Is my computer Overclockable?

[Innis]

I have been thinking about overclocking my computer to at least the speeds of the E6700 if not higher and would like to know if this was possible with my setup and advisable. If so, what would be a safe and stable OC and would it damage the life of my computer?

My computer:
C2D E6600
P5W DH Deluxe
OCZ Gold 2x1GB XTC PC2-6400 Memory
CPU Cooling: Zalman CNPS8000
Case cooling: 1 - 12cm front intake, 1 - 9cm side intake and 1 - 12cm rear exhaust.

MY temps from PC Probe (I think this are important to OC) are:

CPU: 20-21C with light load.
Mobo: 43C
My Vcore is: 1.14V

Any suggestion or help would be appreciated. I am at stock 2.4GHz but would like to at least go to the E6700's 2.6GHz safely.

[Silver Bullet]

First, the Zalman CNPS8000 might hold you back a bit .. but should be fine for most C2D OCing.

Second, you can raise the FSB of your motherboard (start at ~320) and go up from there in 5mhz increaments. When you find that the computer won't boot, back it off 5mhz and then bring up the voltage of the cpu up to make the OC stable (stay under 1.35V (max intel recommended voltage).

You can play with the FSB all day and not hurt anything, the only thing that matters really is voltage. If you wanna play it save .. start at 320 and go up and stick with the stock voltage and see how far u go. I got to 335 (3Ghz) before it wasn't stable at stock voltage.

As always watch your temps (North Bridge and CPU) and you should be fine.

If you have any other problems: here (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110193) is a great place to find answers.

[Jon Lai]

People on the forums I've seen go up to 3.6Ghz with the E6600, so the processor is very much overclockable. The motherboard is also the best Conroe-supported board on the market right now in terms of overclockability. RAM shouldn't be a problem either. Agreed to ^^ poster, you should probably upgrade your HSF for maximum stability and performance. You could probably get away with onyl spending $10 more by getting a CNPS9500 or other highend cooler if you sell or trade away your CNPS8000 at the same time.

[Deimos]

First and foremost disregard everything Silver Bullet said.

If you find yourself asking an odd question like "is this computer overclockable" then you certainly know very little about the subject. And endevouring in something you know very little about is an exercise is foolishness.

Secondly, you must understand why you want to overclock. For 95%+ of people, their computer is overwhelmingly more than fast enough. What incredily CPU intensive things do you do that would benefit from overclocking?

Have you ever heard "if it aint broken dont fix it". By making ANY changes wether FSB or voltage, you're inviting trouble if you do the wrong thing. Do not trivialize the risk. You could end up with instability, damage to the components or even a non-bootable computer. A nice big heavy paperweight...

[jm20]

First and foremost disregard everything Silver Bullet said.

If you find yourself asking an odd question like "is this computer overclockable" then you certainly know very little about the subject. And endevouring in something you know very little about is an exercise is foolishness.

Secondly, you must understand why you want to overclock. For 95%+ of people, their computer is overwhelmingly more than fast enough. What incredily CPU intensive things do you do that would benefit from overclocking?

Have you ever heard "if it aint broken dont fix it". By making ANY changes wether FSB or voltage, you're inviting trouble if you do the wrong thing. Do not trivialize the risk. You could end up with instability, damage to the components or even a non-bootable computer. A nice big heavy paperweight...

Nice one :rolleyes:

Stick to silver bullets advise or check http://forums.anandtech.com for more info on overclocking the C2D. Lot's of people are having great success with similar setups, and you should too :)

[Deimos]

Nice one :rolleyes:

Stick to silver bullets advise or check http://forums.anandtech.com for more info on overclocking the C2D. Lot's of people are having great success with similar setups, and you should too :)

Dont get me wrong, overclocking is great as a hobby, just as building and modifying a home built hot rod, but how do you really measure success. Getting more work done? Or, higher more satisfying overclock that still (barely) works?

[Jon Lai]

Personal behind-the-scenes argument between you two?

A: "Don't listen to silver bullet"
b: "No, listen ot him"

Lmao

Anyways, if OP wants to learn about OCing, then sure why not. Can't say me myself I'm good at it, but it took me 10 minutes to get started. I'm not the kind of OCer who would get a liquid cooling system to get it to the max, but I'll push to 100% of what I paid for. Buying a 2.8Ghz processor, your money was paid for at least a 3.2Ghz even with stock cooling, so why not make it run at that speed?

[Innis]

First, the Zalman CNPS8000 might hold you back a bit .. but should be fine for most C2D OCing.

Second, you can raise the FSB of your motherboard (start at ~320) and go up from there in 5mhz increaments. When you find that the computer won't boot, back it off 5mhz and then bring up the voltage of the cpu up to make the OC stable (stay under 1.35V (max intel recommended voltage).

You can play with the FSB all day and not hurt anything, the only thing that matters really is voltage. If you wanna play it save .. start at 320 and go up and stick with the stock voltage and see how far u go. I got to 335 (3Ghz) before it wasn't stable at stock voltage.

As always watch your temps (North Bridge and CPU) and you should be fine.

If you have any other problems: here (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110193) is a great place to find answers.

Thanks Silver Bullet! I think the 335FSB 3Ghz is good enough for me. I was getting 3.15Ghz on stock voltage but I found that it would not remain stable.

My question now is if I leave it at 3Ghz 24/7 will it decrease the lifetime of my CPU?

[Piro21]

CPUs last a shockingly long time. I have a Pentium II 333mHz that's going on ten years in a tower right beside me. Yes, it does technically reduce the life of your processor, but all that means is you'll probably get 9 years out of it instead of 10. It doesn't matter either way because the processor will be obsolete long before the end of it's life.

[Deimos]

CPUs last a shockingly long time. I have a Pentium II 333mHz that's going on ten years in a tower right beside me. Yes, it does technically reduce the life of your processor, but all that means is you'll probably get 9 years out of it instead of 10. It doesn't matter either way because the processor will be obsolete long before the end of it's life.

Errrr.
Wrong.
Pentium2 came out somewhere around June 1997. The P2-333 didn't come out till like November and was the highest clocked part based on the Deutchess core. Like today, back then I didn't have a lot of cash so I bought the cheapest P2-266 I could find.

So technically you've had it for a little less than 9 years.

As for overclocking not damaging CPU. Tell that to my cousin. His Celeron 333 did 500+ beautifully for over a year. Then gradually instability crept in. Each time he reduced the overclock and it was stable for a few months again. At the 2 year aniversary he was back to 333. And when problems started creeping out, he got so pissed off he chucked the computer off a bridge into the river below!

[Deimos]

Thanks Silver Bullet! I think the 335FSB 3Ghz is good enough for me. I was getting 3.15Ghz on stock voltage but I found that it would not remain stable.

My question now is if I leave it at 3Ghz 24/7 will it decrease the lifetime of my CPU?

several things to try.

1. Stock voltage on CPU is probably not holding you back, but try raising by 0.05V (ex 1.30->1.35V and if it works then that was the limiting factor).

2. What is your memory divider. This is likely the cause. Make sure that the memory is running at or below its rated speed. Conroe doesn't depend on that fast memory anyway.. it has very good cache system. Otherwise you
need to increase memory voltage and/or loosen timings.

3. Is there an option in the bios to increase the northbridge voltage. Its perhaps labeled Vmch. Once you get into high fsb range, you need to raise this higher and higher to allow you to increase fsb further.

4. And ofcourse, make sure that all the components, northbridge,memory, CPU, are not excessively hot. Before touching anything ground yourself, by touching the bare metal case of the computer. With a finger touch the heatsink (only) of the CPU at the base and see if its too hot to hold there for 10 sec. Likewise, touch the northbridge heatsink, as well as the memory.

5. Finally, you may have the orginal BIOS,and there may have been significant improvements made. Try flashing to newer BIOS if all else fails.

[Silver Bullet]

Thanks Silver Bullet! I think the 335FSB 3Ghz is good enough for me. I was getting 3.15Ghz on stock voltage but I found that it would not remain stable.

My question now is if I leave it at 3Ghz 24/7 will it decrease the lifetime of my CPU?

If you temps are staying below 55c while under load you'll be just fine. If they over 55c under load then you might wanna back off a bit. C2D are spec'd to max out at about 70c .. but no one really want their cpu running that hot all the time (or while playing games). Why 55c is the magic # is a explanation for another day...

Another thing you can/should do is turn on Speedstep in the BOIS (it should be under cpu settings, i forget the exact name of the menu, but look around you should find it). This way when your not using the CPU that much it turns down to 2Ghz (or 6 times your FSB) so it uses less power. It of course comes right back up to full speed the moment it thinks your need more speed. So it's pretty good feature. To make sure it works you will need to set your power controls to Laptop (power controls are in the control panel).

As for what Deimos said ..

1. leave the voltage alone, if your happy with 3ghz then leave it alone.

2. memory might be holding you back, but the board automaticlly changes the divider for you .. so don't worry to much about that

3. leave that alone, the northbridge already runs hot enough as it is.

4. meh .. if you wanna burn your finger on the northbridge heatsink go ahead

5. leave it alone .. if it an't broke don't mess with it.... New bios versions for Asus only increase cpu support .. check Xtreme Systems to see what people are saying.

Lastly on a personal note; Deimos... do you even have a C2D or a P5W DH ? If not then just zip it, you’re not really helping the situation at all... and if you're still using AGP cards then you're way way behind the times... so bud out if don't have anything constructive to say. :rolleyes: