# Need advice on first manual overclock



## skymera (Oct 30, 2008)

Hello =D
I decided to join your forum because i need help trying to overclock my CPU.

I have an ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i motherboard and a Q6600 CPU.
I've never overclocked a CPU so i've stayed safe and used the AI Overclock utility on this board, i have it set at 10% so my clock is

2.63GHz 1173MHz FSB and 733MHz memory.

which is fine and dandy, but i cannot seem to get it any higher  AI Overclock on 15% makes a BSOD on XP. doh.

So i tried manually and decided to stick the FSB at 1333MHz which was 3GHz core and i left the memory stock at 667MHz. But it wouldn't even get past the POST. 
So anyway i took the clock down to what it was with the 10% and nudged it up to 1200FSB and XP booted, but not for long. The PC just restarted.

It occasionally boots with the FSB @ 1333 but never stable.

I'm a total noob, and have tweaked very little. All voltages are stock and stuck on auto, memory timings are stock auto.

I've seen people push this CPU to 3.2-3.4GHz and i can only make it to 2.63 

So does anyone have advice or experience that might help me?
I'm happy to provide more info if anyone needs it.

Thanks


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## skymera (Oct 30, 2008)

Sorry been away for a while.

Ok im still trying to get a stable overclock over 10% but to no avail. 

I've tried decreasing the volts and increasing the volts both on the CPU and NB.

Any replies much appreciated.


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## snedie (Feb 9, 2008)

OK, my first bit of advice would be to stop using automated peices of software to overclock your hardware and go in there and do it manually. Also note that overclocking voids you warrenties.

Secondly overclocking is only harmfull to your pc if you go overclocking in leaps and bounds and doing stuff like setting voltages to the highest settings. Also, every pc is different, even if the consist of the same hardware so each overclock is unique. 

So, so basic rules.

)Increases is clock speeds generally cause instablilty. To get around this we increase the voltages. I am running a Q6600 with a 33% overclock (2.4Ghz > 3.26Ghz). To do this I had to increase my FSB from 800Mhz to 1423Mhz and the voltage from 1.20v > 1.3867. Now your probably wondering how and why i chose those settings, well it's all about trial and error and having a lot of patience.

When overclocking you have to make small adjustments to system settings and only change one thing at a time. Altering multiple things just makes it more confusing when something goes wrong becuase you dont know what is causing the problem.

Before continuing get some paper and a pen and start making notes about all the changes you make. Keep an eye on system temp's as much as possible.

The first thing to overclock is the CPU, which is probably all you want to overclock for now anyways with this been your first one. As you already tried, increase the FSB but this time go in smaller ammounts. I find that going up in 100Mhz bounces at first is a good method, when I hit my first BSOD I just notch up the voltage and try rebooting. Sometimes with a decent rig this will allow me to go up another 100Mhz or even more. But eventually you will reach that 1.4v mark then you wanna stop (see below). Look at what the last working clock speed was and the one you are at now and the go for something in the middle. try booting again, if you still get the BSOD go half way again and so on and so forth. Eventually you will find the highest stable clock speed you can reach. At this point it is time for some benchmarks. I find that running PC mark 05-07 to be a good way of testing system stabilty as they will stress your system using the same things that games use. If the computer crashes pr restarts then it is still unstable. try lowering the FSB a little and running the benchmark again. Once it passes you should also try lowering the cpu core voltage, this just takes some of the stress off it. See the paragraph below for more on this.

check what the voltage is currently set as the default, its usually around 1.2v. increase this in VERY small ammounts and do NOT take it above 1.48 volts, even that is pushing it towards damage. You see as voltages go up so does the heat, and more heat means more watts been taken up. All this stresses the CPU far beyond what the manufacturers intended.

Hope this helps, I know its not really in much detail but for a first time overclocker detail is not something you want to cloud yourself with.

There are a lot of guides on the internet now and I always use them if I am overclocking some kit I have never used before.


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## skymera (Oct 30, 2008)

Thank you very much !

I will try low and work my way up then give some feedback.


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## snedie (Feb 9, 2008)

One thing I forgot to mention was that if you have watercooling or a very good cpu cooler (The Titan Amanda is the best) you will find your overclock will produce better results. 

For example, on stock cooling I managed to overclock my Q6600 from 2.4Ghz to 2.95Ghz. When I bought some better cooling (Coolermaster Cosmos S case and lots of fans) I managed to gain a 360Mhz boost on the overclock, not much I know but it did bump up my 3dmark score.


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## skymera (Oct 30, 2008)

I have an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro, i bought it because i've heard good things about it and it was below the £20 mark


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