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Hi, I've got a e6300 and I'm looking to overclock it, only mildly, at least up to the same performance as a 6400. What i need to know is, how do i actually do it?? really i dont know where to start. I saw 2.4ghz is pretty straightforward in a system with almost identical components in a web-review. I built my own pc with later overclocking in mind, and I feel the processor is unable to cut it as much as the graphics card (Leadtek 7600gt). thought they would make a good match,but in stock form the cpu is holding the gpu back a bit. (medieval 2 can't handle any shadows whatsoever, & grass density has to be chopped by too much (in the .ini) in my mind in oblivion). For those interested, 7600gt would be better suited to a 6400 in standard form than an e6300 out of the box.

ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP iP965,
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300,
250 Gb Samsung SP2504C SpinPoint P1
256Mb Leadtek 7600GT, PCI-E (x16),
1Gb (2X512Mb) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDr2 (2nd cheapest on website)
500W Tagan TG500-U25 Dual Engine SL
LiteOn AllWrite SHM-165P6S-09 Black
Samsung SM940BW 19" Widescreen LCD 4ms (Gorgeous CHEAP monitor 10/10)

Standard heatsink and fan, phong 2 case, 22 degrees celsius average case temp with fans at low.

Need help in regards to fsb speeds, memory speeds & timings, etc, and just...what i have to do!

Many thanks,

What made you suggest the CPU being the factor in your gaming woes?

the 7600 gt is a mid-low performance card these days, compared to the 8800 giants. Besides, when it comes to rendering all those things mentioned, its done by the GPU. CPU deals mainly with the AI, and some other stuff which I should know about (but I can't remember )

I don't really like the idea of me promoting my own thread, but here goes:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic70998.html
Bring your overclocking questions there, I've put some time in writing that, and I want to improve it furthur. Besides, overclocking really belongs in the cooling forum.

Agreed. Hell, compared to the 8800s my 7950GT (which is much more powerful than a 7600GT) is kind of like a mid-range card... that cost me $350CAD

Unless you unlock those extra pipelines, its a mid-low performance card

What extra pipelines? The 7600GT doesn't have any. Its G73, not G71.

Huh? I thought.....

Nvm, I'm not an advocate for pipeline unlocking. Risks of destroying the card is just way too high....

You should have bought the eVGA e-GeForce 7950 GT.

Why so you could have traded it in and got an eVGA e-GeForce 8800!

Yep eVGA is the best nVIDIA video card.

where can I find information on that tradein? o.O

Even if its a mid-low card compared to what is available, its not a low card for today's games. Sure it won't handle FEAR at 1680x1050, but it will run it at somewhere around 1280 by something, or at least my (eVGA)7800GS does and they are similar in performance. I can also run C&C3 at 1680x1050 with full AA and details.

I've got a stock speed 6400 processor.

I really don't think overclocking your CPU would show noticeable improvement in this case. Overclocking your graphics card would show a much noticeable improvement.

Get back to us with some overclocking results

Hmmm....yes...welll...thankyou i guess. Evidence for cpu being the weakest link. Medieval 2, lowest detail 1024x768, shadows on = about 10fps. No shadows full detail, well i cant remember but it was at least 29fps+. Looking at task manager at both these settings shows cpu usage at maximum with shadows on, about 50% with shadows off. Looks like the onus of shadow production falls on the cpu. As far as oblivion is concerned, having grass on kills the framerates and brings observed cpu usage up several notches, bringing grass density down by tweaking the .ini file brings framerates up dramatically as does it bring cpu usage down. As with medieval, framerate is disproportionatley low with (instead of shadows) grass on and all else on minimum with a low low res than with all at maximum and no grass. Yes a faster video card would help with oblivion, but a speedier cpu would be able to wade through the grass calculations a bit better. Dont mean to be picky, but a higher cpu speed would help matters, and move the balance between cpu + gpu capability from something like 40/60 to 50/50, where neither is holding the system back graphically.

Finally, bit hard to post overclocking results when i did'nt get an answer to the question of HOW DO I OVERCLOCK

I will post the results though.

your board is a better overclocker than my own, you should be able to get 2.6-7ghz easy

*edited by Didou* do not quote complete long posts, be concise.

yeah would be nice! dont want to go quite that far now, making a psuedo 6400 is the plan for the moment. I get the idea about raising the fsb to make the desired clockspeed, but what about the memory? i got fairly cheap kingston ddr2-800, where does cheapo ram fit in with this overclock?? do i need to bring the speed down?? will the cpu and memory need more voltage for a small overclock? The standard intel hsf is complete excreeeeeement to put in by the way

well I use to run Kingston 800 when i first o'c'd my system, was only able to get it to 2.4 stable

Right ok thats what i expected pretty much, wouldnt be dissappointed if this cheap stuff made it that far, but i need to know, when you overclocked to 2.4, what speed was the memory set at? if i get this right, if at all, it needs to be brought down to 533mhz or something?? did it need extra voltage?? listen, im begging for some insight here! explain! numbers! details! anything!

Thanks

lol you were in my same seat, so I know how you feel. You should be able to keep the memory stock at 800, 1.85 v. put the fsb at 1350 to start, I'm assuming your timings on your ram are 5-5-5-15. If so those are fine. vcore for the cpu shouldnt have to change to put it at 2.4. I read that some have put the 6300 to 2.9 on your board with fans.

Thanks! 2.9 sounds like a cheque my ram cant cash .....ok so thats memory kept at stock 800 speed, just bringing the fsb speed up to make 2.4?? besides the voltage issues. Yep memory is 5-5-5-15 pure gold quality from kingston lol. Thanks for the help on this, what kind of temp increase did you see from overclocking? i dont want to roast that thing.

i saw a temp max at full load of 42C on a zalmans 9700. Let me know how it goes.

will do, adding extra case fan for 3 in total for a solid cooling setup. (Phong 2 case, 3rd 120mm to side opening above cpu, phong 2 is great for non-sli) I'll post some benchmarks, fps in games and temps when all done. Cheers

Meh, BFG is the only one with 24/7 Tech support. I feel it's worth it to spend the extra money on a BFG card just because they actually have pretty good tech support, and it's always an option to ask them to give you a new card if you got a broken one.