Overclocking E2180

Discussions and help regarding overclocking, motherboards, peripherals, AMD and INTEL CPU's
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CrazyBones
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Overclocking E2180

Post by CrazyBones »

This is going to be my first experience at attempting to overclock. I'd like to overclock my E2180(dual core 2.0 GHz) up to 3.2 GHz. According to this link, all I would have to do is tweak the FSB from 200 to 320.

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/235 ... build.html

It seems like 3.2 GHz is a safe speed on the stock cooling.

Anyone else have any experience overclocking the E2180? Anyone have any tips to avoid damaging my system?(afterall, this is my first time OCing)
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Executioner
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Post by Executioner »

I'm not an expert at overclocking, since my last overclock was the classic Celeron P2 300MHz to 450MHz. I would think that your ram should be a quality choice to allow for the overclock, you might have to tweak the cpu voltage, and finally your motherboard helps if its designed to allow overclocking.
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FlyingPenguin
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Post by FlyingPenguin »

If your memory clock speed is tied to the FSB then your memory needs to be capable of running at that speed. I assume you probably have DDR400 on that system which is only rated for 200MHz. You might be able to coax it a bit faster, but not much.

If you can increase the FSB without affecting the RAM clock then you should be okay.

REMEMBER there are no guarantees when overclocking, and your system may not be 100% stable afterwards even though it SEEMS to be. Worst case scenario is data corruption of the hard drive. I've seen it happen.

Also, considering the other thread, don't expect miracles. Even overclocked that CPU is woefully low-end for modern gaming and will never get anywhere near the performance of even a very low-end modern dual-core CPU.

As I mentioned in the other thread, if your main concern is multiplayer gaming performance then upgrading the graphics card will probably buy you considerable improvement. If single player is more important, then that's when the CPU comes into play (to manage the AI).
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normalicy
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Post by normalicy »

It totally depends on your motherboard & ram. It's considered best to link the ram to the processor, but most motherboards today will let you run the processor at a different FSB than the ram. Also note that occasionally, the FSB in the BIOS will be shown at 800mhz or the like because the Core2 processors run a quad data bus. So, you may need to run it at 1280mhz FSB to get the frequency you need depending on the motherboard manufacturer.

Just because one person/review site can do a certain speed, doesn't mean that you can. I've found that review sites in particular use top end ram (that most people don't have) and motherboards that they've tested to be incredibly stable for their CPU overclocking. In general, you shouldn't need to bump the voltage much (if at all) to get a decent overclock these days. A good recommendation is to go for 2.8ghz & see if the computer will boot. If it does, run Prime95 or 3Dmark (Futuremark) to stress the system for stability. If it still works, bump up the FSB a bit more till lockups occur. Then back up to the last good working step. Then stress the crap out of it overnight. You don't want a stable enough overclock, because it'll cause data corruption over time & will eventually ruin your Windows install.
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CrazyBones
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Post by CrazyBones »

FlyingPenguin wrote: As I mentioned in the other thread, if your main concern is multiplayer gaming performance then upgrading the graphics card will probably buy you considerable improvement. If single player is more important, then that's when the CPU comes into play (to manage the AI).
Well, I suppose multiplayer is more important for me but I would like to still try out Crysis and StarCraft 2. I also absolutely want to play Diablo 3 when it comes out.
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