Overclocking barrier!!!!!

[POVSTA]

HEY GUYS, i'm new to the computer scene and i just recently finished building my PC.
SPECS: motherboard= ASUS P5KPL-CM
CPU= Intel Pentium DUAL CORE E2180
GRAPHICS CARD= NViDIA 7200GS
1GB RAM 800mhz DDR2 HYNIX
Anyways my motherboard has an overclock feature were you can use 5%/10%/15%/20% etc overclock profiles. But just can't seem to get Past 10% overclock which gives me gain from 2Ghz to 2.213 ghz. I know my Cpu can do more cause ive read up on it before buying and everyone else seems to be able to get 75% Gains with ease. Please help me overclock. Instructions or any saught of help will do thank you. EMAIL ME AT= [e-mail]

[flynismo]

Generally speaking, the automatic overclock features that most boards offer aren't very good. You will be much better off doing it manually...
For example, your processor has a FSB of 200MHz. You can easily raise that to 266MHz and probably not have to touch any other settings; at most just give your CPU a very small bump in voltage. And by doing that you already would have a 2.66GHz processor, with a lot more to go...

Read up on this, lot of great support forums out there... check out overclockers.com

[jermaghs07]

Do you want my advice. don't overclock! It is a waist of good hardware. all overclocking does is add extra stress to your hardware without much performance gain. if your processor is stable and runs efficiently, leave it alone. but if you just have to overclock it, Flynismo is right. on board overclocking isn't very good at all. you need to bump the FSB just a little.

[POVSTA]

Hey there i tried what u said, but anything over 224cpu frequency won't work. it won't get past the loggon screen. turns of at this point. I've tried everything i could think off. CPU voltage to VTT setin . But thats about it i dont know what else to do.

[POVSTA]

Your probably right, cause its doing a good job at 2.2 anyways. But if you can think of any other little tweaks that can help speed things up i'll take your advice on board. thanks mate.

[flynismo]

Hey there i tried what u said, but anything over 224cpu frequency won't work. it won't get past the loggon screen. turns of at this point. I've tried everything i could think off. CPU voltage to VTT setin . But thats about it i dont know what else to do.

When you say logon screen, do you mean the login screen for your operating system, or are you talking about when you first turn on your computer and the BIOS screen that displays while your operating system is booting up?

[flynismo]

Just a couple basic things to try before we go further....

First, make sure that all your power saving settings are disabled (C1E, SpeedStep, etc...)

Next, set your FSB ratio to 1:1. Your board may or may not give you that option (your RAM has to be linked-which is another setting your board may not offer). If you're not sure, basically what that means is that your RAM is running at the same speed as your processor. So if you set your processor to 266MHz, then set your DRAM frequency to 533 MHz (this is confusing, I know...will explain later)

[flynismo]

Also, wanted to reiterate what jermaghs07 said above....

The only time you are going to see any significant benefits to overclocking is when you are using intensive applications such as games, graphic design/3D software (such as AutoCAD, Maya, Photoshop and so on...) video editing/rendering, etc...

That said, what do you mainly use your computer for?

[flynismo]

Since this is a pretty detailed process; here's a great how-to article on overclocking Intel Dual Core processors-

HOWTO: Overclock C2Q (Quads) and C2D (Duals)

[POVSTA]

THE logon screen with the user accounts

[POVSTA]

I use my pc mainly for music production.

[jermaghs07]

It might be overheating. do you have anything to monitor your CPU temp? if you want to continue this overclocking escapade i suggest that you get a bigger heat sync for your CPU. Like i said in an earlier post Overclocking produces A LOT more heat with only a slight gain in performance. so basically you are drastically shortening the lifespan of your computer.

just some advice

[jermaghs07]

If you are doing music production you are probably running some CPU intensive programs. if you truly want to boost performance, get a dual core and forget all this overclocking nonsense

[flynismo]

Actually this sounds like it's probably a memory issue...it wont always throw up the blue screen when the memory timings are off, sometimes it freezes, or does what it's doing now.

Set your FSB ratio to 1:1. Or you can do it manually. In other words, set the FSB to 266MHz, and your memory frequency to 533MHz. Leave everything else on auto, and see if that gets you into your system.
If not, raise the voltage to your memory a little, add about .1v
If that still doesn't get you in, loosen the memory timings; but I doubt you'll have to go this far.

[flynismo]

And also, to expand on what he said above, if you're using Captivate or other such programs, they do eat up a lot of resources...I'd look into adding another GB of memory (double that if you're using Vista) for a cheap fix...

[jermaghs07]

I think if you add some ram and get it synchronized with the CPU and you will see a dramatic improvement.

[POVSTA]

HEY JERMAGHS07 thanks for your help. LAST NIGHT just when i was about to give up bang i got it right thanks to you guys. Well i started by restorung factory settings. then changed oc to manual. clocked it to 266 cpu FSB, then changed RAM to 667, cause there was only 3 options. 667,800.and auto, then, then i changed i think it was the multiplyer from auto/10 to 6. and then ihad to disable the cpu AUTOMATIS sidestepping feature. Other than that its all on auto. And walla i've got a STOCK Intel Pentium DUAL CORE CPU from 2Ghz to 2.66Ghz. nthanks again guys. One little quiry. The cpu Temperature is fine so is every other bit of hardware, EXCEPT the GPU/graphics card. ITs RUNNING AT 70-78' degrees celcius. I believe thats pretty hot. or is it. ITS the only PEACE with a high temperature. Is that normal?

[jermaghs07]

the max temp for a standard Pentium dual core is 95c. the 70 degree range should be fine. it will run a little hotter due to the overclocking. but at that temp it sounds fine. if it does start getting to high you might think about upgrading the heat sync. and don't bother with water cooling. it's too expensive and you can get air cooling systems that work just as well.

[POVSTA]

hey ther, the temp of the cpu is quite low its only at 40 degrees or so,i assume thats really good. but the graphics card is the hottest of all the hardware. with a temp of 70-75degrees. is that safe?

[flynismo]

Your cpu temps look good (if those are the temps of the cores...don't go by CPU temp), but your graphic card's temp is a bit high. You want to try to keep it in the 50's (obviously lower would be even better).

[flynismo]

the max temp for a standard Pentium dual core is 95c. the 70 degree range should be fine. it will run a little hotter due to the overclocking. but at that temp it sounds fine. if it does start getting to high you might think about upgrading the heat sync. and don't bother with water cooling. it's too expensive and you can get air cooling systems that work just as well.

The tjunction is 95c, but you don't want your cpu operating anywhere near that, even under full load...
Ideally, the CPU will max out at around 65c under 100% load...anything over 70c is getting dangerous.

[flynismo]

HEY JERMAGHS07 thanks for your help. LAST NIGHT just when i was about to give up bang i got it right thanks to you guys. Well i started by restorung factory settings. then changed oc to manual. clocked it to 266 cpu FSB, then changed RAM to 667, cause there was only 3 options. 667,800.and auto, then, then i changed i think it was the multiplyer from auto/10 to 6. and then ihad to disable the cpu AUTOMATIS sidestepping feature. Other than that its all on auto. And walla i've got a STOCK Intel Pentium DUAL CORE CPU from 2Ghz to 2.66Ghz. nthanks again guys. One little quiry. The cpu Temperature is fine so is every other bit of hardware, EXCEPT the GPU/graphics card. ITs RUNNING AT 70-78' degrees celcius. I believe thats pretty hot. or is it. ITS the only PEACE with a high temperature. Is that normal?

Good!

Looking at your temps, you still have a lot of headroom left.
Now try bumping it up another notch.

Raise your FSB to 333MHz, and give your cpu another small shot of voltage (increase it only a little, say .15v). Leave your memory at 667MHz for now. The idea here is not only are we going to try to get your Intel up to 3.3GHz, but doing this will also accomplish a couple other things....a) your FSB ratio will now be at 1:1, which is ideal for stability, and b) raise your processor's performance while keeping your memory in check (since your memory is rated at 800MHz, right now you're actually underclocking it...which is okay, because for right now we're just trying to get an idea of how far we can push your processor before we need to start fiddling around with memory settings. Memory is probably the #1 reason for crashing and other errors.)
Again, leave everything else on auto, then the first thing you want to do is check your temps. If you're happy with the temps, now would be a good time to stress test it. Let it run on Prime95 for a couple hours, and if it passes, go back into your BIOS and drop the voltage a little bit. Then run it on Prime again for a couple hours again. If it fails this time, then you'll need to raise the voltage back up to what it was before.

[POVSTA]

HELLO again, thanks for the help ' i've got it running at 3ghz now and its really,really responsive mixed with a couple other tweaks. i'm quite happy with it now. BUT before i go, I got a question. My harddrive led has been on all the time with no breaks ever since ive built it is it suppose to be on 24/7. I'm not experiencing any Problems though. Everything is working fine. Any ideas?

[jermaghs07]

you can get a PCI slot cooling card for about $15 that should help bring the temp down.

[jermaghs07]

about the Hard drive light. it sounds like you might have the little wire plugged into the wrong prong. check the paperwork for your motherboard and see which one it is supposed to be plugged into.