Overclocking core 2 duo - Basic startup guide

[Gingerted]

This is my 1st post on this website, but having found Jamesons advice to others and using it REALLY helped, i though i would share my other findings with people who want to overclock their core 2 duo processors.

Below is a guide from the forums @ tomshardware (composed by wusy) that gives you the basics on what you need to do from start to finish, then the fine tuning is upto you!

Before using it - get to know ALL you available options and UNDERSTAND what the terminoligy means, as just simply copying what this says, will work - but how and why is most important to you.

This guide will work with all listed motherboards and core 2 duo processors listed, and some more, as my motherbpoard was not listed (MSI 975X Platinum power up edition) and works fine.



Good luck


Gingerted


Note: The settings in this guide will assume the user has adequate cooling for their processor.
And uses one of the following recommended motherboard:
-abit AW9D series (975X)
-ASUS P5W DH series (975X)
-DFI Infinity or LANParty 975X/G
-abit AB9 series
-ASUS P5B* Deluxe/WiFi-AP (965P)
-Gigabyte 965P-DS3 or DS4 or DQ6
*P5B vanilla is not recommended
**nForce590/570 Intel Edition based motherboard will not work with this guide nor recommended for overclocking**

Recommended cooling:
-Scythe Infinity
-Scythe Ninja Plus
-Scythe Mine
-Tuniq Tower 120
-Thermalright Ultra-120 or SI-128 or SI-120
-Noctua NH-U12
-Thermaltake Big Typhoon
-Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
-Zalman CNPS CNPS9500AT
-Zalman CNPS 7700AlCu or 7700Cu
(The first 7 heatsinks listed here will allow you to clock beyond 3.4Ghz stable)

Please also use RAM that’s rated:
-DDR2-667 4-4-4-xx (good for ~400Mhz*)
-DDR2-800 5-5-5-xx (good for ~410Mhz*)
-DDR2-800 4-4-4-xx (good for 500Mhz+*) ->Best for E6300/E6400
-DDR2-1066 5-5-5-xx (good for 530Mhz+*)
-Or any other RAM of the above mentioned speed that has even lower timings
*refer to Part2 for maximum Mhz extraction under 1:1 operation

The aim of this guide is to reach as close to 4Ghz (final clockspeed) as possible

Part1. Tidying Up Your BIOS (not all BIOS may have those options)
*You must update your BIOS to the latest version before proceeding*

1. Disable ‘AI Tuning’ for ASUS, ‘C.I.A.2’ for Gigabyte
2. Set PCI Express (PCIe) frequency @100Mhz (‘Auto’ for DS3/DS4/DQ6)
3. Set PCI frequency @33Mhz
4. Disable Hyperpath 3 (for P5W DH only)
5. Disable any ‘spread spectrum’
6. Disable Q-Fan (for ASUS only)
7. Disable ‘Limit CPUID Max to 3’
8. Disable any overvoltage protection
9. Disable ‘C1E’
10. Disable ‘EIST’
11. Disable Virtualization Technology
12. Disable No-Execute Memory Protect
13. Disable any other thing you don’t use
14. Do not enable any speed enhancements you see

The purpose here is to lighten up duties placed on the chipset

Part2. Memory Adjustments
**Expand options for Gigabyte BIOS under ‘M.I.T.’ by pressing CTRL+F1**
Gigabyte: Set ‘Memory Multiplier’ to 2 (1FSB:1RAM operation)
ASUS: Set ‘DRAM Frequency’ to DDR2-533 @266Mhz FSB (1FSB:1RAM operation)
As you increase the FSB, the RAM will follow in the pattern of 1:1 shown in BIOS.

1. Set ‘DRAM Timing’ to manual or disable SPD (use SPD for P5W DH)
2. In BIOS you will see 4 separate timing digits, change them to the ones specified on your RAM

e.g. 4-4-4-12
CAS# Latency (tCL)
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD)
RAS# Precharge (tRP)
RAS# Precharge Delay or Active to Precharge (tRAS)

When 1FSB:1RAM is overclocked above the rated frequency of your RAM use the following values
Timing: 5-5-5-15
vDIMM: 2.2V

e.g. DDR2-667 4-4-4-12 1.9V operating at ~400Mhz will need to be set to 5-5-5-15 2.2V

3. Leave the rest of other timings either at ‘Auto’ or at their default values

Part3. Voltage (again not all BIOS will have the option or uses different name)
***The following voltages are to be used with Part4***

1. Set DRAM/DIMM Voltage (vDIMM) to 2.1V or 2.2V if specified by RAM (+0.3V or +0.4V)
2. Set MCH Voltage (vMCH) to 1.55V
3. Set FSB Voltage (vFS to 1.40V
4. Increase SB Voltage (vICH) by +0.1V from default-lowest value
5. Set CPU Voltage (vCore) for the following CPU

E6300=1.370V E6400=1.375V E6600=1.400V E6700=1.400V X6800=1.400V

Part4. Frequency Control
First attempt:
1. Set CPU Host Clock/Frequency (FS to 333Mhz (300Mhz for X6800)
2. Set CPU Clock Ratio or Multiplier to the default value for your processor

E6300-> 333x7=2331
E6400-> 333x8=2664
E6600-> 333x9=2997
E6700-> 333x10=3330
X6800-> 310x11=3410

3. Save settings and reboot

Further attempts:
1. Up even more FSB by 5Mhz or 2Mhz increasement
2. Calculate your final clockspeed
3. Up even more vCore if needed by 0.025V increasement


Part5. Stability Testing
You will need the following programs:
- CPU-Z
- Prime95
- Memtest86+
- Core Temp
- SpeedFan

1. Fire up CPU-Z and keep it running in the background to monitor clock speed
2. Fire up Core Temp to monitor temperature
3. Fire up SpeedFan to monitor voltages
3. Run dual instances of Prime95 in torture mode for 2 hours
4. (Optional) Run Memtest86+ for 2hrs
5. If stable go to Part4-Further Attempts, if not go back to last stable frequency
6. Once you’re happy with the settings proceed to the final part

Note1: The higher the final clock speed, the lower the temperature for CPU has to be to maintain stableness

Note2: Delta of Idle-Load reported by Core Temp should not exceed by 26°C

Note3: vCore should not fluctuate by more than +/- 0.100V. If it does, improve cooling on MOSFETs

Note4: If an attempt fails and the computer doesn’t boot, hold down ‘Insert’ key when booting to restore default settings in BIOS

Part6. Finalising
-Lower vCore by one notch at a time until lowest possible while maintaining the same stableness
-Do the same for vMCH, vFSB, vICH after the above step is completed
-Record the BIOS settings which works (except DFI and ASUS owners)
-(Optional) Pull off a PCMark and/or SuperPi32M score and compare to stock to gauge performance increase

[Haddonfield04]

I might add that anyone using Intel boards, you might want to avoid any overclocking.
As I had 2 Intel boards in which I tried to overclock by just 10% and both boards had a
meltdown the moment I rebooted the system. Just a friendly note.