Finally - a winning setup!

Hey folks -

Over the past few years, I've had sketchy luck at best when it comes to good overclocking systems. I started off strong - my first overclock was back in the days of Celeron 333mhz @ 500mhz on a 2x Processor board.

My most recent system as of a few weeks ago was the ever-popular DFI Lanparty UT nF4-Ultra with a decent stepping Opteron 146 - paired with 1GB of Mushkin HP3200's. - I was able to run this setup at 2.8Ghz w/ the memory on horribly low ratios, and even then temps were high and the system was never 100% stable (Orthos would almost always fail after an hour or so...) - never the less it served it's purpose. However, I had always been a bit peeved that I hadn't been able to get to the CPU's full potential.

Well after much deliberation, I ordered a E6600 stepping from TankGuys, a new Asus P5k-D and 2xGB of G.Skill HZ's.

WOW. - On a 120-Extreme at 1.4v vCore I'm sitting happy at 3.4Ghz Solidly Orthos stable.

Temps are 28c Idle and 47c Load (Closed case...mild ambients) - leading me to believe I havn't reached the full potential of this chip yet.

Needless to say I'm thrilled with the components I chose, and I'm looking forward to seeing just how far I can push this system.

Sinnerman49 said:

Temps are 28c Idle and 47c Load (Closed case...mild ambients) - leading me to believe I havn't reached the full potential of this chip yet.

Click to expand...

looking good

if you feel comfortable your cpu readings are accurate you can probably take that thing much farther.

^ That brings up a good point. Any suggestions on verifying? My temps and voltages are read from ASUS' Motherboard software and in bios, cpu info is read through CPU-Z (Updated)

Luckily the P5K has an excellent bios option to practically eliminate vDroop

I would try out various programs and compare the readings until you find some reading consistency. Specifically try coretemp and TAT. Also, if you post your temps and specs, sometimes users can give you a "sanity check" on your temps, whether they seem reasonable or not.

Sinnerman49 said:

^ That brings up a good point. Any suggestions on verifying? My temps and voltages are read from ASUS' Motherboard software and in bios, cpu info is read through CPU-Z (Updated)

Luckily the P5K has an excellent bios option to practically eliminate vDroop

Click to expand...

Good job man! Dont you just love that voltage damper!

Anyway, what BIOS are you using? Theres 0311 already available for download. Go back to stock before you flash. I'm sure you could push some more. Mine's at 486 FSB without even playing with the other voltages. And yeah get TAT or CoreTemp, Asus' utilities reads voltages kinda low.

Post some SS

Actually I am using the 311 Bios - will post some screens tonight.

Sinnerman49 said:

Hey folks -

Over the past few years, I've had sketchy luck at best when it comes to good overclocking systems. I started off strong - my first overclock was back in the days of Celeron 333mhz @ 500mhz on a 2x Processor board.

My most recent system as of a few weeks ago was the ever-popular DFI Lanparty UT nF4-Ultra with a decent stepping Opteron 146 - paired with 1GB of Mushkin HP3200's. - I was able to run this setup at 2.8Ghz w/ the memory on horribly low ratios, and even then temps were high and the system was never 100% stable (Orthos would almost always fail after an hour or so...) - never the less it served it's purpose. However, I had always been a bit peeved that I hadn't been able to get to the CPU's full potential.

Well after much deliberation, I ordered a E6600 stepping from TankGuys, a new Asus P5k-D and 2xGB of G.Skill HZ's.

WOW. - On a 120-Extreme at 1.4v vCore I'm sitting happy at 3.4Ghz Solidly Orthos stable.

Temps are 28c Idle and 47c Load (Closed case...mild ambients) - leading me to believe I havn't reached the full potential of this chip yet.

Needless to say I'm thrilled with the components I chose, and I'm looking forward to seeing just how far I can push this system.

Click to expand...

Looking good.I was in the same boat.My Ultra D and 165 opty never ran as good as it should of.And i could never get it 100% stable over 2.7ghz which made me so mad.But now with this system ive finnally got a decent OCing and stable system

Sinnerman49. How are you still running a 7800GS? Do you mean 7900GS?

i would use intel thermal analysis tool for cpu temps. If the conditions are right and you have a good e6600 you can get some good clocks.. like mine that has done 4ghz on air (regular ultra 120 and a 47cfm fan wooo hoo) it wasnt stable but it was sure damn sweet. Also this chip with a default VID of 1.325v sits at 3ghz with 1.18-1.2v

nice clocks..enjoy

Subscribed! I wanna know what this bearlake chipset can do – I’m looking for a replacement for my p5n-e and a pk5 would fit that spot perfectly. I just have to ask myself if im ready to give up the SLi opinion yet.

ChinStrap said:

Subscribed! I wanna know what this bearlake chipset can do – I’m looking for a replacement for my p5n-e and a pk5 would fit that spot perfectly. I just have to ask myself if im ready to give up the SLi opinion yet.

Click to expand...

have you ever used sli? BTW whats the batch code on your E6600 Sinnerman49?

ChinStrap said:

Subscribed! I wanna know what this bearlake chipset can do – I’m looking for a replacement for my p5n-e and a pk5 would fit that spot perfectly. I just have to ask myself if im ready to give up the SLi opinion yet.

Click to expand...

this board is great, hands down the best c2d board I've had, takes my quad to 510fsb , sli's overrated and besides, you could always do xfire

Nice man. Defiantly use TAT or Coretemp to get more accurate tempatures.

As well don't use voltage by what program says it is. Just go off what you set it in the bios. While its not as accurate as taking a DMM to the board itself its what most people use for numbers when people say them. As well boards can dip .05-.075V under load from what you set it in the bios.

Anything under 40C is wonderful, 50C is nice, 60C is recommened for long term runnning, anything higher take it at your own risk surely it can live but not recommened for long term use. Benchmarking and such as long as you have nice cooling and willing to take a chance, crank that sucker up

My E6400 can do benches at 3.76Ghz on my old P5B-D board. Not sure what it can do on my new one but theres no way it will hit that FSB

gigabit said:

Sinnerman49. How are you still running a 7800GS? Do you mean 7900GS?

Click to expand...

Yep, you're right - I need to change that. I was a long time ATI user, so I mix up numbers every now and then.

Plan on pushing this chipset more this week, will post results (Been real busy with work)


I also cross-checked my temps with TAT and it seems that PCProbe is a bit optomistic when it comes to chips (This has also been reported by other P5K users over at XS..) TAT is reading around 35c Idle, 50c Load. - still in a good range, and I'm wondering how high it'll clock at 1.4v.

Well...


I'm running Orthos right now at FSB 400x9 (3.6ghz).

Memory is on 1:1 (400mhz, DDR2 800) Stock timings
TAT Reports 55c-58c on both cores under load
PC Probe Reports 48c on both cores under load
1.4 vCore


My AC is pretty much broken, so my ambient temps are way high....this setup is really impressing me.

Screenshot

Wow.. Congrats!

I'm guessing you don't quite know just how stable it is atm though, as I'm sure you don't want to run that puppy very long w/ your AC problems.

I'm actually really considering going along with your setup. I've been debating on waiting for the July 22nd pricedrop, then getting a Q6600 and OCing it, however I'm thinking quad-core won't be too major until a bit later, when better deals will be released. So right now I have a e6600 in my newegg shopping cart, just waiting to get bought when I find some matching RAM sticks and mobo. I guess you're more than happy with your mobo? Thanks again for the thread, it's really helped my decision (hence my first post ;D), and good luck w/ your OC!

Sinnerman49 said:

Yep, you're right - I need to change that. I was a long time ATI user, so I mix up numbers every now and then.

.

Click to expand...

I totally understand.Its easy enough to do

TAshifter88 said:

... So right now I have a e6600 in my newegg shopping cart...

Click to expand...

If I might make a suggestion, I was going to buy my E6600 from the egg also, just to keep everything from the same company, but I opted instead to buy from TankGuys where you have the option of selecting the stepping (Look up the stepping codes on XS or here before you buy..), and boy was I glad I did!

stepping? I'm sorry, I'm EXTREMELY new to modding computes and everything (I've lurked these forums for about 2 days now trying to learn everything), so that term has me stumped. I've built computers, but never OCed them or anything.
Also, I'll still pricegrab all of the products up, but I just have my rough ideas out on my newegg account atm. Thanks for the advise of going there though! I'll give it a look.

TAShifter88 -

Assuming you're looking to overclock whatever processor you get, you want to optimize your chances of getting a good overclocker.

A common practice is to look at the processor "Stepping" which is a stamp on the chip itself that tells when/where it was manufactured. The rational behind this is:

If processor X with stepping ABC overclocks well, then the other processors manufactured in that stepping should too!

Newegg.com doesn't tell you what stepping you're getting - hence you are relying totally on luck to get a good chip. TankGuys (Do a search...) currently has stepping L630F or L629F (Varies) - I got an L629F and it has clocked very well - along with many other chips of the same stepping that people have reported.

Sorry if this^ is a bit confusing, long day at work and my thoughts aren't exactly gathered at the moment.