# Looking for some assistance to safely OC my PC :)



## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

Hey there everyone. I'm no genius but I'm also not an idiot  I would like to learn on what I can do to safely overlock my pc and as to if I actually can safely OC it. There are a few things off the top of my head that I think some people are going to frown upon but I'd like to listen to what you guys have to say.

A few of the things are, I have 4 gigs of ram, but they are split. 2 of them are mushkin sticks and 2 of them are OCZ sticks. I believe this is frown upon but I am not sure.

I only have a core 2 duo processor, unfortunately I do not believe my motherboard will allow anything bigger  I want to upgrade my pc but I do not want to spend too much money atm because I'm trying to pay off my car :<.

Lastly my power supply is only 600 watts. I do believe this is kind of small. 

I'm going to provide some information on my computer specs (btw let me know if there is anything I could purchase that is not too costly that could greatly increase my systems stability/effectiveness!) as asked in the "Read here before posting" thread. 

Field	Value
Computer	
Operating System	Windows 7 Home Premium Home Edition
OS Service Pack	-
DirectX	4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name	JUSTIN-PC
User Name	Justin

Motherboard	
CPU Type	Intel Pentium III Xeon, 2666 MHz
Motherboard Name	Unknown
Motherboard Chipset	Unknown
System Memory	4096 MB
BIOS Type	Unknown
Communication Port	Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port	Printer Port (LPT1)

Display	
Video Adapter	NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Video Adapter	NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Video Adapter	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Video Adapter	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Monitor	Generic PnP Monitor [NoDB] (911RG3NA07763)

Multimedia	
Audio Adapter	High Definition Audio Controller [NoDB]

Storage	
IDE Controller	Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller	NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller	NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller
Floppy Drive	Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive	ST380815 AS SCSI Disk Device (74 GB)
Disk Drive	ST350032 0SV SCSI Disk Device (465 GB)
Optical Drive	HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH20NS15 SCSI CdRom Device
SMART Hard Disks Status	Unknown

Partitions	
C: (NTFS)	76216 MB (18533 MB free)
E: (NTFS)	99 MB (70 MB free)
F: (NTFS)	476936 MB (474280 MB free)
Total Size	540.3 GB (481.3 GB free)

Input	
Keyboard	HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard	Microsoft USB Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 (IntelliType Pro)
Mouse	HID-compliant mouse

Network	
Network Adapter	Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter
Network Adapter	Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter
Network Adapter	NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller (192.168.1.105)

Peripherals	
Printer	Fax
Printer	HP Deskjet F4400 series
Printer	Microsoft XPS Document Writer
USB1 Controller	Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller [NoDB]
USB2 Controller	Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller [NoDB]
USB Device	Logitech G930 Headset
USB Device	Microsoft Hardware USB Keyboard
USB Device	SteelSeries World of Warcraft: Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse
USB Device	SteelSeries World of Warcraft: Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse
USB Device	USB Composite Device
USB Device	USB Composite Device
USB Device	USB Composite Device
USB Device	USB Input Device
USB Device	USB Input Device
USB Device	USB Input Device
USB Device	USB Input Device

Ram stick 1/2:
1024 MB
Max bandwidth: PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
Manufacturer: OCZ
Part Number: OCZ2N800SR1G
Serial Number: FFFFFFFF

Ram Stick 3/4:
Size: 1024 MB
Max Bandwidth: PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
Manufacturer: Mushkin
Part Number: 991603 (996603)

I'll also provide links to newegg to my current hardware. 

*Case:*
Newegg.com - RAIDMAX Scorpio ATX-868WUP Blue Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply

*Hard Drives:*

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380815AS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - Seagate SV35.3 ST3500320SV 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive

*Ram Sticks:*

Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996603

Newegg.com - OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K

*Motherboard:*

Newegg.com - ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

*CPU: *

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 Wolfdale 2.66GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Dual-Core Processor BX80571E7300

*GPU'S:*

Newegg.com - EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

I'm using this to run my PhysX:

Newegg.com - EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Support Video Card

*Power Supply:*

Newegg.com - RAIDMAX AURORA 2 RX-600F 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready LED Power Supply

*Cooling:*

I have a pretty good cooling setup. It's not water cooled but hey, I'm not rich :/. The biggest concern is my cpu is cooled by a stock heat sink. I have 5 80 mm fans, 2 in the front for intake, one on the side for intake, and 2 in the rear for exhaust. These are all controlled by a fanspeed controller in the front of my case. These all run around 1900 RPM's unfortunately I cannot tell you the exact fans because I did not get them from newegg and do not have documents of what they are where I got them from x.x.

*Temperatures:*

Idling with 2 tabs open and ventrilo, with core temp up 20% avg load at 67 degrees C. 

While writing this thread up I have had world of warcraft running in the backround idling in Stormwind with high population. load was around 95-98% on both cores and core temperatures were around 98 degrees C! I'm not sure but I believe this is not good? (Just stole the laptop from my GF for a bit it has a core i7 processor and wow, world of warcraft only put load at 20% max on each core and was sitting at like 70 degrees C, my desktops processor sucks! .. )


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## Horusrogue (Aug 31, 2009)

Dude...you really messed up your links. They are doubled http and are all bad requests.

Also: You will need an aftermarket heatsink for OCing the CPU.

My dual core hits 34 while playing crysis on full settings while running skype and multiple firefox tabs. 98? *Holy crap. That is not good. *


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

Sorry about that Horusrogue! Got it all fixed. 

On a second note. I have had this problem with my processor before. Re applied the thermal paste and it dropped like 30 degrees C. Maybe bad thermal paste? Or bad application of said thermal paste.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

Also, what type of heat sink would you recommend? I was thinking about upgrading my motherboard and getting a core i7 on my desktop. Would you recommend this? I do not believe my current motherboard can even use a core i7.


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## HARDHELPER (Jul 15, 2011)

Upgrading to i7 would make you have to upgrade your motherboard and RAM aswell.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

SeaSonic-XFX-Corsair (not the CX or GS Series) for the PSU.
650W minimum for the GTX 260.
Are you experiencing performance issue or just want to OC? Very little will be gained by OC'ing newer PC's.
A decent quality CPU cooler would be needed if you intend to OC seriously.
This one is hard to beat for the price: Newegg.com - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm Fluid Dynamic CPU Cooler
Note: OC'ing voids warranties.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

I feel like I am experiencing some pretty serious performance issues. My fps drops down to below 30 sometimes in random areas I do not feel like there is too much demand graphically. Also on my laptop I am able to play league of legends full screen while idling world of warcraft in the back round without any type of fps loss. My laptop has a core i7 with a gtx 460M but I was told the gtx 460M was a "mobile" version and is not as powerful as a gtx 460 that would go in a desktop. 

So I guess a few questions. Would replacing the motherboard, ram, and upgrade to a core i7 help with my fps issues. Or do I really need a new gpu, or would the heat sink along with a little OC'ing work? 

And I do not believe warranties are a factor anymore, the only thing would be the gpu I believe I got that last year other than that everything was bought in 2008 .


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

I will not help you overclock untill you get an aftermarket heatsink and you need a power supply as suggest by Tyree above because the one you have at the moment I would trust to prop up some books with.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

FPS, and gaming in general, is GPU dependent and if the GPU is not getting a sufficient supply of clean power that could easily affect the FPS. Replacing the PSU may very solve your problem. It needs to be replaced regardless so it's a possible win/win situation for you.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

No problem! I actually did order the aftermarket heat sink like requested! I actually ordered the Arctic cooling heat sink that tyree mentioned. I am getting it installed tommorow by the technology director of my work. I'm still researching the power supply though. I am told that I should not just be looking for total watts but also how many amps are going to the 12v rails. If someone would like to enlighten me on this I would definitely take some advice. I have some money and can order a beefy power supply if advice for one is provided.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

By the way I have come to the conclusion with the assistance of the technology director of one of the schools in the area I'm friends with, that my motherboard is reading my cpu's temperature wrong or something, or the censors in the cpu are not working correctly. Under full load my cpu reads 99 degrees Celsius but when sitting in the Bios screen reading my cpu temp it says 104 degrees Celsius when it is doing absolutely nothing. Does anyone else agree this is wierd?


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## Horusrogue (Aug 31, 2009)

theonlydubz said:


> By the way I have come to the conclusion with the assistance of the technology director of one of the schools in the area I'm friends with, that my motherboard is reading my cpu's temperature wrong or something, or the censors in the cpu are not working correctly. Under full load my cpu reads 99 degrees Celsius but when sitting in the Bios screen reading my cpu temp it says 104 degrees Celsius when it is doing absolutely nothing. Does anyone else agree this is wierd?


This is weird, but the readings in BIOS are the ones you should stick with. Does the heatsink feel like boiling?


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

I'm not sure but I will have the new after market heat sink installed tommorow. I really wanna look at the power supply though. One other thing, will my motherboard support SLI of 2 of the gtx 260 core 216's? If so what type of power supply should I look at grabbing to achieve this efficiently? 

Also with this type of setup is my older processor going to bottleneck everything or if we get it OC'ed will it be able to keep up?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

your cpu will be throttling if it is hitting that temp. By throttling I mean it will be slowing down and may even be shutting off to stop damage.

Yes you are correct about the amps being important as amps equal wattage. You have a low quality make of power supply and it should be replaced if you plan on overclocking aswell as the heatsink.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

For sure the heat sink will be replaced after I get off work today technology director is coming over to my house today after work to make sure the processor is correctly seated and also install the power supply. Still looking for some assistance on picking out a quality power supply. 

Assuming re applying the thermal paste and getting the heat sink on there does fix my heat issue, would the processor be able to run with 2 gtx 260 core 216's or should I try to at least get a quad core...and also will my motherboard support it?


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

I have found out why my cpu was so hot. One of the pins holding down the heat sink was broken! It was on there half assed and the thermal paste was applied very poorly. After properly applying the new Heat Sink (came with already applied arctic silver) my cpu is now running at 39 degrees celsius with 80% load!


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

quality power supplies are xfx,corsair and seasonuc.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

Hey my technology guy says I should look into this one.

Newegg.com - Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-750 750W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Would it suffice? And would it work for me later if I want to upgrade. He says it will run gtx 570's in SLI with a core i7 extreme


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

antec used to be high quality but not anymore they would now go into the tier 2 section of graphics cards whilst the ones I mentioned above are Tier 1.

I wouldn't run two 570s with a 750w you should go 850w for that but then again sli and crossfire are pointless your better of getting one good card.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

I already ordered the antec one because I still wasn't sure which specific power supply to get. I would be glad to buy one of the said power supplies but really don't know which one specifically I should get. Like above the heat sink was mentioned specifically, I purchased it and installed it. 

I'm sorry if it's asking for too much but like I said I don't know a lot and as you can see I bought a power supply myself and got a bad one. I do not know what I should be looking for. If someone doesn't mind giving me an exact power supply that I should show interest in or tell me what I need to be looking at I will be glad to return the antec and get one that you guys would rather I get.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

I have already mention 3 of the best corsair,xfx and seasonic 750w and if you do plan to go the pointless route and get two 570s then you will need an 850w


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

I do not plan on getting 2 570's as for that is extremely expensive, and I would have to pretty much buy a brand new computer. The person that recomended this power supply just said it would be able to run said setup.

Unfortunately my girlfriend pretty much cut me off $ wise. I'm going to have to stick with the power supply I ordered she will not let me send it back and get a different one. Would anyone be willing to help me OC now? Upgraded to a higher power and higher quality power supply and also got an after market heat sink. 100 % load on my processor puts it at 40 degrees celsius.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

ok then this is how you overclock. Beaware there is no safe overclock, if it goes wrong then its your problem.

Go into the Bios
Switch any auto overclocking to manual
set C1E and intel speed step to disabled (you can reinitialise these when your happy with your overclock)
raise the fsb by 10Mhz
Save and reboot

If you get into windows ok and everything looks ok go back into the Bios
raise the fsb by 10MHz
Save and reboot

keep following that procedure until you have raised the FSB by 60 Mhz
you now need to test the stability of the system by running OCCT for 1 hour whilst monitoring the temps with real temp in windows. You do not want the temps to go above 60 degrees c

If everything is ok go back into the bios.

Set your ram voltage to what the manufacturer states for that ram i.e 2v or whatever it is.
Input the ram timmings manually i.e 5-5-5-12 or whatever it is.

Set the PCIe speed to 100

Now raise the fsb by 10Mhz again then save a reboot and see if you get into windows ok if so follow the original procedure untill you have raised the fsb by 60Mhz again then save and reboot and test with OCCT for 1 hout again whilst monitoring the temps.

If at any stage you get a blue screen of death whilst trying to get into windows you will need to raise the CPU vcore voltage only ever raise it to the next available voltage and then try again.

You will notice when you raise the FSB that the ram speed also changes you do not want the ram speed to go about its rate speed for example if its 1066Mhz you do not want to go over 1066Mhz.

Overclocking takes time and doing it quickly can damage the cpu.

Once you get to an overclock your happy with run prime 95 for 7 hours whilst monitoring the temps. again you do not want to go over 60 degrees c.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

Alrighty good deal I will follow these procedures.  It is good timing too, tommorow is my day off work! I will do these and get back to you ^^ thank you.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

I have noticed that since I have 2 different types of rams they have different timings and voltages. I cannot find exactly where I'm supposed to manually set the timings for the RAM sticks and wondering if I need to get new ram sticks of the same type so the timings are not different. 

I did find the PCIe speed and it is set to 100. 

Also how do I find the rate speed that I do not want to exceed for my ram sticks?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

the ram speed will be in a setting called DRAM speed

You should not run different types of ram they should always be the same and running dual channel would actually be faster for you so instead of 3GB run 2GB in the matching coloured slots. 2x2GB would be a better option though.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

at 10.2% overclock my computer had a error when running OCCT for 41 minutes and 10 seconds. How can I upload the files to view? I believe this is after 120 Mghz more than default.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

OCCT pictures by thedubzunit - Photobucket

I believe you should be able to view the graphs up until the error here? I don't know what the error was or how to go about fixing it.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

try raising the vcore voltage and try again. remember to make sure the ram speed isn't over its rated speed.

if raising the vcore doesn't work back the overclock of and see what happens.


if your using the raidmax psu to oc with then that will most likely be the problem because they are crap


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

No sir I installed the Antec 750 W today. I respect everything everyone says here and would not do something you don't recommend. One thing though all the voltages are set to [AUTO]. So I'm really not sure what it is set at or what it should be set too. Any suggestions as for voltage? My tech guy at work told me 1.2 V for DRAM


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

Also I am not seeing a "DRAM speed"

I am using a "Pheonix - Award BIOS" 

I believe I should be adjusting voltage through "JumperFree Configuration" but I can also find Vcore Voltage in Power > HardWare Monitor. Vcore Voltage says 1.10V in the HardWare Monitor, that is a bit low isn't it? 1.5V is a number you do not want to go over though correct?


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

Just ordered

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPI-B

Going to replace my multi brand sticks with these 2 2gb sticks. Also upgrading from DDR2 800 PC2 6400 to DDR2 1066 PC2 8500 this should help with problems if they are created from DRAM speed going over the DRAM of my current sticks yeah?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

theonlydubz said:


> Also I am not seeing a "DRAM speed"
> 
> I am using a "Pheonix - Award BIOS"
> 
> I believe I should be adjusting voltage through "JumperFree Configuration" but I can also find Vcore Voltage in Power > HardWare Monitor. Vcore Voltage says 1.10V in the HardWare Monitor, that is a bit low isn't it? 1.5V is a number you do not want to go over though correct?


there should be a ram speed that will show the ram speed i.e1333Mhz (this is the ram speed)

No you do not change anything in the jumper free settings, you change the vcore voltagek

1.5v is usually what ddr3 ram runs at not a cpu

my cpu normal voltage is running at now is 1.218 i think its normal voltage is 1.18


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

Got some serious problems. OCCT will not run anymore. It freezes on "Initializing Main Components" and comes up with an error thing, if I try to send in my error to OCCT it stops responding and I have to close it...  What do I do to test now


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

use prime95 or re-download and install OCCT again

prime95 is what you will use for the 7 hour test but you can run it for one hour. You want to run the test that maxes out the cpu and the ram


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

I have uninstalled OCCT and reinstalled it a few times and everytime it does the same thing. I will do will try that though.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

I have it OC'ed right now at 18% and its stable no errors or anything, but when I play league of legends I'm suffering a substantial loss in fps


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

did you get this before overclocking?

if not is your psu upto the task?

did you set the pcie frequency to 100

what are your temps like GPU and cpu?


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

I did not get this until after overclocking. I had the game settings set to ignore vertical sync and set the frames to benchmark and it was around 140 fps. After the overclock it was around 40 fps. But after changing the overclock it then went to 190 fps. 

PCIE frequency is at 100 and temps were around 48 celsius for gpu and 50 celsius cpu.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

On a side note I believe I may have everything working correctly. The system seems stable at 3.31 Ghz. I ran Prime 95 for 9 hours and 14 minutes with 0 errors or warnings, core 0 completed 368 tests and core 1 completed 372 tests. 

There is one thing I am confused about. While running the tests everything was fine and dandy the cores never went higher then 56 Celsius. But after I stopped the test I noticed one thing...My computer frequently beeps now and I do not have the manual to my motherboard anymore to figure out what it is. I will be looking it up here after I post this but maybe someone else knows what it is before I figure it out. The beeps are two very short consecutive beeps. It will beep in windows and even while in the Bios. Help?


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

Well I'm thinking I damage my cpu. I turned the overclock off and my computer is still beeping.


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## theonlydubz (Aug 17, 2009)

I've removed the Ram sticks from my computer, and reinstalled them and the beeping is gone! Computer is running at the same overclock fine with no errors at the current moment, running Wow, ventrillo, 3 internet tabs with pandora, gpu is at 44 celsius and the cores are at 40-41 degrees celsius.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

perhaps one of the sticks came loose somehow.

if you want to test the ram download memtest 86 burn to disc and boot from that disc. memtest is more accurate with one stick installed at a time.


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