E6550 Not very popular?

[wicko]

Apparently the EVGA 680i does. It says in the manual, that using 1 4 pin connector will do, but highly recommended 2. I assumed it that I might lose stability with high clocks or something. I ended up ordering the Mushkin HP 550, managed to get it for 65 CDN. Mixed reviews but it seems like it will do what I want.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: wicko
Hey bryan, I noticed you have the 900 as well, did you keep all the stock fans on the case, or replace them with something quieter? I know they are pretty quiet on low speeds but high speeds it's supposed to get pretty loud. I was thinking of replacing them at some point in time if they are too loud and i need the case to be cooler.

They're on medium right now and you can hear them, at low speed they're whisper-quiet. I think I'm going to put them back on low now that I've given up getting over 3.7 ghz.

 

[wicko]

That's good to hear, mine are a little loud too, I think I left one of them on high or something by accident. But I can't hear the 200mm fan on high, at all.

Anyway, I finally have mostly everything sorted out, and here is my first overclock, didn't want to push it far just yet:

Should I run some kind of testing program or something or is this enough?

Hmm, can you not post screenshots on here?

Here's the direct link:
OC 2.8 GHz

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: myocardia
Well, even though the E6550 is a 2.3 Ghz processor, it has a 7x cpu multiplier, since it has a 333 Mhz FSB. That means that unless you bought really good PC6400 RAM, you won't be making it much past 2.8ish Ghz, unless your RAM overclocks really well. Most people who are overclocking C2D's, even C2Q's, want faster than 2.8-3.0 Ghz. BTW, welcome to anandtech, Wicko.

457x7 = 3199Mhz right? I dunno much PC6400 that won't do DDR2-914.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: wicko
Received all my parts today, but.. I realized I need a new power supply as my current one only has 1 4Pin 12V cable instead of 2, which seems to be required if I want any decent results on my new board. But that ships tomorrow so I should be good.

But jeez, how many power inputs do these motherboards need, lol. 24 pin, plus 8pins? I thought CPUs used less power now anyways, maybe it supplies power to the chipset?

8pins is the standard...no more 4pin 12v connector and it's not 2 4pin connectors, it's just one with 8 pins.

 

[wicko]

A lot of power supplies have them split as 2 4pin connectors for boards that don't support 8pin, so I imagine its the exact same cable, just two of them.

And I don't need to overclock my RAM at all, I can clock the CPU bus asynchronously, so it doesn't change memory speed at all.

But those temperatures that core temp is reading seems off, 22 C is pretty damn cool.

 

[bryanW1995]

yes, it is off by 15c.

 

[Gepidae]

Not to bring a dead topic back to life but...how is your ocing going wicko? My e6550 will only go to ~3.1 @ 450 fsb on stock volts. Anything I do with volts and such so far hasnt worked. At that speed my temps are great with speedfan and core temp both reporting at 48 degrees avg on 20 mins of orthos

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: wicko
A lot of power supplies have them split as 2 4pin connectors for boards that don't support 8pin, so I imagine its the exact same cable, just two of them.

And I don't need to overclock my RAM at all, I can clock the CPU bus asynchronously, so it doesn't change memory speed at all.

But those temperatures that core temp is reading seems off, 22 C is pretty damn cool.

actually most good PSUs (seasonic, PCP&C, Corsair) have both 4pin and 8pin from what I've seen available.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Gepidae
Not to bring a dead topic back to life but...how is your ocing going wicko? My e6550 will only go to ~3.1 @ 450 fsb on stock volts. Anything I do with volts and such so far hasnt worked. At that speed my temps are great with speedfan and core temp both reporting at 48 degrees avg on 20 mins of orthos

try 1.4v on the vcore (gives 1.36 actual) and see how far that gets you. Then slowly go down a notch at a time on the voltage.

 

[FrankieNyc123]

Ok I just wanted to mention on thing about these so called "solid state" capacitors. They are not really called "solid state", and if they are who ever is calling them solid state is using an incorrect term to describe these capacitors. , solid state was a term used years ago to describe electronic equipment that used semiconductors or transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The capacitors that some motherboard companies are calling "solid" is a capaitors like the Sanyo "OSCON" lwhich uses a solid polymer as the electrolyte instead of a liquid like normal eletrolytic capacitors. The main benefits of this type of capacitor is that they last longer and offer a lower esr. Lasting longer is not really a big deal since pretty much any high quality electrolytic capacitor will last at least as long as the average computers lifespan which if I had to guess I would say is some where in the 5 -6 year range. The lower ESR of "solid" capacitors could help stability but the overall design of the voltage regulator circuit is much more important. I wouldnt worry to much about wether or not your motherboard has "solid" capacitors unless you plan on using the motherboard for more then 5-6 years. if you would like to learn a bit more about these capacitors check out these links
http://www.diyparadise.com/oscon.html
http://www.edc.sanyo.com/engli...tor/oscon/outline.html
http://www.edc.sanyo.com/engli...or/poscap/outline.html

 

[SerpentRoyal]

The primary advantage of solid caps is the creation of additional clearance around the CPU mounting area.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: myocardia
Well, even though the E6550 is a 2.3 Ghz processor, it has a 7x cpu multiplier, since it has a 333 Mhz FSB. That means that unless you bought really good PC6400 RAM, you won't be making it much past 2.8ish Ghz, unless your RAM overclocks really well. Most people who are overclocking C2D's, even C2Q's, want faster than 2.8-3.0 Ghz. BTW, welcome to anandtech, Wicko.

457x7 = 3199Mhz right? I dunno much PC6400 that won't do DDR2-914.

Find 5 or 6 different PC6400's that don't have Micron D9 IC's, and report back to us about how far they overclock.

 

[wicko]

Sorry I've been away for a bit.. Umm about overclocking, well I haven't really done much, in fact that 2.8 Ghz, I would just ignore that because there was a few things about my motherboard I wasn't aware of that were causing blue screens and random restarts. Apparently, if I left the CPU Core voltage on Auto, it would actually change, and undervolt my system. So i set it to the VID of the e6550, 1.35V, and I haven't had a single crash in days. So, I think that is solved. I will get to overclocking soon, maybe tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully I can show some nice figures

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: myocardia
Well, even though the E6550 is a 2.3 Ghz processor, it has a 7x cpu multiplier, since it has a 333 Mhz FSB. That means that unless you bought really good PC6400 RAM, you won't be making it much past 2.8ish Ghz, unless your RAM overclocks really well. Most people who are overclocking C2D's, even C2Q's, want faster than 2.8-3.0 Ghz. BTW, welcome to anandtech, Wicko.

457x7 = 3199Mhz right? I dunno much PC6400 that won't do DDR2-914.

Find 5 or 6 different PC6400's that don't have Micron D9 IC's, and report back to us about how far they overclock.

1GB DDR2 800 Kingston ValueRAM...eight modules with Kingston Logo @ 580MHz/2.1V/5-5-5-18-2T.

512MB DDR2 800 Kingston ValueRAM...two modules with unknown logo @ 602MHz/2.1/5-5-5-16-2T.

 

[Gepidae]

Hey wicko please keep me posted as Im pretty upset with my chip. BTW, what is your stepping? Mine is l719a655 (off the top of my head)

 

[wicko]

Where did you find that number? CPUz just says my stepping is B, and revision G0. I think if anything is limiting your chip its your motherboard, I don't know how well that particular one goes, I know some of the Abits were really great for the 1066 models but I don't know about 1333.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: myocardia
Well, even though the E6550 is a 2.3 Ghz processor, it has a 7x cpu multiplier, since it has a 333 Mhz FSB. That means that unless you bought really good PC6400 RAM, you won't be making it much past 2.8ish Ghz, unless your RAM overclocks really well. Most people who are overclocking C2D's, even C2Q's, want faster than 2.8-3.0 Ghz. BTW, welcome to anandtech, Wicko.

457x7 = 3199Mhz right? I dunno much PC6400 that won't do DDR2-914.

Find 5 or 6 different PC6400's that don't have Micron D9 IC's, and report back to us about how far they overclock.

I've seen various revisions of Promos and Elpida that can do DDR2-1000 easily.

Don't tell me about that BS.

 

[wicko]

Well, I did a bit of overclocking and had it stable at 2.8 GHz with ram timings at 5-5-5-12 instead of 5-5-5-18. Played FEAR at max for a while and ran SuperPi (21sec stock, 18 seconds this round). Right now I'm running at 3.195 ghz and my ram is running at 900mhz with the 5-5-5-12. So far it seems stable, haven't done much yet but temps haven't increased much. I'm still running at 1.35V too. If you're having issues with yours, i would check your BIOS to see if there is anything like C1E halt feature or something like that. What that is 2 different things: Lower the multiplier whenever a halt command is called, and lower the voltage whenever halt is called. I would look into your bios for something like that and make sure its disabled. I've read that some motherboards might have it as 2 seperate options, so make sure its not undervolting your CPU. And if your mobo has Auto set for your cpu core voltage, make sure you set it manually to 1.35V instead.

 

[stevolution]

Originally posted by: wicko
Are there any disadvantages for using async?

Well in the memtest 1.7, when running async:
Bandwidth ~= 4400MB/s

When running sync
Bandwidth ~=5000MB/s

Running 950mhz at 4-4-4-8 2T

 

[Swamp]

im running my E6550 at 3.4ghz havent tried going higher yet. got a GA_p35-DS3R mobo, G. skill ram

 

[acruxksa]

It's early in the testing, but here's what I've gotten so far with an Abit IP35-e mobo, Buffalo Firestix DDR2-800, xclio goodpower 500, ATI x1950pro and a Zalman cnps 9700.

vcore 1.41 (bios) actual is 1.35v
dimm 2.4v timings 6-6-6-18 (not great, but this ram has never been good above 900)
northbridge, southbridge and other voltages set to auto.

For the price, the Abit IP35-e seems to be a very nice no frills mobo

e6550 @ 3500 (7x500)

 

[SerpentRoyal]

RAM may limit your overclock. My bottleneck was 488MHz with the E6320. I figure this board would do at least 500MHz FSB with capable CPU and RAM. The IP35-E and IP35 Pro share the same basic power platform, and therefore, should achieve very similar overclocking capability. Congrat on a very nice overclock. IP35-E is a fantastic value at $70.

 

[acruxksa]

Well, over 8hrs and still orhtos stable! I'm pretty sure the ram is limiting me. This pair has never been over 900 on my old GA-965P-DQ6, so 1000 on the IP35-E is pretty good (even at 6-6-6-18). I'm not sure theres much more left in the cpu (on air at least), but It does post @ 7x533 although with some weirdness going on (has to be a cold boot), then it boots but seems to be at default speed when the OS loads.

In anycase, the e6x50's seem to OC well. Unless you are out to push your memory, the e6750 would be a better buy.


e6550 @ 3500 (7x500)