keep my eyes out for a better motherboard unless you have more suggestions

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I wouldn't put that APU in another board there is just not enough of a potential performance increase from overclocking. If anything buy a motherboard that supports a traditional CPU and a discreet graphics card especially if you are looking for gaming performance.

You already have 16GB of RAM so upgrading there is a waste. Anything you do that requires more will need a more powerful CPU.

 

[Phonetek]

I wouldn't put that APU in another board there is just not enough of a potential performance increase from overclocking. If anything buy a motherboard that supports a traditional CPU and a discreet graphics card especially if you are looking for gaming performance.

Actually I meant just getting a whole new motherboard processor and all. Something that I can do this too. As long as it fits in the case I'd be happy. I was just looking at this one and there is only one fan port on the board. That would be a problem if I overclocked it, there would surely not be enough air flow and it would fry. I'd have to pull the side cover and put a box fan up against it to blow it out. Too much hassle. I'd be better off with starting from scratch.

You already have 16GB of RAM so upgrading there is a waste. Anything you do that requires more will need a more powerful CPU.

I was just looking to mess around with something for the fun of it really. As I said I like to play around with thing to see what can happen as long as they don't blow up. Plus I wanted to teach my young son some things as ripping the guts out of computers and dissecting them is something he loves to do. He has Frankenstein'ed several old ones to actually work quite well and he's only 12. He's even good with Macs. He probably knows more than I do except some of the things like, "Don't plug and unplug IDE drives while it's running" and "If you have to force it then you aren't doing it right"

Honestly I don't use mine for much gaming except some arcade game emulation so nothing too processor intensive. Other than that it's primary purpose is the Admin about 8 Facebook groups and some photo/graphic editing it's not used for a whole lot else. He does play Minecraft and GTA on it but I do get an earful from time to time about lag. I told him to get outside and start shoveling the neighbors snow and cut their grass this summer to buy a new one LOL He has an old E-5200 that we may be able to play with but not being 64 bit it may be a waste of time too.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

A Core2Duo E5200 is 64bit.

http://ark.intel.com/products/37212/Intel-Pentium-Processor-E5200-2M-Cache-2_50-GHz-800-MHz-FSB

Now that would be a fun little processor to play around with. The Core2 line was really the first very good overclocking line of CPUs from Intel.

 

[Phonetek]

AAHHHHH Interesting...I got confused because he has Win 8 32bit installed. My bad. I wonder what that baby can do? I was discourage by thinking it was 32 bit and it seems that the max ram recommended is 4gig but I guess that's what overclocking is all about. How much can you REALLY put in and as far as overclocking what have you seen them get up to from where it started which is 1.3GHZ. So other words that brat has a potentially better computer than Dad? Not FAIR! LOL

 

[Deleted member 217926]

It's an old processor so you don't expect performance up to today's standards but as something to play with and learn on it is about perfect.

Tom's did an article with a section devoted to that very chip in 2009. I actually remember this from right after I joined the forums.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-phenom-pentium,2366-10.html

Here is a very good Core2 overclocking guide.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/259899-29-core-overclocking-guide


I had several Core2 chips over the years so if you have direct question I can probably help. You have an aftermarket cooler? And what motherboard is it in?

 

[Phonetek]

No I do not have an aftermarket cooler, as I said in the OP that this is something new to me and I've never done it before. I have just read about it. Here is part of the CPU-Z report on that computer. There is way too much stuff in the report to post. Most of it is gibberish to me. However I grabbed what I thought have been important to answer most of your questions about it. Probably too much but I guess better than too little. I would have attached the file to the post but I am not sure how to do that here.


Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 2 (max 2)
Number of threads 2 (max 2)
Name Intel Pentium E5200
Codename Wolfdale
Specification Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5200 @ 2.50GHz
Package (platform ID) Socket 775 LGA (0x0)
CPUID 6.7.6
Extended CPUID 6.17
Core Stepping M0
Technology 45 nm
TDP Limit 65.0 Watts
Core Speed 1199.7 MHz
Multiplier x Bus Speed 6.0 x 200.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 799.8 MHz
Stock frequency 2500 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2048 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
FID range 6.0x - 12.5x
Max VID 1.225 V

CPU Thread 0
APIC ID 0
Topology Processor ID 0, Core ID 0, Thread ID 0
Type 01008006h
Max CPUID level 0000000Ah
Max CPUID ext. level 80000008h
Cache descriptor Level 1, D, 32 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 1, I, 32 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 2, U, 2 MB, 2 thread(s)

CPU Thread 1
APIC ID 1
Topology Processor ID 0, Core ID 1, Thread ID 0
Type 01008006h
Max CPUID level 0000000Ah
Max CPUID ext. level 80000008h
Cache descriptor Level 1, D, 32 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 1, I, 32 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 2, U, 2 MB, 2 thread(s)

Chipset
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northbridge Intel P35/G33/G31 rev. 10
Southbridge Intel 82801GB (ICH7/R) rev. A1
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 3 GBytes
Channels Dual, (Symmetric)
Memory Frequency 333.3 MHz (3:5)
CAS# latency (CL) 5.0
RAS# to CAS# delay (tRCD) 5
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 5
Cycle Time (tRAS) 15
Row Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC) 44
Command Rate (CR) 2T
MCHBAR I/O Base address 0x0FED14000
MCHBAR I/O Size 4096

DIMM # 1
SMBus address 0x50
Memory type DDR2
Module format Regular UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) Kingston (7F980000000000000000)
Size 1024 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz)
Part number 1G-UDIMM
Serial number B2CCE5DA
Manufacturing date Week 13/Year 09
Number of banks 1
Data width 64 bits
Correction None
Nominal Voltage 1.80 Volts
EPP no
XMP no
AMP no
JEDEC timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency
JEDEC #1 3.0-3-3-9-12 @ 200 MHz
JEDEC #2 4.0-4-4-12-16 @ 266 MHz
JEDEC #3 5.0-5-5-15-20 @ 333 MHz

DIMM # 2
SMBus address 0x52
Memory type DDR2
Module format Regular UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) Hyundai Electronics (AD000000000000000000)
Size 2048 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz)
Part number HYMP125U64CP8-Y5
Serial number 00007019
Manufacturing date Week 35/Year 08
Number of banks 2
Data width 64 bits
Correction None
Nominal Voltage 1.80 Volts
EPP no
XMP no
AMP no
JEDEC timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency
JEDEC #1 3.0-3-3-9-12 @ 200 MHz
JEDEC #2 4.0-4-4-12-16 @ 266 MHz
JEDEC #3 5.0-5-5-15-20 @ 333 MHz

Mainboard Model G31M-ES2L (0x0000023B - 0x02739A58)

LPCIO
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

LPCIO Vendor ITE
LPCIO Model IT8718
LPCIO Vendor ID 0x90
LPCIO Chip ID 0x8718
LPCIO Revision ID 0x5
Config Mode I/O address 0x2E
Config Mode LDN 0x4

Hardware monitor ITE IT87
Voltage 0 1.18 Volts [0x4A] (CPU VCORE)
Voltage 1 1.84 Volts [0x73] (VIN1)
Voltage 2 3.36 Volts [0xD2] (+3.3V)
Voltage 3 5.00 Volts [0xBA] (+5V)
Voltage 4 1.66 Volts [0x1A] (+12V)
Voltage 6 -4.80 Volts [0x4B] (-5V)
Voltage 7 5.27 Volts [0xC4] (+5V VCCH)
Voltage 8 3.17 Volts [0xC6] (VBAT)
Temperature 0 -54°C (-66°F) [0xC9] (TMPIN0)
Temperature 1 -1°C (28°F) [0xFE] (TMPIN1)
Temperature 2 39°C (102°F) [0x27] (TMPIN2)
Fan 0 2021 RPM [0x14E] (FANIN0)
Fan 1 2394 RPM [0x11A] (FANIN1)
Fan PWM 0 0 pc [0x0] (FANPWM0)
Fan PWM 1 99 pc [0x7F] (FANPWM1)
Fan PWM 2 0 pc [0x0] (FANPWM2)
Register space LPC, base address = 0x0290

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Under the Mainboard tab in CPU-Z it should have manufacturer and model.

Here is a good little cooler for $20. It even comes with thermal paste so that $20 is all you would need to spend.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103064

Here is a review complete with installation instructions.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Hyper-TX3-CPU-Cooler-Review/848

 

[Phonetek]

LOL Of course I left the important info out.

Gigabyte Technologies
G31M-ES2L

Chipset - Intel - P35/G33/631 Rev. 1.0

Southbridge 82801GB (ICH7/7) Rev. A1

 

[Phonetek]

I was just thinking that there is something I should mention about this particular computer. There are times where it has an intermittent problem when you shut it down. When you go to boot it up there are times where it turns on for a couple of seconds then shuts down. No beeping error noises or anything. Other times it runs a little longer and shuts down. Then there are times where I the fans go on, the hard drives are doing their thing but the screen is black, no bios screen or anything. After messing around with it for a while it eventually boots. Any ideas on this?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

OK from what I can find that motherboard is limited to a max FSB of 343. Not sure why but that's what I see on another forum. The E5200 has a multiplier of 12.5X so that gives you a best case ( 12.5 x 343 ) 4287.5Ghz. That will depend on many things but a 4Ghz overclock is pretty darn good on a Core2 chip. But you can overclock with what you have.

You could still do a very small overclock with the stock cooler but if you want to aim higher than about 2.8-3Ghz you will need aftermarket cooling.

Edit: Or a bad or failing graphics card.
Random shut downs and reboots could be several things. Overheating, a bad power supply or bad RAM come to mind as the most likely causes.

 

[Phonetek]

It don't shut down and reboot actually, it just shuts down. It eventually will start up properly. I'm steering towards either the failing video which is onboard or the processor overheating. If the video is failing and it is integrated, could I just add a video card to solve it or would it still cause problems? I cleaned it out a couple days ago and when I removed the heat sink I noticed there is very little thermal paste left. I'm sure that isn't helping anything. I may order that kit for starters anyway. Having it run cooler sure isn't going to hurt. If it's another problem then I'll use the cooling kit on my own computer LOL Sorry about all the questions but this seems to be like an onion, so many layers to get into. Thank you for your help thus far!

 

[Deleted member 217926]

If you took the cooler off without replacing the thermal paste it's probably overheating. And yes if it's failing onboard video adding a discreet card will fix it.

Use Realtemp to check the temps.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2089/real-temp-3-70/

You don't want to go over about 70C per core and that is when we start overclocking. If it's getting over that then the temps are the issue. The link in my sig has more ( and way more detailed ) info about safe temps for Intel processors.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Oh and glad to help!

 

[Phonetek]

Well, I improvised and dissected an old dead power supply. I cut a couple power plugs off and took the fan out too. I wired the fan out of it and made a bracket to hook it to the heat sink then added another one to the front of the case to suck in air. They plug right into the molex connectors on the power supply. The fan is mega oversize compared to the normal little heat sink fans so it should help some for the interim. I don't have the heat compound at the moment but hopefully this will suffice for now until I can get out to buy some or buy that cooling kit. I may even keep the other fan in there that I rigged on the chip after I get it. I can stick it on a side vent or also slap it on the front. You can never have too much air flow I guess. Plus out of the massive pile of PC parts I can't believe I don't have a video card that will fit this machine. As for RAM I have to find out what the max is I can put in it. As I said above it calls for 4gig max but given what I want to do I'm sure that can be bumped up when overclocking. You would know more than I what I can stick in there. Plus I don't think DDR2's are very expensive these days anyway. So that should solve all the possible problems. I'll probably stick a couple hybrid HDD's in there too. I'm not ready to fork out the cash for SSD's until they come down some for high capacity.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

You can't increase a physical RAM limit with overclocking only make what you have slightly faster. Overclocking memory more than a little bit is a crapshoot anyway with very little gain vs a large risk of instability. 4GB is plenty for any non gaming machine anyway.

The best cooling is generally with the case closed and any front and side fans as intake and any top and rear fans as exhaust. With more exhaust fans you get a negative pressure environment and with more intakes you get a positive pressure environment. Positive keeps your case cleaner but negative can cool better. You just have to experiment and see which works better with your case.

 

[Phonetek]

One thing I did notice running a fan off the power supply since I'm lacking enough plugs on the motherboard is that the fan is running at a very high speed. Other than the extra noise, is it going to hurt anything?