[rajivsab]

Hi, I am trying to overclock my new E4500 and ran into a snag. I started playing with the BIOS at first and when I couldn't post successfully, tried Gigabyte's ETC software in XP and got my system to post at 3.66 gHz. Can't remember but I think I bumped the CPU voltage to 1.3v and 11x333 and Turbo setting. ETC started causing problems like system freezing so I uninstalled it and doing everything in BIOS now. Shut down last night, to come back to a stock 2.2 ghz and can't seem to get any combination to work to overclock even a little! Now I can't post at 11x220 with stock voltage. Is the OCZ memory causing the instability? This is a new install of XP. Everything is new (cpu, mobo, memory). Please help me oc this system. I was so happy with 3.66 and now I am stuck on 2.2 - can some one please get me up beyond 3? I'd love to be able to change the bios and to hear my system clicking off then on then off again and again with no results. HELP! I know the Ctrl+F1 trick but not sure about all the settings to change. I am a newbie so excuse the long post and lingo!

[Reefa_Madness]

Since you didn't mention it specifically as having done it, I'll ask the obvious...did you clear your CMOS prior to changing the settings back to 11x220?

[GT3mich]

What system memory multiplier are you using?

[rajivsab]

Thanks for your help, Reefa_Madness: I did not clear the CMOS prior to changing the settings. Should I be clearing CMOS after every failure to overclock - I define failure as the system turning on and off instead of going straight to xp like a soft boot? How do I clear the CMOS? I thought that was automatic.

Rajiv...

[rajivsab]

Originally Posted by GT3mich

What system memory multiplier are you using?

I think you just may have solved my problem. So I went back in without clearing CMOS. I enabled the CPU Host Control Clock. Set the multiplier to 11 and frequency to 266. PCI-E to 100 from Auto. The SPD changes to 1066 from 800 at Auto so I went in to manual mode and had the following choices which equated to new memory frequencies I guess:

3.33=888
4.0+=1066
2.0=533
2.4=640
3.2=853
2.5=667
3.0=800
4.0~=1066

I chose 3.0 which gave me 800 MHz I guess. It did not do a soft boot to xp but switched off then on, went to the boot sequence, quickly posted (how do I pause that darn screen??). In Windows, voila, CORETEMP shows 2,926.04 MHz at stock voltage of 1.25. Just to be sure, I turned off, restarted and I guess I am oc'd. Sometimes an idea sparks a solution and so you got me there GT3!! Thanks. Now, can you please show me how to mess with things and get it even higher? CORETEMP is showing temps at 33 chassis and 35 cpu - cold start.

I think I am getting there!

A few questions: changing the multiplier and FSB changes the memory fq and I think OCZ special ops cheapo memory is sensitive. If I go to 11x333 (3.66Ghz) what should I set the SPD to? I think it has to result in a fq of over 800 but too much - the higher this number the slower the memory, no? Should I change the cpu voltage to like 1.3v from 1.25v? Higher? The max is 1.5v on the E4500. I know you are going to say one step at a time fella but I kinda want to get to a sweet spot quickly. Answers?

Thanks from the bottom of my internet happy heart!

[GT3mich]

I'm glad to have helped. As for the other questions i have to pass. I'm running a Q6600 in my computer and don't know much about your CPU.
I do know how well Gigabyte p35/OCZ work together and they take alot of tweaking to run well.
I suggest reading thru this thread.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...8v#post2323086
It has a lot of good info in there.
For the ram, this may help you with the math..
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

[rajivsab]

What is the goal of the SPD? To get the memory to 400 becasue I assume I can only run the OCZ at 400x2 becasue I have 2 chips? If I set the multiplier to 11x333 then what should I should set the SPD to? What is strapping? On the BIOS I see some "strap" info on the right hand side. I'm not getting this system memory multiplier concept. Is it simply matching the FSB to the memory? So in the example above I need to use the SPD to get to 333? Can anyone help?

[Reefa_Madness]

Have you seen this thread? It has some basic overclocking info which you might find helpful.

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

It doesn't however, cover the use of memory multipliers (or dividers), if I remember correctly.

This link is to a thread over at XS which has a links to 3 related articles over at Xbit Labs that discuss C2D memory selection and overclocking (using 1:1 and with dividers). It makes good reading.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=128729

With respect to your question about SPD...you do not set the SPD, these are factory coded settings, generally with looser timings than the ram is capable of running, in order to allow it to boot with the widest range of possible motherboards. They are basically "middle of the road" specs and in most cases you can improve system performance by using manual settings.

Hope some of this is useful.

[ALiEN2953]

just thought id suggest that you buy a better PSU