E5300 overclock advice

[God Of Gaming]

I'm totally new to overclocking, and since yesterday I'm trying to overclock my PC. I brought this PC in early 2009 I think. The specs are:

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 @ 2.6 GHz (I tested it and found out that the FSB wall is 356 MHz)

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 mobo

A-DATA 2X2GB DDR2-800+ Vitesta Extreme Edition

Point Of View Black Diamond 500W PSU

Sapphire HD4850 512MB Dual Slot Fansink

CM HAF 922 case

Intel's stock cpu cooler

2 hard drives for a total of 1629GB of space

 

I overclocked the HD4850 with AMD Overdrive, it was easy. 690 MHz GPU clock, 1188 MHz Memory Clock.

After 2 sleepless nights I think I'm about done with the CPU as well. Here's what I did in the BIOS:

Robust Graphics Booster: Turbo

CPU Clock Ratio: 10.0

Fine CPU Clock Ratio: +0.5

CPU Frequency: 3.50 GHz (10.5 x 333)

CPU Host Clock Control: Enabled

CPU Host Frequency (Mhz): 333

PCI Express Frequency (Mhz): 100

C.I.A.2: Disabled

Performance Enhance: Standard

Extreme Memory Profile(X.M.P.): Profile1

(G)MCH Frequency Latch: 333MHz

System Memory Multiplier (SPD): 2.40B

Memory Frequency (Mhz): 800

DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD): Manual

CAS Latency Time: 4

tRCD: 4

tRP: 4

tRAS: 12

CPU Vcore: 1.35000v

CPU Termination: 1.200v

CPU PLL: Auto

CPU Reference: Auto

MCH Core: 1.100v

MCH Reference: Auto

MCH/DRAM Reference: Auto

ICH I/O: 1.500v

DRAM Voltage: 1.800v

DRAM Termination: Auto

Channel A Reference: Auto

Channel B Reference: Auto

 

Now it doesn't go over 67 degrees under prime95 blend test, and the windows idle voltage is just 1.312 and 1.280v under full load. I tried 3.6 GHz (10.5 x 343) but the temps were reaching 73 degrees.

I also tried to get the RAM to 3-3-3-6 timings but it didn't POST, then to 1066MHz with 5-5-5-15 timings, but it was giving me BSOD during windows load no matter how much I pumped the voltage (I went as far as ICH I/O 1.650v and DRAM Voltage 2.200v).

 

Results from the overclock:

 

3DMark Vantage - custom settings: CPU Score 6451 (It was 4694 before the clock)

Crysis - 1080p Very High: ~24 fps (I didn't notice a difference after the overclock)

Serious Sam 3: BFE - 1080p Ultra: 30-50 fps (it was 20-40 fps before)

Battlefield 3 - 1080p Ultra: ~35 fps (it was ~30 fps before)

ArmA 2 - 1080p Very High: 30-32 fps (it was ~22-24 fps before)

 

Is it good like this? Is there anything other I can change to improve it? I'm a noob at overclocking, so it is a real wonder I didn't damage it yet.

[Hyper]

Still a bit hot for that processor. You wont get much OC'in headroom with the stock cooler on them.

[God Of Gaming]

I think I received a bad chip, but 3.5 GHz is still ok I think. I can see others going to 3.75 with the stock cooler, but I wasn't able to stabilize 3.66 no matter what I did. I won't get aftermarket cooling since I'm already saving money for a new PC, no point in upgrading this one. The reason I'm overclocking it is because I think it's bottlenecking my graphics card.

Edited April 1, 2012 by God Of Gaming

[d6bmg]

The chip you own is not one of the best for sure. Buy a after market cooler like Hyper 212 evo and see for how long it can stress.

[IVIYTH0S]

I agree, buy a better CPU cooler and I'll take this seriously (good work so far though).

 

I think the 212+ is still the price/performance champ, I haven't looked in months

[God Of Gaming]

As I said I'm already saving money for a new PC. And when I buy it, I will try to sell this one. So I'm not putting any more money into it. I'm not sure which of the 2 coolers that I have my eye on will be compatible with the new motherboard, so I can't get it in advance either.

Edited April 3, 2012 by God Of Gaming

[IVIYTH0S]

As I said I'm already saving money for a new PC. And when I buy it, I will try to sell this one. So I'm not putting any more money into it. I'm not sure which of the 2 coolers that I have my eye on will be compatible with the new motherboard, so I can't get it in advance either.

What are you upgrading to?? Most likely the cooler will still be compatible

[LETTERSTOTHEDEV]

Nice work if you are a "noob". Also clocking the crap out of a crapper is exactly what I would do to avoid spending money . Also good work documenting, If you date and store it all you can look back over the years and see laughable scores .

[God Of Gaming]

What are you upgrading to?? Most likely the cooler will still be compatible

 

Asus Sabretooth Z77 mobo

Intel Core i7-3770K

Thermalright Silver Arrow

Asus DirectCU II Top HD7970

G.Skill Ares 2x8GB DDR3 1600

5x2TB HDD

Seasonic X-760 PSU

 

I'll be using this case since I love it. These are my first choice, but if it happens that the Silver Arrow doesn't fit the mobo because of the fat TUF armor, I'll probably get Corsair H100 instead, and Corsair Vengeance 2x8 memory. I'll try to sell the components of this PC after that.

 

So, since I'm not yet sure which of the two coolers I will get, I can't get the Silver Arrow in advance and then to find out it doesn't fit the mobo.

 

P.S. Although my cpu's FSB wall is 356 MHz, for some reason I can't get it to work with 10 x 350, windows freezes when I start prime95...

Edited April 5, 2012 by God Of Gaming