Overclocking E8200 on G41m-ES2l - suggestions required

[adi_vastava]

Hi,

I recently git this board and was now trying to OC it but strangely it does not go beyond 342 FSB. I tried some conbination with my limited knowledge and this is what I found

All test are with out graphics card hence PSU not supplying enough juice is out of concern.

PSU is CM extreme power plus 460 W.

RAM is transcend 800 Mhz DDR2,

Memory timing, and all voltages are on auto.

mul FSB PCI mem multiplir result

8x 333 auto Auto (800 Mhz) Pass

8x 333 100 2.40 (800 Mhz) Pass

8x 342 100 2.40 (821 Mhz) Pass

8x 344 Auto 2.40 (826 Mhz) FAIL

8x 344 100 2.40 (826 Mhz) FAIL

8x 344 Auto 2.00 (688 Mhz) FAIL

8x 350 100 2.00 (700 Mhz) FAIL

8x 400 100 2.00 (800 Mhz) FAIL

6x 400 100 2.00 (800 Mhz) FAIL

6x 400 100 2.40 (960 Mhz) FAIL

6x 350 100 2.00 (700 Mhz) FAIL

6x 300 100 2.40 (720 Mhz) PASS

6x 360 100 2.00 (720 Mhz) FAIL

6x 350 100 2.00 (700 Mhz) FAIL (With CPU Volt as 1.5)

7.5x 344 100 2.00 (688 Mhz) FAIL

7.5x 342 100 2.00 (684 Mhz) PASS

7.5x 344 100 2.00 (688 Mhz) FAIL (With CPU Volt as 1.25)

7.5x 344 100 2.00 (688 Mhz) FAIL (With CPU Volt as 1.30)

7.0x 350 100 2.00 (700 Mhz) FAIL (With CPU Volt as 1.50)

I can see RAM booting max at 821 Mhz, though CPU is just not ready to go beyond 342, even if I lower the multiplier to 6, 7 or 7.5.

Is there something I can do apart from creating a FS thread for this MB hyeah:.

Additionally on 342 FSB, syste m does boot but windows shows only one processor running as 2.7, it shows other one as stock i.e. 2.66.

Just found this on internet, looks like its not just me who is facing this problem. 343 is kind of limit.

Zap's Mini Review: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L - AnandTech Forums

"I tried an E8200 CPU in the board to see if defaulting at 1333MHz FSB would get the board to open up, but alas it still won't POST at 350MHz. I even tried lowering multiplier and raising FSB really high in case it was a FSB "hole" but nope, just no POST."

Probably a bad selection for E8200.

Any suggestions to try

Thanks

Aditya

 

[g2]

-- Have u turned off options like cie, cpu throttling & other energy saver options available in advanced BIOS screen.

-- Is ur BIOS updated?

I have a e8200, though no g41. But have run it @ 3.2 on XFX NV 650i, gigab g31 & currently on p45 chipset, with no issues.

Or may be your board is at fault, get it RMA'ed.

 

[adi_vastava]

-- Have u turned off options like cie, cpu throttling & other energy saver options available in advanced BIOS screen.

-- Is ur BIOS updated?

I have a e8200, though no g41. But have run it @ 3.2 on XFX NV 650i, gigab g31 & currently on p45 chipset, with no issues.

Or may be your board is at fault, get it RMA'ed.

I'll try those BIOS options, already updated bios to latest one.

I doubt that the board is faulty, its picking all thing well, in fact going fine till 342 FSB. I don't think they'll RMA it for this.

 

[HailStonE]

PSU is CM extreme power plus 460 W.

Shouldn't this be a problem with stability... The PSU has had problems earlier...

 

[Amien]

G41M bottoms out a bit early as compared to the G31M, but that may not be an issue right now.
Reduce RAM and CPU to lowest divider.
Lock PCI-E freq. at 100
Set CPU Vcore to normal (this should be the default anyway)

Firstly, +1 to g2
Start raising FSB bit by bit and see if it boots. When it fails, bump up FSB voltage by 1 unit and try again. If/when ram goes above 800, bump up DRAM voltage by 1 unit. Try raising FSB again. On failure, increase PCI-E freq by 1 unit (ie. from 100 to 101). Rinse and repeat, try not to exceed 105Mhz on PCI-E freq. +2 units on FSB and over 2v on DRAM.
You really should have started this thread before you began tweaking. On auto, sometimes the board pushes voltages sky high when you increase base clock. At the least, CPU voltage should be on normal or set to the VID of the chip manually.

Once you find your max FSB, you can raise the multiplier.

I've pushed an E5200 to 350Mhz recently on a G31M ES2L, which is more the chip's limit rather than the motherboard's. It was smooth sailing till 338 FSB but getting past that takes additional tweaking. Since you bought a slightly different board due to non availability, results cannot be guaranteed but you can surely extract a bit more from it.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=269319 <same guy's review on the G31 variant, pushed 480FSB or so on a 333Mhz processor.

 

[adi_vastava]

Can you clarify/confirm these.

>>Reduce RAM and CPU to lowest divider.

i.e. 2 in this board case. (another option is 2.4)

>>Lock PCI-E freq. at 100

I manually set it to 100, is there any thing to lock it.

>>Set CPU Vcore to normal (this should be the default anyway)

its on auto

>>Start raising FSB bit by bit and see if it boots. When it fails, bump up FSB voltage by 1 unit and try again.

***HOW*** can I raise FSB voltage, I can see option for cpu vcore, cpu termination, cpu reference and dram voltage under MB voltage control. but no FSB option, what is it in G31?

>>Once you find your max FSB, you can raise the multiplier.

SO I should lower my multiplier first to 6.

>>Since you bought a slightly different board due to non availability, results cannot be guaranteed but you can surely extract a bit more from it.

I am enjoying playing with it, I bought it for fun, so its absolutely fine. Yep I tried hard for a G31 but no luck. lets see how this goes.

And Hey, its good to see you.

Thanks

 

[damn]

>>Lock PCI-E freq. at 100

I manually set it to 100, is there any thing to lock it.

Nah, by "locking" he meant; manually set it to 100 rather than leave it at auto which would set it at 100. Some of your results had PCI frequency at auto. Higher values could damage peripherals controlled by the southbridge such as the hard drives, optical drives, onboard lan/sound, other PCI devices.

>>Set CPU Vcore to normal (this should be the default anyway)
its on auto

>>Start raising FSB bit by bit and see if it boots. When it fails, bump up FSB voltage by 1 unit and try again.

***HOW*** can I raise FSB voltage, I can see option for cpu vcore, cpu termination, cpu reference and dram voltage under MB voltage control. but no FSB option, what is it in G31?

He meant the vcore, using auto here causes the board to overvolt the processor when running at loads, this would give a rise in temperatures and shorten the lifespan of your processor.

 

[adi_vastava]

So i tried and here are the results,

NO FSB voltage setting in this MB, so that is overruled

PCI Freq FSB REsult

100 344 FAIL
101 344 PASS
101 350 FAIL
102 350 PASS
102 352 FAIL
103 352 PASS
103 354 FAIL
104 354 PASS
104 356 PASS
104 358 FAIL
105 358 PASS
105 360 PASS

105 362, 364, 364 FAIL

I did not try over 5 as instructed and was not required to raise the RAM voltage as it still has not touched 800.

So Max on 105, it was 2.88. Any further suggestions

How safe is it to raise PCI frequency?

Thanks
Aditya

 

[Amien]

So i tried and here are the results,

NO FSB voltage setting in this MB, so that is overruled

PCI Freq FSB REsult

100 344 FAIL
101 344 PASS
101 350 FAIL
102 350 PASS
102 352 FAIL
103 352 PASS
103 354 FAIL
104 354 PASS
104 356 PASS
104 358 FAIL
105 358 PASS
105 360 PASS

105 362, 364, 364 FAIL

I did not try over 5 as instructed and was not required to raise the RAM voltage as it still has not touched 800.

So Max on 105, it was 2.88. Any further suggestions

How safe is it to raise PCI frequency?

Thanks
Aditya

There should be an option called FSB Overvoltage Control. Is there MCH voltage something instead? AFAIK both boards should use the same BIOS. Anyway,
What HDD are you using? For normal 24x7 operation I won't recommend going much higher. If you are on a SATA drive don't go above 110 for now, and that too not for long. When not attempting to reach maximum clocks, PCI-E freq. should be at 100, unless you are using an SSD/IDE drive.

EDIT:
These low cost boards are excellent for learning and picking up the basics. In your case, don't worry about the absolute max. clocks you can reach but keep reading guides and adding to your knowledge. Test via experimentation and you will get better. That will let you make sense of the wide variety of tuning controls in more elaborate boards. Good luck.

 

[adi_vastava]

>>There should be an option called FSB Overvoltage Control. Is there MCH voltage something instead? AFAIK both boards should use the same BIOS. Anyway,

Not at M.I.T.

At M.I.T. under M.B. Voltage control it has

cpu vcore

cpu termination

cpu reference

dram voltage

>>What HDD are you using?

2 Seagate Sata

For normal 24x7 operation I won't recommend going much higher. If you are on a SATA drive don't go above 110 for now, and that too not for long.

I am not planning to stay at even 105, how safe is it, by the way.

When not attempting to reach maximum clocks, PCI-E freq. should be at 100, unless you are using an SSD/IDE drive.

OK, got it

Thanks

A picture speaks better than words, I am posting it from the manual,( you can take my words, its identical as what I saw in BIOS.

why it never shows my images :s

http://yfrog.com/ju23922546j

 

[Amien]

>>There should be an option called FSB Overvoltage Control. Is there MCH voltage something instead? AFAIK both boards should use the same BIOS. Anyway,

Not at M.I.T.

At M.I.T. under M.B. Voltage control it has

cpu vcore
cpu termination
cpu reference
dram voltage

>>What HDD are you using?

2 Seagate Sata

For normal 24x7 operation I won't recommend going much higher. If you are on a SATA drive don't go above 110 for now, and that too not for long.

I am not planning to stay at even 105, how safe is it, by the way.

When not attempting to reach maximum clocks, PCI-E freq. should be at 100, unless you are using an SSD/IDE drive.

OK, got it
Thanks

Ah, play around with CPU termination, reference to see what it does for your OC. Don't go too crazy though, see what the smallest increment does, then read up, consider your options and then proceed.
Also look at GTLREF, try playing with Robust Graphics Booster (fast/turbo etc.)
This is pretty much all the help you are going to get from here on. =)

 

[g2]

>>There should be an option called FSB Overvoltage Control. Is there MCH voltage something instead? AFAIK both boards should use the same BIOS. Anyway,

Not at M.I.T.

At M.I.T. under M.B. Voltage control it has

cpu vcore
cpu termination
cpu reference
dram voltage

Gigabyte BIOS's show up extra hidden options by pressing Ctrl+F1 key combo in the main BIOS screen.

Also you haven't mentioned what Vcore u used for the last results. If u haven't already don't set it to auto. Manually set in the range 1.6-1.2 v

Vcore 1.25 - 1.50 :no: from your first post, that is some ridiculous volts for a wolfdale chip. E8200 goes 3.6 (450x8) on 1.2 volts. Believe me u won't need to go beyond that on any board for under 450 fsb.

 

[adi_vastava]

Gigabyte BIOS's show up extra hidden options by pressing Ctrl+F1 key combo in the main BIOS screen.

Also you haven't mentioned what Vcore u used for the last results. If u haven't already don't set it to auto. Manually set in the range 1.6-1.2 v

Vcore 1.25 - 1.50 :no: from your first post, that is some ridiculous volts for a wolfdale chip. E8200 goes 3.6 (450x8) on 1.2 volts. Believe me u won't need to go beyond that on any board for under 450 fsb.

Alright I'll try, ctrl + f1 though I read in review that the option is gone now and everything is available on first screen itself.

This time I tried auto on all voltages. I can believe you :cool2:, you guys knows a lot.

Thanks for your time
Aditya

Just checked and yep there is nothing which comes up with ctrl + f1, every thing is right there at first pane, M.I.T

pressing it twice opens help.

 

[Amien]

Alright I'll try, ctrl + f1 though I read in review that the option is gone now and everything is available on first screen itself.

This time I tried auto on all voltages. I can believe you :cool2:, you guys knows a lot.

Thanks for your time
Aditya

Just checked and yep there is nothing which comes up with ctrl + f1, every thing is right there at first pane, M.I.T

pressing it twice opens help.

Nothing will come up with ctrl+F1, the screen will just refresh for a second. You are supposed to do this on the first page/main menu, what you see immediately after pressing the delete button on boot.

vcore and dram voltage either set it manually or leave it on normal. Auto might raise them unnecessarily.

 

[adi_vastava]

Nothing will come up with ctrl+F1, the screen will just refresh for a second. You are supposed to do this on the first page/main menu, what you see immediately after pressing the delete button on boot.

vcore and dram voltage either set it manually or leave it on normal. Auto might raise them unnecessarily.

Yes, I am doing it right after entering setup & not in M.I.T.(on the blue bios page which appears initially and provides and option to enter in sub sections).

I can set them on manual, but I believe that will not be of any help in OCing? will it. I am back to stock after playing with few options with no success.

Thanks for your time