A Question For Oveclockers

[MSW]

I have an E6700 Core 2 Duo on a MSI MS-7350 which is currently overclocked to 3.33. This is using a FSB of 1333 and multiplier of 10X. The maximum rated FSB for that board appears to be 1333 (from the specs) and the highest multiplier it will let me use is 10X. So I can't use a higher multiplier and 1333 FSB appears to be the highest that I can effectively go.

My question is: Is this the highest clock I can go with the board I have. Since the board is rated to 1333, is that as high as I can go on FSB? Is the only way I can go higher is to have another board which allows a higher FSB?

Thanks!

Mike

[Moparmike]

Have you searched around for a BIOS update for your board that might add another step or two to the multiplier choices?
How fast can you set your FSB clock in your BIOS? Does it stop at 1333 or will the board go beyond? I believe you should be able to get up to a 1600MHz FSB speed for those processors but I'm not sure about your board/chipset.

I haven't worked with the Intel chips much in quite a few years (like since the PII days!), and I haven't tried tweaking on my new i7 rig yet.
Here's an overclocking guide to the nForce chipsets that might give you a little more info.
http://www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/45121/nforce_680i_sli_overclocking.pdf
It is for the 680i/780i chipsets but I think much of it is still applicable to your 650i chipset too.

[MSW]

The BIOS will let me set the FSB higher, however, does that do any good if the maximum rated FSB for the board is 1333? In other words, by going higher on the FSB would I in effect be trying to squeeze the flow of a 4 inch pipe through a 2 inch pipe?

Mike

[Moparmike]

If the BIOS will allow you to go over 1333, then by all means try it. Overclocking is fundamentally stretching/exceeding the limits of your hardware, not just the CPU but other components as well.
Your E6700 is only rated at 1066MHz out of the box right? You're already pushing it beyond it's rated specs with that 1333MHz clock, so why not try to push the MoBo as well.

Set it higher, run some stability tests, see how it works. memtest+, 3DMark**, etc...


How fast is your memory? That is likely going to be your limiting factor...once you get above the max speed that the memory is rated for is generally when you start to loose stability.

[stansdds]

You have already pushed that E6700 25% faster than stock, so you might be very near or at it's limit, at least on air cooling.

[hey_moe]

When OCing you can't just keep raising the figures without raising the voltage. The new 45n processors can take the heat and voltage...I would be carefull of the older ones. See Ron...he is good on melt downs...Mike

[David_L6]

Been a while since I had an E6700... You are probably getting close to the limit now on air, but you should be able to get a little more speed out of it. I'd think 3.5GHz is doable. You can't change the multi unless you have an Extreme edition CPU. You can keep bumping up the FSB. Don't worry about what your board is rated at. You'll have to increase voltages to keep going faster.

[MSW]

Thanks for the help. I currently have it up to 3.4 and I had to keep increasing the voltage. Voltage right now is running about 1.45. It appears to be stable on OCCT CPU and OCCT Linpack. The highest it drove the temps on Linpack was 62. Linpack really trys hard to drive the temps hot, however, these temps would probably never get reached during use with FSX. The highest I have seen the temps while using FSX so far is 50 (Using Core Temp). It was also stable for 4 hours with Prime95. I have a very good air cooled heat sink with good heat conducting paste which seems to keep it pretty cool. I think I am pretty close to the peak it can take under air cooled, although I might try 3.5. We'll see.

Mike