standard overclocking issues

[Looneycooney]

Hey guys :-)

I'm looking into the overclocking-possibilities of my mobo/proccessor .
It's an asus p5k-E with an q6600 processor ...running a win xp sp3

In standard mode the AI-Suite of asus says my pc is running :
fsb 1069.07 / 1603. 62Mhz / 0267.27 x 06.0
and it's running on respectable temps of 38° idle and 43° in bad company 2 (fps game)
This with a stock intel-cooler isn't bad at all.

Now since i installed these progs of asus , i have sound-troubles (cracking sounds )
But that i could solve with my usb-soundcard if it doesn't go away .

Then i tried oc'ing it with the standard settings of the asus AI-tools .
A.I. Nos : is pushing it towards 2700Mhz , but gameperformance is pretty bad when i use this .
Even on 'standard' with a 103% overclock , the game begins to stutter , although temps are pretty nice (45° ingame)
Then i turned this off , and tried the AI Booster tool ...
On 'performance' it gives me almost exactly the same as with the ai NOS tool , aswell as the same bad performance .
On performance-mode i also got some windows-crashes aswell..bluescreens...
Then i ran it on the 'advance mode' and tried to set it to 266 x 9 ...this however did something very strange and pretty dangerous !!
In windows the Mhz stayed very normal around the 1600Mhz it does without the tools..
In the game however ..it began to stutter very badly , so i alt-tab and went to look for the performance ..
It pushed my cpu toward the 'red' at a 3990MHZ , running at a 53° temps just after few minutes .
I thought a 266x9 should be around the 2400Mhz !!..but it just went on going to the max !
That said, the cpu should be able to cope with a 2.4Mhz..since that are it's standard settings normally .



So my conclusion seems to be that overclocking my system isn't doable with these asus-tools ...it's so freaky and way out of control when these are used, performance isn't even close to what it seems to say...

Am i overlooking something or are these tools pretty bad overall?!
It messed up my onboardsound and even the overclock it doesn't do properly ...
This mobo is however running the standard bios , no flash or upgrade done there .
Or maybe it's my psu or videocard that isn't coping and the cpu is struggling?
I will be upgrading soon, but i was just trying out these tools, to look what i'll do in the near future..
I'm pretty scared to fry the cpu..since i can't afford to loose it at this moment .

Any idea what the best oc is for this mobo/proccessor and maybe someone came across the same problems with this mobo or asus-tools ?

ps: tommorrow i'll reinstall the windows, all set to it's minimum etc and i'll be trying some more oc'ing , but since this win xp -install is pretty clean , no troubles or faulty software what so ever..i'm not sure if it will make any difference ...just doing it to safeguard my precious content (artwork and models) on the hd ;-)

Wkr

[glc]

Overclocking should be done strictly with manual bios settings, the old-fashioned way. Uninstall all of that Asus software except PC Probe and don't use AI or Booster. Lock the multiplier at x9 and increase the FSB in small steps. Adjust the RAM/CPU ratio as needed to keep the ram within specs or close to it.

[Looneycooney]

Ok , i'll do it that way , thanks glc
Was trying that asus ai thing , but it indeed isn't that great at all.
I reinstalled my system this morning and started to tweak the cpu-settings every hour and let it run for a while .
I'm now at a respectable average around the 2GHz with manual tweaking , running a 42° ingame and 39° idle .
Actually pretty amazing these cpu's don't climb in temps that much , the cpu-fan did increase from 1100rpm to 1400rpm though .
Not sure, but i think this fan does have a max of 1600rpm..have to look that up .
Now i leave it and tomorrow i'll go on untill i reach the last steps to 2.4Ghz .
But actually it isn't 'overclocked' when i look at cpu-specs.
Just being carefull now and when i install some new memory and videocard i'll be looking for a cpu-cooler for the real overclocking if it's needed.
I've been running 3years on half the cpu's capabilities..i actually never noticed , intel really is rock-solid when i look at it .
Used to overclock amd's in the past and those temps were increasing faster then this .

I haven't touched the ram settings for now (it's on 'auto') ..i'll look into that tommorrow , maybe my new mem will be delivered aswell.

Thanks for the advice!

[glc]

You need to lock the multiplier at x9. Something in there is varying the multiplier. Get it running at 266x9 (2400) all the time before you start to overclock. What would vary the multiplier is something "green".

[Looneycooney]

Yup very true, i succeeded in doing that after analysing the bios for a while..
At first i didn't notice where to put all the values , until i found out how to set it manually.
Also disabled alot of things, like the transaction booster fe.

At this moment i'm strugglin with some ram-tweakings , but i guess i'm almost there and the memory can't handle much i presume !
Here's what i did:

First thing i did was indeed setting it to the 266mhz and the 9 multiplier .
Also i set the pciE frequency to '100' , minimum settings
Dram freq. to 667 setting and it's timing control to manual .
Normally the ram does 4-4-4-12...but i began at a 5-5-5-12 and left it's voltages and other settings to 'auto'
It did respectively well , so i went to fsb freq to 333 and rebooted after a mem-bench..
All very nice, running stable on 3005Mhz and booting pretty fast.
Then i went further on the fsb to 380 ..running eventually to an 3420Mhz
But temps were a bit high and i don't actually needed that , also it resetted the mem freq to a lower spec of 337mhz . Running this on a 4-4-4-12 dramfreq. it made the system crash.

So i lowered the fsb freq. again to a 333(getting a 3005mhz) , set the memory to 4-4-4-12 and the voltage to 1.2 (lowest) ..it crashed ...
Then i eventually put the dramvoltage up step by step until it didn't crash anymore : 2.0v ( on the mem it says 2.1v)
And now i get these results :
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8651/ocfinal1.jpg

as you can see ,the cpu is on a 3005Mhz , these temps are idle , since i'm not using aftermarket cooling for now, i'll set it back to 2.4Mhz until i have, this is just for testing the tweakability .
But the memory is a bit tricky...whenever i try to go higher , the bios is telling me 'overclock failed' and is not booting windows .
Now it's only on a 400Mhz (800 it should be able to handle) and the fsb says 5:6 ..shouldn't that be 1:1 ?!
I'm not sure, it could be a bit low on voltage when i up the dram , i'll need to try that later on .
I'll try that when i have my new mems delivered , so i'll allways have some backup

What's your thought on my oc for now?!

Wkr and thanks for the help !

[David M]

I have tried using the ASUS tools for overclocking. They suck basically. The motherboard manufacturers exaggerate what their overclocking tools can do. You can relatively easily do a small overclock through the BIOS better than these tools can. Do a Google search to see how others have overclocked the same motherboard/CPU combination. You will do much better for yourself.

You first need to turn off all the settings that throttle the hardwares cycles and voltages up and down. Pretty much everything needs to be put on manual in the BIOS. You will need to spend a number of hours doing research so you understand what all the settings in your BIOS do. It takes time and patience. A really high and stable overclock is not something that can be done in an hour or two. Keep in mind that on the manual settings, its not hard to destroy something. Don't risk destroying something you cant afford to replace.

[Looneycooney]

yup very true, doing that as we speak :-)
It's true what you say, i didn't expect it..didn't asus test that of their own?!
I was baffled they deliver such good mobo's , but the tweaking-tools are pretty crappy .
I just ended my first manual oc-session and probably leave it for now..i'm still running a stockcooler, so 3.0Mhz for the cpu is good enough.
When i'm putting in my new mems i'll be tweaking some more and see where we end up .
I'm pretty pleased for now, but looking at a 10° temp increase, it surely needs a good cooler to go any further then this , especially for hours of gaming.

btw..would it help if i disable the onboard sound and use a bigger psu?! maybe it's more stable in overclocking the dram?!

Wkr

[glc]

Your ram is running at spec. It's DDR, so 400x2=800. If the ram is rated at 2.1 volts, set it to 2.1 volts. I'd be happy with 333/1333 FSB on that processor. As long as the CPU temperature stays under 65, you don't need an aftermarket cooler.

[Looneycooney]

oow nice to hear that :-)
Yeah i was happy aswell with this 333 on this fsb-rating , i just didn't know what to think of the mem..but didn't count in regard it's 'x2' like you said :-)
Weirdly enough the bios only has a 2.0 or a 2.5v setting for the dram...but i'll look into that, maybe it becomes free when i set some other value in the bios.
And since i get a hot roomtemp of 29° at the moment , the temp. will surely do better after the summer aswell .
Thanks for the support and advice!

edited ..i found it! the dram is now set on 2.10 :-)
Also i have set the Qfancontroller now on 'performance and did get a better core-temp ..just topping at a 65° idle .
I'll need to look what it does ingame, but it will probably hit the 70° ingame...
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/2420/ocfinal2.jpg

[glc]

I would turn the Qfan off and run it at full speed all the time.

[Looneycooney]

aha , good tip !

I set the cpu back to it's 2.4Mhz spec for now ...
It seemed when i was gaming i had several fps-drops on the previous settings .
Probably the videocard not being that great nomore , and with the oc , the game became a bit laggish and probably heating up the cpu .
When i set it back to 2.4Mhz though , it seemed to run better on a 50fps .
Maybe i'll need to look into gpu-overclock , but can i risk that without additional or extra cooling?
The airflow of the case though is great so maybe it might be worth trying it .

Wkr

[Nikon]

overclocking a gpu is actually easier than your cpu, and can be done successfully via software. about a 20% increase is the max you can expect before you get artifacts. this also is depenant on your card to start with.