Overclocking made simple

Hehe - I'm not going to make it simple - YOU are!

Made this thread so as not to hijack somebody else's thread - which I'm prone to do.

Ok, here's the skinny.

I have a nice, stable QX6700 based system and I'm wonderin about overclocking potential - more for interest/research than looking for any speed boosts.

CPU Type QuadCore Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700, 2666 MHz (10 x 267)
Motherboard Name EVGA NF68 (2 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 3 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
System Memory 8192 MB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)

CPU Clock 2666.6 MHz (original: 2667 MHz)
CPU Multiplier 10x
CPU FSB 266.7 MHz (original: 266 MHz)
Memory Bus 400.0 MHz
DRAM:FSB Ratio 3:2
Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
Memory Timings 4-4-4-12 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Command Rate (CR) 2T
DIMM1: Crucial Tech. 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz) (4-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz)
DIMM2: Crucial Tech. 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz) (4-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz)
DIMM3: Crucial Tech. 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz) (4-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz)
DIMM4: Crucial Tech. 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz) (4-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz)

And 2 of these...

Graphics Processor Properties:
Video Adapter XFX GeForce 8800 GTX
GPU Code Name G80GTX (PCI Express 1.0 x16 10DE / 0191, Rev A2)
GPU Clock (Geometric Domain) 576 MHz (original: 576 MHz)
GPU Clock (Shader Domain) 1350 MHz (original: 1350 MHz)
Memory Clock 900 MHz (original: 900 MHz)

Now, before anything else is said or done, her's my current temperatures (with a few voltages thrown in for good measure)

Temperatures:
Motherboard 42 °C (108 °F)
CPU 61 °C (142 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 79 °C (174 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 77 °C (171 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #3 72 °C (162 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #4 74 °C (165 °F)
MCP 64 °C (147 °F)
GPU1: GPU 72 °C (162 °F)
GPU1: GPU Diode 66 °C (151 °F)
GPU1: GPU Memory 72 °C (162 °F)
GPU1: GPU Ambient 64 °C (147 °F)
GPU2: GPU 58 °C (136 °F)
GPU2: GPU Diode 76 °C (169 °F)
GPU2: GPU Memory 58 °C (136 °F)
GPU2: GPU Ambient 56 °C (133 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 3245 RPM
GPU1 1494 RPM (62%)
GPU2 1401 RPM (60%)

Voltage Values:
CPU Core 1.29 V
+3.3 V 3.22 V
+5 V 4.89 V
+12 V 11.83 V
+5 V Standby 4.87 V
VBAT Battery 3.14 V
3.3V Dual 3.22 V
FSB VTT 1.18 V
DIMM 2.20 V
GPU1: GPU Vcc 3.19 V
GPU2: GPU Vcc 3.21 V
Debug Info F FF 34 FF FF FF
Debug Info T 49 61 42
Debug Info V A1 DD C9 C9 94 BF E0 (01)

Anything untoward? What tweakage should I apply to where?

I've been advised to set the FSB to 400, with a 8x multiplier, popping the vFSB to 1.3v and vcore to 1.32.

I've yet to even locate it in the BIOS - and ain't gonna, til' I get feedback (even though I got that advice from someone who's advice I fully trust )

Thanks for any input, people!

Snog... ummm... don't overclock that AT ALL. Take a peek at your CPU temps.... those are WAY too high for newer fabs... omg, you need to cool that thing down ASAP. You are almost at critical range for that CPU. And your g80's are running a bit warm considering this is idle measurement. You need to invest in much better cooling before you go upping any voltages.

I was going to say the same, if those temperatures are reporting realistically, then that is pretty bad, might want to invest in a bigger CPU cooler, and perhaps up the fan speeds on the GTX's.

There you go - that's why I posted this. Looking down the list, I saw those temps and thought they looked high - but being a total noob with technical depths of PCs I wasn't sure.

I've noticed the fans working a lot more lately - when I first got it it was virtually silent. Any load now, and whoosh.

I need to open her up and see exactly what cooling they gave me. Also, she''s not in an ideal spot - in one of those desks with an alcove for the tower. Looks tidy, but totally shags the airflow.

Hmm, the hotness and whizzy-fannery probably started when I made the basic change of whacking the multiplier to x10 - I think it's possible the system builders supplied this underclocked, possibly with insufficient cooling for running high performance.

Bugger - I hate switching CPU coolers. Damn things are fiddly. Been a while too - are Zalman still highly rated?

By the way - all above data taken from EVEREST Ultimate Edn.

rahja the temps aren't critical to be honest but you indeed made a point there is a problem with cooling there i must agree to get a perfect stable overclock those temps need to go down to 35°C ~ 45°C but at those temps snograt i wouldn't even try the risk is too high i suggest you get better cooling m8 my oc'ed P4 running @ about 2.8 ghz (max the board allows without going nuts(and isn't a problem of cooling either know where the prob is but without soldering i can't fix it, and it's a pain to find another p4 mobo for that board)) is running @ 30 to 35°c that's with watercooling though

and i know the new Intel chips get kinda hot but i guess you got alot of dust according that you say the fans speed up it's the board trying to cool better

Yeh Snog, Zalman coolers are still great. Here are some cooling solutions to take a peek at:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=57&subcat=821

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=57&subcat=821

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=57&subcat=821

Coupled with this thermal paste:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=57&subcat=27

That should cool it down a ton.

As for your graphics cards, turn up the fans, and maybe replace some case fans that are not super great. AeroCool makes the best case fans on the market, followed by Thermaltake.



Ummm...the Hafnium interface material isn't silicon dioxide, it is a triple barrier silicon gate. With any triple gate design that is less then 90nm (which the Intel chips are 65 and 45nm), you run into a critical temp range for just those gates at 70C. Critical doesn't mean the temperature at which the CPU "blows up", it refers to the temperatures that silicon degradation starts to occur at, and in a triple gate system, that happens fairly quickly. It would take a few weeks, maybe months, but those temperatures will slowly destroy the gates, leaving a lot leaks, which will compromise the thermal barrier between the gate and the pipelines, and will cause damage to the cache systems situated above and below each pipe. So, no, those temps are defined as being critical in the IT industry when you refer to Intel's Core fabs. They are not what we call "widower temps" though. I am sure you can figure out what that means.

i second on that rahja alto for second choice i don't go thermaltake had previous bad experiences with them and i'm a pc technician for over 8 years both as hobby and as a job my second choice for high end cooling goes to Arctic cooling tested those they're low noize like the zalman yet delivering excelent cooling like the aerocools (very close to it atleast ) and yeah the arctic silver V5 still has to be beaten best thermal paste around use it on all my pc's however it's quitte expensive for such a small tube but you get the best of the best

Oh and snogratt i suppose you have Nvidia Gpu's in that box? use rivatuner to speed up the fanspeed cause since the 6800gt's/ultra's they slowed em down to 28 to 43 % of the max speed to reduce noize

Ceramique by AS is superior to AS v5 in a few ways. Not only does it bond better, but it is also more micronized, and it is non conductive. I stopped using AS v5 in favor of it. Love it.

Thermaltake makes great cooling solutions. You just have to know which ones are good and which ones aren't, same with any other company. They make amazing cases with superb quality. The new ESA Armor+ case is gorgeous, I plan on putting that into my next build.

Thanks for the advice so far - I whacked my GPU fans up to 100% - they're audible, but not as distracting as the system fans.

Temperatures:
Motherboard 42 °C (108 °F)
CPU 63 °C (145 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 81 °C (178 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 79 °C (174 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #3 74 °C (165 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #4 77 °C (171 °F)
MCP 64 °C (147 °F)
GPU1: GPU 56 °C (133 °F)
GPU1: GPU Diode 53 °C (127 °F)
GPU1: GPU Memory 56 °C (133 °F)
GPU1: GPU Ambient 51 °C (124 °F)
GPU2: GPU 44 °C (111 °F)
GPU2: GPU Diode 62 °C (144 °F)
GPU2: GPU Memory 44 °C (111 °F)
GPU2: GPU Ambient 43 °C (109 °F)

Better, apart from the GPU diode reading on #2.

Still high 70s to 80s on the CPU :/

Nice to see Zalman still use the good ol' flower design. I used the Flower Cooler years ago - was the best by far at the time

Sorry if this starting to sound like a blog - I tend to reminisce.

Despite my obvious lack of knowledge re: temps, voltages, frequencies et al, I used to build systems quite a bit. Just never clocked. First ever PC I owned was a PII450, gradually upgraded with bigger, faster bits, up to the dizzying heights of a pair of VoodooII in SLI - the first rig in my area that could run Quake 2 at 1024*768.

If you're wondering why I got into PCs so late (I'm 45) - it's because I stuck with the Commodore Amiga for WAY too long. I was a real Amiga snob, had the old thing running with a 68060 with a 13GB hdd and loads of memory. I thought it was the tops in technology.

Then sone bugger showed me Half Life running on a PC - and it was all over.


Ok, you can come back now - ramble mode off

LOL at history lesson. Yeh Snog, cool down that poor CPU, you are going to burn up gates at those temps, especially 80s.... dear god, S2x silicon fabs can't handle that.

It's not like I'm pushing it either - all I'm running is Firefox and DownThemAll, which is currently downloading a very nice graphical enhancement for HL2. All 4 cores running at 30-45%.

I can make overclocking really easy for you - Just Say No!

(It's really not worth the effort, unless you want to do it for the fun of it.)

yeh i understood something different under critical rahja =) getting late here and some other things in play

but i agree that the silicon degrades at those temps with critical i however understood temps of 96°C to 240°c cpu implodes at that point xd (the guys at tom's hardware made a video of it if ya want rahja i can host it on my personal space on the forums i'm admin of and i'll pm you the link)

For most users, you are correct, it isn't worth it. The apps that I run however, a 200MHz Overclock can reduce the time it takes the PC to run calculations by 5-6 minutes. You try running a closed gate S-NX7a Si/C rewrite scenario with a 2.5GHz dual core while I do that same scenario with 3.4GHz chip. I will finish about 7-9 minutes faster, and you have to run these scenarios in groups of 10, about 500x.

Oh, no, that is ok man. I have destroyed chips with Argon lasers at work before. I put fabs through torture tests. This Thursday, I am going to be testing a cache overwrite at around 14GHz. Tis fun! I have seen literally thousands of processors being destroyed, mutilated, melted, incinerated, and imploded in my days working here.

nah meant something else rahja (aka to see how a cpu handles with heat without cooler was kinda interesting :P) btw if ya got pics of those work jobs i'm interested ^^ most i know i learned myself and especially if it's getting late i make misstakes ya know?

Have them at work, but I can't disclose them due to NDA, because they show internal lab views, workspace, some pictures of code on screen, etc. That would be a big no no, lol.

We stress test chips without heat sinks to figure out heat dissipation within the wafer, and also to test for heat pockets in the interconnects. Don't try it at home.

hehe i know those things can't show em either really cool stuff when ya see it for the first time tho after that yeah get's kinda old like with everything guess it's human nature but where hacking a thread again xd, so back on topic

Wow. if those are your temps at that low of a load i'd hate to see the temps with it completely maxed out.

Too hot. Don't OC.

I cry when I see my temps over 60C, so you can imagine what type of anguish I'm in after seeing yours at stock.

Snograt, in case you didn't have any specs, your CPU's max temp is 64.5° C. To that, I must say...

TOASTY!

tarun the board can neatly handle a temp of around 150°C can handle 250°C+ but ofcourse ya get alot of burnt out stuff depending on the mb certain stuff will still work, that was proven by the guys of tom's hardware who where nut's enough to take of the CPu fan to see what it did and rahja thnx for the info in here ;-) if ya don't believe it tarun i got the vid on my second pc.

It's the cpu however that isn't made for those temperatures a decent nowadays motherboard however should shut down when the temp get's around 90°c (which is the factory standard unless it has been changed (hey i make misstakes too ))

That standard shutdown process was first used by the good old Nforce asus boards or heck even maybe older (got to check just too lazy and too tired to do it right now) to safe the cpu's from burning up so nowadays even if you overclock too high it should be technically safe (never trust on the technical side, trust on the one used in the good old workings ) but those temps are close enough to toast some bread xd, so yeah best to clean out or otherwhise get a new fan

Whoops, I typed motherboard when I meant CPU. Edited and fixed it.

Yeah Tarun informed me of my CPU's max temperature back when it was running 60C idle and 70+ under load, and making funny noises.

So.. I rushed to the store and bought the Thermaltake Mini-Typhoon full Copper heat sink and some new thermal paste, that dropped the temps to about 40C idle. That's a good 20C!

However, yes putting a new heat sink on is bitchy sometimes, but the trouble is way more worth it than watching your computer toast up like an oven.

40°C when idle is still rather warm, in my opinion. I dont think most modern chips should idle that high. Idle temps that warm remind of my old athlon xp 2400+.

It sounds like those two G80 powerhouse cards are caking in a lot of packets of hot air You should check out your airflow.

Here's what I suggest. You need a side door window, or a piece of acrylic plastic to place over the side so you can see.

Take an incense and place it near the intake of the machine, and watch the smoke as it travels through exhaust. If the smoke idles anywhere, note the location and clear out the path.

I live in hell, it is 40-42C outside here, and still pretty hot year round anyways, so it's actually rather normal. The processor is 43-46C under load with Guild Wars and some other progs up at the moment, so not half bad if I must say so myself. And we can't afford to run the A/C 24/7 here either, it gets expensive, so yeah.

I might have been inaccurate with the idle, it may have been 35-38C average, I'm not sure as I don't check it that much, but maybe I can in a minute here.

EDIT: I just noticed my 8800GTS's temps are 67 with GW up, it's a good night! (And I have the A/C on, so that speaks for it I guess lol.)

I love it when I go to sleep and my thread takes off overnight


Hehe - that is going to tempt me into getting lots of glowy blue stuff. Should clash nicely with my Ballistix Tracers.

I want to do it for the fun of it!

Now, if I can just keep the toaster running until I can get some decent cooling, we shall see what we can come up with.

[edit] I just had to google Toasty! - spent half an hour watching scorpion clips ><

Show pics of the rats nest you call a computer (internal shots please, I wanna see bare nude PCBs). Maybe we can help you with some cable management.

Aye, Snog, It is tempting to look at. I hate how addicting shiny stuff is.

I have the inside of the case all dressed up (wires out of the way this time) and it looks nice, going to order my acrylic see-through side panel soon here.

I think one day I will get into over clocking, but not until I see my PC temperatures low and cold, I'm already struggling to keep the video card from over heating as it is (But thanks to RivaTuner it isn't right now).

Hmm, I was just thinking, on the note of the side panel I'm ordering.. should I get the version with the vent? Or would it not matter that much if it was solid? I think it helps to have the vent on the side, but since there is no fan for it there, I don't care much for it.

Sorry for *kinda* high-jacking with this question, but it's nothing major. Maybe it'll help if you do buy an acrylic side panel?

Heh, I'm looking at that Armor+ and dribbling right now. Probably just as well nobody in Britain has it in stock right now - credit card maxed out Mind you, it says 120mm or 140mm fans (option), but nowhere seems to allow you to make a choice. Bigger=slower=quieter but with as good or better airflow, right?

Damn camera in my phone has died - have to get an upgrade on that before any pics.

Cable management is "as supplied" - I've done nothing to it aside from adding mo' memory. I've built systems before (pre-SATA) where there's been so many ribbon cables that air flow had NO chance !

[Edit] oh, and this appears to be my current case http://www.coolermaster.com/products...t=detail&id=16 - seems to be pretty decent. Needs moar perspex tho

I know the pains of having a maxed out credit card, that's where I'm sitting at right now too.. lmao.

Armor+? What exactly are you referring to?

It was mentioned last page.

http://www.thermaltake.com/product/C.../vh6001bws.asp

Me like.

Oh, the TT Armor, I love that case too.. I was thinking of making my next build into it.

But probably this version.. or one like it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133037

Really nice case, figured thats what you were talking about.

The Armor+ is newer and seems to be in very short supply. It's also more expensive than the extreme. NewEgg are out of stock too - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133056

Yeah, I just don't like it because of the top, it looks like a ''Ramp'' on the top, how it's slanted, major turn off for me. I'm seriously that nit-picky.

But over all, it is a super nice case, my Lian Li will keep housing all of it's current parts - because when I build a new system, every single part down to the last screw is going to be new, that way I can also enjoy the hobby of building it without being out of a nice computer. That, and risking further delay because of any potential new system difficulties (Aka having to RMA stuff, etc).

Are you using your computer as an oven?

Enough talk! Show pics of computer

Snograt, I'm willing to bet that if you went in and cleaned out your heat sink and fans that your temps would drop dramatically.

oh and to be honest wouldn't mind showing off my case mod which isn't finished yet since i still got to repaint it, but i'm still waiting on special ordered car paint to paint 3 things -_-

It's about time someone hijack's one of your threads xD