Gaming overclocking an e4500

[Scorpei]

Well I have one (e4500, SLA95) and I have it currently OC-ed to 3GHz with an 375MHz FSB (375x8).
That with a Vcore of about 1,3V (1,292 / 1,280 with Vdroop under orthos). All other voltages are stock.
Temperatures are roughly 50 degrees celcius under orthos (have a Scythe Mine Sandwich rev B) for the CPU, 38 steady for the motherboard (gigabyte EP45-DS3R).
Memory currently clocked at 900MHz (timings: 4-4-4-12) @ 1.94V (dunno if it needs that though, mobo put it there stock

) from 800MHz stock.
Runs stable like this (over 3 hours strait with orthos no errors).


Thing is I know my chip works perfectly fine with an FSB up to 450MHz (tried 450x6) and the memory works up until 950 at least with the same timings stable (no voltage differences with the above mentioned). Thing is that I can;t seem to get the chip stable when I increase the core clock over 3GHz (nearly instant orthos error: after 20 seconds or so when at 3.1GHz). I don't want to add too much more Vcore voltage.

All in all I'm wondering if changing any voltage other then Vcore would help to get a higher core clock. My FSB is pretty much stuck on 375 though as any higher will make me lower the memory clock (due to ratio fbs:mem). I think getting a higher FSB but lowering the memory will only be bad for performance.

Also, anyone know how much lower life the chip will have if I go to say 1,35V? Also intel rates it up to 1,5V but that feels like a HELL of a lot to me

.

 

[FAST6191]

Older motherboards had memory and CPU overclocked together but newer ones have an unlinked mode, I suggest you go with that if you have not already (what you have said suggests this is the case). As for memory it will not help to lower it but it depends on what you want, for video if you make it to the memory the trip over the cache sections means the damage was already done while games are generally more forgiving of this.
It has to be said though at these speeds I would start looking at the hard drive as a source for speed (primary OS on one drive, everything else on others, virtual memory if you use it on another).

It is heat more than voltage that kills things, this is usually due to electromigration (which granted voltage does not help) and the heat reducing metal strength.
Keep the heat in check (I would not push it much higher than you have now- maybe 10K if you want to push it). As for how long chips are already a gamble (if they work/pass tests in the factory then they sell them and usually warranty costs are lower than disposal/not selling them).

Back on topic I have no experience with your board so I am going by
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/gi...ep45_ds3r/4.htm

You might consider upping the termination voltage, at those sort of speeds you are likely pushing the FSB a bit. Termination voltage as it implies stops the voltage at a limit, you up the limit you up the OC potential. It has a well documented side effect of upping the heat in the areas concerned and is quite risky because of it. Gain is not worth it in my opinion so I tend not to do it (I have yet to join the ranks of the liquid helium crew).

PLL is a safety thing that allows you to up the voltage when the machine powers (it usually saves it until after post), do not touch it if you machine makes it to the OS. Secondly if you did not know what it was and your machine does not make it that far it is probably a good time to lower the settings and stop or spend the next few hours reading.

Reference voltages will not do much, if changing them helps then it is back to standard clock or buy a new board time.

 

[Scorpei]

I'm doing my best to understand your post FAST, but I find it rather hard to

. What do you mean with this sentence:

As for memory it will not help to lower it but it depends on what you want, for video if you make it to the memory the trip over the cache sections means the damage was already done while games are generally more forgiving of this.

Do you mean to say that when you rule out memory as the problem, cache is probably it (aka the cache in the processor probably doesn't like core clocks faster then 3 GHz)?

As far as I can tell you suggest me to possibly up the (FSB?) termination voltage, but I don't really understand why you say that I am likely pushing the FSB? The FSB is stable up to 450MHz at least (running an hour of orthos) with the same voltage settings as stock (read the minimum my motherboard allows me to set, see below) aside from a hightend Vcore.

I am, btw, pretty happy with my current (37% core, 87,5% FSB 12,5% memory) overclock

. The last time I did overclocking (on CPUs) was on an AMD K6-2 which I upped to 450 from 400

. My other OC experiences were with video cards: my 6800 changed into an 6800 Ultra with clocks of 450MHz core and 600MHz memory and my 7900GT up to 550MHz and 720MHz.

The voltages are (some guestimated as I am currently not behind the machine), which are all the "normal" option in my BIOS aside from Vcore and Vram:

Vcore: 1,34V set in Bios resulting in 1.312 / 1.296-1.280 in CPU-Z
CPU termination: 1,2V
CPU PLL: 1,5V
CPU ref: 0.76V

MCH core: 1.1V
MHC ref: 0.76V
ICH I/O: 1.5V
ICH core: 1.1V

Dram: 1.96V
Dram termination: 0.9V

 

[FAST6191]

Sorry Scorpei, tech talk in other languages is not easy I know I do not help things.

Basically the processor has the registers, the L1 cache, the l2 cache (shared by core2, AMD have one for each core). If you run out of memory on the processor and have to use the actual memory it tends not to matter that much as the delay has already happened (less than 100 clock cycles for onboard stuff becomes 1000 or more to get sorted with normal memory, I am not exactly sure of the numbers with current machines just that it is).

Termination voltage deals with a cutoff of sorts, upping the limit allows more voltage and so higher stable clock speeds. Both the FSB and the processor tend to have one but from the screens I have on that link it appears only your CPU has the option (the motherboard is on the cheaper end of things so I am not surprised). I would strongly suggest leaving it alone as it really will not do much good in this situation; rumour has it that most of the e4XXX line was made to suit demand using the same silicon of the higher level stuff but lower clock and cache.

When I say pushing I mean that it is probably at the limit imposed rather than at the limit of the materials, FSB is there as I suspect it is the FSB that is holding you back (I agree though for a setup like that it is very impressive for stock/commercial cooling systems) which would make upping the voltage to the CPU even more pointless.

ICH is southbridge and does not factor into it (I assume you do not need an overclocked keyboard)
MCH is the northbridge voltage and might be an idea (I can not believe I missed it earlier).

 

[Scorpei]

Ah, you mean to say that when you have the processor switching to taking and writing from RAM instead of cache directly it don't matter anymore as it is already hella slow in comparison (/end slang). I knew that (which is why I try to keep that bottleneck as low as possible as I have a proc. with a low amount of cache) but thanks anyway

. Thanks for your replies in general ^^.

As for the FSB, you mean to say that the FSB will become the bottleneck rather then the core clock as opposed to saying that the FSB can't be set higher. If I read correctly ofcourse

.

Well I don't think I'll increase the FSB a lot as that makes RAM and core slower due to multiplier (I'd have to reach 428MHz or 500MHz FSB to get back to 3GHz) --> ratio issues (not sure if I can keep my 900MHz memory OC with 428MHz FSB). Might tinker with those though....

Giving the NB more power might be an option, I know it can but I don't think I will (don't like stressing components that don't have active cooling).

rumour has it that most of the e4XXX line was made to suit demand using the same silicon of the higher level stuff but lower clock and cache.

Which is kinda why I got it

. Happens a lot though in CPU / GPU land

. I got it for 61 euros (70 with shiping, granted) but with my OC which I have now it performs roughly on par with an e8400 which is currently going for 155 (though that has 6megs cache versus my 2).

 

[Scorpei]

Small addition, I now have my extra RAM being at 6 gigabytes. Sadly the new RAM doesn't run @900MHz stable (regardless of the amount of power I give it) and 4-4-4-12. After fidling around and doing some math I'm sticking with 750MHz 4-4-3-10 which seems to be stable (anything faster and stability is lost) (lowest voltage tested to far, have a feeling I can go even lower though, 1.88V /1.87V).

 

[FAST6191]

Do you really need 6 gigs of ram (I assume 64 bit OS or one capable of PAE at least)?
This games, video (x264 with dozens of high end filters) and cad machine rarely pushes 2 gigs aside from memory leaks.

 

[Scorpei]

Do you really need 6 gigs of ram (I assume 64 bit OS or one capable of PAE at least)?
This games, video (x264 with dozens of high end filters) and cad machine rarely pushes 2 gigs aside from memory leaks.

Not really, 6 is rather over the top (naturally running a 64bit OS

). Granted though during photoshopping I tend to get over my 3 gigs easy. All in all I went with this much because I already had 2 gigs installed. As I did want to upgrade it NOW rather then later (and I only have 4 banks / 2 channels) and 4 gigs felt like just a little short (seeing as I do get over 3 gigs without much problems) I went with 6 gigs. That preferably then 6 as now I can simply run in DC interleaved mode.

Btw, stable at 1.8V (750MHz, 4-4-3-10) so thats nice

.