“Overclocking the E5200 proved to be a piece of cake. Literally, I achieved a 2GHz overclock, reached a speed of 4.5GHz and simply put, it was a walk into the park.”
I wish.
If overclocking was this easy, everyone and their mother would be doing it. You would see people selling a large inventory of “pre-overclocked” computers on Ebay, with warranties. Oh wait, the latter one is actually a reality. Somehow today, people believe that overclocking can be done by anyone, that it’s just a matter of changing a few numbers in the BIOS and rebooting afterward. It’s that easy!
Well, that’s not accurate. While overclocking got easier in the last few years, with crash-free bios which reset themselves if they don’t successfully boot for example, it still remains a domain where knowledge and previous experience makes a huge experience. Being able to trouble shoot your computer when it won’t start proves to be priceless when you overclock.
Why people believe that overclocking is easy then?
I think that what made people wrongly believe that overclocking is so easy is due to the latest cpus from Intel and AMD, which will both overclock by a large margin easily, if you know what you’re doing and with the right hardware.
I’m not complaining, but prior to those cpus, it was a matter of skill and efficient cooling. Don’t get me wrong, it still is today, but not as much in my opinion. With a Core 2 Duo, even with the first introduced models (E6300, E6400, E6600 and E6700) you could achieve an overclock of 500MHz , 800MHz or even more than 1,000 MHz sometimes. Unlike previous generations of cpus, such overclocking was achievable only with air cooling.
Today, it’s feels more like a lottery. If you’re lucky enough, you will receive the right cpu, which will overclock by 1,000 MHz, if not even more. Of course, you will need the hardware to cope with that overclock, such as a good reliable motherboard, stable ram and a rock solid power supply. Let’s not forget cooling obviously.
But first, let me tell you how it was a few years ago and I’m sure that some of you can testify on this:
Back to the days where Prescott cpus were generating more heat per square inch than a shuttle rocket, cooling was the thing that could make a huge difference in your overclocking. It was per cooling that you would be considered plus or less extreme and it was how people would predict how far you could overclocking your cpu. Basically, overclocking was a matter of cooling and skill back then.
From the least to most extreme, you had and still have today, improved: 24/7 solutions: Air-cooling, water-cooling, chilled water-cooling, Peltier cooling(usually combined with water-cooling), multiple stage cooling and cooling with a compressor. For record overclocking speed breaking attempts, not for the faint of heart, it goes as far as CO2 dry ice or LN2 cooling. Yes, cooling with liquid nitrogen, which at atmospheric pressure, boils at β196.5 Β°C.
If you were to overclock a Prescott cpu, especially with the dual core models, you needed at least a good water-cooling setup to hold a chance against that burning hot cpu. Air cooling was barely enough to keep it cool at stock speed, imagine when you would overclock it, especially if you were raising the core voltage…
Back to recent days:
What about today? Stick a decent heatsink and fan on your Core 2 Duo, bonus points if it’s a Wolfdale core and watch it fly. Seriously, 1GHz + overclock on Wolfdale core cpus are almost a joke today because it is so easy. Some report being able to do that, with the stock heatsink from Intel. Wow.
It’s a bit in that spite that I decided to pick up the E5200. Having some previous experience with overclocking with two different platforms(Celeron 2.0GHz overclocked to 2.7GHz on a socket 478 platform and a Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz overclocked to 2.8GHz on a socket 775 platform) for years, I wanted to see how far I could go.
Here’s the system that I used:
-Pictures are clickable for higher resolution-
As you will see in the following pictures, I also added several “ram” sinks for my motherboard. My Northbridge is cooled with a Zalman ZM-NBF47 Here’s a picture of the computer, with the radiator/fans in the back, which barely fits under my desk. I didn’t use your regular, out of the mill, air cooling here. Here’s the cooling system used: |
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Case: All of this is hosted in an Antec 900 case, left open 24/7 as I play in it some often. 2 x 120mm fans in the front for intake, 1 x 200mm on top for exhaust. Everything is set on low as I appreciate silence or on high when I’m overclocking further more.
Water-cooling: Excuse me for all the links; I simply want you to see all the parts with your own eyes, as they are not that common. Swiftech Apogee GT as my cpu waterblock, Swiftech MCW60-R as my gpu waterblock, Swiftech MCP350 pump modded with a Petra’sTech DDCT-01s Custom Acetal DDC Pump Top as my pump, Swiftech MCR-320 as my radiator, with 6 120mm Yate Loon D12SL-12 Case Fan – Black (47 CFM, 28 dBA) to cool it down. I’m using a Swiftech MCRES-MICRO reservoir and the whole loop is using 3/8″ ID tubing. |
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Alright, enough teasing, let’s get to the results. As I told you on Friday, I got my hands on an Intel Core 2 Duo E5200. During the weekend, I sanded it to a near mirror finish, to make as flat as possible, to ensure optimal thermal transfer between the water-block and the heatspreader of the cpu.
After that, I did put a tiny line of Arctic Silver 5 thermal grease, then I installed the water-block and I took the precaution to rotate it a bit to the left and a bit to the right, to spread the thermal grease. I started the system, installed a fresh copy on Tiny XP then proceeded to overclock the cpu.
I started with a 1.3625v vcore, to see how far this chip would go within Intel’s recommended guideline. I started having problems at 280 FSB or 3500 MHz. That’s right, I was already at 3.5GHz, a 1GHz overclock, before I encountered any problems!
I then raised the vcore to 1.400v and reached 3.875GHz. Even under load, the chip was just reaching 47-48C, so I knew that I had a lot of overhead and that I could push the vcore even more, for your pleasure of seeing how far this chip could go π
Was it that hard to get there? Well, considering that I already had experience with overclocking prior to this, it wasn’t that bad. Of course, if you were new to overclocking, you would have probably wondered what to do if you were faced with this pretty weird bug:
As I raised the FSB, the cpu frequency would increase as well, which would show as I booted up on the BIOS screen. At 200FSB, the stock setting, I was at 2.5GHz At 300 FSB, I was at 3.76GHZ(BIOS rounded up). So I kept raising the FSB, by 10 MHz notches. 310, 320, 330, 340…Then I realized that despite that setting, my cpu was still booting and showing up in the BIOS at 3.76GHz, when it should have been beyond 4.0GHz.
Oddly enough, the computer was still booting fine, even at 400 FSB(which should be 5.0GHz!!). I eventually figured that my motherboard was locked at 300 FSB and that no matter what I would put as FSB, even if I lowered to multiplier, it would stay stuck there. So I simply cleared the BIOS and started again from scratch. Everything was fine afterward. Needless to say, it was weird.
So in conclusion, is overclocking a matter of skill?
I think that motherboard manufacturers, with crash-free bios features and a ton of tweaking options in the BIOS, along with Intel who are making chips with much lower thermal dissipation, are making the game of overclocking easier than it was before.
However, I also think that it’s not skill, but experience that will make the difference between a nice overclock and an outstanding one. While anyone can change settings in the BIOS, it’s knowing the correlation between all those settings and being able to quickly troubleshoot a problem that will separate a newbie from an expert.
I also think that anyone with a little help from an overclocking forum or a person with overclocking experience, should be able to achieve a decent overclock. 1GHz overclock? Perhaps, with the right hardware and a bit of luck too π
Tell me, what are your experiences with overclocking? If you did start overclocking, how did it go? What are your results? If you never overclocked, why is that? Is it the fear of damaging your computer? Your lack of experience? Or perhaps you just don’t want the extra speed?
What’s your take on this? Do you think that you need skill to overclock? If not, what do you need?
P.S. Expect the review of the Conroe core(E6300) vs. the Wolfdale core(E5200), comparing the two at 1.86GHz(E6300 stock speed), 2.5GHz(E5200 stock speed), 2.8GHz(E6300 maximum overclocked speed) and 4.06GHz(E5200 maximum overclocked speed) tomorrow π
As both have the same amount of cache, I can tell you that this will be a very interesting comparison that you don’t want to miss. Make sure to subscribe to our RSS feed or by e-mail, at the top right of this page, if you don’t want to miss it!
No doubt about it over clocking required great skill, maybe even a bit of luck.
Jiff
http://www.privacy.es.tc
Congratz on making it to 4.12GHz, a very good overclock indeed. However, to be a truly successfully overclock, the system must be stable within regular Windows for an indefinate period of time. What good is a 4.12GHz speed if you can’t do anything with it? Sure, you can run some things in Safe Mode, but how impressive is running calc at 4.12GHz? So I would say that your true maximum overclock was 4GHz, again, a very impressive clock speed. Congratz!
Hey Mathieu,
You sound like the guy to ask for this.. What piece of hardware would I need to install to remotely turn my pc on? And can you briefly explain how this device is supposed to work..
Thanks Mathieu, you’ve given me urge to try overclocking my E8400 .
…Really impress us. Cook bacon *and* eggs on that thing π
I’ve been running my E1200 1.6 chip at 3.2 for about 5 months with a $10 cooler master hsf. That’s 100% overclock, and some have gotten 3.5 stable on air. The problem with the E5200 is that high multiplier. You can get better performance at some things with a faster fsb. My friend has a Q6600 running at 3.6Ghz on a 400FSB as well. Air cooled and stable.
Faster speeds aren’t as good if the other components aren’t as fast. What’s the RAM speed? My 800Mhz RAM is running at 1000Mhz.
Nice overcloacking, I will try to overclocking my E8400 soon i get new peaces.
Stefan
You’ve forgotten that anything above 1.4v will fry a Penryn in no time flat.
Ok, so after pushing 1.5 volts through your 45nm CPU, using a 2 year old motherboard, and liquid cooling it as well, you are pro because you can hit 4ghz?
Oh please you wannabe punk, 4ghz can be hit on air with a $100 mobo and decent cooling, and as for overclocking used to take skill…
Overclocking NEVER took skill. Skill can’t be learned. All it takes is deep pockets and a google guide on overclocking, and thats all it will EVER take, so you can stop acting all high and mighty when you are the 500,000+ person to get to 4ghz, it didn’t take any time to overclock, and if you KNEW what you were doing, you would have known that the 45nm chips burn up after 1.38 volts.
Enjoy your dead CPU noob
And here is something to remember me by
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=338117
after you get a 2ghz overclock ON AIR with a zalman 9500, then post an ENTIRE ARTICLE about it
Most people think 1.52v on an E5200 is retardedly high.
Sure, anyone can get a high overclock when they can pump enough juice into the chip. The skill is knowing enough about hardware and BIOS specs to make “suicide-run” clocks run at typical temps.
Looking for offer me a e5200 but not sure that it will be a good deal compared to my e4300…
My overclocks :
– Pentium MMX 200Mhz up to 233Mhz (only in changing the FSB jumper on the Mobo)
– The famous Celeron 300A up to 450mhz
– Celeron 333 up to 416Mhz
– Pentium 4 : can’t remember well but I think it’s a 2.4GHz o/c to 3.2Ghz
– Core2duo e4300 overclocked 24/7 at 3,15Ghz during 18 months and working very well
Never had problems with overclocking. All my computers are still working.
Hmm, nice going, 4.5GHz is still alot of computing power, even if you didn’t manage 400MHz/1600MT/s FSB and 5.0GHz.
I can’t imagine how fast that’d be in a two-threaded application – I’ve only got a 1.6GHz E2140 here. But damn, it must be sweet to run that.
I’ll probably head for Core i7’s 920 when it’s available.
But since the E5200 is so cheap and overclocks to such a phenomenal speed, I think this might be the ideal brain of a budget build for my mom or sister.
e2160 , stock cpu fan, foxconn 45cmx, 3.0 ghz seems about all i can get then the system just shuts off. i suppose i should read up a little. i read a lot of people trashing this motherboard but it works for me. i am probably a noob too.
this is cool overclocking, i would say a little skill is going on here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UOryWvh1OA
e5200 wolfdale has a fsb wall of 333 so max is around 4.2 anyway.
WTF is with your coolin mate? 47 degrees? However much you paid gettin the bits werent worth it.
My e5200 does 4.16 ghz at ~48 with a Β£25 Scythe Ninja 2 on it.
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=419844
And no, overclocking doesnt require skill at all, as Johonm333 said, just deep pockets π
Who’s ” acting all high and mighty” now,Jo..A..honm333?
I have clocked my E5200 past 4.2ghz on air paired with a ASUS P5Q PRO P45 Motherboard. Ive seen 5.1ghz on liquid nitrogen with the volts @ 1.9.
If you want proof that this chip can overclock well past the 4ghz mark read more @ http://www.techpowerup.com (forums) I have a thread dedicated to Overclocking this chip. And if you want to see some serious end results try http://www.hwbot.org
heres a little sumthin for proof of my previous post
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=459736
you are all noobs
386sx33 to 66
486dx66 to 120
pentium 90 to 233
amd k2 233 to 450
pentium II 233 to 1600 liquid Oxygen cooled
amd xp 1600+ to 2600
amd xp 2800+ to 3400
all air cooled unless otherwise stated
as for skill some is required and some luck and good research
Eh and the purpose of this is ???
hmmm, i recently got an i7 920, and it was pretty fast at 2.66 with eight cores, and then i decidded to ramp it up to 4GHz π
4GHz X 8 =32GHz TOTAL π π π π !!!
yay π
and plus its super stable with no hiccups π
(yet)
Thats funny because the last time I counted, the i7 920 had 8 THREADS not CORES.
yes well you know what i meant π
i was just a bit exited about my succseesful first overclock π
I know. Thats a damn good overclock though. What cooling did you use?
i used a CoolIT Domino ALC Water Cooling Kit, pretty good for around 60 squid,
and seing as it was my first build i was glad that it was simple to set up π
it usually idles around 43-49C and at capacity for a looong time it goes up to about 53C, so im pretty happy π
opps, i meant 33-39C and 43C lol, not that good at typing lol
Not sure exactly what the writers point is with this article. Seems particularly pointless in both tone and content.
Whining about the lost days of unreliable hard to overclock systems (which being 44 i remember all too well)
I particularly don't like this idea of overclocking being “too easy” now, what an absurd idea only fit to be trolled out by a clueless leet kiddy (which the writer is too old to qualify for)
What does the writer want? to go back to a scene where most people where excluded by cost, knowledge and confidence, leaving himself and his friends as part of the anointed leet …. GROW UP m8.
The process never was hard you just needed more commitment and kit to do it properly.
Overclocking has never been a matter of SKILL, unless your a 14 year old who uses leet speak all the time.
The process of overclocking is much more akin to low level science project. From a base of some relevant knowledge (which is easily found online these days) you set out and systematically overclock your system, until you reach a balance between overclocking and stability. END OF !!! No magic leet Mad Skillz involved, just some forethought.
The truth is you spend a lot more time pissing around fiddling with everything to try get and extra 50mhz when you 1st start overclocking, once you've been at it a few years, then you come to realize that once you reach a main point of instability from setting FSB and vcore its only worth messing with a few other settings for awhile before you call it a day.
Not sure exactly what the writers point is with this article. Seems particularly pointless in both tone and content.
Whining about the lost days of unreliable hard to overclock systems (which being 44 i remember all too well)
I particularly don't like this idea of overclocking being “too easy” now, what an absurd idea only fit to be trolled out by a clueless leet kiddy (which the writer is too old to qualify for)
What does the writer want? to go back to a scene where most people where excluded by cost, knowledge and confidence, leaving himself and his friends as part of the anointed leet …. GROW UP m8.
The process never was hard you just needed more commitment and kit to do it properly.
Overclocking has never been a matter of SKILL, unless your a 14 year old who uses leet speak all the time.
The process of overclocking is much more akin to low level science project. From a base of some relevant knowledge (which is easily found online these days) you set out and systematically overclock your system, until you reach a balance between overclocking and stability. END OF !!! No magic leet Mad Skillz involved, just some forethought.
The truth is you spend a lot more time pissing around fiddling with everything to try get and extra 50mhz when you 1st start overclocking, once you've been at it a few years, then you come to realize that once you reach a main point of instability from setting FSB and vcore its only worth messing with a few other settings for awhile before you call it a day.
overclocking is justΒ wasting of time and money… the best is just buid one upto whatever max standard you want, if you have money.