Amazing turn of events!!! E6400 Air OC

[HeadShotWI]

Ok So I noticed that after flashing to F4 bios on my DS3 I was no longer Orthos sp2004 stable. I decided to start from scratch and find a stable OC. I cleared the CMOS and disabled all unecessary devices.

-I set PCIE to auto(which has never worked before needed 105)EDIT: I had to set it to 105 to keep it stable
-Set vdimm to +.2v
-Set FSB to 400 1:1 and manually set timings to 4,4,4,12
-I left DEFAULT VCORE(previously i needed 1.4125 for stable orthos SP2004

And for S & Gs I just saved and rebooted. To my AMAZEMENT windows booted to safe mode. I said no way this will boot in to windows after my previous 200 reboots and testing at default vcore. So I reboot and SURE ENOUGH I fly right in to windows. I am thinking no way this is working. Before It would not even post at below 1.4 and now this???? I run Orthos and so far I am 49 minutes dual prime stable and counting as I write this.

Previous OC:
F3 Bios
E6400, DS3, 7950gx2, GSKILL HZ 2 x 1GB @ 3.2Ghz
FSB: 400mhz
Memory Divider: 1:1
vcore 1.4125
vdimm: +.3v
vusb: +.1v
PCIE freq: 105
PCIEv: normal
Temps: IDLE 46C, LOAD 58C


Current OC
F4 Bios
E6400, DS3, 7950gx2, GSKILL HZ 2 x 1GB @ 3.2Ghz
FSB: 400mhz
Memory Divider: 1:1
vcore : DEFAULT
vdimm: +.2v
vusb: normal
PCIE freq: auto
PCIEv: normal
Temps: IDLE 44C / LOAD 54C

Now I am completely stumped. How can I go from needing 1.4125v on the vcore to only needing the default 1.3125(or whatever the default is exactly I forget) and be completely stable??!??!? I even dropped my vdimm to +.2v from .3.

Did I somehow break in my CPU???? I am highly tempted to start OCing this baby even more to see if I can get more out of it now?

[Kango]

New BIOS. Whole new set of rules. You did it right and started over. This was exactly what you should have done. And now you understand why. Don't question it. Just enjoy it.

Kango

[Eastcoasthandle]

Wow, most people don't do what you did before posting, good work. It was all in starting over that got you set right.

[HeadShotWI]

Wow, most people don't do what you did before posting, good work. It was all in starting over that got you set right.

I just find it simply amazing that I can operate stable at default vcore. I just ran 3dmark2006 and pulled a 9236 which is less than 100 points lower than before(which is nothing)

Even with a new bios I just find it amazing that a CPU can now operate more stable at a lower voltage.... Its strange...

[Lestat]

yup dont question it just enjoy it.
and yes keep OC'ing see how far you can get.

the only logical reason would have been flawed previous bios.

i have the F4 and i dont see anything different but i havent tried to go for max OC on stock volts. previously on auto vcore i could get 3.2ghz
i will try that tonight and see what happens.

[Sanborn]

What kind of frame rates you get what that puppy Headshot ?

[HeadShotWI]

What kind of frame rates you get what that puppy Headshot ?

Well I don't really have fraps installed but I am currently playing Fear, Titan Quest, Prey, BF2, Oblivion at MAX settings and all run smooth as silk at 1920x1200 which is quite impressive. Oblivion is a little more iffy but just barely. Everything looks amazing!

As I said 3dmark2006 gave me a score of 9300 approx and that is about 2k more than most people that don't have c2d.

EDIT: I did have to go and manually sett he pciefreq to 105 intead of auto. It seemst he 7950gx2 just HATES auto. I am not sure what is stock but it won't even boot outside of 104-106 so i set it back to 105.

[Lestat]

crank her up headshot let see if a full reset makes any difference on your max overclock/fsb/vcore/dram freq.

go to town man!

[HeadShotWI]

crank her up headshot let see if a full reset makes any difference on your max overclock/fsb/vcore/dram freq.

go to town man!

Well I was going to but running dual prime I am now seeing temps that are like 59C load. This has be concerned..... I was at 58C load with MORE voltage. I've dropped back to default vcore how could my temp go up? This is using coretemp.

EDIT: WTH!!! Using CPUz I noticed the voltage says 1.424v. My bios is set for normal which should uset he default vcore. Does the new bios AUTOmatically crank up the vcore when you increase FSB now? Is CPUZ reporting wrong? This would definately explain why I am now seeing temps as high as 59C during dual sp2004 testing.

[foch3 -USA-]

Lower vcore is allways welcome. Good thinking trying those lower setting again.

OT: hey does the ds3 do that wacky Double post things when your over 400 fsb like the p5b? Cause its really getting anoying and I should have listened to lestat and got the cheap ds3 and waited for better boards

[HeadShotWI]

Lower vcore is allways welcome. Good thinking trying those lower setting again.

OT: hey does the ds3 do that wacky Double post things when your over 400 fsb like the p5b? Cause its really getting anoying and I should have listened to lestat and got the cheap ds3 and waited for better boards

Well I am not so sure I am actually running at stock voltages. I just noticed cpuz reporting voltages ranging from 1.392 - 1.424. I really wish I knew of a program that could accurately tell me voltages since the program for this board NEVEr works.

[BigDisk]

Room temp?

[HeadShotWI]

Room temp?

Room temp is about 74 degrees F. It looks like my temps are actually running higher becuase I am running a higher vcore even thought I left it at "normal" in the bios. cpuz is reporting a higher vcore... I am not sure why......

[politenessman]

As I said 3dmark2006 gave me a score of 9300 approx and that is about 2k more than most people that don't have c2d.

not to be picayune but my 2x7900gt with 3800 X2 score higher than that. there may be a problem.


http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=236296


very truly yours,
politenessman

[HeadShotWI]

not to be picayune but my 2x7900gt with 3800 X2 score higher than that. there may be a problem.


http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=236296


very truly yours,
politenessman

a 7950gx2 is exactly the same as 2 x 7900gt accept that yours are overclocked more than mine is. Thats why your result is almost identical to mine.

[Luck.exe]

When you say default voltage, Headshot, do you mean you set the voltage to NORMAL in the BIOS? It's the very first option in the list of voltages. When I did that I noticed that the vcore would automatically increase I would overclock. For instance if I put the vcore at 1.32000v and then try to reach 400fsb it won't even load windows at all, but it's perfectly stable at 350fsb, almost 12 hours prime stable.

But when I put the voltage to Normal in the BIOS and load windows it works, infact it works just fine. But I use cpu-z and it says 1.4v which leads me to believe that the bios automatically updates the vcore to make the oc stable.

Which is probably why you get such high temps at 3.2ghz because at 2.8ghz my max load is like 44'c at 1.3200v and I can even undervolt at that speed to 1.3000v 12hr prime stable.

[BottomsUp]

When you say default voltage, Headshot, do you mean you set the voltage to NORMAL in the BIOS? It's the very first option in the list of voltages. When I did that I noticed that the vcore would automatically increase I would overclock. For instance if I put the vcore at 1.32000v and then try to reach 400fsb it won't even load windows at all, but it's perfectly stable at 350fsb, almost 12 hours prime stable.

But when I put the voltage to Normal in the BIOS and load windows it works, infact it works just fine. But I use cpu-z and it says 1.4v which leads me to believe that the bios automatically updates the vcore to make the oc stable.

Which is probably why you get such high temps at 3.2ghz because at 2.8ghz my max load is like 44'c at 1.3200v and I can even undervolt at that speed to 1.3000v 12hr prime stable.

Interesting...automatic vcore change..

[kiwi]

Try gaming for 20-30 mins

F4 bios doesn't work for me, it freezes PC although orthos + occt seems to be stable

F4e and c are fine though

[Lestat]

Try gaming for 20-30 mins

F4 bios doesn't work for me, it freezes PC although orthos + occt seems to be stable

F4e and c are fine though

hhmm thats wierd with you guys having Orthos and OCCT issues.
VERY wierd.

tell kenofstephens he will report it directly to gigabyte.

F4 works fine for me. no issues at all.

[dinos22]

yeah just as i said that was requiring a proper cmos clearing

i would also say that your last attempt in OCing also was affected by the same thing

i bet you now if you go back to F3 and clear cmos and start from scratch you would get exactly the same results

[dissident]

CONFIRMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After doing as the op suggested. flashing to the latest bios, resetting CMOS.. with almost exact same setup as him.. same chip, same ram, same motherboard

I went from needing 1.43~ volts to be prime stable at 3.2 GHZ to being prime stable at STOCK VOLTS. And here I went and ordered a P5B deluxe because I suspected it was the motherboard that was holding my chip back, and not the other way around.

I also need .1v less to be stable with memory, and I am stable with auto on pci express frequency, and stock volts on the other stuff. CONFIRMED!!!

USE THIS BIOS, CLEAR CMOS... I even forgot to load optimized defaults.. I just went in, changed the ram timings, raised the ram volts by .3, and set the fsb at 400. WOW!

load temps down to 45 on water from about 50. Lapped IHS.

[dinos22]

lol

can you guys do what i suggested for the sake of really confirming

BUT

set the default vcore manually to 1.325 on each bios and see how it does

[NoSinder]

I think one of my cores is fugged, I ran the non-beta version of Orthos, and I set one of them for CPU 0 and the other for CPU 1 and cpu 1 always gets an error in the first second, but CPU 0 is fine. I'm running at 400x8 1:1 1.375 vcore in Bios using official F4. Is my second core in the crapper?

[dissident]

hmmm... after setting the vcore manually things became unstable, even at 1.35 volts. perhaps further testing is needed. Thanks for the tip! I was actually hoping this doesn't work, as I was looking forward to installing the P5B deluxe this weekend and selling the DS3. Has some extra features I could use.

If it is the chip I'll probably order another, should be able to sell my current one for 200. In any case, didn't want to keep you hanging.

[NoSinder]

ok, so I put vcore on "normal" and now both cores run fine. Core temp is reporting 70C on load and speedfan says 60-62C on load, are those fine for 24/7 use?