ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Thread

[Asce]

I would get this for your SB as it will also allow you to go Sli in the future without replacing it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835425007

[TriBeCa]

looks great. p'rhaps i'll just stick with AS5 instead of messing about with that other stuff. i'm thinking i'll lap that CPU cooler and the top of the CPU as well...might as well if i'm go to the trouble of putting a new cooler on there.

[Asce]

You wouldnt need to lap it if your temps with the Ultra 120 are good. My Tuniq keeps my E6420 under 45°c even with 1.45 pumping through the vcore. Just make sure you get a good fan to put on the Extreme

[TriBeCa]

i'll be putting two standard 120mm case fans on it, one on each side, set to exhaust towards the rear case exhaust fan. i've been snooping around in the intel cooling forum here, where people have been discussing lapping that cooler. looks like they're getting good results. i don't mind spending a few hours on it if it's gonna give me even another 4C to play with. once i replace all the cooling i'm gonna try pushing my OC a little further, so i'd rather not have to pull it off again and lap it if my temps go back up to where they are now.

and yeah, my vcore is at 1.45 as well...i'll be laughing if I can get my load temps down to 45C. what's your NB voltage at? I assume you're at a 400FSB like me...I had to put my NB volts to the max in order to get stable at 400FSB. tried everything, but it was the only option.

[DonNiger]

Have a new toy to play; E2160. But Ithink 4 gigs wont be possible. Alredy added 1,57v




E: some improvement, 100+% OC: http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=224503

[Asce]

You've had to put it that high, im only at 1.5 but then again i do have a thermalright HR-05 on the NB cooling it. Plus it helps that ive got a HUGE case

[TriBeCa]

nice OC don. think you can manage 3.6, for a 100% OC?

asce...do you think I should go with a better cooler for the nb than the one i was planning on? not sure exactly what it is, but it was some aftermarket cooler I bought 4 years ago. 1.5" tall 30-fin copper heatsink with a 70mm fan sitting on it.

[Boggs]

I need assistance overclocking my ram and cpu. I change the voltage on my cpu, I have all the utilities i believe i need, cpuz, speedfan, orthos etc. what else do i need and can someone help me overclock my 2.13 e6420 core 2 duo from 2.13 to 3.0? and im also using gskill 2gb of ram. with a 8800 GTS 640 MB.

[TriBeCa]

at the top of the page, go to "User CP" and then, on the left side of the page, click "edit system" (or add system, or something). fill in your details there so we can see it more easily (like you see on mine).

first off, make sure you have windows installed and updated and all that at stock settings. you don't want to OC 'till you've done that, because any system instability can screw up the windows install and make your system unstable no matter WHAT you do. once you've done this, install motherboard drivers, video card drivers, and all that jazz. you'll probably also want to update your bios (I haven't updated mine in a while and can't actually remember what version I'm using, so others can warn if there's any to be wary of).

next, you'll want to go in and manually set everything relevant in the BIOS to stock settings manually, so that you can then go in and step things up piece by piece.

if you're new to this, which I assume you are, the first thing you need to know is that rated FSB on intel chips is quadrupled, and RAM speed is doubled. This means that the actual FSB on your e6420 is 266 (1066/4) and, if your ram is 800MHz (for example) the actual FSB is 400. check what your default CPU voltage is with Speedfan or CPU-Z after a vanilla boot (without editing BIOS settings). i'm not sure, but it's probably 1.328 like my e6400. Set your RAM voltage and timing manually to manufacturers spec, as this can save you stability problem (and this board NEVER detects RAM timings properly).


go here to look at the bios options you wanna be fiddling with (but don't go setting them to what they have). like I said, just set everything to stock at first. AI tuning=manual, vcore and mem voltage to manufacturer default, NB volts to the minimum. set the mem clock mode to unlinked, and FSB to 1066 and Mem to whatever your ram is (800 if it's PC2-6400, etc). also, as i said, set your memory timing to whatever manufacturer spec is. this board usually defaults to loose timings that can actually cause stability problems (sure did with me on my first set of chips). command per clock must be at 2T (for now).

save those settings and boot into windows to make sure you didn't screw anything up. i'd also recommend at least 1 minute of orthos here, to rule out any baseline instability. 10 minutes is better, but not really required.

now...time to start OCing. if you have a thumb drive, save each setting as your progress. if you don't, keep your manual stock settings saved in one of the OC profile slots, and your last succesful boot into windows in the other (that means save after you've rebooted after a succesful boot, before you change anything else).

now, you want to start increasing the FSB on your CPU (leave the multi alone). set it to 1200 and try booting, you shouldn't have any problems. again, i recomend 1 minute of orthos after each boot, as you'll identify problems sooner this way.

now, keep incrementing your FSB by 25 (1225, 1250, 1275, etc) and booting into windows after each increment. eventually you'll run into a problem, usually a system hang while the system boots (or maybe an orthos error), or a total failure to POST). this is generally a sign you need to increase your vcore. up the vcore by one notch, and try again. you're not OCing your RAM yet, so you shouldn't encounter and problems with it, but if you DO get a BSOD (blue screen of death) that's almost always a RAM problem. otherwise, you should be able to keep going with more vcore. be sure to use speedfan to monitor your temps, definately don't let your core temps get over 70C.

at some point you'll have to increase your NB voltage. you'll know because several vcore increases won't do a damn thing for you. go ahead and up as needed. I've been told that the highest setting definately reduces the life of your mobo, but it's not clear by how much. unless you're planning on using your board for 6+ years, I wouldn't worry about it.

that's all i got for now, though of course of there's always more to know.... let us know how you fare, and if you run into problems. good luck!

[Kai-]

For a SB cooler with a 8800GTS get the Zalman NB32K. I've got one in my rig. Its right up against the big cooler on the GTS, which is good, since I think it gets some air going through it from the turbine fan. Its pretty much room temp whenever i touch it