E6400 Retail Overclocking

[Roy2001]

Originally posted by: Cuhulainn

Originally posted by: Roy2001
Gary,

Could you please clarify this? ........

uhhh, as I said before:

Originally posted by: Cuhulainn

No need for all that!

I have this OCZ memory. Just put 1 stick in to get the board to post, flash to the f4c bios, turn it off, put that 2nd stick in, and that's it. no adjustments necessary.

enjoy! :beer:

But if that wasn't clear enough..

The stock bios is F1 with DS3's shipping from NewEgg. It will boot with a single stick of this OCZ 2.1v, allowing you to access the bios menu. Then flash to more current version (I know that f4c works) that will provide the higher voltage to the DIMMs allowing you to install them both.

I got this info from OCZ support staff, and verified it myself when I set up the system in my sig last night. My system is now purring along with 2gigs.

But, if you don't want to take my word for it you can wait for Gary to answer. :disgust:

Sorry for misunderstanding. Actually I really appreciate that information. Since I checked DS3 board information and it is overwhelming with info that you have to boot with 1.8v RAMs. I was worrying about that.

Thanks again for your info and I am really assured to get DS3

 

[aldamon]

Gary, when are we going to see a new official DS3 BIOS from Gigabyte? The last beta I've seen is F4c. I doubt they stopped there.

 

[mobutu]

Dear mr. Gary Key,

I hope that you can help me with a bit of advice. It's about:
-E6400 w/scythe ninja or thermalright ultra 120
-Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4
-TeamGroup TXDD2048M800HC4DC, DDR2 800, 4-4-4-12, 2x1GB

I recall that you've mentioned the DS4 in this thread, that you are testing it right now ... can you tell me if this motherboard is any good? Is it better than DS3? Is it worth purchasing?
I'm from Europe and DS4 should be available very very soon but I can't find any trusty review of it so I hope that you can help.
Also, the memory is a good choice?

Thanks in advance and regards.

 

[Cuhulainn]

Originally posted by: Roy2001

Sorry for misunderstanding. Actually I really appreciate that information. Since I checked DS3 board information and it is overwhelming with info that you have to boot with 1.8v RAMs. I was worrying about that.

Thanks again for your info and I am really assured to get DS3

No worries. I was a bit concerned about that myself, but I've got the system up and running now. I believe the problem was that the board supplies a max 1.8v times (2 for dual channel), so it can handle just one stick of a higher voltage RAM as long as it's less than (1.8v times 2) = 3.6v total, which shouldn't be an issue. That's how I understand it anyway.. I'm sure Gary and others could explain it more eloquently.

Enjoy!

 

[Madellga]

Originally posted by: mobutu
Dear mr. Gary Key,

I hope that you can help me with a bit of advice. It's about:
-E6400 w/scythe ninja or thermalright ultra 120
-Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4
-TeamGroup TXDD2048M800HC4DC, DDR2 800, 4-4-4-12, 2x1GB

I recall that you've mentioned the DS4 in this thread, that you are testing it right now ... can you tell me if this motherboard is any good? Is it better than DS3? Is it worth purchasing?
I'm from Europe and DS4 should be available very very soon but I can't find any trusty review of it so I hope that you can help.
Also, the memory is a good choice?

Thanks in advance and regards.

The Thermalright SI-120 cannot be mounted on the Socket 775 boards without an adapter that is sold separately. If you are going to buy a new cooler, buy the Thermalright SI-128. It comes with brackets for Intel and A64.

BTW, the SI-128 does not need tools to be assembled - not need to attach a back plate either.

 

[mobutu]

I was talking about thermalright ultra 120
I think this model is ok with s775 ...

You can check the specs at http://www.thermalright.com/

 

[Madellga]

Originally posted by: mobutu
I was talking about thermalright ultra 120
I think this model is ok with s775 ...

You can check the specs at http://www.thermalright.com/

Yes, I think this model has the same assembly principle. Just one thought, the SI series blows also on the mobo components. The Ultra will blow to the back or to the PSU.

The components around the CPU (Northbridge, power regulators) will benefit from some airflow provided by the SI type or Typhoon.

 

[Kougar]

Okay, I saw some DS3 questions in here, my 24/7 set up is at the bottom (If I could ever get the my rigs profiles section to let me upload this I would!! )

The current GA-965P-DS3 BIOS is now "F4e", it fixes the "CAS 3" bug amongst other things. It's a beta, but people at XS and myself are loving it. Link to DS3 "F4e" BIOS. Use at your own risk, as always...

As far as RAM with the DS3, it seems to just love anything by Corsair. Compared to some other user's reports I seem to have lucked out by choosing this specific kit of RAM, as it has given me no problems and OCs to the moon on 2.1v. G.Skill needs voltage, so unless the F4e solves this issue don't buy any RAM that loves high voltage. I made this mistake with my old Abit IS7 and a DDR550 TCCD kit from G.Skill and a Northwood.

With the new F4e BIOS I am able to post at a 501FSB, and am still testing. Ran a 32m SuperPi, and the system is chugging through Aquamark3 at a good 0.3FPS (I did say it was a 7000 class ATI PCI card, right? Only wanted the CPU benchmarks but it's the trail copy...)

If anyone has any other DS3 questions point me at a thread or PM and I'll answer any settings questions that I can. The key OC ingredient is active MCH and ICH8 cooling, and VERY GOOD CPU cooling, the rest about does itself. The Core 2 Duo is the most amazingly heat sensitive chip I've seen...

(Outdated specs as of now, but completely stable)
Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86ghz @ 3.33ghz
w/ Zalman CNPS7700-Cu, 475FSB 1.356v, 45c max for 24/7 folding@home
Gigabyte 965P-DS3 Motherboard (F4C BIOS)
2 x 1Gb Corsair DDR2-800 RAM @ 950mhz 3-5-5-12 2v
ATI 7000 PCI Graphics Card
Antec NeoHE 550watt PSU / Antec P180-B Case
APC 1100 backUPS Pro (To game online when the power goes out )

 

[Madellga]

There is a new and official F3 BIOS on the Gigabyte website. It did improve some minor things for me, ie, not being able to boot o/c with some USB devices plugged in. Now it works!!

I'm running since 2 weeks at 3.2GHz / 1.3625V / FSB 400 / 4-4-4-15.
Absolutely stable, even tried 2xPrime95 for 16 hours.
Gaming with the 7950GX2 without issues.

I tried a couple of times going beyond 400FSB, it doesn't work. Not sure if it is the mobo or ram, but I gave up. I'm happy with my results and I'm not willing to spend +200 bucks on über expensive RAM for a "possible" chance of increasing the o/c a bit more.

I got 90% of what I could do while trying to keep the budget as low as possible. I'm not going to spend 50% more for a 10% clock increase.

One thing though. I plugged a card reader yesterday on the back of my DQ6 and got a warning that it was a low speed USB port (1.1).

After checking in the device manager, I found this:
http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dq6usbod3.jpg

So, only 2 headers (4 ports out of 10) are USB 2.0?

Is this a mistake or I got less than I paid for?

It is a new Windows XP install, including the latest Intel Inf for the 965 chipset.

Can other people with 965 boards check that out?

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: aldamon
Gary, when are we going to see a new official DS3 BIOS from Gigabyte? The last beta I've seen is F4c. I doubt they stopped there.

The final F4 bios has been released at Gigabyte's site and we are now beta testing the next version. You will find that most of the DDR2-800 1.8V boot issues are gone along with the PIO issue on Optical drives when RAID is enabled.

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: mobutu
Dear mr. Gary Key,

I hope that you can help me with a bit of advice. It's about:
-E6400 w/scythe ninja or thermalright ultra 120
-Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4
-TeamGroup TXDD2048M800HC4DC, DDR2 800, 4-4-4-12, 2x1GB

I recall that you've mentioned the DS4 in this thread, that you are testing it right now ... can you tell me if this motherboard is any good? Is it better than DS3? Is it worth purchasing?
I'm from Europe and DS4 should be available very very soon but I can't find any trusty review of it so I hope that you can help.
Also, the memory is a good choice?

Thanks in advance and regards.

The DS4 so far is overclocking a little better than the DS3. I just received a new bios for it so I need to confirm the RAM boot issues are clear now. I believe it is worth purchasing but until I complete our roundup on the Gigabyte boards it will be difficult to say if the price increase over the DS3 is worth it for general application work, for overclocking the answer is yes at this time.

 

[Kougar]

Gary, I apologize if this is a little OT, but has any testing been done or evidence found with Gigabyte's XpressRecovery2 program that is bootable off of the driver CD? Specifically I am under the impression that simply launching it during boot up and exiting is enough to crash a RAID 0 array, as twice I accidentally started the program trying to activate other XP boot modes during start up, and both times one reboot later my RAID 0 had failed. I have had some pretty sour issues with quite a bit of Gigabyte's software, so maybe there is something just specific to my machine I don't know. The machine was not overclocked before both RAID 0 array failures.

Thank you for the information on the DS4, I'd been curious to know! I'm very much lookin forward to any and all Gigabyte related articles!

 

[Madellga]

I tried once 450x6 at 6-6-6 and same Vdim. It did boot and could run Prime95 for 40 minutes.
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/282/dq6pluse640027ghzfsb450yg9.jpg

Once I tried a 7x or 8x, it wouldn't boot anymore.

It seems that you cannot have a higher multiplier and high FSB at the same time. This is why people with the E6300 can reach high FSB - on the other hand you need fast DDR2 sticks, which are über expensive.

I think the E6400 has the sweet spot at the moment. At 3.2GHz we got 90% of the o/c potential at a minimum cost, with low volts meaning low risk for the CPU.

I'm very happy with this result.

 

[JbIeNlGlLe725]

hey Gary,

would you recommend Asus p5b deluxe or Ds3? which one will perform better for E6400 if i plan to OC. thanx.

 

[Kougar]

Again, 2x1GB of DDR2-800 Corsair XMS2 RAM is about $180... it was cheaper but prices on it are going up, Newegg's alone went up by $13 since I bought it. This memory runs fine above 1,000mhz with 5-5-5-15 and 2v.

 

[dasmokedog]

I know it is not a 6400 but the 6300 is essentially the same just has an 8x multi vs a 7x:

Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz 2Meg L2 Cache
------------------------------------------------------
CPU-Z:
3499.98MHz http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=112855

SuperPI:
1M: 00m 16.593s Checksum: 5EC49D70
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6133.jpg
8M: 03m 10.812s Checksum: A1A08EA2
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6134.jpg

Sandra:
Dhrystone: 32268 MIPS -->AMD FX2-62(20225 MIPS)
Whetstone: 22206 MFLOPS -->AMD FX2-62(17084 MFLOPS)
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6129.jpg

Integer x8 iSSE4: 193522 it/s -->AMD FX2-62(52653 it/s)
Floating-Point x4 iSSE2: 104339 it/s -->AMD FX2-62(56980 it/s)
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6130.jpg

RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2: 7982 MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2: 7961 MB/s
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6132.jpg

Check out the Cache test!!
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6131.jpg

BIOS Settings:
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6135.jpg
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6136.jpg
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6137.jpg

Gutz:
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6138.jpg
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6139.jpg
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6140.jpg
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6141.jpg
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6142.jpg
http://www.rigshowcase.com/img/3463TEjR/6143.jpg