New to OCF (Hi) - Opinions Please

Hi,

This is my first post at OCF, i've visited the site before, excellent stickies in many of the forums, thanks to many of my questions that I did not have to create a thread for!

However, recently, I have run into a problem I cannot seem to comprehend nor fix and I'm at a complete loss.

Here is the system Spec

Antec 900 Computer Case
Antec 650W Power Supply
EVGA 680i SLI Motherboard A-1
Intel E6420 2.13 GHZ Processor
2 Gbs Corsair XMS2 PC8500 (1066 MHZ)
Samsung 7200 RPM 500Gig HD
EVGA 8800GTS Video Card

I've had the PC for almost a year. I never overclocked it because I was in school, busy, didn't have time to really monkey with it. With new more powerful processors coming out, I don't want to upgrade my motherboard just yet. I wanted to see if I could get a 2.4 Kentsfield and just OC it to like 3.0 with a nice arctic cooler or something.

Therefore, in order to become more familiar and comfortable with OC'ing, I decided to try and overclock this chicp. Now keep in mind, I'm fairly tech savvy, i've been building/fixing PC's since I was like 10 (I'm 22 Now). My first was an Intel Pentium that ran at 133MHZ. Crazy times.

However, this was my first time at OC'ing, so I did my research. I looked over the EVGA boards about successful overclocks with the 680i, and I did a fair amount of research on the overclockability of my specific chip. With the bigger L2 Cache, it's actually a nice chip to overclock given what I paid for it.

Therefor, I using a fairly straightforward system of disabling anything that automatically adjusted stuff on my mobo (voltages were auto), I raised my speed to 4x800 with a clock speed of 3.2GHZ and a 1:1 Sync on my RAM. Settings on Optimal (Not Expert).

The PC booted up like a dream. No Issues, nothing. I'm like "Whoa, this is amazing"

I ran CPU-z and Orthos to see how I was doing. My temps were around 45c idle, 59c under Orthos full load. I ran Orthos for about 35 minutes with no temperature jumps nor errors. I stopped in order to check out a few websites, ect. It ran fine for 3 hours.

I decided to be cute and try and go for a 3.33 GHZ on air, because the antec was keeping the chip so cool. It booted up fine, worked, but as soon as windows tried to load Aero (Vista Obviously). Windows Froze Hard.

I rebooted and set back to what I initially had at 3.2GHZ. Rebooted into windows. Froze 1 minute in.

I kept lowering the FSB confused. Eventually, I set settings to default, and tested, it booted up fine, used for a week, no problems on stock. Had more time, so I decided to try again.

This time I decided to only raise the FSB to what the MOBO was rated for (1333MHZ) for an overclock of 2.66MHZ. Doing exactly what I had learned various guides and suggestions (turning off certain things like CPU spectrum spread) and it booted into windows. This time it worked fine for a few minutes, but the cores weren't responding when I was trying to run an orthos test. It was acting funny, unexplainable. Then it froze. I tried to reset, but the mobo wouldn't even reset with the reset button. I had to hard shutdown.

I tried again a week later (today) with the same result. I don't understand why it's behaving this way. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a setting on the 680i's that are causing it to freeze? And I'm worried I damaged/will damage my mobo. I"ve never heard of the mobo freezing like that.

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure there is something simple I'm missing, but I can't find anything anywhere on my specific problem.

One more thing, my CPU is rated higher that it was before I was fooling around with it. Even after several clock tests, windows still thinks it's a 5.7 on thier "index" even though it was originally a 5.2

I haven't been able to compare 3ds mark tests from before. But unless windows doesn't change higher marks from before on a new test, then something is either running better. I don't know. I'm really confused, and it sucks because I'm not a complete newb at this.

Thanks in Advance

Did you up your voltage any?

LilBuddy said:

Did you up your voltage any?

Click to expand...

I tried both auto and manual setting.

I went as high as 1.45 volts when I was at 3.0GHZ. DIdn't seem to have any effect.

Also, most people that OC my chip can OC to over 3.2GHZ on around 1.41. So It's possible, but voltage is something i'm not as certain about. There doesn't seem to be any solid guide, more of people just saying

"Trial and error"

Which i'm more than willing to do, but not when I can do a basic overclock to 2.66GHz...

Perhaps it is your PSU. I am assuming you have a TruePower which has had its fair share of issues. Do you have another PSU you can try?

I had an EVGA 680i and had no problem booting it at 500+ FSB.

Check what your voltages are reading, not just what it is set at in the BIOS.

Thanks so far for the responses. I don't have a spare PSU right now, but i'll check voltages in the morning. I feel like cranking everything, watching it smoke, and then backing over it with my car.

Then buying a new mobo with the new yorkfield....

PSU you were right about, truepower, can you explain some of the issues? Thanks again, going to sleep.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371001

Voltages on the PSU are underperforming what they are supposed to be at.

+12v - 12.0003
+5V - 4.8V
+3.3V - 3.2V

I can't check voltages on the OC because I can never get past the initial stages of logon. I can't get it to boot up except on stock settings. Stock settings on the MOBO adjusts the voltage according to how much power the CPU needs on some setting, forget what it's called. But it idles around 1.12V when it lowers the multiplier to 6x and then under full load it jumps to 1.304

i'm not sure, but it looks like the voltages are within acceptable ranges.

moto211 said:

i'm not sure, but it looks like the voltages are within acceptable ranges.

Click to expand...

Yeah, forgive my noobness, did some research, they are withing acceptable ranges.

However, the more tests I do, the more i'm concerned it is my PSU. It seems that under stress my voltage might fluctuate. It's the only way I can explain it. I cranked the voltages on almost everything to the maximum reccommended and/or factory set spec

1.4785 vCore
1.4v FSB
1.60v MCP
1.4v SPP<>MCP
2.1v Memory (Loose Timings).

I got into windows, ran orthos for a half hour, it was starting to get hot, (60c), so I figured perhaps I wasn't feeding it enough juice earlier and that I'd back of voltages to see what my stable OC volt would be. I closed orthos with the intent of buying an aftermarket cooler sometime next week when i have off, but I wanted to check my email quickly before i reset to stock and went to bed.

Windows froze on the app launch with nothing else running. I'm wondering if the voltage is fluctuating? Does that sound possible?

I also did some more research on my antec. It can give +12v@18a which i'm seeing is something people don't suggest for OC'ing. They suggest +12@24a or better on a single rail? Any comments on that?