The clock on the wall says 1.86 past midnight.
July 28, 2007 11:42 PM Subscribe
Why can't I overclock anymore?
I have an oddball motherboard that allows either DDR or DDR2 ram. I have a c2d e6300 (1.86ghz). I just upgraded from 1 gig or DDR ram to 2 gigs of DD2 667 ram. Previous to this upgrade I was able to overlock the cpu to about 2.0ghz with no problem. After the upgrade I am unable to overclock without massive problems (ram mostly). What is the cause of this? Is the new RAM unable to handle the faster FSB? If so, is there anything I can do to get around this? It seems like there should be a way to overclock the CPU without overclocking the ram.
I also noticed this BIOS has both async and sync settings for CPU speed. The latter raises the speed of the PCIexpress bus. Why would I ever need to do that? Shouldnt I just use async?
I'm aware this isnt an overclocker's board, but I'd like to at least hit 2ghz if possible. Any info would be greatly appreciated!
Oh, if anyone knows why this board fails to hibernate or standby please let me know. It just crashes when I try to wake it up usually trying to load the state back from hibernate.
I have an oddball motherboard that allows either DDR or DDR2 ram. I have a c2d e6300 (1.86ghz). I just upgraded from 1 gig or DDR ram to 2 gigs of DD2 667 ram. Previous to this upgrade I was able to overlock the cpu to about 2.0ghz with no problem. After the upgrade I am unable to overclock without massive problems (ram mostly). What is the cause of this? Is the new RAM unable to handle the faster FSB? If so, is there anything I can do to get around this? It seems like there should be a way to overclock the CPU without overclocking the ram.
I also noticed this BIOS has both async and sync settings for CPU speed. The latter raises the speed of the PCIexpress bus. Why would I ever need to do that? Shouldnt I just use async?
I'm aware this isnt an overclocker's board, but I'd like to at least hit 2ghz if possible. Any info would be greatly appreciated!
Oh, if anyone knows why this board fails to hibernate or standby please let me know. It just crashes when I try to wake it up usually trying to load the state back from hibernate.
Response by poster: Here's some cpuz goodies if it helps pic1 pic2. Thanks!
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:46 PM on July 28, 2007
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:46 PM on July 28, 2007
Response by poster: I think that's locked. On my board is labeled ""ratio actual value" and its set at 7. Oh well, no biggie.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:23 AM on July 29, 2007
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:23 AM on July 29, 2007
Can you increase the voltage supply to either/both the RAM and the CPU from BIOS?
Sometimes all it takes is just a *little* more juice.
My understanding of the PCIe is that some cards can't handle non-stock speeds. However, there's some interdependence between the CPU and whatever's on the PCIe so syncing CPU and PCIe may help with timing issues.
posted by porpoise at 10:11 AM on July 29, 2007
Sometimes all it takes is just a *little* more juice.
My understanding of the PCIe is that some cards can't handle non-stock speeds. However, there's some interdependence between the CPU and whatever's on the PCIe so syncing CPU and PCIe may help with timing issues.
posted by porpoise at 10:11 AM on July 29, 2007
Try relaxing the memory timings. Note your second shot; most of the latencies go from 3 at 200MHz to 5 at 333MHz. If you're pushing the memory clock beyond what it's rated for, you might need to increase some of these yourself.
How does it crash when your system resumes? Often a bluescreen will give enough detail to at least hint at what's causing the problem.
posted by Freaky at 1:31 PM on July 29, 2007
How does it crash when your system resumes? Often a bluescreen will give enough detail to at least hint at what's causing the problem.
posted by Freaky at 1:31 PM on July 29, 2007
Response by poster: It doesnt really crash, it pretty much fails to boot. At boot the memory check will either report 1.5 gigs or 1 gig and when windows boots up it'll say "cannot find window/system32" or somesuch.
The latencies havent been changed by me, everything is done by the motherboard. As far as I know this is all typical stock dd2 667. I have not tried setting the ram for a slower clockspeed and then overclocking yet. Maybe I'll give that a try.
Also, I dont think this board allows me to change the voltage. Even if it did, isnt that a bit risky?
posted by damn dirty ape at 3:18 PM on July 29, 2007
The latencies havent been changed by me, everything is done by the motherboard. As far as I know this is all typical stock dd2 667. I have not tried setting the ram for a slower clockspeed and then overclocking yet. Maybe I'll give that a try.
Also, I dont think this board allows me to change the voltage. Even if it did, isnt that a bit risky?
posted by damn dirty ape at 3:18 PM on July 29, 2007
What's a half volt here, a full volt over there between friends? =)
Most boards will allow you to change the voltages, in a menu under BIOS. I haven't played around a lot with overclocking modern systems (I was mostly playing around in the days when P4s were starting to be common and I was stuck with PIIIs and their AMD equivalents) but, at least back then, overclocking RAM, especially, and to an extent the CPU, seemed to suck more juice (you're telling it to push more electrons per unit time, right?) and if something was unstable or wouldn't work, giving it an extra half volt did the trick much of the time.
Yeah, from your description it definitely sounds like the RAM doesn't want to be pushed. If you want to push the CPU, you can try something similar to what Freaky suggested and decrease the RAM latency and push the CPU. This would be somewhat counter-productive, though depending on what you're trying to get your computer to do.
As to danger; it theoretically increases the rate at which the circuitry will ablate - but we're talking 99 years vs. 100 years. The only thing to keep in mind is that the RAM/CPU will run a little warmer.
I'd hunt around the BIOS and see if you can inject a little more voltage for your RAM.
posted by porpoise at 4:29 PM on July 29, 2007
Most boards will allow you to change the voltages, in a menu under BIOS. I haven't played around a lot with overclocking modern systems (I was mostly playing around in the days when P4s were starting to be common and I was stuck with PIIIs and their AMD equivalents) but, at least back then, overclocking RAM, especially, and to an extent the CPU, seemed to suck more juice (you're telling it to push more electrons per unit time, right?) and if something was unstable or wouldn't work, giving it an extra half volt did the trick much of the time.
Yeah, from your description it definitely sounds like the RAM doesn't want to be pushed. If you want to push the CPU, you can try something similar to what Freaky suggested and decrease the RAM latency and push the CPU. This would be somewhat counter-productive, though depending on what you're trying to get your computer to do.
As to danger; it theoretically increases the rate at which the circuitry will ablate - but we're talking 99 years vs. 100 years. The only thing to keep in mind is that the RAM/CPU will run a little warmer.
I'd hunt around the BIOS and see if you can inject a little more voltage for your RAM.
posted by porpoise at 4:29 PM on July 29, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by aye at 11:46 PM on July 28, 2007