First attempts att clocking (X3230): miserable failure!

Hello all!

Well I've finally made my first steps in the world of overclocking. And went facedown hard


I'm working on reading the guide in the sticky, but was also going by the following info given to me by PM:

Have you tried overclocking it? Just go into your bios, set the vcore to 1.4v and change the FSB to 400. If that won't boot, enter the bios again, set your vcore to 1.5v and try again. If that still doesn't work, leave the vcore at 1.5v and set your fsb to 350. That will definitely work! Keep moving the fsb upwards until it doesn't work and then come back down! Let me know how you get on. You can leave all over values on auto for the moment.

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I've tried at first with FSB at 400, multiplier at 9. Forgot the vcore. System won't do much, starts for some secs then shuts down and tries again, over and over. Then realized I forgot the vcore, so after clearing CMOS tried with vcore 1.35V (being careful), FSB 400 and multiplier at 9. Same. Raised vcore to 1.45 and lowered FSB to 350 with multiplier at 10 (optimized BIOS defaults, F7). Same.

I'm not really sure whether I need to pump up the vcore more, or if there's other settings which I should change.

I'm running a X3230 ES on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6. I've not changed anything else, figuring I'd ask here and read on in the overclocking guide first.

What causes the system to shutdown straight off? CPU temp? CPU instability? Why is it unstable, too low voltage or such?

I'm all new to this so I don't want to crank things up too much without knowing what I'm doing.

*edit2*

The guide doesn't really give much more info, not in the main post anyways. So any ideas on what's the bottleneck are welcome!


*edit*

Might add that the 'optimized default' runs at 266Mhz x 10 by the way.... multiplier seems to be 'unlocked' then?

hi joris

that sounds like a sweet processor, how did you come by an ES?! heres some advise from another newb. i think you are being too aggressive with the oc. try to move at smaller increments and see what happens.

i believe your proc is rated up to 1.372v for the vcore. i have an x3210 and can take the fsb up to 375 at around 1.275 (still trying to get stable though). i have an 8x multi, you have a 10x but would think that you can still make waaay past there - though you gotta keep an eye on your temps though. good luck bro

Have you touched the System memory multiplier?
I know the default auto setting is 3.0 and and I know the best to use is a 1/1 multi which is 2.00. I couldn't get my computer to OC much at all until I changed the SMM. We don't have the same board but they are close enough.
Mine is the P35C-DS3R. And like Shakir_Akbari posted, take small steps. Thats what I did. Good luck..

System memory multiplier:

2.50 = 4/5
3.00 = 2/3
2.00 = 1/1
2.40 = 5/6
3.20 = 5/8
3.33 = 3/5
4+ = 1/2

Thanks for the replies and advice guys!

The reason I went for the 'aggressive' approach is the quote in my first post, simply 'following instructions'

@Shakir: bought the processor off a guy here in one of the Swedish forums. No idea how he came by it though. But he did say he managed to run it at 3.6Ghz (I think 400 x 9) with air cooling, at vcore something like 1.41-1.44V if I remember correctly what he wrote.

I am actually considering selling it again though, as it's quite a bit overkill for me atm. But I thought I'd try some clocking with it first, see what it's capable of.

@GT3mich: No, haven't touched any other settings really.

I'll have a look at the memory settings as well. I'm running OCZ Reaper PC9200 2x1Gb, if that is of any significance for the settings.


Does one have to do the changes in BIOS by the way, or are there alternative ways? Sucks having to clear the CMOS all the time. Then again, if moving slowly upwards, one hopefully doesn't have to

Questions:

* in what order do I change? I.e. FSB/multiplier/vcore ? Put multiplier at 10 and start increasing the FSB while keeping vcore at default? Or should I put the vcore at the 'rated' max (which is indeed something like 1.372V) to start with?

* do I have to change other settings as well?

* how far do I 'push'... should I test stability with some program like Prime, or should I try and hit the roof for simply managing to boot past POST, or what it's called?

The multiplier is changed in the Bios. Its in the MIT section at the bottom of the screen. You may have to press Ctrl+F1 to see the more advanced features in the MIT section.

Make sure you're giving your RAM its rated voltage. None of the boards I've seen do this automatically.

ok well first up is sounds like you found a very very poor overclocking guide. The last thing you should be doing in upping the vcore and FSB to such high values and just "seeing if it works"! Start slow. For you first month of ocing (since its your first time) you shouldn't even touch the vcore. Leave it at stock. You need to learn about how the RAM and cpu speed are tied to the system bus speed, and how you can change your ram settings. The first step in overclocking should involve running your ram well BELOW its stock specs so that you are sure it is not the source of your instability if any exists. Since you have a 10x multi, i advise using that to get your knowledge on over clocking up a bit. Max clocks will probably use a lower multi and faster bus speed, but worry about that later. Look at the stickys in this forum on the information you need, and ask questions. Scrap the "guide" you are using atm, it sounds very bad for a beginner. Not all chips will perform on the same, especially on different mobos. Your results will NEVER equal someone elses OC results, there are too many variables. The best you will get is, for example, the same clock speed on the cpu as someone else. But your ram, voltages and bus speeds will probably be very differant.

Think of an overclocked computer as a person. No two people are the same, not even identical twins.

Go slow, and good luck with it. You may as well keep the ES since you have it. It will actually make learning easier.

I was reading the guide here in the stickies:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=515316


But also the info given to me as I quoted in my first post.

Will start at the bottom and work my way up then, thanks!
I'll post some results here.

Well what is in the quote in your first post is possibly one of the worst newbie ocing advice you can give. It might work for some, but its the wrong way to go about things. Also since you have a quad, 3.6ghz is not trivial to get too. 3ghz should be no probs on stock volts though.

There is absolutely no reason why you should not be able to achieve 3.6GHz with that cpu and motherboard unless you got really unlucky and got an absolute polished doodoo, which I doubt.

Can you post all your BIOS setting from MIT?

Also go ahead if you haven't already done so and disable any of the followings if you have them in your BIOS. I have not found this to make it any more or less stable but do it for now just to be safe ... you can re-enable them later on when you achieve the OC you want.

C1E
Max CPUID value limit
Vanderpool
CPU TM function
Execute Disable Bit
PECI
SpeedStep

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Hipcrostino said:

Well what is in the quote in your first post is possibly one of the worst newbie ocing advice you can give. It might work for some, but its the wrong way to go about things.

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I agree with the advise he posted on the first post and that is what I do (more or less too) when I get a new chip. It is better to bump the voltage higher (but safe) and work your way down. Would you rather start OCing from the bottom working your way to the stable point while having to crash and restart 15-20 times and running the risk of corrupting your OS? Or work your way down from stable to unstable having being able to boot stable into Windows 15 times until you find the lowest vcore that makes it crash? Of course that doesn't mean start at 1.8V vcore right off the bat but 1.4V or even 1.5V is perfectly fine for booting into Windows with any half decent aftermarket air cooler.

It is not very different to numerical optimization really better to continously improve from the feasible space than bounce around forever through unstable settings.

I haven't had much time and probably won't the next few days... perhaps this evening somewhat.

I'm thinking my idle temps are somewhat high though. Running Asetek watercooling the idle temps are between 36-40 degrees, more or less (Lavalys everest). Then again the temperatures reported by the waterchill program are about 28 degrees for the water temperature and 30-31 degrees for the radiator. So a couple of degrees above that isn't all that odd perhaps. Haven't put the external cooling unit in the most efficient position either (under the desk with a lack of fresh air flow probably).


All I know is that the previous owner stated he managed to run the processor stable at 3.6Ghz, vcore something like 1.41-1.44, with air cooling....

Is Asetek's watercooling upto par? I know they're phase change is nice, But w/c is a different story.

JorisS said:

All I know is that the previous owner stated he managed to run the processor stable at 3.6Ghz, vcore something like 1.41-1.44, with air cooling....

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That is very reasonable and I have seen a lot of Q6600s (my own included) do 3.6GHz at that voltage range.

JamesXP said:

Is Asetek's watercooling upto par? I know they're phase change is nice, But w/c is a different story.

Click to expand...

I read some reviews before buying the kit, can't really seem to find the ones I read back then but here's a quick comparative table.

I just purchased a 7950GX2 on eBay, complete with Innovatek water cooling system for GPU and processor. Don't know if that one would actually be better? It only has CPU block for AM2 though, might be costly to get one for L775.