help oc'ing E6420 and Foxconn G9657MA - 8EKRS

Z

ziggatron

New Member
Hi all,:):)

the set up is

Intel Core 2 Duo E6420
Foxconn G9657MA - 8EKRS2H rev 2.1
2G DDR2 667mhz (generic)
geforce gtx 460 top 768mb
Artic 750W PSU
Win 8 pro 64bit

I have been oc'ing this since last night. i want to see how much improvement there is "in game" with the clock increases.

the game I am testing the system on is Crysis2 min spec req as follows..

Minimum: 2GHz Core 2 Duo / A64 X2 CPU, 2GB RAM, 8800GT / HD3850, 512MB Video Memory, DX9.0c, Shader Model 3.0, Windows XP, 20fps @ 1024 x 768

I have oc'd quite a few different boards and processors, from the latest to the earlier 468 socket pentium 4's.

I have struggled oc'ing this set up from the bios but have had pretty good results with fox one.

I wonder if anyone has any direct experience with this board..

The latest bios is 631F1P61 which is installed.

I notice in the bios that the FSB will only go to a max of 333.. but with fox one it apeears unlimited; was able to run prime 95 with

(1g single module ddr2 800mhz)

350 fsb ( 2.8ghz ) v. 1.5
ddr2= 1049mhz v. 2.3 +.65
pcie=118
nbdge= 1.95v +.20

I realise that the voltages are basically max safe volts and there is probably room to bring the voltages down and probably the pcie a couple of points, particularly the vcore.

It seemed to me that it's the RAM which is stopping the cpu clocking further..I am aware the board is rated to support fsb 1066 but the board seems pretty stable.

i.e if i hit a hurdle I would just increase the dimm voltage a bit and that would do it...

(did read some one intentionally tried to fry their particular DDR2 modules and it took 3.3v's before that happened.. read that generally 2.1-2.3 v is considered safe.)

I only had one lonely stick of PC2 6400 800mhz lying about and was not able to gauge any in game performance benefit due to insufficient RAM with the 2.8ghz o/c.

I went back to running 2g ddr2 667 today with a view to getting the best clock and then testing in game performance for any improvements..

The best clock I have tested stable at so far was

309 fsb ( 2.478ghz ) v. 1.42
ddr2= 775mhz v. 2.11 +.45
pcie=110
nbdge= 1.86v +.12

failed at 315 with these voltage settings...

I notice in the bios you can specify DDR2 speeds as AUTO, XXX, 667, 800.

i had left the setting at auto yesterday when oc'ing with the one stick of ddr2 800.

And i also left it at auto today..

Now I know the CPU can clock way beyond 2.478Ghz is there any way to change the ram:fsb ratio so that the ram is less challenged and allows more head room for the CPU to be clocked?

And/or if I loosened the timings (max available is 6,6,6,15 vs current SPD=4,4,4,15) would that be an effective way to let the RAM clock higher thus allowing the CPU to go on it's merry way?

Does anyone have any direct experience with this combination of processor and board that could be helpful please..?

From my research these Conroe chips are generally great oc'ers..

Incidentally, I tested the 2.478ghz clock in game (vs standard 2.13ghz) (crysis 2) and noticed a significant improvement in smoothness, this title is totally playable, which is nice.

I know my GFX card is being held back by the cpu by a reasonable degree and it's interesting to see in real world terms how much actual difference there is during game play as the CPU core speed increases.

Any help or comments would be most welcome.:):):)
 
Or it could be you'r just smoking a low grade mobo, ram, cpu. How hot are the mosfets?

Never meant to be overclocked. Also that PSU is very low quality. Should have enough amps, but really, the noise and ripple could be huge, causing issues. Clean stable power is the first action in troubleshooting.

Thats whats holding you back.

Also 32bit or 64bit OS?

Ive run that chipset and core 2 duos, check the mosfet temps. (the black squares surrounding the cpu).

If very hot, consider this

90254953_vbattach100113.jpeg
 
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Rubbish, the board was designed to be over clocked and the Conroe chips are noted as being excellent overclockers also.

In 2006 this was a great little board and with a decent enough O/C ing rep and will support the full range of Intel Quad core processors which are still capable of playing the most recent games..

The PSU is perfectly good enough to handle o/c ing with air cooling (we are not talking Liquid Nitrogen) with these components and to be honest mate and I also don't remember asking for a snobbish and inaccurate opinion on the quality of my system?

With the Conroe E6420 comfortably at 2.5ghz I've been playing Crysis 2 and Assasins Creed at a very enjoyable level all day now?

How do you like those apples sheila?

The OS is 64bit.

The questions I asked for help on in the post are fairly clear aren't they.

thanks for your reply by the way.
 
You're being too sensitive.

Foxcon aren't known for quality, neither is your 20 pound PSU. The 6420 was never designed to be OCd. It may be able to do it, but over time, you're going to get instability.

Nothing emotional just the facts.

If you want to know what is holding you back, you need to replace the PSU and unlink the FSB from the CPU, overclock the CPU independent of the RAM first.

Get its max first.

The RAM may indeed be holding you back, but touch those MOSFETS (VRMS) mate, they will be toasty.

If you have been running that gear hard since 2006, to be honest it may just be wear and tear. Several technical reasons why this may be the case.
 
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Couldn't disagree more mate.:):)

First of all the system is running splendidly and has no current issue.

I simply asked the why's and where fores of "how" to unstrap the RAM from the FSB with this board

The Conroe E6420 is well documented as being able to clock to 3.2ghz (which is impressive..) and is viewed as a great overclocking chip.

I've done a lot of research and have not come across any examples of the chip causing instability "after a while" when oc'd.

Please Google it or research it yourself.

I have a great deal of experience with a wide variety of boards, the Foxconn boards are definitely good enough.

Again, extensive research and I have found no evidence that this board suffers from any inferior quality issues, more so than any other?

( Yes, it's true they may be not held in such high esteem as Asus or Gigabyte but so what, it doesn't mean they won't do the job. Think of SKODA.)

Please Google it or research it yourself

Whether my PSU is £20.00 OR £100.00 is pretty irrelevant.

As long as it does the job and doesn't cause damage or system instability, which it doesn't.

This board has a 3 phase power circuit, each phase supplying the voltage load 33.3% of the time blah blah blah.

More phases, more division of the work load, less stress to the components == longer life.

But how long do you need it's life to be?

Will a three phase board die in 8 years rather than 10 or 20?

Did you need to pay £200+ for the Gigabyte Z68X UD5 with a 20 phase power circuit?

Supremely reliable and ultimately a great board for extreme overclocking where you are looking to squeeze the absolute very maximum..

But most user's aren't.

Why not release a 50 phase board that costs £500?

Or a PSU that has a cleaner power out put "than ever before".. for £350?

Because after a point it becomes irrelevant under normal use except to the few extremists. (good for them.)

I would suggest that there are a great deal more pc's out there with £20.00 power supplies, than there are PC's with £20.00 plus power supplies.

All been running fine and still running fine.

As far as I know the black square thing you refer to in your picture is a "choke" not a MOSFET.

And on this terribly low quality :) Foxconn board they are nothing more than slightly warm.:)



Because you say some thing is fact, it doesn't necessarily make it so.:)

Unless you have a body of evidence to support your factual references.




Referring to my original request..and your kind suggestion

"" unlink the FSB from the CPU, overclock the CPU independent of the RAM first. ""

This seems to be more or less repeating my question as opposed to shedding any light on how to achieve this (if possible ) with this board?

My original question was..

Now I know the CPU can clock way beyond 2.478Ghz is there any way to change the ram:fsb ratio so that the ram is less challenged and allows more head room for the CPU to be clocked?

And/or if I loosened the timings (max available is 6,6,6,15 vs current SPD=4,4,4,15) would that be an effective way to let the RAM clock higher thus allowing the CPU to go on it's merry way?

Does anyone have any direct experience with this combination of processor and board that could be helpful please..?

It's a specific question that I was hoping to be answered?

Many thanks.:):)
 
Is basicaily all your asking is how to unlink the memory and FSB? Cant be done. All you can do is set back the memory multiplier to keep it in spec while upping your FSB. If you plan on bumping up your CPU voltage more then a small amount, be careful that board has a small 3 phase power setup. Mosfets could get pretty hot.

Not point getting defensive about your board and power supply. The board and power supply are pretty lowend.
 
Defensive or just correcting the inaccurate?

I never claimed the set up was high end..

but it doesn't have to be, it still does the job well enough..:)

Even with a £20.00 PSU:)

As I said I did check the chokes and they are just borderline warm so seems fine.

And the golden question still remains..

HOW?

Rather than what to do..:)

I know I need to set the multiplier lower but I am not sure if the bios supports this.

As I said there is the option to set DDR2 speed to AUTO, xxx, 667 or 800.

Can't actually see if it's possible to adjust the ratio via multipier?

If I set the RAM speed at 667mhz does that automatically adjust the multi as the cpu clock increases to keep the RAM at 667mhz?
 
Nobody including yourself ever said your system was high end. Somebody talking overclocking with a lowend board and power supply, would consider it irresponsible for not warning them.

No, you cant lock your memory speed. If you running 677, set your memory multipier to 533. When you bump your FSB the memory mhz will raise too. In simple terms, depending on how far you raise your FSB your memory will get closer to its default of 677.
 
The board is not low end.

here's a link so that any browser of this thread can review the board in question easily..:)

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ProductDetail.aspx?T=motherboard&U=en-us0000202

This is Foxconn's own testiment to the boards suitability and designed capacity for o/c ing..

""With a dedicated on-board FoxOne™ chipset and specialist control software working in tandem, FoxOne™ brings intelligent system controls to your PC. Now you can easily tweak your system performance with a range of Windows and BIOS accessible controls, monitor performance and system temperatures, and activate preset performance modes.""

The PSU is of good enough quality and perfectly capable of maintaining an over clock on this set up without a hitch.

I have clocked this board and cpu stable at 2.8ghz 350 FSB running prime 95, 35 degrees at idle, 63 degrees max running prime, no errors, no warnings.

I think you should spend a bit more time researching the facts before you dish out your derogatory and inaccurate mush.

I posted on this forum to get a specific question answered.

You seem intent on trying to rubbish my system, unfairly and inaccurately form the very outset.

Thats interesting.

You obviously know better than Foxconn about their own boards, and you obviously know better than my first hand real life experience.

Pretty impressive.:)

I wonder if you will remove this post?

Thanks for your time.:):)
 
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Your question has been answered twice. For the third time. NO you cant lock the memory bus! You have to lower your memory speed, it will come back up when you bump up your FSB.

Why should I remove your post?

Your the one claiming a 3 phase 965G chipset Foxconn board is not lowend. You know so much about the board I am surprised your even asking questions about it. Its stunning the knowledge you have of the board and not know the memory bus isnt locked. With your supreme knowledge I am still questioning myself how I could know that and you didnt. I am going to have to rethink how I could have possibly thought a 956G chipset, three phase power setup Foxconn board isnt a lowend board. Or it could be your were told the truth with no disrespect at all, just a warning. But you had to take it like it was a cut on your board and do alittle rant.
 
Lets get a few things straight. You come on to a computer forum wondering how to get better overclocks and stability and then when you're told that the key elements to overclocking stability and outcome are motherboard quality power stability and that your $30 motherboard and $20 PSU aren't up to scratch and you take offense?

Secondly, wow you sprout some nonsense. Nothing in the quote from the manufacture indicates overclocking.

Its a low end motherboard whatever you think. It has no VRM cooling, and limited southbridge and northbridge cooling. This is all a dead give away that your system isn't designed for overclocking.

This is a high end motherboard from the same period. Notice the cooling arrangement for the vrms and nth/sth bridge.

asus_comm_1.jpg


Theres a reason for that.

Also, the PSU is garbage. Absolute and utter rubbish.

Btw a choke is a Mosfet so how about you learn something because clearly you don't understand the basics.

And they're just warm? Ok run Prime95 on max heat setting at your highest intended overclock for an hour and then see how you can cook from them.
 
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You either have a problem reading accurately or ingesting information correctly.

Claims that the board was never meant to be overclocked are rubbish.

Claims that the E6420 was mot designed to oc and will fail are rubbish.

Instructions that I should replace my PSU in order to achieve a higher o/c is rubbish.

if you could read effectively you would notice that I had already had the system stable at 2.8Ghz with the DDR2 800mhz.

It's only because I switched to the 667mhz RAM that I couldn't immediately repeat that.

It's got nothing to do the PSU or the chokes, which you like to call MOSFETs, overheating..

just a load of rubbish.

I specifically asked where in the bios the setting was to change the memory multiplier or some thing similar (if it existed at all.) because I couldn't see it.

not to have the concept of lowering the RAM setting to be able to max out the CPU explained again and again..

Re read the posts Mr moderator.

My claims are backed up with my 1st hand experience and the wealth of info on the net.. this is the truth.

Don't try and twist it into some thing it's not.

The only sensible and relevant thing you have suggested in relation to my specific question is setting the RAM at 533 blah blah blah.

the rest of it was a load of ball and ocks.

Have a gold star mate.:)
 
Nothing in the quote from the manufacture indicates overclocking.

With a dedicated on-board FoxOne™ chipset and specialist control software working in tandem, FoxOne™ brings intelligent system controls to your PC. Now you can easily tweak your system performance with a range of Windows and BIOS accessible controls, monitor performance and system temperatures, and activate preset performance modes.

Oh and by the way there is also manual control in bios if you choose not to use any of the five set performance settings..

Again I would question your ability to read accurately.

Also chokes are not actually MOSFETS.

Call it a day, its been a fairly pointless waste of my time.

Good luck.:)
 
Look mate, the first stage of loss is denial and then anger. This is where you're at.

Overclocking successfully is about stability and thermal control, both of which your system doesn't do well at. Whether you've been lucky to dodge the bullet up until now is not evidence that you're correct.

It would take quite a long time to explain from the beginning why what I am saying is actually true, and I would (and have many times) go through that with you but you seem to be close minded.

What we cant really do is recommend a course of action that will significantly increase the chance of damaging your computer, without letting you know that first. In this case this is probably also what is going on:


  • Electromigration in the CPU especially running it at 1.5V
  • Derating and accelerated wear on the cheap capacitors on that mobo
  • No cooling on VRMs will cause heat and damage when overclocked beyond stock
  • Cheap and low quality PSU can introduce noise on the 12V rail that damages components (e.g. vrms and ram)
  • E6420 (like the 6 or 7 conroes i have owned and overclocked) are good at overclocking, but you're pushing it.

Essentially, the motherboard is a crucial part of this process. If you pull your head out of your behind, and let us get to the point then you can simply say, ok i get it, but i don't care.
 
I heed your warnings but the life span speaks for its self.

The board has been around for seven years now and is still operating without issue..that is the is the reality.

Must be a very slow bullet?

Didn't you state that the E6420 was not designed to be oc'd and would cause instability a few posts ago?

It was partially that statement that started this..

Or was that your evil twin. :):)

If your going to give an opinion you might have the decency to stick to it for more than 5 minutes, even if it is basically wrong.

This will update your MOSFET is a choke claim.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/arti...e-Motherboard-Voltage-Regulator-Circuit/616/2

Anything else I need to learn? You're doing quite well.

As I said pointless.
 
A choke and coil are the same, a mosfet is different.

Let me ask something. If you dont think your board is lowend, which will hamper your overclocking. Tell me what about a board doesnt make it a lowend board, life span has nothing to do with it, I have older lowend boards then that and they still work, I have boards from the early 90s that still work. You do understand all manufacturers make lowend to highend boards. That one falls into the lowend category. If not show me a link of a Foxconn board with a 965G chipset thats a lowerend one then yours.

Its really a shame you have turned your own post into a rant about claming your board is better then what it is. Which is not what question was asked. As far as I can tell your board doesnt have a memory lock. Other then backclocking you memory your stuck. Period.
 
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Foxconn boards are pieces of crap mate. Mine died completely within a year, and where is the real English support? Nowhere to be seen. It's either Chinese, Google Translate English, or go home.

And I agree with the above. Don't overclock until you have a decent power supply.
 
Agreed with what previous members have said. Your board and PSU are not reliable enough to overclock with any confidence. Preach all you want about what people have said in the past about the board being "so great".

I did find it amusing you used stuff from the manufacturer's website to back up your claims about it's quality. It's not like their going to say "yeah this is actually a pretty bad board, don't' bother with it". Of course they won't, they're trying to sell a product.
 
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