E6750 & Gigabyte P35C-DS3R Overclocking Thread

[Conjugal Visit]

@everyone talking Ram overvolts...I read somewhere, and it seemed authoritative, that the board was somehow adapting to the Ram installed? Don't know. What I do know is that a +0.2v on my board, with my Ram, no matter what the bios version, has always equaled 2.13-2.14v. It's never changed. No idea why. But since it's a known parameter, I just don't worry about it. Of course, i continue to feel for folks that throw too much voltage at their ram believing the board is stock at 1.8v. But is it? Would specific ram types vary the stock voltage? Any chance these boards are smart like that?

Regards,

 

[honolululu]

Would specific ram types vary the stock voltage? Any chance these boards are smart like that?

Originally posted by: honolululu
These boards seem to 'know' if the RAM needs 1.8V or 2.0V and then overvolts even more from there.

I'm doing an RMA on my RAM, so I've got a slower set of pc2-5300 in right now, and at normal voltage it puts me at 1.89V. With the Mushkins in, normal voltage puts me at 2.01V or so.

That's what I'm seeing. According to wpcoe above it seems like pc2-6400 gets 2 volts to start. Who knows. Sheesh.

This whole switching bit sort of makes sense because there is some logic there for the mobo to select between two different types of RAM, DDR2 and DDR3. It's actually quite thoughtful.

If only they'd told us. They had to know at shipment what was going on. I hope they knew. :roll:

 

[wpcoe]

My two cents worth while Orthos is still running: so far 12hr 10min running at 3.2Ghz (400 x 8) with CPU voltage set to 1.30v and no errors. I have EIST/C1E disabled but will enable them later to see how it affects voltages. Speed fan control is enabled.

During the current stress test, the core temps have not risen above 59°C except in the middle of the night when I apparently got too cold and raised the target temp of the air con. I've been running the stress tests in a 23.5°C room but when I woke up the room was 25.5°C. Looking at the SpeedFan log file I can see that during the few hours before I woke up the core temps rose to 61°C a few times, but since I put the room back to 23.5°C, never a spike above 59° and actually only a few 59° short spikes, the rest are 58° or lower. Room temps DO matter!

My experience with my new KingMax DDR2 800 RAM seems the opposite of what others are experiencing. With the F2 and F5 BIOSes, with everything set at normal, i.e. no voltage tampering/no overclocking, my RAM voltage would show as 2.0v in BIOS and SpeedFan. With the F7 BIOS, the RAM is reported as 1.872v in BIOS and 1.87v in SpeedFan at idle (it has varied from 1.84v to 1.87v while running Orthos).

So, maybe this board/BIOS is smart enough to adapt to various RAM types?

For those with it automatically showing 2.0v with F7, is your RAM on the Gigabyte list of approved RAM (see Memory Suport List) for this mobo? Mine is, and I'm wondering if the BIOS has a built-in database of how to handle each type of RAM that has been approved, leaving non-approved RAM to be handled at some (arbitrary?) default? I could go farther on a limb and speculate that in earlier BIOSes my RAM had not yet been approved so was defaulting to 2.0v, but that with the F7 BIOS the RAM was recently approved and now volted correctly. Yeah, sometimes I can be a conspiracist.

Another difference for me with the F7 is that I need to set "Performance Enhance" to "Standard" or I cannot make it through POST. Luckily the MBIT screen had a red flashing notice at the Performance Enhance item alerting me that it might not work at "Turbo" (as it had in F2 and F5).

I will also confirm that they eliminated that mysterious "High Speed DRAM DLL settings" option.

@Conjugal Visit: I'm not sure of the exact model number of my LianLi case. The receipt just said PC-60, but the box itself says PC-60-Plus, and a LianLi flyer I just found in the box shows a pic of a PC-60-Plus and a PC-60B-Plus with the only difference being that the "B" is "Black". The open-case photo for the PC-60-Plus shows the fan above the PCI cards as venting out through the back, whereas mine vents out through the side. I bought it in Singapore in June 2006, since I couldn't find one in Thailand. I agree with all you said about the case. It is my second LianLi. Yes, they're pricy, but the quality and features are worth it to me. I'm sure the airflow in the case is a contributing factor to my low undervolt/overclock temps.

PS: And, yes, I find the room at 23.5°C (as reported by a digital thermometer about two feet from my computer) to be chilly, even in the daytime. I always sleep with the air con remote on the bed beside me and often turn the bloody thing off in the middle of the night. Living in the tropics can be strange and wonderful. :laugh:

 

[wpcoe]

I just did a quick comparison to see what effect enabling EIST and C1E has on the CPU and RAM voltages. None, apparently, using the data from SpeedFan log files and eye-balling the CPU-Z CPU voltage indicator.

My BIOS settings:
E6450 @ 3.2 Ghz (400 x 8)
CPUv = 1.3v
All other voltages = normal
Fan speed control = enabled
RAM= 1:1, 5-5-5-18 ("Automatic")

Monitoring about two minutes after boot-up at idle (with minimal processes running) and then for two minutes stress tested with Orthos blend test:

@idle
CPUZ & SpeedFan = 1.248v ~ 1.264v CPU
SpeedFan = 1.872v RAM

@stress
CPUZ & SpeedFan = 1.232v ~ 1.248v CPU
SpeedFan = 1.840v ~ 1.872v RAM

Enabling/Disabling EIST and C1E gave identical results.

Enabling EIST and C1E did allow lowering of the CPU multiplier to 6 at low load, so in effect the processor was operating at 2.4Ghz (400 x 6), but the voltage values were identical.

I then did a series of 30-minutes observations of core temps with EIST/C1E enabled, then disabled, then enabled, and the temps (except for occasional spikes, after which temps stabilized again) were in the same narrow range: Core0 = 32° ~ 24°C and Core1 = 35° ~ 37°C.

During that series of observations (30-minute sessions, alternatively with EIST/C1E off, then on) the CPU voltage was rock solid at 1.264v and RAM voltage was rock solid at 1.872v.

Soooo, even though EIST/C1E lowers the CPU multiplier, what is the advantage if the voltages and temps are the same at 400 x 6 as at 400 x 8? I seem to be missing something obvious here....

 

[Conjugal Visit]

Originally posted by: wpcoe
Another difference for me with the F7 is that I need to set "Performance Enhance" to "Standard" or I cannot make it through POST. Luckily the MBIT screen had a red flashing notice at the Performance Enhance item alerting me that it might not work at "Turbo" (as it had in F2 and F5).

Hmm - I wonder about that. I've had mine set to Extreme since my original overclock in F2. When I've migrated to all the other bios versions, including F7, I just left it there. I posted and everything, but I didn't stress test. I'd always thought this was Gigabyte's way of manipulating the T2 and T1 timings, but "Performance Enhance", like Robust Graphics, is undocumented.

Boy those are good temps you have there at stress, and on the stock Inteel heatsink, right? Maybe there is something to that Lian Li duct porting cool air over the heatsink and Northbridge. With my cooler, it's too tall to use the duct. So I have my fans set up like this:

120mm front - in. 120mm side - out. 80mm back - out. 80mm top - out. What I like about this orientation is that the heatsink fan is pointing at the 800mm in back - pushing warm air thru the heatsink and right out the back of the case. The side fan really does a good job removing warm air under my Vid card. What I don't like is that the case cooling is no longer in balance. Three out (not including the PSU) and only one in. Negative pressure? I'm not sure what the disadvantages are, but had I been able to use the duct, I would have seen some balance. But once again, you have shown that the stock Intel heatsink is just fine with moderate overclocks, and it sure is quiet under idle to moderate loads, don't you agree?

Regards,

 

[thejez]

I just got my DS3R and 6750 setup this weekend... marking this thread for when i get some time to overclock it...

 

[mrfatboy]

I'm sure I posted this a while ago here but I'll do it again since it's a hot topic. I had a trouble ticket with Gigabyte for 1 month. They never answered my question directly but since i'm "obcessive" I kept pressing them. Here are a couple of interesting answers they gave me although I never asked them about this

The statements seems to be about the "auto" setting of the memory. But from our experiences it seems that "manual" settings are some how tied into the auto. Maybe the bios automatically creates differenct voltages settings for (+0, +.1, +.2+, +.3, +.4) depending on the type of ram that is put in for "manual" mode.

This would explain why we get these settings (< F7 bios) were +.0 & +.1 are 2.0v (because we have performance ram)

+.0--2.00v
+.1--2.00v
+.2--2.13v
+.3--2.24v
+.4--2.37v


If this were true, in manual mode, somebody with value ram would have different voltages than one with high performance ram. I have never heard of this though and it would be really goofy and stupid if it were true.


Gigabyte"

Answer : If you wish for it to read the exact reading you will need to have an voltage meter, is there one available?
As for the reading it will depend on the memory being used, value ram will default at 1.8v, high performance memory will default anywhere between 1.9v-2.0v

You just want the bios to auto detect at 1.8v default voltage no matter which memory is being used?



Answer : It will depend on the type of memory being used, if you are using default memory which are rated at 1.8v it will auto detect at that spec. If you are using memory which are rated at 2.2v bios will detect slightly higher due to the memory being rated this high. We have tested here with 1.8v-1.9v and 2.2v memory
1.8v-1.9v memory will detect at 1.8v and 2.2v detected close to 2v

 

[MaDMvD]

In SpeedFan, is the RAM voltage indicated as VCore2? If so, my 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracers 800 @ 924MHz 4-4-4-12 are receiving 2.02v, when in fact they are 2.2v sticks. That would mean they are moderately overclocked while receiving undercurrent. I am currently running F8 BIOS and my RAM voltage is set to auto.

 

[mrfatboy]

yes, vcore2 is the memory voltage. There is no F8 bios at the moment ( i think ). I am guessing you have a P35-ds3r board. The P35C has the problems with voltage.

 

[MaDMvD]

Ah, I have the P35, not the P35C.

F8 Bios

 

[egrimisu]

Is there any diference between STANDARD, ENHACED AND TURBO in the bios settings? my pc is not OC-ed t the moment and the bios setting is auto set tu enhaced.Every morning i turn on my pc it freezes before the booting in win or when it shows the gigabyte logo,and after a bios reset it says that winload.exe has some problem.After that i reset and boot in safe mode i get a blue screen and it dos some kind of dump, and after the reset everithing works just fine.This problem only apears after several hours when the pc is off.

I'm using F3 bios P35C-DS3, i don't have raid.Shall i update my bios to F4 since this is the newest bios of my mobo.

Another question what shall i use 4-4-4-12 800MHZ 3.6GHZ 9x400 1:1 or 5-5-5-15 888MHZ 4.0GHZ 444x9 1:1
Is the 4.0 GHZ to much for the e6850 on air cooling
in cpu z my memory are shown in diferent in EPP profiles, are this profiels guarantied by the memory manufacturer? the first is 400mhz 4-4-4-12 2T 2.0v and the third that i want to use is 444mhz 5.5.5.15 2.2v.My memories are Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2/2GN

Thanks in advance of solving my dilemas


Is the P35C-DS3 have the same ddr volt issue as P35C-DS3R? (1.8 + 0.2v = 2.12v)

 

[dannyb007]

Hello.... I just stumbled across this discussion the other day using google, as I'm planning on using the ds3r and e6750 in my new build. Ive posted the specs over here and if you dont mind would really appreciate if you take a minute and give me some feedback! cheers!

 

[Conjugal Visit]

@danny - re: Ram - some folks are gonna say you can cut a little cost on your Ram spec. My 2 cents - a disproportionate number of "bad boards", "bad bios", "bad overclocks" complaints go back to Ram used in a particular system. My suggestions: refer to the approved memory list for your board. DDR2-800 is plenty. Spec low latency C4. Both Corsair and Crucial are on your board's approved list. Both should do 440mhz at 4-4-4-12 easy enough, which will get you to your 3.5ghz O/C goal - 440 x8 = 3.52ghz. Corsair's DHX heatspreader really does work - I've seen two reviews comparing this Ram to similar offerings and showing it running 5-7C cooler. I like Corsair for a number of reasons - others swear by Crucial. Both are fine.

Your Vid card - looking for performance and value? You want to go with the 8800GT 512mb. Introduced shortly after the truly great 8800gts 320mb, it has a similar price, and better performance than the 8800gts. This engendered a whole bunch of "trade-up" activity at manufacturers like eVGA, which allows these things. I started a ticket myself, then discovered I no longer had the box for the 8800gts, etc, etc... I am very, very pleased with my 8800gts - at my resolutions - 1024x768, 100hz refresh, everything turned up - it is flawless on Valve games, Farcry, and the new COD4. Sweet card - just not the value/performance leader now. This decision is simple for you - 8800GT 512mb.

Cooler - that's gonna have to be your call. Folks have their favorites, and yeah, on the thermalrights, you're going to have to pick thru the contradictory info - manufacturer says we design it bowed to mate better with Intel's CPU, and other folks say BS, you need to lap it etc...Two cents - that's an expensive cooler, about as expensive as it gets (and without a fan). Pinnacle of performance, but you got to lap it? And lap the CPU too while you're at it? You're gonna find a lot of folks on this board equally pleased with their Tuniq Tower, or their Scythe coolers, and I don't read a lot about having to lap these items. And with a target O/C of 3.5ghz, I don't think you're gonna see the difference. If I were changing out my heatsink tomorrow, I'd look at this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835118020

Super quiet and efficient, right up there with the Tuniq and thermalright, PWM capable, just a lil bit of bling with that LED fan, and it's drop-dead gorgeous the way they've "nickled" the copper. Downside? How you gonna change that proprietary looking fan out if it goes bad....

You'll like that board, and you'll like that processor.

Regards,

 

[mrfatboy]

@danny

Conjugal is right on mark with his advice. However, I would get the Tuniq! I am not sure were you are from but in the states you can find them as low as $45. An excellent value. As far as ram goes, again, if in the states, you can get them 2 gigs of Ballistix for $50.

Have fun with you new rig and bookmark this thread. It's got all the info you will need to know about your rig plus more

 

[dannyb007]

Great reply cheers conjugal.... I didnt even know there was an 8800GT, Ive been thinking about this build for a while and only now getting ready to order everything. 8800GT it is! I think Im also set on the DHX corsair as well, seems like a solid set of ram which no one has any complaints with, only praise.

CPU cooler im still unsure on, I think a little research and Ill come up with a decision. From what I can see, they all perform fairly equally, though some marginally better than others. Im going to see if I can find out which is easiest to install out of the zalman 9700, tuniq tower, scythe infinity and thermalright 120x and go with that, I want to avoid any headaches when I come to build it.

 

[wpcoe]

Based on the "unsolicited" comments from Gigabyte that mrfatboy quoted above, I guess the BIOS is smart enough to read the SPD charts from the RAM and make some semi-educated guess about the defaults.

It all seems a bit tenuous though, in that with my Gigabyte-approved KingMax RAM, the default voltages were higher with F2/F5 BIOS than with F7. But, I'm satisfied now with F7 volting it within the RAM's specifications, though.

However, I'm not satisfied with the fact that although the EIST/C1E features drop the CPU multiplier, there is no change in the voltage or temps. What's up with that?

 

[dannyb007]

I have 1 more question for you guys - noise. Is it realistic to overclock the e6750 to 3.5ghz and keep the noise down from the cpu heatsink fan? Or am I going to have to blast it with a noisy fan. Id like to hit 3.5ghz as quietly as possible.

 

[SniperDaws]

ive just realised i cant boot into windows with my pc at default settings, it either switches off just after the windows boot screen or the monitor loses its signal. soon as i Overclock to 3.2 it works fine.

This is with F6 so im going to try F7 or F8, although im struggling to get F8.


EDIT: ive narrowed it down, even with F7 bios i cant boot into winXP with a x9 multi even with everything at optimised defaults, soon as i set it to x8 it boots into winxp fine.

im going back to F2 bios cos these are just half arsed bios updates and Gigabyte dont give a shit simple as that.#


EDIT2: im back on F4 and its fine now.

 

[Conjugal Visit]

Originally posted by: dannyb007
I have 1 more question for you guys - noise. Is it realistic to overclock the e6750 to 3.5ghz and keep the noise down from the cpu heatsink fan? Or am I going to have to blast it with a noisy fan. Id like to hit 3.5ghz as quietly as possible.

Very realistic - that's assuming that you are comfortable with idle temps around 40-42C (I am.) If you are, you can drop CPU cooler fan speeds to pretty low, near silent levels. Case fans can be scaled back too. Just be sure your fans are being controlled somehow, so when CPU cores are stressed, your fans ramp up.

 

[wpcoe]

Originally posted by: Conjugal Visit

Originally posted by: wpcoe
Another difference for me with the F7 is that I need to set "Performance Enhance" to "Standard" or I cannot make it through POST. Luckily the MBIT screen had a red flashing notice at the Performance Enhance item alerting me that it might not work at "Turbo" (as it had in F2 and F5).

Hmm - I wonder about that. I've had mine set to Extreme since my original overclock in F2. When I've migrated to all the other bios versions, including F7, I just left it there. I posted and everything, but I didn't stress test. I'd always thought this was Gigabyte's way of manipulating the T2 and T1 timings, but "Performance Enhance", like Robust Graphics, is undocumented.

Mine was set to Turbo (by default) and worked fine with the F2 and F5 BIOSes, but with F7 (where it was also the default) once I enabled 400mhz, the Performance Enhance started flashing in red to warn that it might need to be set to Standard when overclocking. And it was right. I couldn't even get through a POST, I had to wait for the BIOS to reset itself to the "normal" settings and start over.

Boy those are good temps you have there at stress, and on the stock Inteel heatsink, right? Maybe there is something to that Lian Li duct porting cool air over the heatsink and Northbridge. With my cooler, it's too tall to use the duct. So I have my fans set up like this:

120mm front - in. 120mm side - out. 80mm back - out. 80mm top - out. What I like about this orientation is that the heatsink fan is pointing at the 800mm in back - pushing warm air thru the heatsink and right out the back of the case. The side fan really does a good job removing warm air under my Vid card. What I don't like is that the case cooling is no longer in balance. Three out (not including the PSU) and only one in. Negative pressure? I'm not sure what the disadvantages are, but had I been able to use the duct, I would have seen some balance. But once again, you have shown that the stock Intel heatsink is just fine with moderate overclocks, and it sure is quiet under idle to moderate loads, don't you agree?

JOOC, which fans do you have plugged into the mobo, and which one on a Molex? The case has four fans, and the mobo only has three connectors (besides CPU fan), right? [fingers crossed I didn't overlook a 4th connector] Right now I have the side-vented 12cm fan on a Molex, so it is not speed controllable. Of the three I do have plugged into the mobo, only the front (hdd drive cage) 12cm fan is controllable ... neither of the 8cm's are. I'm wondering if I should swap one of the 8cm's for the side fan? You mentioned pressure balance, and I'm wondering if increasing/decreasing the speed of the front 12cm fan should be balanced with a corresponding increase/decrease of the side 12cm fan.

By letting SpeedFan (4.34 beta) control the fans, the CPU fan spins a few hundred RPMs faster than it did using the mobo fan speed control.

FYI, I tried tightening the RAM timings to 4-4-4-12, and got an error on Orthos at 7h 50m. Darn.

 

[Conjugal Visit]

80mm rear - Sys 1 (no motherboard control - spins @ 2230rpm - a little loud for me, I need a fanmate here); 80mm top - Sys 2 (mb controlled - spins @ 1200rpm and ramps up at stress); 120mm front - PWR (spins at 1290rpm steady - no control); 120mm side fan - Zalman fanmate - est 800-900rpm; CPU - CPU fan header, 4-pin, using Easytune to drop rpms at idle lower than PWM is set to - typical rpm at idle is 650-900, but that gives me temps of 42-44C, but pretty quiet...

Regards,

 

[fausto412]

Originally posted by: mrfatboy
I'm sure I posted this a while ago here but I'll do it again since it's a hot topic. I had a trouble ticket with Gigabyte for 1 month. They never answered my question directly but since i'm "obcessive" I kept pressing them. Here are a couple of interesting answers they gave me although I never asked them about this

The statements seems to be about the "auto" setting of the memory. But from our experiences it seems that "manual" settings are some how tied into the auto. Maybe the bios automatically creates differenct voltages settings for (+0, +.1, +.2+, +.3, +.4) depending on the type of ram that is put in for "manual" mode.

This would explain why we get these settings (< F7 bios) were +.0 & +.1 are 2.0v (because we have performance ram)

+.0--2.00v
+.1--2.00v
+.2--2.13v
+.3--2.24v
+.4--2.37v


If this were true, in manual mode, somebody with value ram would have different voltages than one with high performance ram. I have never heard of this though and it would be really goofy and stupid if it were true.


Gigabyte"

Answer : If you wish for it to read the exact reading you will need to have an voltage meter, is there one available?
As for the reading it will depend on the memory being used, value ram will default at 1.8v, high performance memory will default anywhere between 1.9v-2.0v

You just want the bios to auto detect at 1.8v default voltage no matter which memory is being used?



Answer : It will depend on the type of memory being used, if you are using default memory which are rated at 1.8v it will auto detect at that spec. If you are using memory which are rated at 2.2v bios will detect slightly higher due to the memory being rated this high. We have tested here with 1.8v-1.9v and 2.2v memory
1.8v-1.9v memory will detect at 1.8v and 2.2v detected close to 2v

that is the dumbest thing i ever heard, why put manual settings in a board if they board will override? now here is the thing that gets me, i got the f7 bios 2 days ago and this one shows actual voltages in bios under system health(which by the way are the same values in speedfan) so no more gay OK or FAIL crap. well when i set +.2 it shows 2.1 and +.3 shows 2.13 and +.4 shows...get ready for this....wait for it....wait for it....(there is a bunch of posts on what i'll type in next in gigabyte own forums)...almost there....here it is is...+.4 gives me 2.38 Vdimm!!! isn't that a crock of manure? no wonder people post about their board when to manure, they'll killing their ram. just notice you experience same thing i do on +.4. now if i want to use ram that work at 2.2 i have to undervolt or overvolt

 

[fausto412]

Originally posted by: wpcoe
Based on the "unsolicited" comments from Gigabyte that mrfatboy quoted above, I guess the BIOS is smart enough to read the SPD charts from the RAM and make some semi-educated guess about the defaults.

It all seems a bit tenuous though, in that with my Gigabyte-approved KingMax RAM, the default voltages were higher with F2/F5 BIOS than with F7. But, I'm satisfied now with F7 volting it within the RAM's specifications, though.

However, I'm not satisfied with the fact that although the EIST/C1E features drop the CPU multiplier, there is no change in the voltage or temps. What's up with that?

My understand is that those features don't work well when overclocking. set it to stock and you'll see voltage drop and multiplier drop in cpu-z

 

[fausto412]

Originally posted by: mrfatboy
yes, vcore2 is the memory voltage. There is no F8 bios at the moment ( i think ). I am guessing you have a P35-ds3r board. The P35C has the problems with voltage.

your specs say you have ram at 800 mhz running 1 to 1 with cpu but to OC to 3.6 you need 450 fsb which is 900 mhz in 1 to 1 ram. so which is it? you oc the ram but don't note it in your specs or you somehow underclocked your wrong or got it fixed at 800. if so, how did you? if i can lock my ram at a spec i will reach 3.6 with no problems.

 

[fausto412]

i have a scythe ninja rev b and replaced the super quiet 1200 rmp fan that comes with it(a steal at 35 bucks on newegg) with an antec tri-cool fan that tops out at 2000+ rpm. then i set my board to control speed and at idle it hovers around 1200 rpm most days which i can't hear outside my p182 case. now when i play it speeds up but i can't hear it because i wear headphones or have my sound up. it's been shows that the ninja's performance improves up to 70 cfm so my setup ensures i have the air i need when it's needed and run cooler at idle(depending on ambient temp)