Overclocking E6400

[OrbitzXT]

Hello everyone, hope everyone is having a happy holidays! I purchased a new setup last week.

E6400 2.13GHz@2664MHz VCore 1.35 w/Zalman 9500
Gigabyte 965G-DS3
2x1 GB A-DATA PC2-6400 5-5-5-18
Gigabyte GeForce 7950GT
2 WD 7200RPM 160GB RAID-0
Creative X-Fi Gamer

I picked the E6400 partially because of a budget and I had heard the difference in cache wasn't a big deal in gaming which I primarily do. I've heard great things of the OC'ing potential of these chips and decided to undertake the challenge last night. I began by following this Sticky guide found here http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Core2Duo-Overclocking-Guide-v1-ftopict197995.html

And by setting the frequency to 333MHz I was able to acheive the clock setting I'm at now. CPU-Z shows Core Speed 2656 MHz. In the memory tab the FSB:DRAM is 1:1. My temperatures are very good. Right now I'm idling at 29C and under fullload of 2 Prime95's it gets up to about 42C. So obviously I want to keep pushing! Now here is the problem. The second I go one MHz above 333, I save the settings in BIOS...the computer shuts down for a second, turns back on and boots into windows at the default 2.13GHz. I go into BIOS to find out that the CPU Host Frequency is set back to default. This happened when setting the freq to even 334MHz. I tried the number 345 just off the top of my head and while starting up I got a message saying DISK BOOT FAILURE INSERT SYSTEM DISK.

After resetting CMOS the message went away and I could get into Windows XP SP2 again. Again I was able to overclock to 2664 MHz but I can't seem to go higher. My memory is 800MHz, that isn't holding me back I don't think? I've upped the voltage a little on VCore to see if that was it. In my BIOS I don't see anything for locking PCI frequency or anything, the only option I saw was the ability to set PCI-E frequency, but according to that sticky guide I followed it suggest that DS3 users keep it on Auto, so I did. I followed that guide as to what it said, disabling certain settings in BIOS, etc.

1. Disable ‘AI Tuning’ for ASUS, ‘C.I.A.2’ for Gigabyte
2. Set PCI Express (PCIe) frequency @100Mhz (‘Auto’ for DS3/DS4/DQ6)
3. Set PCI frequency @33Mhz
4. Disable Hyperpath 3 (for P5W DH only)
5. Disable any ‘spread spectrum’
6. Disable Q-Fan (for ASUS only)
7. Disable ‘Limit CPUID Max to 3’
8. Disable any overvoltage protection
9. Disable ‘C1E’
10. Disable ‘EIST’
11. Disable Virtualization Technology
12. Disable No-Execute Memory Protect
13. Disable any other thing you don’t use
14. Do not enable any speed enhancements you see

I did all of those except for setting PCI freq, because I didn't see where to do that, and I didn't see anything about spread spectrum in BIOS. Its probably fairly obvious that I'm new to overclocking, I understand the risks but seeing such low temperatures really makes me want to get more out of my chip. I'm not certain but just a guess is that the problem had something to do with another frequency which caused that DISK BOOT FAILURE message? Please help me out, these temperatures I'm seeing are begging me to break 3GHz for Christmas!

Edit: Not sure if this adds any information but even though the freq is set to 333MHz in the BIOS CPU-Z shows it and the memory's freq as 332.0 MHz, everytime I've set it to 333 it does this. Not sure if that means anything or not though. Also I've read of issues where 333-399 MHz is unstable while OCing? I thought maybe that had something to do with it but with 1.375v and 400MHz the computer would shutdown after saving BIOS, quickly start up then shutdown again...then finally start up at default settings. So I'm guessing it didn't like that very much either.

[OrbitzXT]

If I seriously wanted to overclock more should I just buy a better motherboard or is there anything that can be done with the 965G? As I understand it now the G having the onboard video whether you use it or not effects how high you'll be able to get the FSB? Can anyone recommend good OC'ing boards made either by Gigabyte or ASUS? I like these two companies a lot.

[Enven]

Get an asus P5B -(your poison of choice) mobo...IMO; you'll have a better time ocing

[hUMANbEATbOX]

that mobo is solid. it shouldn't hold you back.

make sure your pci-e and pci buses are locked at 100 and 33.3. sometime you can hose your xp install if these are out of whack.

Get an asus P5B -(your poison of choice) mobo...IMO; you'll have a better time ocing

there is nothing wrong with a ds3. the main advantage to the p5b's is matrix raid. they do have less quirks, but the ds3 can perform if set up right.

[Shelnutt2]

that mobo is solid. it shouldn't hold you back.

make sure your pci-e and pci buses are locked at 100 and 33.3. sometime you can hose your xp install if these are out of whack.

He bought the "G965" version. The one with integrated graphics. SO it will hold him back, now the "P965" version wouldn't hold him back at all.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

He bought the "G965" version. The one with integrated graphics. SO it will hold him back, now the "P965" version wouldn't hold him back at all.

my mistake. is the one with integrated grfx really that bad? to the point where it won't even do 350fsb?

[deadlydude]

my mistake. is the one with integrated grfx really that bad? to the point where it won't even do 350fsb?


I've heard it does screw up OC. I would disable it and use any old graphics card and see if that helps.

[MadMan007]

Yes someone had reported that the G965 is limited to <<350FSB. If that is his actual board and not just a typo there's the answer, good eye deadlydude.

[OrbitzXT]

Unfortuneately it is the G965, I'm not even using the onboard graphics, I've been using a 7950GT. Grrr I wish I had done my research ahead of time. The BIOS has a lack of frequency locks though which is what is holding me back I think. The only two frequencies I can set are CPU Host and PCI-E. I don't even see PCI listed to lock in at 33 even when I CTRL+F1 to open "Advanced" options. The DISK BOOT FAILURE message I got made me think it was the lack of locked frequencies that finally caused a problem, I didn't think that was because of the onboard video...but like I said in my first post I'm a noob when it comes to this stuff. For now though I have a stable 2.664 GHz and very comfortable temperatures with a stable system...so its fine I suppose, but I'd really like to push it farther if I could.

333 MHz Host Frequency it boots up fine showing my overclock, 334MHz the computer shuts itself off after saving BIOS, automatically turns back on and boots into Windows with default clock settings. Might a BIOS update in the future allow this board to perhaps overclock or is the presence of its onboard video always going to physically hold it back?

[OrbitzXT]

My RAM is PC2-6400, rated for 800MHz at 5-5-5-18. These RAM timings are pretty high, and since I can't overclock anymore due to my motherboard would it be possible to lower the RAM timings since its currently running at 332 MHz? If this is possible could someone point me in the direction of a good guide? As little as I know about overclocking I know even less about memory stuff such as altering timings, but I would like to squeeze as much performance out of my parts as possible.