Overclocking n00b, looking for advice ASUS/Intel/ATI/OCZ

[cjlewis3]

Hey everyone I'm new here and have found an absolute wealth of information on overclocking and board specific info, but I am a total n00b when it comes to overclocking and I am really looking for some tailored advice for my setup. So I think I'll start with that..

ASUS P5Q PRO motherboard
INTEL QC Q9300 cpu
OCZ DDR2 PC2-9600/1200Mhz RAM
750 Watt PC Power and Cooling PS
ASUS EAH4850 video

Stock cooling, Case has 2 120mm built in fans, there is the big Intel one over the cpu, one in the PS, and one in the video card.. air movement is pretty good I think.

So here comes my question.. what would be the best configuration for a bit of a bump performance wise, and what do you think I could push out max from this?


Right now everything is stock settings, I was thinking of pushing FSB from 333 to 400, which should raise the CPU to 3 GHz, which seems like a small and very easy tweak. Nothing else would really have to be changed right?

The RAM is 1200Mhz, so that means it should support up to 600MHz FSB? But that should be limited by the CPU, which only clocks up to about 3.6 stable? (480 Mhz FSB?)

So my questions to follow that are.. are there any gains to be had in tweaking the RAM and video card in any way, or should I just stick to CPU?

 

[einstein4pres]

Ok, go read some overclocking guides. You need to. While you can change the FSB in large intervals, it's not recommended. You should stress test after each overclock or you might damage your components.

If you are after increased gaming performance, overclocking and increasing the fan speed of your graphics card will do far more for performance.

The RAM speed and timings can be adjusted as well. But start by reading up on how to overclock a CPU in BIOS.

 

[Lupiron]

You would prolly have to tweak a few settings in the bios other than the few you listed. Have to check a few basic indicators, like CPU VID and vdrop and droop. (And load line calibration enabled vdroop and drop.) You will be ready to go pretty much after that.

The FSB, and your RAM. yes, as long as you set it in sync mode, the RAM will run at double the FSB. As the RAM data has to pass over the FSB, running your RAM over it gains you little.

Your processor. Run Real Temp, or Core temp, and look to see what they list your VID as, and go ahead and mention that here. VID is your starting voltage for stock 2.50 Ghz. Knowing this can allow you to make easy guesses as to what voltages it may need for whatever speed.

Your Multiplier is a Locked 7.5, so basically the FSB is the Only way to over clock it, hehe.

And yup, the 400 FSB setting would mean 3.0 for your 7.5 multi.

Once we peek at that VID, we will know the OC potential for it. The Range is 1.1000 to 1.2500. And you want a 1.1000! Would be able to get a 50% OC from that, easily, hehe!

If you have 1200 Mhz RAM, it is more than likely 5-5-5-18 or some such, so you'll want to go for 4-4-4-15 or 12, and hell, then go for a 1 tick clock! So a bit of tweaking there would be good, and the Video card... Over Clock Everything!!

--Lupi

 

[cjlewis3]

Thanks for the help so far! When I get back home I'll pump out some of this info and post on to here.

Followup question.. you mentioned running the ram at much over 2x the FSB will not do much- so if I was to leave everything at stock settings or bumped it up to say 400 Mhz FSB, 1200 Mhz RAM I wouldn't be getting much performance gain past about 800 Mhz on the RAM?

If I recall the motherboard is limited at 1600Mhz, so 400Mhz FSB by spec.. so I guess I have to find out how much over that I could push it. I'd love to be able to utilize the full potential of my RAM.

 

[Lupiron]

You have a P45 chipset, and those have been known to get high FSB. So you couldn't have picked a better chipset.

And yeah, pretty much, on the RAM and FSB thing. If the FSB is 400 Mhz, and each stick of RAM is 400 Mhz, then they sync up. But if the FSB is 400 Mhz, and the RAM is 600 Mhz, it's impossible for the Data to pass through at the same speed, so its broken up, and sent on the next clock cycle. The pause to break it up, and then assembly on the other end is prolly what makes it difficult to get any gains.

Maybe 1200 Mhz will show small gains? I am not sure, 1066 really doesn't. And you should see the difference when running a 266 Mhz FSB, like some stock chips, and then just opening up the FSB to let the 800 Mhz out of their RAM!

Good Luck with the rest of the settings!

--Lupi

 

[cjlewis3]

Help!!!

Something must be wrong!

My idle temps are high 40s to mid 50s, but the second I put a load on under STOCK settings my tempts go shooting to 80C UP.

I tried the stress test first OC'd to 3Ghz and tempts shot to 100C+

Any ideas??

 

[Lupiron]

Obviously the heat sink is on wrong. Push pins be gone!

Remove it, clean, apply paste again, and re seat it properly. And good luck! I never get them to work, that's why I never use them anymore.

--Lupi

 

[cjlewis3]

Thats exactly what I just did.. paste is on correctly, heatsink/fan is seated properly, cpu didn't feel hot to the touch, and there was no hot air blowing. (Removed fan shortly after reporting 91C it should have still been hot.)

I cant figure out what's goin on..