E6600 oc'ing help? Need a crash course (if possible)

[Helgaiden]

Alright so i recently got a C2D E6600 and am using this mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188019
and this PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817128006

Although ive been reading and scouring Ocforums for years, overclocking was always a "meh" thing with me. Rig 2 in my sig overclocked to an Athlon x0 3200 out of the box with that cooler but was unstable in windows. I tried bumping the voltage up a little and it did nothing, then i dropped it down to a 2800 and it worked for an entire day of gaming but pooped out at the end of the day and the PC shut itself down. I didnt look into it much, just set it back to a 2500 and left it there. So now with this e6600, im wondering if it voids the warranty to overclock it, and if not, im wondering if i can get a bit of a crash course on OC'ing it on stock cooling. The case i have actually has a fan attached to the side duct as well, i can replace it with a higher flowing one if needed (the stock one doesnt move much air but i have better fans lying around). Ive read that some people skip some ranges of FSB mhz to avoid file corruption, some sort of FSB gap. So im wondering if theres a general "OC point" that i can just bump my CPU too right off the getgo then work up from there, and also how to test stability and such. But basically, just a crash course on overclocking the e6600 would be great. This has to last me a while so i want to get what i can out of it (but still be pretty stable of course). Any help would be MUCH appreciated. Even 2.6ghz would be an improvement for me, but lets see where i can go.

edit: Also, concerning the fan thats blowing onto the CPU...is the fan on the stock cpu cooler blowing air onto the CPU (thus having the case fan blowing on it act like a supercharger for a car i guess) or is it sucking air away from it? I know i can check easily, but im not home and wont be for another 5 hours lol. I just want the case fan to blow the same way the CPU fan is blowing, ill likely install the higher powered fan i have sitting around (got 2 extra, i might install one in the front too).

This is my case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811209018

I have an 80mm in the back, didnt realize i coulda put a 120 back there but oh well. The top fan i have is sucking air into the case (it blows right onto the ram), the front is intake, the side is also intake, and the rear is exhaust (im not counting the PSU fans, i dont even know which way they blow lol). Im thinking since i only have 1 fan exhausting (aside from the blower on my 8800gts), case temps might get pretty hot eh?

[hUMANbEATbOX]

you posted the same link twice :p

680i boards are a mystery to me. NV should give me one so i can dole out advice. ;) ;) ;)

someone should be able to help you out, but i see no reason why you won't be able to do at least 3.2ghz. what cooler are you using?

[Helgaiden]

fixed the link, sorry. Im on the stock cooler...

^_^

[hUMANbEATbOX]

with the stock cooler, you'll be looking at around 3ghz i would think.

this would be achieved by setting your fsb to 333 (as 333*9 = 2997). like i said, those NV boards are totally foreign to me, so i can't comment on settings but that should be a relatively simple oc and very stable.

*edit* now that i can see the psu, i'm not crazy about it. trying to find specs on it now...

ok, so i found the psu here: http://www.hipergroup.com/English/products/hpu-4k530.html

shows it has 2 +12v rails, one at 17a, one at 20a. i dunno, i personally don't like split rail psu's. even with split rails, i think you could have done better here. i don't keep up so much on psu prices, maybe someone else has an idea around the $80 price range.

[Helgaiden]

wouldnt raising my FSB also require the mobo to support 1333fsb? Hmm, ill try that since the mobo does support that. What about case cooling? Think i got my fans setup correctly or should i change anything?

[hUMANbEATbOX]

case cooling, you wanna have a nice flow through the case. try to have as many fans pointing in as you do out, and manage case wiring with zip ties. use a nice thermal grease like Arctic Ceramique, or Arctic Silver, instead of gunk intel supplies on the heatsink.

yeah, your board supports 1333fsb officially for the upcoming C2D's that come 1333fsb stock. meaning, with those future cpus, you just drop them in, and they run at 333fsb, instead of 266fsb like your e6600.

like i said, it should be a simple oc, but i don't even know what your bios looks like, so i can't advise on actual steps. :( you could give it a shot, trying 333fsb won't hurt anything. :)

[Helgaiden]

cool ill try that when i get home, ill google orthos and get that while im at it. Gonna install a higher flowing fan on the side duct too, that should help a bit. I have Ceramique sittin around, but i already installed the cooler and would have to clean the gunk off lol. We'll see if i can get it stable at 3ghz, if so then ill leave it there. If not, ill apply some ceramique then. How do i get the stock cooler off? This is my first intel (in a desktop) since a Pentium MMX 233 so i have no clue about LGA775 coolers. Im more familier with socket A, Socket 940, socket 939, socket 754, and socket AM2 (yeah...im an AMD guy but they need to redo their architecture already). :)

[hUMANbEATbOX]

the stock cooler is pretty simply, you just flip the 2 latches.

try it out, bump your thread later with your results. :)

[Helgaiden]

the two latches where? Two latches per leg or something? Yeah ill be sure to try the OC later. How long should i run Orthos? 1-2hrs? What temp should i let it get to before saying its too hot? 70c?

[hUMANbEATbOX]

there should be 2 latches, one on each side. you have to flip them closed to attach the heatsink. i may be getting confused with socket 478 mind you, i have never used a stock heatsink for 775.

orthos, run it for an hour or 2 to get a feel for temps and stability. but for a final test of stability, you will want to run it for 12hrs+.

i would monitor temps with intels TAT: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/392/mirrors.php

temps IMO are fine up to 65c full load, some will say 60c mind you.

[Helgaiden]

ah okay. I think my idles were in the 40c range so we'll see where this takes me. I think you are getting confused with 478 cuz lga775 has a cooler that stands on 4 legs and you push each leg down till it snaps in for retention. http://www.gearxs.com/product_images/IN20F-LGA775.jpg
http://www.gearxs.com/product_images/IN20F-LGA775.jpg

[hUMANbEATbOX]

ahh yes yes. i have heard many a complaint about that mounting system. apparently it works well, but you just have to make sure you push the pegs through all the way.

[Helgaiden]

yeah they click and you can check by looking at the bottom of the mobo, its not bad ive done 2 of them so far. Just sometimes they dont go in right and you gotta push so hard you get scared for the mobo lol. Brings me back to my old socket A days with a scredriver and leverage scaring the crap outta me lol. A good sign i saw, pcstats.com (been subscribed to these people for years) OC'd their e6600 in their review to 3.4ghz on stock cooling. I like the sound of that, though im happy with 3ghz lol.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

as usual, your mileage may vary. not all cpu's are the same. you can also bet that intel picked a real nice e6600 to hand over to pcstats for testing. ;)

i'd say 3ghz should be a given. you may do good and get 3.2ghz, but if you want much more than that, you'll probably need a nice aftermarket heatsink.

good luck!

[Helgaiden]

well i set the multi to 9x to make sure throttling stuff didnt move it around and set the fsb to 1333 and it reads as 3ghz during boot up...but in Vista on CPU-z it shows only 2000mhz at a 6.0 multiplier. Ok so i thought something was wrong, then i opened IE to get orthos and it jumped to 9.0 multi and 3000mhz then fell back to 2000mhz at 6.0 multi and its continuing to do that. Any idea whats going on and how to fix it? CPU-Z is also saying my voltage is jumping from 1.075 to 1.424.

Okay i ran orthos for a few a minute and my temps jumped to 64c but it maintained 3ghz and 1.4v...whats going on?


ran it for 57 seconds and hit 67c...

i think my vcore is too high.

as soon as i stop it my temp drops to around 47c

[Helgaiden]

lowered the vcore in bios to 1.3 and CPU-z reads as 1.256 but its not heating up as fast on orthos now...

i think that did the trick. It climbed slowly to 60 and so far its sticking to 60, i figure the next 5 degrees will take forever to reach at its current pace...ill let orthos decide though.

Its still having that issue though where it turns the multiplier down and when idle is at 2ghz, but under load it bumps up to 3ghz. Is this fine?


edit: 61c...

[hUMANbEATbOX]

yep, the speed fluctuation is normal, it is a power saving feature. you can disable it in the bios somewhere. look for C1E and EIST. turning them both off should keep you at 3ghz all the time.

you got a sweet OC so far! pretty easy too, huh? what i would do now (which you have already started) is try running with as little vcore as possible while staying stable. some cpu are gems and can do 3ghz with 1.2v, some need 1.35-1.4v to be totally stable. the lower you can run the voltage the lower your temps, obviously, and every little bit helps especially with the stock cooler. :)

i am kinda disappointed that no one experienced with that board has popped in to help out. :bang head oh well, maybe someone tomorrow can. :)

[Helgaiden]

yeah. Well it just fell to 60c...then back to 61c...looks good so far but i dont plan on going above 3ghz anyways. I ran it unlinked so my RAM is still ddr2 800, should i try running it linked? I dont think my RAM would like that very much, especially at 4-4-3-5 timings lol (i beleive im 1:1 right now, if not then 1:2 or 2:1, not sure exactly)


edit: bounced between 60 and 61 again

edit: decided i wanted to try to OC rig #2 to an athlon xp 3200 by bumping the FSB to 200 (400mhz effective), so i got cpu-z to confirm the speed, started up speedfan then started up orthos and its hovering aroun 48-50c so far, considering thats 10c less than its recommended operating temp (it can handle up to 65c) thats a good sign! Didnt even touch the voltage either. Hmmmm :)





edit: heh this side fan i have blowing air onto the CPU through the side duct is awesome. I covered it with my hand to stop the air flow, the temps went to 62c then i took my hand off it and after 30seconds the temp dropped back down to 61c...

Beatbox, if you're still readin this, i have a friend with an e6420 and stock cooling as well, think he can hit 3ghz just as easily? If not, what can he get to easily? or if anyone else can answer this, that would be great too.


edit: oh. CPU-Z says my FSB: DRAM is at 5:6. Is this good or bad? I dunno much about dividers or whatever it is...

[Helgaiden]

just hit 1hr 10mins on Orthos with no issues. Have been cruisin the net checkin my email and stuff while it was running too, temps solid at 60-61c.

Restarted and ran 3dmark 06, over a 400pt increase. Ran orthos again but instead of stressCPU using gromacs core, i did the small FFTs thing and the cpu got to 62c and errored, so i resumed it and it did it did it again...

gromacs ran fine for over an hour o_O

[hUMANbEATbOX]

you may have gotten that error due to your memory. i always forget, does the small ftt's focus on the memory or the cpu? (it should say in orthos).

i would make sure that in the bios, you have the correct voltage set for your memory, don't trust auto. use whatever it says on the side of the package or on the heatspreaders themselves. while you are at it, manually set the timings of the memory to whatever is listed on the packaging/heatspreaders as well. should be like 4-4-4-10 or something.

your temps are looking good. if it turns out its the cpu causing the error, you can probably bump the vcore one notch to stabilize, and still keep temps acceptable.

[Helgaiden]

yeah already did that with the memory, stock they wont boot up at the correct timings cuz the voltage is too low, i had to manually set 4-4-3-5 at 2.035v (it says it ranges from 2.0-2.1). The Small FFTs says "small ffts-stress CPU".

With gromacs i can go on for days lol, AND im doing misc tasks while its running and both cores are at 100%.

so my friend with an e6420 ran company of heroes, black and white 2, and some other game all at once and barely got past 41c he says. We'll see what we can do for him eh? :P

[hUMANbEATbOX]

sorry, i was just skimming thru the thread again, and i noticed an edit of yours i missed before.

about your friend with the e6420, it has just as good a shot (if not a bit better) as your e6600 does of hitting 3ghz with the stock cooler. a friend of mine just got a e6420/p5b-dlx/8800gts system with stock cooling. we had him up and running at 3ghz in one night (actually only like a couple of hours).

for some reason, the e6420's seem to be clocking slightly better than the more recent e6600's. but again, YMMV. :)

what mobo, memory and psu does your friend have?

*edit*
so my friend with an e6420 ran company of heroes, black and white 2, and some other game all at once and barely got past 41c he says. We'll see what we can do for him eh? :P

tell your friend to run TAT and orthos and report his temps. i'm sure he will see ~50-55c. :)

[Helgaiden]

evga nvidia 650i mobo i think, i forget which psu but it isnt a stock case replacement...actually it might be...not sure but its holding up fine so far, and he has 2gigs g.skill ram, like mine but 4-4-5-12 i think. Thats cool, im sure he'll throw it in my face if he hits 3ghz you know? lol
to get it to 3ghz, do we have to set the multiplier higher or raise the fsb above 333? o_O

edit: he'd prolly OC it right now but has to go to work (midnight to 5am FTL, 11.50/hr FTW, fedex FTL) lol

[hUMANbEATbOX]

evga nvidia 650i mobo i think, i forget which psu but it isnt a stock case replacement...actually it might be...not sure but its holding up fine so far, and he has 2gigs g.skill ram, like mine but 4-4-5-12 i think. Thats cool, im sure he'll throw it in my face if he hits 3ghz you know? lol
to get it to 3ghz, do we have to set the multiplier higher or raise the fsb above 333? o_O
well multis are locked upwards. you can lower the multi, but you can't raise it, so he will be stuck with 8x (which isn't so bad, mine is 7! :p).

he will need to run 8*375, so 375fsb. this is very dooable on that board (and it is on your board as well).

see the thing is, if he runs 8*375, and you run 9*333, he will be slightly faster than you ;) SLIGHT, but there. if you want, you can try to run 8*375 yourself, you should be able to lower your multi somewhere in the bios. :)

[Helgaiden]

lol nah im good. I may apply some ceramique tomorrow to help with temps, may also install a higher flowing fan in the front intake slot and try running with the top fan exhausting instead of intaking...(if thats a word lol)

[hUMANbEATbOX]

lol nah im good. I may apply some ceramique tomorrow to help with temps, may also install a higher flowing fan in the front intake slot and try running with the top fan exhausting instead of intaking...(if thats a word lol)
well if you get adventurous, 375fsb is a breeze for that mobo. you could even try the 7x multi, and run 428*7=3000mhz. i know your mobo can do 500fsb if you know the right settings, i've seen ppl do it, so 428 should be a snap. that would let you get the most out of your system. but realistically speaking, we aren't talking about huge or even noticeable gains (1-5fps in a game ain't much).

you can test out the airflow in your case with a regular house fan. set it up as best you can with the case closed, then open it up and point the house fan into the case. if you see a dramatic drop in temps (like over 3-4c) then you should try something else to promote the intake of cold air over the hot parts, and quick expulsion of hot air from the case so it isn't recirculated.

also, you can get pretty decent aftermarket heatsinks nowadays for even $30. even if you don't plan on oveclocking further, a good heatsink can keep your temps cool, which is nice because summer is coming. ;)

[Helgaiden]

yeah i might get one, but that will be for another time. I sold a laptop and that funded this computer mostly ($1000 for the laptop) but the paypal opened an investigation on my account for the source of those funds after it cleared into my bank account...and took the money right back out (well, it put me negative in my paypal acct). So im sure ill get reimbursed, but in case i dont i dont want to keep spending. One way or another, im driving down to redlands (the person asked me to ship ut to a place nearby, about 30min drive), finding the guy i sent it to, then proceeding to have my 6'5" 250llb friend stand by as i threaten the guy to give me my laptop back. Fraud is lame.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

truer words have never been spoken, i reckon. fraud is lame. good luck with that situation, hope it turns out ok.

maybe test 333fsb with one bump in vcore with orthos to see what temps are like. if they are OK, let small ftt run for a bit before bed, if it is still running in an hour let it go overnight and see what happens. i'm thinking that should work.

i'm off to bed myself. lemme know how you do tomorrow. :beer:

[Helgaiden]

yeah ill turn it back on before i go to sleep, the temps are fine maxing around 60-62c full load so im happy with the current voltage. yep yep, night.

[Knight3539]

Helgaiden,

The below link will help you with OC'ing and some other things as well:

http://evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=30071

[Helgaiden]

thanks