Asus P5N-E SLI overclocking

[Xaser04]

Hi all,

Ever since I bought my C2D E4300 it has been sitting quite comfortably at 3ghz however I am now thinking of squeezing a bit extra out of it before I eventually upgrade some time early next year.

What I would like to know is what settings you are running with the P5N-E to get your overclocks. I am especially curious of the settings used on the NB voltage and the cpu voltage itself.

My memory won't be an issue as I run it unlinked (and therefore it trundles along at its own frequency ignoring the FSB).

I am aiming for possibly 3.6ghz which would be a 100% overclock on this chip however I doubt I will get that far (but hey every little helps)

If you could help me that would be great.

Cheers and merry christmas all. :)

[Tatty_One]

Hi all,

Ever since I bought my C2D E4300 it has been sitting quite comfortably at 3ghz however I am now thinking of squeezing a bit extra out of it before I eventually upgrade some time early next year.

What I would like to know is what settings you are running with the P5N-E to get your overclocks. I am especially curious of the settings used on the NB voltage and the cpu voltage itself.

My memory won't be an issue as I run it unlinked (and therefore it trundles along at its own frequency ignoring the FSB).

I am aiming for possibly 3.6ghz which would be a 100% overclock on this chip however I doubt I will get that far (but hey every little helps)

If you could help me that would be great.

Cheers and merry christmas all. :)

I am your man! :D I managed to get 4.25gig outta my 6580 on my Asus. Firstly, do you have some cooling on the NB/SB?

Secondly, usually for higher stable overclocks you are better to "link".

Thirdly, the VCore voltage is going to depend more on the CPU than the motherboard, may I suggest setting VCore to 1.55V initially and see what you can get out of the chip within that limit, if you hit your objective then you can always drop back the VCore in increments to see how little she will take.

As for the NB Voltage, the answer to this is normally a combination of FSB speed and overall CPU speed, I would suggest setting it on the 2nd highest (1.5 something I think it is) but if you have not already you will need to stick a small fan on the NB heatsink if you still have the stock and if you have not touched the SB, I put a couple of ramsinks on it and that did the job for me.

Get back to me and let me know how you progress.

[Xaser04]

Cheers Tatty that is exactly the information I was looking for.

I currently havn't touched the board in terms of cooling however I will look into a little heatsink for the SB and also a fan for the NB heatsink.

I have read on a couple of reviews that getting the best overclock from the board means jacking up the NB voltage to 1.5 (which I havn't tried yet lol)

Unforntunately I can't run my memory linked as anything above its stock speed well it just doesn't work lol. (I am also looking into getting some nice cheap DDR2 PC8000 (1066mhz)).

So far the chip isn't stable at 3.2ghz with 1.45v however at this time I was only running a very low voltage increment through the NB (the one up from the base).

I think I will have a fiddle when I get home (at work at the mo) to see whether i can get 3.2 ghz stable and then work from there.

Temperature wise the Artic cooling Freezer 7 seems to be doing a good job of keeping the chip around the mid 50's under load which is pretty good considering how much it cost.

[Tatty_One]

Cheers Tatty that is exactly the information I was looking for.

I currently havn't touched the board in terms of cooling however I will look into a little heatsink for the SB and also a fan for the NB heatsink.

I have read on a couple of reviews that getting the best overclock from the board means jacking up the NB voltage to 1.5 (which I havn't tried yet lol)

Unforntunately I can't run my memory linked as anything above its stock speed well it just doesn't work lol. (I am also looking into getting some nice cheap DDR2 PC8000 (1066mhz)).

So far the chip isn't stable at 3.2ghz with 1.45v however at this time I was only running a very low voltage increment through the NB (the one up from the base).

I think I will have a fiddle when I get home (at work at the mo) to see whether i can get 3.2 ghz stable and then work from there.

Temperature wise the Artic cooling Freezer 7 seems to be doing a good job of keeping the chip around the mid 50's under load which is pretty good considering how much it cost.


Okey dokey, a couple of things here that can make a real difference, firstly the Artic Cooling Freezer pro, a good but not great cooler, get yourself a cheap 80 or 90mm fan and stick it on the fins opposite to the stock cooler "sucking" the air straight into your case extractor fan, this will give you 4-5C lower temps at idle and upto 8 or 9C lower temps at load (because you get twice the airflow with the 2 fan setup), a good return for 3 quid. I note your comments about it's performing well but once you start hitting 1.55V you just watch them temps increase.

Secondly, as for the memory, seriously, save your money and buy my Patriot extreme performance low latency kit, these are brand new and unused, capable of over 1200mhz and more importantly cheap, these are Micron D9's and not the Infineon crap that they are using on some of their kits now. I am not saying this just so as I can make a sale, they will sell at a profit for me on e bay after Xmas but I would let a TPU member have them at cost.

[Grings]

I had one of those boards too, as tatty says you wont need the top nb voltage, the 1.5x (1.56? i cant remember either) is enough

I also agree with the linked ram, i couldnt get mine over 333fsb unlinked, but got well over that once i ran it linked

And youre probably gonna need a lot of volts, on a 4400 i needed 1.5v to get 3.5ghz and couldnt get much higher, primarily due to vdroop (tatty knows a mod for this, i never tried it myself, and dont have any links to it)

and finally, watch out for all the fsb 'holes', as well as bad memory performance at certain fsb's, theres an article on them here (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/abit-in932x-max_9.html) (its not this particular board, its an abit 680i, but i found memory trouble at the exact same fsb's, so its probably just a general nvidia 6xx quirk)

[Xaser04]

Cheers for the info guys.

I think I will have a fiddle with the linked ram option as IIRC it does give you options for dividers once you link it (my ram really doesn't overclock at all).

Tatty when you say an extra 80-90mm fan on the cooler what do you mean? I currently have my Feezer 7 facing towards the back of the case (fan on the right as you look at it so the fan on the cooler is blowing the air through the fins and the exhaust fan is sucking the air away), do you mean stick another fan in between the cooler and the exhaust fan aiding this process?

I doubt I will see 3.6ghz but I am trying this more as a test than anything else as its always great to get a bit extra performance for no extra cost.

I will try what you guys have suggested (although I won't put quite as much vcore through the cpu just yet, maybe top out at 1.5v for now) and I will reply later on hopefully with good news lol.

Cheers again

EDIT: Tatty how much would you be looking at for the ram?

[Tatty_One]

Cheers for the info guys.

I think I will have a fiddle with the linked ram option as IIRC it does give you options for dividers once you link it (my ram really doesn't overclock at all).

Tatty when you say an extra 80-90mm fan on the cooler what do you mean? I currently have my Feezer 7 facing towards the back of the case (fan on the right as you look at it so the fan on the cooler is blowing the air through the fins and the exhaust fan is sucking the air away), do you mean stick another fan in between the cooler and the exhaust fan aiding this process?

I doubt I will see 3.6ghz but I am trying this more as a test than anything else as its always great to get a bit extra performance for no extra cost.

I will try what you guys have suggested (although I won't put quite as much vcore through the cpu just yet, maybe top out at 1.5v for now) and I will reply later on hopefully with good news lol.

Cheers again

EDIT: Tatty how much would you be looking at for the ram?

Yes on the fan, it really does make a difference, it sucks the hot air outta the fins twice as quick and less escapes into the case as more goes direcetly into the case extractor.

VDroop mod is just a pencil mod, easy to do with a 2B pencil, just let me know if you want to do it sometime and I'll send you the pic and instructions, you can wipe if off if you dont like it so safe.

£42 which would include P&P which is exactly what I paid, guarenteed Micron D9's :D (I paid £38 + £4 delivery.....2 x 1GB sticks). They are a little bit faster than my ballistix I am also selling after Xmas.

[Xaser04]

Tatty I will take that memory at asking. Could you drop me an email please to oweneades@btinternet.com and we can sort out payment/ postage etc (I can't right now as my email is blocked at work).

I don't think I will bother with the vdroop mod tbh. This motherboard will be replaced next year anyway.

Cheers again.

Owen

[Tatty_One]

Tatty I will take that memory at asking. Could you drop me an email please to oweneades@btinternet.com and we can sort out payment/ postage etc (I can't right now as my email is blocked at work).

I don't think I will bother with the vdroop mod tbh. This motherboard will be replaced next year anyway.

Cheers again.

Owen

Okey Dokey, will wang you one tonite.