# Unofficial guide to overclocking the C2D Line.



## JC316 (Oct 18, 2007)

Follow up to my unofficial guide to overclocking the AMD 64 line, I bring you the C2D guide for simple overclocking. This is a very simple guide meant to ease the beginner into overclocking their Core 2 Duo.

*Let me also forewarn you that overclocking can be dangerous if done improperly and I am in NO WAY responsible if you damage your computer.*


1. Go into your PC's BIOS. This is accomplished by restarting your computer and when prompted to enter setup hitting either F1 or DEL. It varies on your computer as to which key to hit.

2. Enter Advanced Chipset features, it's on the BIOS menu. (Note, some bioses require you to press crtl F1 to display the advanced features). This could also be called "Motherboard Tweaker", or Overclocking. On Asus motherboards, it's called Advanced AI.

3. Change the Ram divider to 2.0 to start with, that will give a 1:1 Ratio. Since it's Double Data Rate it will go up 2MHZ for every 1MHZ CPU Frequency. Depending on your RAM and CPU overclock, you may be able to take this to a higher ratio. If you are using a motherboard that shows the ram speeds, then lower it to the lowest speed. You can up this later to your stock frequency, or higher, but right now, we want to make sure that the CPU overclock is stable.

4. Set your PCI-E Frequency to 100MHZ, DO NOT leave at auto.

5. Increase your CPU Frequency slowly, 10 to 20MHZ at a time, until it either A, it won't boot, or B you are happy. If you're happy, skip to step 7. If you crash continue to step 6.

6. Increase CPU voltage by one notch and try again. Never go over 1.4V with stock cooling. *On a 45nm Wolfdale chip, never go over 1.325V with stock cooling as these chips heat up much quicker and at less voltage than the 65nm chips. 45nm chips are: E5200, E7200, E7300, E8200, E8400, E8500, E8600.* E5200 Revision* I can say that with stock cooling on an E5200, you should not go over 1.4V. With good air cooling 1.5V should be fine.

7. Always keep your temperatures below 60*C at FULL load using Realtemp.

8. Stress test with prime 95 and memtest to ensure stability. Use Realtemp for 45nm chips or CPUID's HWmonitor for 65nm chips to monitor temperatures.

9. If you are unstable, you have 2 options. Downclock your CPU Frequency by 15MHZ, or up the CPU Voltage by one notch at a time until it's stable.

Here are some pictures of the bios settings.
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n10/JC316_2006/100_8305.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n10/JC316_2006/100_8306.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n10/JC316_2006/100_8307.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n10/JC316_2006/100_8308.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n10/JC316_2006/100_8309.jpg


NEVER PANIC if something goes wrong. If it refuses to post and you get nothing but a black screen, reset the Cmos. You can do this by removing the Cmos battery, or by using the clear CMOS jumper. *Always have the computer OFF when removing the CMOS battery or jumper*.

You can find Prime 95 here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Prime95_d4363.html
And Memtest here:
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/download.html
And Realtemp here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/
And HWmonitor here:
CPUID HWMonitor


* If this guide helped you, there is a thanks button at the bottom of this post*

For a more indepth guide, see XVI's guide here: A Beginner's Guide to Overclocking And Kursah's guide:Overclocking is Easy! Get Results!


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## Richieb0y (Oct 18, 2007)

nice lil guide but since its for a C2D and i have quad i have a Q

in coretemp and in tat my temps are 35c first 2 cores and the other cores are at 32c but now the funny part speedfan says its 20c on two cores and other ones are 18c and sometime my fan dont spin at all he just sit still then sometimes it makes a spin and stops again.

when playing a game it spins constand


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## JC316 (Oct 18, 2007)

Richieb0y said:


> nice lil guide but since its for a C2D and i have quad i have a Q
> 
> in coretemp and in tat my temps are 35c first 2 cores and the other cores are at 32c but now the funny part speedfan says its 20c on two cores and other ones are 18c and sometime my fan dont spin at all he just sit still then sometimes it makes a spin and stops again.
> 
> when playing a game it spins constand



I am not sure if this applies to Quads, I am willing to bet that it does, but until I get a conformation that it does, I am not going to advise this one.

What you are getting is PWM support, meaning that the motherboard is controlling the fan to keep your CPU in a certain range. I turn mine off. Note the 15*C difference that I was talking about between TAT and other programs.


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## Richieb0y (Oct 18, 2007)

JC316 said:


> I am not sure if this applies to Quads, I am willing to bet that it does, but until I get a conformation that it does, I am not going to advise this one.
> 
> What you are getting is PWM support, meaning that the motherboard is controlling the fan to keep your CPU in a certain range. I turn mine off. Note the 15*C difference that I was talking about between TAT and other programs.




Oke but i have PWN off in bios 

but which temp should i read as safe the TAT en Coretemp if thats the case i cant OC b/c i dont want idle on 40c<< reminds me of my PenD 

thx for the Info

Edit: on my old P965 DS3 whit a E6420 coretemp TAT and speedfan showed all the same temp all where 30c-32 idle but that was on Winxp


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## JC316 (Oct 18, 2007)

Richieb0y said:


> Oke but i have PWN off in bios
> 
> but which temp should i read as safe the TAT en Coretemp if thats the case i cant OC b/c i dont want idle on 40c<< reminds me of my PenD
> 
> ...



If you check this thread, it will explain more. But in a nutshell, 65*C in TAT at FULL LOAD is the safe limit, I can verify this because I have had mine at that. 50*C Is the safe limit at full load in speedfan.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=28373


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## DOM (Oct 18, 2007)

Richieb0y said:


> Oke but i have PWN off in bios
> 
> but which temp should i read as safe the TAT en Coretemp if thats the case i cant OC b/c i dont want idle on 40c<< reminds me of my PenD
> 
> ...


core temp 0.95.4 is the only one that supports GO cpus cuz yours is GO right ?

Supported Processors


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## Richieb0y (Oct 18, 2007)

DOM_ATI_X800XL_PCI-E said:


> core temp 0.95.4 is the only one that supports GO cpus cuz yours is GO right ?
> 
> Supported Processors




ah thx Dom_ati ur always a great help


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## Hawk1 (Oct 18, 2007)

Is there a difference between Prime 95 and Orthos. I always used Orthos to check load temps/stability, but see lots of people recommending Prime95.


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## JC316 (Oct 18, 2007)

Hawk1 said:


> Is there a difference between Prime 95 and Orthos. I always used Orthos to check load temps/stability, but see lots of people recommending Prime95.



Prime and orthos are the same. Orthos puts more pressure on the chip, which I think is actually a bad thing. Either one will work.


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## happita (Oct 19, 2007)

Nice guide mate


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## JC316 (Oct 29, 2007)

Since there is no sticky, bump.


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## JC316 (Nov 12, 2007)

another bump, cant let my work go to the archives.


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## Raizy (Jan 9, 2008)

This is what I needed.


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## erocker (Jan 9, 2008)

I haven't seen this thread untill now.  It is a much needed thread, that should be stickied!


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## JC316 (Jan 9, 2008)

erocker said:


> I haven't seen this thread untill now.  It is a much needed thread, that should be stickied!



I tried, but was told that there were too many stickies in the overclocking and cooling section. It's just a basic guide, but it would still eliminate alot of questions IMO.


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## Raizy (Jan 9, 2008)

JC316 said:


> I tried, but was told that there were too many stickies in the overclocking and cooling section. It's just a basic guide, but it would still eliminate alot of questions IMO.



I say have them edit your AMD64 thread.  Merge this thread with the amd one together


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## JC316 (Jan 9, 2008)

Raizy said:


> I say have them edit your AMD64 thread.  Merge this thread with the amd one together



Thats a pretty good idea, I will see if i can get that to happen.


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## JC316 (Jan 10, 2008)

Ug, this is really getting irritating, the mods won't do anything. Apparently, it's too simple a guide to be worth jack shit, so it doesn't warrant a sticky. I even asked to replace this one with my Athlon 64 guide, since there are few Athlon questions than C2D question, but I never got a response out of it.

Oh and BUMP.


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## erocker (Jan 10, 2008)

Copy all the stuff out of this thread and paste it into the A64 thread.  Delete this thread. Request a title change for new combined thread.


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## JC316 (Mar 4, 2008)

ttt, gotta keep it somewhat new.


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## InnocentCriminal (Mar 4, 2008)

Nice one dude, if only someone could do a nice, in depth guide to OC'ing the Q6600 I'd be extremely interested. I have a friend who wants me to OC his Q6600 this weekend and so far I only have a rough idea, but considering it's a bit different to OC'ing a DC it may be a bit... ooooh errr!

I read you can just change the FSB to 333 and with the locked multiplier of 9 you'd hit 3GHz without having to fiddle too much, I'm a bit sceptical about that to be honest, so if anyone knows of any guides, I'd really appreciate that.


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## JC316 (Mar 5, 2008)

InnocentCriminal said:


> Nice one dude, if only someone could do a nice, in depth guide to OC'ing the Q6600 I'd be extremely interested. I have a friend who wants me to OC his Q6600 this weekend and so far I only have a rough idea, but considering it's a bit different to OC'ing a DC it may be a bit... ooooh errr!
> 
> I read you can just change the FSB to 333 and with the locked multiplier of 9 you'd hit 3GHz without having to fiddle too much, I'm a bit sceptical about that to be honest, so if anyone knows of any guides, I'd really appreciate that.



Quad is no different than a Dual. I am running a quad and it's the same.


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## P4-630 (May 22, 2008)

JC316 said:


> 7. Always keep your temperatures below 50*C at FULL load. If you are using TAT, never let the temperatures go over 65*C on either core. This is due to it not reading the CPU temperature, but the CORE temperature, which will always be 15*C hotter than the CPU.




Yes I would think so that the cpu core temperatures are always hotter then the cpu temp, but could you explain me since I have a new motherboard my cpu temp is ALWAYS HIGHER idle or equal under load then the core temperatures



I re-installed my cpu cooler 2 times and the cpu temperature stays hotter then the core temps.

For example if the 2 cores are both 34 degrees, the cpu temp is 37-38, I ALWAYS have a 3-4 degrees difference between that.

btw I'm using speedfan and a zalman sensor @ the cpu, both temps show the same value. 

With my previous motherboard I used the same cpu, same cooler but the core temps were always hotter then the cpu temp.

And the weird thing is, it should be cpu related since these temps have nothing to do with the motherboard!?


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## babaquazi (Aug 14, 2008)

JC316 said:


> Quad is no different than a Dual. I am running a quad and it's the same.



so ure saying that ure guide will work with q6600's??


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## babaquazi (Aug 14, 2008)

Also, for how long should i stress-test the CPU for with ORTHOS? earlier you also mentioned that if the computer doesn't post ten you should "Increase CPU voltage by one notch and try again" Is that the same as VCORE? I'm currently @ 3.33ghz but everything except for FSB speed is set on auto but on full load, CPU-Z says that my VCORE is "1.312"? so do i go one up from that in BIOS. Alos, i see all these other terms like FSB termination voltage and a load of others


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## JC316 (Aug 14, 2008)

Ok, just watch your core temperatures, don't worry about the CPU temp. Don't let the core temps go over 60*C, that is still the safe zone, but it is getting very warm. Positive that my guide works with a Q6600, I revised it when I got one of my own.

Vcore is the CPU volts. FSB termination and the others are probably going to be northbridge, southbridge and chipset based and usually don't require modification unless you are pushing the FSB over 450.

The "standard" for orthos is overnight, but when testing for OC stability, I will run it for around 10 minutes, and if it passes, I will go higher, till I reach the point that I am looking for, then I will test for at least 6 hours.


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## Wingo101 (Aug 21, 2008)

Thanks JC316!


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## groothof22 (Sep 10, 2008)

Richieb0y said:


> nice lil guide but since its for a C2D and i have quad i have a Q
> 
> in coretemp and in tat my temps are 35c first 2 cores and the other cores are at 32c but now the funny part speedfan says its 20c on two cores and other ones are 18c and sometime my fan dont spin at all he just sit still then sometimes it makes a spin and stops again.
> 
> when playing a game it spins constand



wat speel je zoal al dan? richieboy


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## NinkobEi (Sep 29, 2008)

hmm, I'm getting 54 degrees in speedfan running my proc @ 3600mhz and 1.29 volts. Do I need to get a new cooler? I already bought an aftermarket one (cooler master something, it has heat pipes but they dont directly touch the cpu).


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## JC316 (Sep 29, 2008)

If it's load, then no, you are fine. If it's idle, then YES, get another cooler. These chips can go to 65*C just fine. I need to do a revision for the wolfdale line. Also, use realtemp for the 45nm, it judges temperatures much better than speedfan.


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## JC316 (Sep 29, 2008)

Updated the guide for 45nm chips, added links to better and more accurate temperature monitoring programs. Added links to more indepth guides to follow up on mine.


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## NinkobEi (Sep 29, 2008)

ah great thanks Jc


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## CAPITAL LETTERS (Jan 16, 2009)

whats even funnier, i use a waterblock. and as u would expect, they don't have rpm right? WRONG lol according to speedfan my cpu fan (block) runs at 567 rpm!


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## JC316 (Jan 16, 2009)

CAPITAL LETTERS said:


> whats even funnier, i use a waterblock. and as u would expect, they don't have rpm right? WRONG lol according to speedfan my cpu fan (block) runs at 567 rpm!



Huh? How in the world is that relevant to an age old thread that I made?


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## spearman914 (Jan 16, 2009)

Good guide, but just need to add something. Just add "If your lucky u might come across an FSB hole which means...." finish the rest.


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## Glorge (Apr 1, 2009)

> 3. Change the Ram divider to 2.0 to start with, that will give a 1:1 Ratio. Since it's Double Data Rate it will go up 2MHZ for every 1MHZ CPU Frequency. Depending on your RAM and CPU overclock, you may be able to take this to a higher ratio. If you are using a motherboard that shows the ram speeds, then lower it to the lowest speed. You can up this later to your stock frequency, or higher, but right now, we want to make sure that the CPU overclock is stable.



I have DDR3 2000MHz, my specs are in my info, I should still make this ratio 1:1?


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## JC316 (Apr 1, 2009)

Glorge said:


> I have DDR3 2000MHz, my specs are in my info, I should still make this ratio 1:1?



You will need to wait for someone else to chime in, I am not experienced with DDR3. Just make sure that it's down a multiplier or two, so it's running slower than stock.


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