Overclocking my computer

[Werne]

Ok, since I definately have no money whatsoever to spend on my comp and since Thor was always talking about overclocking, I tried it with my graphics card first and I'm actually impressed. With RivaTuner I managed to get my 1024MB ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series from 600/400 MHz to 700/552 MHz which gave me a nice boost when playing games, especially FO3. The funny thing is, I've read everywhere that the card heats more when you overclock the frequency but the temperature on mine actually dropped by 10-15^oC (73^oC after 2 hours of playing FO3). Nice.

 

I wanted to buy new components several times already but I had some unexpected expenses and I just can't. Probably won't be able to in a long while so I'd like to get as much as I can from this that I do have.

 

So, now that I overclocked my graphics card, I thought doing it to my CPU woud give me some boost when working with high-poly meshes, render or bake normals in Blender. Sculpting, rendering and baking are using a lot of processing power, at least according to Task Manager. It also uses a lot of RAM, but since I've got 2GB RAM (2,00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz, according to speccy) and no money to upgrade, I'm f***ed when it comes to that. By the way, any advice on getting a proper program for monitoring system activity?

 

Anyway, I did some research on my processor, which is an Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.20GHz, so says Speccy. I found that Core 2 Duo processors are quite resilient and that they don't heat too much so that's a good thing. The tech guy in the base says it can easily be overclocked to over 3 GHz but I don't want to go that high, a bit more power would be nice but I don't want to set it on fire. I believe that guy forgot more about computers than I'll ever know. So, what could be a relatively "safe" value I can set it to? I don't want to damage it or anything like that. It's air cooled, with an aluminum heatsink and a fan, idle temperature is around 26^oC and after an hour of working at 70% it's around 45^oC so it really doesn't heat much.

 

Also, I found a thread about overclocking Core 2 Duo processors on Bug.hr (it's in Croatian so you most likely won't understand a word of it). There's a lot of information about it, what to do and what not to do along with some helpful tips and programs. I'm not doing a darn thing yet, I want to get as much information I can about overclocking before I do anything. I don't have money for new parts so destroying my hardware is not an option.

 

So, are there any good tutorials out there on overclocking? I'm looking something that explains it like it's explaining it to a complete idiot. It can be more complicated than that but as simple as possible is preferred.

 

Oh, and here are my system specs (from Speccy):

 

 

 

Operating System

MS Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP3

 

CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.20GHz

Conroe 65nm Technology

 

RAM

2,00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz (6-6-6-18)

 

Motherboard

ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5KPL-AM IN/ROEM/SI (Socket 775)

 

Graphics

SyncMaster (1440x900@60Hz)

1024MB ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series (XFX Pine Group)

 

Hard Drives

313GB Hitachi Hitachi HDT721032SLA360 (SATA)

 

I like my comp, but it's just too slow when it comes to some things.

[FMod]

By the way, any advice on getting a proper program for monitoring system activity?

The built-in Task Manager generally does a good job already, you can configure it. Speedfan helps with more. But monitoring isn't much use anyway.

 

Anyway, I did some research on my processor, which is an Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.20GHz, so says Speccy. So, what could be a relatively "safe" value I can set it to? I don't want to damage it or anything like that.

It's a 65nm unit, which isn't as good as newer 45nm. With a 45nm unit you'd be going for 3.33 GHz or so. For this one, 2.83-3.0 GHz should be right and 2.5 is pretty much guaranteed.

 

 

It's air cooled, with an aluminum heatsink and a fan, idle temperature is around 26^oC and after an hour of working at 70% it's around 45^oC so it really doesn't heat much.

The right way to test the temperature is to run LinX for 10 minutes or so to get it to 100% load. But temperature doesn't matter for your purposes, these CPU will automatically throttle if overheated.

 

 

So, are there any good tutorials out there on overclocking? I'm looking something that explains it like it's explaining it to a complete idiot. It can be more complicated than that but as simple as possible is preferred.

Well, if overclocking was that simple and mechanical, it would be done automatically. So it takes a bit of understanding. That said, it shouldn't be difficult.

 

Did you understand from that guide how to get into BIOS and access the values?

If so, what is your current FSB speed set at there?

(It's 200 MHz, but different vendors can report it as 400 or 800)

 

Do you still have your motherboard's manual? You might need to check there for the key to use to load defaults. It can be Insert, or one of the F1-F12 keys, or something else.

 

 

RAM 2,00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz (6-6-6-18)

This is not good, since the OS takes up some memory as well, and a spot for upgrade. You could try and get 2x1GB of DDR2 from someone for a very low price. Even though just 3.5GB will work in XP and only 2GB be available to any given application, it's a step up from at most 1.5GB available now, and less than 1GB if you're multitasking.

 

Potentially adding 2x2GB for a total of 6GB is better as you can then install a ramdrive utility (say, this) and get a 2.4GB ramdrive for windows swap file, as a hack to extend effectively available RAM for 32-bit Windows. I can get you though the exact process.

If even 2x1GB is not an option, even adding one or two 512MB sticks would help, if you can get them for free (they are worth very little, people want 1GB or 2GB sticks, most 512MB ones are just thrown away).

[Werne]

Did you understand from that guide how to get into BIOS and access the values?

If so, what is your current FSB speed set at there?

(It's 200 MHz, but different vendors can reportit as 400 or 800)

 

Do you still have your motherboard's manual? You might need to check there for the key to use to load defaults. It can beInsert, or one of the F1-F12 keys, or something else.

BIOS says this:

Frequency: 2.20GHz

FBS speed: 800MHz

Cache L1: 64 kb

Cache L2: 2048 kb

Ratio Status: Unlocked (Max 11.0, Min 06.0)

Ratio actual value: 11

CPUID: 6FD

Half of that I don't get but I get what FBS is. And as far as I understand the tutorial (it's embarrasing, I know english better than my own language), FBS*Ratio value=CPU frequency, right? Or did I get it all wrong?

This is not good, since the OS takes up some memory as well, and a spot for upgrade. You could try and get 2x1GB of DDR2 from someone for a very low price. Even though just 3.5GB will work in XP and only 2GB be available to any given application, it's a step up from at most 1.5GB available now, and less than 1GB if you're multitasking.

 

Potentially adding 2x2GB for a total of 6GB is better as you can then install a ramdrive utility (say, this) and get a 2.4GB ramdrive for windows swap file, as a hack to extend effectively available RAM for 32-bit Windows. I can get you though the exact process.

If even 2x1GB is not an option, even adding one or two 512MB sticks would help, if you can get them for free (they are worth very little, people want 1GB or 2GB sticks, most 512MB ones are just thrown away).

I have two 1GB sticks and only two RAM slots. Can't upgrade without ripping one of them out and buying a new one.

Edited May 27, 2012 by Werne

[FMod]

Half of that I don't get but I get what FBS is. And as far as I understand the tutorial (it's embarrasing, I know english better than my own language), FBS*Ratio value=CPU frequency, right? Or did I get it all wrong?

FSB is the front side bus, or the system bus connecting the CPU to the motherboard.

Its real frequency is 200 MHz, but it's marketed as 800.

Since you can't increase the ratio, you have to increase FSB speed. 233, 266 and 300 are common stable values. Or 933, 1066, 1200 for you.

 

There may be a setting for FSB:memory ratio, keep your memory at 800.

 

 

I have two 1GB sticks and only two RAM slots. Can't upgrade without ripping one of them out and buying a new one

What motherboard is it?

Probably a low-end one, so o/c prospects don't look too good. Try 233 (933) first.

[Werne]

Ok, set it to 233, kept memory at 800. It says CPU is 2.57 Ghz and Memory is 466 Mhz. But two things are confusing me.

 

First, CPU-Z says FSB:DRAM is 1:2 and I've read it needs to be 1:1. But it's like it should be, if I raise FSB, DRAM is 2x FSB (FSB is 233 and DRAM is 466, double the FSB value).

 

Second, both CPU-Z and CPUID Hardware Monitor cay CPU Core voltage is 1.82 while BIOS says it's 1.344. According to the thread I linked in the first post and Intel's page on E4500, I trust BIOS since voltage range for E4500 is 0.85-1.5V and the thread says most C2D CPUs don't need more than 1.35V, depending on the model.

 

I also ran Prime95's torture test on it for aproximately 4 hours with Hardware Monitor running as well to measure temperatures. There were no errors or anything, CPU's highest temperature was 71^oC (it was jumping between 70 and 71) and CPU fan's maximum was 2264 rpm max.

 

EDIT: I forgot you asked about the motherboard, here are it's specs:

 

 

 

Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.

Model P5KPL-AM IN/ROEM/SI (Socket 775)

Version System Version

Chipset Vendor Intel

Chipset Model P35/G33/G31

Chipset Revision 10

Southbridge Vendor Intel

Southbridge Model 82801GB (ICH7/R)

Southbridge Revision A1

System Temperature 36 °C

BIOS

Brand American Megatrends Inc.

Version 0503

Date 09/14/2009

Voltage

CPU CORE 1.824 V

MEMORY CONTROLLER 1.232 V

+3.3V 1.568 V

+5V 5.080 V

+12V 13.696 V

CMOS BATTERY 3.312 V

PCI Data

Slot PCI-E

Slot Type PCI-E

Slot Usage Available

Bus Width Unknown

Slot Designation PCIEX16

Slot Number 0

Slot PCI

Slot Type PCI

Slot Usage Available

Bus Width 32 bit

Slot Designation PCI_1

Slot Number 1

Slot PCI

Slot Type PCI

Slot Usage Available

Bus Width 32 bit

Slot Designation PCI_2

Slot Number 2

 

 

Edited May 28, 2012 by Werne

[FMod]

Ok, set it to 233, kept memory at 800. It says CPU is 2.57 Ghz and Memory is 466 Mhz. But two things are confusing me.

First, CPU-Z says FSB:DRAM is 1:2 and I've read it needs to be 1:1. But it's like it should be, if I raise FSB, DRAM is 2x FSB (FSB is 233 and DRAM is 466, double the FSB value).

Can you set any values other than 1:1 and 1:2?

 

I'm not sure at this point if 466 is the real frequency or the DDR one.

Anyway continue by raising FSB to 266 MHz.

 

 

Second, both CPU-Z and CPUID Hardware Monitor cay CPU Core voltage is 1.82 while BIOS says it's 1.344.

1.82 shouldn't even work. Are you sure it's not something else? A GPU-Z screenshot would help.

1.344 is high for this clock rate. It should be about 1.25V. About 1.45V is safe, or would be, if you had a good power source on the motherboard. Try setting it manually to 1.3V.

 

About 1.35V should be it for 266 MHz FSB. If it doesn't work, you can increase it, but usually if that doesn't cut it, there might be another issue. People use 1.4-1.45 for overclocking to rates like 3.5 GHz.

4-hour tests are unnecessary, if it's going to crash, it's usually in the first 10 minutes, at least with

[Werne]

Here's the screenshot from CPU-Z, Core Voltage was 1.808 at the time I took the screenshot, it went to 1.824 after that.

 

[FMod]

That's not rigt and if it's not misreported, might damage your CPU (probably not immediately).

Intel specifies 1.35V as maximum safe, it's known to be conservative (1.45 is specified for later CPU), but 1.8V is dangerous, it's cryo territory, and should be lowered ASAP.

 

Make sure that no voltages are set to "Auto" in BIOS, they all should be manual. At least Vcore.

 

 

edit: Does your BIOS look like this?

This is a review for P5N SLI, their premium mobo, but you have the same vendor and series.

I mean exactly like, same setting names, etc, not just visually.

If not, what is different.

Edited May 28, 2012 by FMod

[Werne]

edit: Does your BIOS look like this?

This is a review for P5N SLI, their premium mobo, but you have the same vendor and series.

I mean exactly like, same setting names, etc, not just visually.

If not, what is different.

 

Like what? I googled a bit and found this pic so do you mean like this?

 

http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/434/main.jpg

 

It that's the one, no, mine looks like this:

 

 

 

[FMod]

Like what? I googled a bit and found this pic so do you mean like this?

Oh. I copied the link and meant to paste it, but then went on about details and forgot.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2076&page=6

 

I see already that your board's got an AMI BIOS (inferior to Award BIOS in the high-end model), but they still come in different flavors of feature sets.

 

It that's the one, no, mine looks like this:

What's needed is the pages like those shown in the article above.

There's something off with the voltages.