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OC Your Proc

The Maximum PC Staff — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:50:42 -0500

I bought an E6850 because I’d read how easy it is to overclock. I followed the instructions in your article about overclocking Intel CPUs and I can’t get an extra 10MHz out of mine before it locks up! I’m running the CPU on an Asus Striker Extreme, with 2GB of Corsair Dominator RAM, a Raptor 150GB HD, an 8800 GTX, an Enermax 850W PSU, Win XP SP3, etc. The CPU and GPU are water cooled and run at about 40 C under load.

Each time I raise the front-side bus speed in the BIOS it boots fine and runs for about two minutes before locking up. I tried unlinking the RAM; still no luck. Everything is running at stock settings, but I want to be able to OC the proc.

Any ideas on what the problem might be?

—Andy Saint

First, remember that overclocking can be risky and that it’s no guarantee you’ll get more out of your system. There are a few things you can check. One, you may have to increase the voltage to the CPU, chipset, and RAM to achieve higher overclocks. Second, you should check your BIOS version. If you’re running a very old BIOS, a newer revision may actually let you hit higher speeds. For example, BIOS rev 1305 for your mobo “Enhances CPU overclock capability of FSB1333 processors.” Also remember that your Core 2 Duo E6850 runs on a 333MHz front-side bus and has a 9x locked multiplier, so getting it to extremely high speeds would require very high front-side bus speeds. To get to 4GHz, you’d need to push a 450MHz front-side bus. Although overclocking techniques differ, the Doctor prefers pushing CPUs that have lower front-side bus speeds rather than those with higher speeds.

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes.

Asus Announces On-The-Fly Overclocking Panel

Andy Salisbury — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:26:13 -0500

Building on their Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand, Asus recently announced the OC Station, a hardware-based, bay-mounted device that will allow users access to a slew of overclocking parameters.

The OC Station will fill up two 5.25-inch bays, and will feature a 3-inch TFT-LED display on an adjustable faceplate (movable up to 30 degrees). There is also a large rotary switch on the front, which is where the real business will take place. Users will be able to adjust fan speeds, change system voltages and frequencies in real time – all without having to use the BIOS. It will also let users check out their system information and change ROG-exclusive settings such as CPU Level Up and the Asus EPU-6 Engine.

No word yet on pricing or availability. But, if you’re interested in this type of thing (and I know you are), check out a leaked gallery of pictures here.

Image Credit: Asus

Celeron Scorches Past 8GHz, Second Highest Clockspeed Ever Achieved

Paul Lilly — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:00:28 -0500

There's a reason Intel's Celeron line has consistently proven popular among overclockers. Out of CPU-Z's top 20 list of highest clocked CPUs, Celeron chips -- most of them of the Celeron 347 variety -- occupy 12 spots, or 60 percent of the list. And recently setting a new record for the No. 2 spot, Belgian overclocker 'Blind' from Madshrimps pushed his Celeron 352 chip (Cedarmill core) to 8.116GHz.

In order to ramp up that high, Blind used the Dragon F1 Extreme Edition LN2 cooler with gum filling the gaps around the socket to prevent condensation. It took nearly 1.9V to coax the Celeron past 8GHz, well above its stock 1.3V rating.

Such high voltages and extreme cooling methods limit the usefulness to chasing overclocking records as opposed to any kind of day-to-day operations, but we'll admit to being impressed at seeing a 3.2GHz Celeron achieve almost a 5GHz OC. And hey, reaching 5.7GHz on air isn't too shabby either.

Plenty of pics and more info here.

Image Credit: Madshrimps

Biostar Claims Another Overclocking World Record

Paul Lilly — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:29:31 -0500

Maybe the world has gone topsy-turvy on us, but Biostar, the company best known for its budget motherboards, has set another overclocking world record, this time on AMD's Phenom platform. Say what?

Using Biostar's recently released TA790GX A3+ motherboard, Japanese overclocker "PcCI2iminal" and his team (Yoko) pushed AMD's Phenom II 955 processor to 6.16GHz and 6.20GHz, respectively, claiming the top and third spots for highest OC for that processor. In both cases, liquid nitrogen cooling was used to push the processor nearly 94 percent higher than its stock speed. The fourth highest OC sits at a distant 4.09GHz using air cooling.

Last summer, a Biostar board was used to set the frontside bus world record when an overclocker who goes by the name Youngpro manged to maneuver the Biostar I45 board's FSB to 725MHz (2,900MHz quad-pumped).

Image Credit: Biostar

EVGA Updates Precision Overclocking Tool, Adds Multi-GPU Support

Paul Lilly — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:40:34 -0500

You have to admire when a company doesn't just talk the talk, but walks the walk. EVGA, one of three Nvidia add-in board (AIB) partners to offer lifetime warranties for its videocards, not only allows end-users to overclock their cards without voiding the warranty, but arguably encourages the behavior by serving up OCing tools. Registered owners can download the company's GPU Voltage Tuner utility, and anyone can download EVGA's Precision overclocking software whether they own an EVGA-brand videocard or not.

In the case of the latter, a new version is now available, v1.5.1. Several updates have been added to the 1.5.x refresh (the majority were included in v1.5.0 released last Friday), including multi-GPU support. The overclocking tool now gives users independent access to thermal monitoring, overclocking, and fan control settings of all installed GPUs whether configured to run in SLI or not.

Other changes and fixes include better support for GeForce 9 and older videocards, a pair of new skins, settings no longer reset at Windows startup on multi-GPU systems, fixed memory clock monitoring for G98 GPUs, and Precision now displays the graphics processor codename in the system info.

Changelog
Download

Overclocked AMD Phenom II Hits 6.5GHz with Liquid Nitrogen/Helium Cooling

Andy Salisbury — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:01:30 -0600

In the past, the AMD Phenom II has been overclocked to an extremely impressive 5 GHz. And while this was extremely impressive, it would seem that AMD wouldn’t want to be outdone.

AMD’s own Pete Hardman and Sami Makinen were able to overclock an AMD Phenom II to a blazing 6.5GHz, at an operating temperature of –230 degrees Celsius using liquid nitrogen and liquid helium as their cooling agents.

Should you be interested in seeing the whole process play out, be sure and check out the video here (and, as is usual with videos of this nature, prepare your ears for some awful trance music).

Image Credit: AMD

Phenom II Overclocked to 4.9Ghz at Overdrive

Paul Lilly — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:55:01 -0600

AMD could really use a compelling CPU launch to win back favor among enthusiasts and turn its financial struggles around, and the company hopes its upcoming Phenom II processor line will do just that. Last month the chip maker demoed a Phenom II being overclocked on a variety of cooling solutions culminating with a 5GHz run using LN2, and now end-users putting the Phenom II's overclocking prowess to the test are seeing similar results.

During Tom's Hardware's Overdrive overclocking finals in Paris, teams from all over the world competed for the highest scores using Intel's Core i7 platform, but AMD's Phenom II also made an appearance. With the help of one of the competitors, the news and review site took the 940 Phenom X4 BE II from its stock 3GHz frequency up to 4.957GHz using a Gigabyte motherboard and liquid nitrogen cooling. Ironically, the extreme cooling may have prevented the quad-core chip's overclocking ceiling, as Tom's Hardware claims "it has an issue of locking at temperatures below -70°C."

Not many system builders are going to interested in keeping a supply of LN2 handy, but what's interesting to note is the frequency headroom AMD's next generation Phenom chips appear to offer. During AMD's demo, the 45nm quad-core chip still broke the 4GHz barrier on air and water cooling, which bodes well for Phenom II and perhaps AMD's future.

AMD is expected to launch Phenom II in January 2009.

Image Credit: Tom's Hardware

MSI Wind Invities Overclocking with BIOS Update

Paul Lilly — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:20:15 -0500

Notebook manufacturers might be finding it difficult to separate themselves from the competition in what has become an extremely crowded netbook market. It's gotten to the point where we can recite a netbook press release without having ever read it - Atom processor, solid-state drive (SSD) or hard drive, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP or Linux, and so forth. So how do you stand out from the crowd?

If you're MSI, you release a new BIOS that offers overclocking controls. With the v1.09 BIOS released this week, Wind owners can push their Wind netbook's Atom N270 processor in increments of 8 percent, 15 percent, and 24 percent over the stock speed. As is always the case with overclocking, you'll have to analyze the risk-to-reward ratio, and according to ElectricVagabond.com, the reward of a 24 percent overclock can equate to as much as a 30 percent increase in performance.

Anyone Wind owners plan on playing with the new BIOS? Hit the jump and give us your impression.

Image Credit: MSI