UnBiased Intel Core 2 Duo Overclocking with Overclocking Test Systems

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veg1992

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THIS IS NOT MINE, BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD COME IN HANDY FOR NEW PPL TO THE CORE 2 DUOS, IT CAME IN HANDY WHEN I GOT MY E4300 A WHILE AGO, ENJOY: (I COPIED AND PASTED THE ANANDTECH GUIDE, SO U DON'T HAVE TO CLICK THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM

Section I: Purchasing the right components (5 systems to chose from based on price level)
Section II: Setting up bios options and overclocking.
Section III: Testing your overclock for stability.


After reading the forums for a few days I have noticed that people are asking many questions before finishing up their Core 2 Duo builds. This post should help with that as well as providing a good idea of what you can expect and your rig to do once you have all that parts together. These products summarize what I believe to be the best in their given niches.

Section I:

First off I want to start off by saying this is in no way a solicitation for me on any of these products they are simply products I have used myself and feel give an almost guaranteed overclocking performance. I repeat I myself have used all of these products or I would not be recommending them. I will not be messing with water in this review as for conroe and core 2 duo is pretty much worthless. You may get another 200 mhz or so, but in the end it is not worth it. The final two systems include phase changing cooling. The Syth Infinitiy, Tuniq Tower or any other high-end CPU heatsink that comes out in the next couple of months can be used in place of the Thermaltake Typhoon, but performance of the Typhoon and Tuniq Tower are at the top right now especially with an upgraded fan.

These are what I would consider to be the best products in each category. I will update it every 2 weeks based on price and other considerations. I will also guarntee that you can get the overclocks that are listed as expected by buying these parts.

Mainstream Cruncher (lowest price, fast performance, little gaming. little experience to overclocking): Price = $770.00

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Socket T ($115.99)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13 2M L2 (8x Multiplier) ($220.00)
Heatsink: Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120mm ($38.99)
Ram: Corsair XMS2 1 GB (2x512MB) DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 ($132.00)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE SATA 250 GB($69.99)
DVD-R: Lite-ON 16x DVD+-R ($30.99)
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound ($5.99)
Video Card: Biostar 6200 LE PCI-E ($32.99)
Case of your choosing and 500w Power Supply ($110.00)

Mainstream Overclocked Gamer (Fast video performance, moderate gaming, little experience to overclocking) Price = $1350
Motherboard: eVGA 680i ($229.99)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13 2M L2 (8x Multiplier) ($220.00)
Heatsink: Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120mm ($38.99)
Ram: G.SKILL 2 GB DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 (2.0v) ($249.99)
Hard Drive: 2X Western Digital Caviar 250 GB SE16 7200 RPM in Raid 0 ($154.98)
DVD-R: Lite-ON 16x DVD+-R ($30.99)
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound ($5.99)
Video Card: BFG Tech 7950 GT (Add a second when you have more money) ($249.99)
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 600w ($104.99)
Case: Case of your choosing ($70.00)

Performance Gamer: Faster Cpu Performance, and Video Performance, Higher Price (Medium experience in overclocking). Overclock You Price = 1947.60

Motherboard: eVGA 680i ($229.99)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 ($315.00)
Heatsink: Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120mm ($38.99)
Ram: Team Xtreem DDR-800 3-3-3-8 D9GMH ($433.68)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE SATA 250 GB($69.99)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 150 10,000 RPM Hard Drive ($194.99)
DVD-R: Lite-ON 16x DVD+-R ($30.99)
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound ($5.99)
Video Card: EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 (Step Up To 8800 GTX or purchase a second) ($459.99
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700w ($114.99)
Case: Case of your choosing ($70.00)

Extreme Overclocked Gamer: Same Cpu Performance, Faster Framerates, When Games are What Matters. (Medium experience in overclocking). Price = $3124.58

Motherboard: eVGA 680i ($229.99)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 ($315.00)
Heatsink: Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120mm ($38.99)
Ram: Team Xtreem DDR-800 3-3-3-8 Micron D9GMH ($433.68)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE SATA 250 GB($69.99)
Hard Drive: 2x Western Digital Raptor 150 10,000 RPM Hard Drive in Raid 0 ($389.98)
DVD-R: Lite-ON 16x DVD+-R ($30.99)
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound ($5.99)
Video Card: 2x eVGA 8800 GTX in SLI ($1320.98)
Enermax Galaxy 1000w ($349.99)
Case: Case of your choosing ($70.00)

Extreme Benchmark Machine: Fastest of everything, When you want to be on top of the ORB. (Medium Experience in System Building, High Experience in Overclocking) Price = $4440.39

Motherboard: eVGA 680i ($229.99)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX6700 2.66GHz LGA 775 ($1249.50)
Ram: OCZ Titanium ALPHA VX2 2 GB PC2-8000 4-4-4-15 D9GMX or any other high-end ram($439.99)
Hard Drive: 2x Western Digital Raptor 150 10,000 RPM Hard Drive in Raid 0($389.98)
DVD-R: Lite-ON 16x DVD+-R ($30.99)
Arctic Silver Ceramique Thermal Compound - OEM($4.99)
Video Card: 2x eVGA 8800 GTX in SLI ($1320.98)
Enermax Galaxy 1000w ($349.99)
Vapochill LS Socket 775 ($869.99)
LIAN LI PC-7B plus I...oduct/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811112099[/L]

Section II: Setting Overclock Parameters.

For the 965Pand E6400 You should be able to easily hit 3.2 ghz using the 8.0 ratio.
First go into the bios and change overclocking to manual. Slowly raising these settings is best in the overclocking, but if you are lazy you can start at the top. Let stability be your key.

# vCore: 1.375
# vFSB: 1.300 (Auto)
# vNB: 1.3 (Auto)
# vMem: 1.8 - 2.45 on ASUS Boards. Default on DS3 is 1.8 and moves in +.1v increments. Find the maximum your warranty will allow.
# Configured FSB: 400 x 8 = 3.2ghz, May be less or more depending on processor.
# Memory Ratio should be 2.0 on DS-3, DDR2-800 on P5B
# Configured Ratio: 7 (E6300), 8 (E6400), 9 (E6600), 10 (E6700), 11-50 (X6800)
# Configured Memory Timings: 5-5-5-15/4-4-4-12 (Configured under Chipset)
# C1E and SpeedStep off, Locked PCI Express Frequency locked at 100, PCI Sync Mode at 33.33.


975x Overclocking

First go find the section AI Tuning, or the Equivalent for your 975x Board. BadAxe is labeled "Overclocking."

# vCore: 1.425(3.4ghz)/1.475(3.5 ghz)/1.525(3.6 ghz) To Compensate for Vdroop
# vNB: 1.7
# vMem: 2.0-2.5 (Find the warranty for your ram)
# Configured FSB: 1520, 1560, 1600
# Memory Ratio: 1:1 on 975x. This corresponds to the Ram Speed being 2x the fsb. I.E. 400 = DDR2-800.
# Configured Ratio: 7 (E6300), 8 (E6400), 9 (E6600), 10 (E6700), 11-50 (X6800)
# Configured Memory Timings: Configured under chipset. I would say most ram should be able to handle 4-4-4-12 @ 800mhz. If you are lucky your ram will be able to do CAS3 and get better performance.
# C1E and SpeedStep off, Turn off any PCI-E linkboost as it is actaully slower.


Reference 680i Overclocking
First go into bios and change overclocking to manual. Slowly raising these settings is best but if you are lazy you can start at the top and work your way backwards on voltage. Let stability be your key.

# vCore: 1.425(3.4ghz)/1.475(3.5 ghz)/1.525(3.6 ghz) To Compensate for Vdroop
# vNB: 1.4
# vMem: 2.0-2.5 (Find the warranty for your ram)
# Configured FSB: 1520, 1560, 1600
# Memory Ratio should be asyncronomous.
# Configured Ratio: 7 (E6300), 8 (E6400), 9 (E6600), 10 (E6700), 11-50 (X6800)
# Configured Memory Timings: Memory is Asyncronomous. Change to whatever you would like under "FSB Memory Config." I would recommend anywhere from 800-1100. Change the timings to expert and this will allow you to change CAS and other things.
# C1E and SpeedStep off, Turn off any PCI-E linkboost as it is actaully slower.

Asus 680i Boards (Asus 680i Boards Work Best for 1T)

First go into bios and change overclocking to manual. Slowly raising these settings is best but if you are lazy you can start at the top and work your way backwards on voltage. Let stability be your key.
All settings are located under Extreme Tweaker.
# vCore:1.625 (Core 2 Quad has a large Vdroop) under Overvoltage
# vFSB: 1.4
# vNB: 1.4
# vMem: 2.4-2.5 (Make sure you have ram warrantied to do this)
# Configured FSB: 1200 Quadcores can't handle more then
# Memory Ratio: Set to Whichever MHZ you are stable at as it is ansyronomous.
# Configured Ratio: 14-16
# Configured Memory Timings: Memory is Asyncronomous. Change to whatever you would like under "Overclocking." I would recommend anywhere from 900 4-4-4-8-1T. Change the timings to expert and this will allow you to change CAS and other things.
# C1E and SpeedStep off, Turn off any PCI-E linkboost as it is actaully slower.


Section III: Testing your overclock for stability.
Run Prime95 and leave it for a couple of hours, run PCMark or any benchmark tests t see if it works if ur OC' had any side effects, if it did time to either drop ur OC or increase voltage or FSB or a combination of the 3
Have Fun OC'ing and see that by cutting lifespan of ur CPU u have a huge price/performance ratio


AnandTech - The Definitive, Unbiased Core 2 Duo Overclocking Guide.
 
Nice article but you can never be sure of how high of an overclock you will get becuase you could get a chip that is stable at 3.5ghz while another one of the same model may not even hit 3.0

Still its a good article
 
I went with the Core 2 Conroe, which was by far the cheapest, and got my overclock stable around 3. Be sure to include Zalman CPU fan if you are doing this though. I think in your top (i.e. cheaper builds) you should go with the lowest end stuff. I'm beating 99.3 percent of everyone in servers in BF2 with my current setup.

If gamers really want to do it right, especially in online games like BF2, where load speeds are key to you getting in those jets, choppers, tanks, etc. You should get 2 Western Digital Raptors RAID 0 Striped, solely running games, then have something like a 320 GB Caviar (which HDD's right now are pretty low priced at around 120 Bucks), running windows. If you want to go more hard core, partition the Caviar (or similar SATA drive) 3 ways, having WIndows, Programs/apps, and Media (mp3's, Wav, mp4s, etc.) as the partitions.
Works like a charm :)

Or, if you are cheap and don't want 3 hard drives, Just buy one raptor and put games on it, and then like a 80 GB hard drive. Those are probably around 50-60 bucks right now.
I'm the king of "bang for the Buck". .04 milliseconds is never worth 300 dollars to me. I follow slightly behind the tech curve always.
 
i splurge here and there. If the performance is really good for what you are paying for, then i think the raptors aren't expensive if you are comparing 149 bucks to 60 or 80 for a good drive. I didn't say i was a cheapskate.

Plus, that extra money beats you in a bf2 server every day by about 15 seconds as compared to buying a 1000 dollar processor.

Raptors own.
 
if you were king of bang for the buck then you wouldn't be buying raptors.

that would be me :)

many people here hate Raptors because u can make RAID arrays for the same price.. and have 2x or more HD Space, another one is those WD 750gb's which are almost exact same speed as the Raptors...
 
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