Overclocking my E6550

[coxmaster]

Well.. i have been running a stable OC of 2.625ghz on my E6550, but tonight i decided to try and push it. I tried a bunch of different FSB clocks and multiplier combinations.. but i cant ever get it to boot into Vista. Ive tried everything i can think of. I know there is an FSB hole on the 680i LT, but i got well beyond that in my testing and still couldnt boot windows. Any suggestions to try to get to 3 ghz?

[srpeters18]

Try lowering your multiplier and raising the FSB so you get the same overclock. It'll help you figure out if its the proccy or the mobo that's limiting you. Also, how far did you bump your vcore? And make sure you're running it unlinked to take the memory out of the equation.

[coxmaster]

I was running unlinked... The highest i got the vcore was to 1.25, which now that i think about it.. seems pretty low. I'll try changing the multiplier and FSB to get to 2.625 and see what that finds me. I'll post back in a few minutes when ive tried it!

[srpeters18]

Yeah, that seems like really low voltage. Let us know!

[coxmaster]

I dont know what the hell is wrong with my CPU now.. I cant get it to boot with a 7x multiplier!?!?! It keeps sticking on a 6x multiplier, even if i set it to 7x.

Tried booting at 2.625 with a 6x multi, it failed again.. But it worked fine at 2.625 with the 7x multi. Seems that the FSB hole on my mobo is whats holding it down

[coxmaster]

Wow.. apparently SpeedStep re-enabled itself somehow. So im currently running at 2.625 100% usage (F@H) My temps are a little higher than they used to be.. but i did up the voltage a bit. Im currently at 1.2v, but i can easily run this speed at 1.18. My temps are 49-51º on each core under full load. Still no luck on getting any faster though :(

[srpeters18]

Hmmm. What's your FSB now?

[werty316]

375MHz FSB with a multiplier of 7x (7x375=~2.625GHz),
or
438Mhz FSB with a multiplier of 6x (6x437=~2.625GHz).

You should increasing the vCore. Also try increasing the SPP voltage to 1.3v.

[srpeters18]

You're not going to get much better than 438 on the FSB on a 680I LT. I hit a pretty hard wall at just over 1600, with a Q6600 and a x8 multi. I am impressed that you managed 1752.

[coxmaster]

I didnt manage to hit 1752.. the highest i have gotten is about 1560. I'll try some more today as well as some different voltages.

[pro_hz]

I have the same motherboard & processor combinations as yours and running I can go upto 3.15ghz(450x7). I don't like my temps above that.

I can give you my voltage settings if it helps, Core-1.35v, FSB-1.3v, SPP-1.4v

One more very important thing I'll need to mention is that when RAM & FSB are running in unlinked mode(default ram speed) even I could go upto only 1500mhz FSB, ie 2.625ghz CPU. Anything above that will make the system unstable. So after numerous permutation combinations of different settings & voltages I've figured out that I need to run my RAM at 1:1 linked mode in the BIOS(notice that this is not the actual 1:1 ratio, but the same ratio when both CPU & RAM are at their default clock). For example in my case for 1800mhz FSB my RAM sticks are running at 1080mhz.

I've seen this behaviour in all the XFX/EVGA 680ilt/650iultra boards I've come accross. So maybe its applicable to yours too.

[coxmaster]

Sweet.. i'll give that a try in a bit here. So are you saying to change it to "Linked Mode" in BIOS? That is going to overclock my memory.. and im not sure how much higher it'll go, though it should go atleast a bit higher.

As for what ive been trying, i got a little higher.. but still below 400mhz FSB. My 3DMark score went up though.. 11604 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=6901790)

[pro_hz]

Sorry mate, I said something wrong in my last post. I said that I needed to run my RAM at 1:1 linked mode in the BIOS, which is incorrect. Actually I was supposed to write Linked>Auto mode in the BIOS. That is how at 1800mhz FSB my RAM runs at 1080mhz. Auto mode always maintains the default RAM/FSB ratio.

[coxmaster]

Ahh, i see. I'll give that a try, hopefully my RAM can handle a little higher speeds