E6300 Overclock Need Advice

Trying to get the most out of my system, so want to consult with you guys who are experts on this stuff. Here are my specs.

E6300 Wolfdale
GA-G31M-ES2L
4GB OCZ nVidia SLI Ready DDR2-800
ASUS nVidia Geforce en9600 GSO 512 MB
Corsair 400CX Power Supply
WD Caviar Black 640 GB

I think that's what you need I hope? Right now, I'm booted in at 370x10, about to leave it on overnight for tests. I had increased the CPU voltage to 1.30625, but CPU-Z reports it as 1.264. For RAM voltage, I'm not quite sure how to determine it. It says in PC Health in the BIOS that it started at 1.9, so I upped it +.1 in the BIOS, but PC Health still said 1.9.

Also, could someone explain System Memory Multiplier (SPD)? I've read you should keep it at 1:1, but then I read another site that said this claim is unfounded. Needless to say, very confusing. If need be, I'd also like to overclock the ram past 800 Mhz, but not sure how to do that either. I'm not sure if I'm doing any of these things right to be honest, so any help would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Step one is to set the ram to the slowest speed you can, probably 667, but if you can get lower do it. If you can't, loosen the timings a couple notches, if you have 5-5-5-15 ram run it at 6-6-6-18 or 7-7-7-21 (if it'll fly), that way you're just dealing with the CPU for starters. I haven't used that mobo, so i don't know what the ram options are.

It is perfectly normal for CPUz to display a lower voltage, it displays real voltage, while the bios displays theoretical voltage. Real is what matters, as it's real.
Intel says 1.3625 volts max, so one way to go is to set it to that (which will be ~1.33), another is to set it to 1.4 in bios (which will be very close to 1.36).


I'd give HWmonitor a shot at the ram voltage, but some boards simply don't report it, my p5q doesn't.

3.8ghz is a solid OC as far as i know, especially at only 1.3v, you may have a 4ghz cpu on your hands there!

So the 3.7 didn't stick, so I decreased to 360x10 and ran it and it was stable in Prime 95. Now if I want to get this thing higher and stable, what is the next step?

I'm running my ram at 5-5-5-18 400 MHz, which is one of the SPD values at 1.8V. I can also run at 400 MHz 4-4-4-15 at 2.2 V. Should I modify any of this right now? I really don't understand how I change my ram to running at 1066. I know that it is possible with this RAM, but unclear on how to do so.
Should I start by increasing voltage to the processor and leaving ram alone? Also, what type of temp should I have at idle and load? Input would be great.

For reference, I've found this thread where the pages of my BIOS are available. Check about 1/3 of the way down.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/253704-29-please-ocing-g31m-es2l-mobo-e5200-chip

funkmasta said:

So the 3.7 didn't stick, so I decreased to 360x10 and ran it and it was stable in Prime 95. Now if I want to get this thing higher and stable, what is the next step?

I'm running my ram at 5-5-5-18 400 MHz, which is one of the SPD values at 1.8V. I can also run at 400 MHz 4-4-4-15 at 2.2 V. Should I modify any of this right now? I really don't understand how I change my ram to running at 1066. I know that it is possible with this RAM, but unclear on how to do so.
Should I start by increasing voltage to the processor and leaving ram alone? Also, what type of temp should I have at idle and load? Input would be great.

For reference, I've found this thread where the pages of my BIOS are available. Check about 1/3 of the way down.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/253704-29-please-ocing-g31m-es2l-mobo-e5200-chip

Click to expand...

Why don't you try to run at 400x9 and then your memory to 1:1 400mhz 4-4-4-15 at 2.2v?

Would 400x9 @4-4-4-15 be better than attempting a higher FSB at higher latencies like 5-5-5-18? I'm not sure where you draw the dividing line in terms of performance variables.

Hayo!

Im running my E6300 from 1.86Ghz to 2.8Ghz so its a 50% OC.

My voltages are at 1.325V, and i have Sycthe Mugen II, temps do not exceed above 50°C (Celsius) at Prime95 , i tryed lower volts, but it is not stable, for pc check my sig.

P.S. I hope I did not mess up with the new Intel's branding of the E6300

Edit:
And it is running at 400x7, so ram is fully used

qq said:

Why don't you try to run at 400x9 and then your memory to 1:1 400mhz 4-4-4-15 at 2.2v?

Click to expand...

R4DK0 said:

Hayo!

Im running my E6300 from 1.86Ghz to 2.8Ghz so its a 50% OC.

My voltages are at 1.325V, and i have Sycthe Mugen II, temps do not exceed above 50°C (Celsius) at Prime95 , i tryed lower volts, but it is not stable, for pc check my sig.

P.S. I hope I did not mess up with the new Intel's branding of the E6300

Edit:
And it is running at 400x7, so ram is fully used

Click to expand...

Sorry, wrong E6300. This one starts at 2.8 GHz.

I got 400x9 running stable at 4-4-4-15, 2.2V and Vcore 1.3125. Currently, I am testing 425x9 with timings loosened to 5-5-5-18. Would this be a better overclock or not? If not, at what FSB would it become better if at all? I really just want to learn the ins and outs of all this stuff.

funkmasta said:

Sorry, wrong E6300. This one starts at 2.8 GHz.

I got 400x9 running stable at 4-4-4-15, 2.2V and Vcore 1.3125. Currently, I am testing 425x9 with timings loosened to 5-5-5-18. Would this be a better overclock or not? If not, at what FSB would it become better if at all? I really just want to learn the ins and outs of all this stuff.

Click to expand...

If you can run 400x9 but not 370x10, then that means you need to increase your CPU further the stabilize your overclock. I would suggest you raise your voltage all the way to 1.3625v and see if that will help. Your best choice would be 400x10 and run your PC6400 RAM 1:1 4-4-4-15.

qq said:

If you can run 400x9 but not 370x10, then that means you need to increase your CPU further the stabilize your overclock. I would suggest you raise your voltage all the way to 1.3625v and see if that will help. Your best choice would be 400x10 and run your PC6400 RAM 1:1 4-4-4-15.

Click to expand...

I see, so attempting to keep my RAM timings would be best. I just got 400x9.5 to run stable at 1.328 Vcore in CPU-Z, but I'm beginning to get concerned about my temps. It's running about 35 C idle and about 61 C under load in Prime95 Blend test. Is this getting too high? What temp ranges do you normally see with the 45 nm processors?

<70*c is a good rule of thumb, 61*c is just fine.

Thanks Bobnova and qq. You both have been immensely helpful to me.

A few more questions that have arisen however. I'm currently testing at 400x9.5, 4-4-4-15 2.2 V with Memtest claiming my RAM as stable.

1. Is CPU-Z Vcore to be believed or the PC Health BIOS reading of Vcore?

2. My Vcore seems to always drop when I start the Prime95 tests, which I think may have something to do with test failures. For example, my BIOS is set at 1.38. The PC Health in BIOS shows 1.34. CPU-Z shows 1.328 at idle and then at load, it drops to 1.312. I read up on it and it seems to be know as Vdroop. Any way to stop this?

3. When I do run Prime95, I seem to be failing in the small FFT tests. This would indicate insufficient Vcore voltage right? Or perhaps there is another voltage I should adjust. Below is a picture of what my MB BIOS looks like (though it is not my actual rig). Should I be adjusting any other voltage apart from Vcore and RAM?

http://img16.imageshack.us/i/096dho.jpg/

If your BIOS doesn't have load line calibration option, then you may have to do a vdrop physical mod to your motherboard to fix your issue. I would run OCCT auto for 1 hour since it has a built in voltage monitor and you can look them. Falling at small FFT test usually indicate a problem with your CPU. You can try to increase your voltage or get better cooling to stabilize your overclock.