Hello guys, i bought e5200 couple of days ago and tried to overclock it straight away. i managed 3.5Ghz stable under orthos and playing several hours of games. but i cant seem to get it stable at 3.6Ghz either the system helds and then restart or orthos gives error. my system spec is CPU: E5200 Mobo: Asus P5Q Ram: Corsair Dominator 2GB GPU: HD 4850 PSU: 500 Watt Cooler Master CPU cooler: Asus Silent Knight II now at 3.5 GHZ my temps at full 100% load are 56C. the bios settings are: FSB: 280Mhz Multiplier: 12.5 FSB Boot Strap: Auto Ram: 571 Mhz (1:1) Timing: 4-4-4-12 Ram training: disable. Ram buls--- something : disable. Mem charging: disable. Ai Twister: Lighter. Vcore: 1.3562 Cpu GTL: Auto. CPU PLL voltage: 1.54 FSB Termination voltage: 1.40 Ram voltage: auto. NB voltage: 1.28 Sb voltage: auto. Pci-e voltage: auto. linear calibration: enable. Cpu spread spectrum: disable. pcie spread specturm: disable. cpu skew: 100ps. ram skew: 300ps. with all the above settings its stable. but as i try to go for more the system is not stable. tried several combination. tried to increase fsb and voltage step by step. but no use after this the system is not stable. please help me out whats the problem. do i need to give more voltage to cpu?? i dont want to cross the max VID of this processor. or my PSU isnt enough. and further more if i use 1:2 or 3:4 or i guess 3:5 ratio the system is not stable games crashes. help me out please

Keep the ratio at 1:1. What speed RAM do you have? If it's DDR2-800, change your settings to take full advantage of it. Instead of clocking the CPU at 12.5 x 280MHz & underclocking the RAM to match, try reclocking the CPU to 8.5 x 400MHz. You'll lose 100MHz on the overall clock speed but the 400MHz 1:1 ratio will more than make up for it. "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

its DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15 2.1 and Jam please tell me the NB voltages and FSB voltages i have used are they safe. can i go over the max VID for the processor. ive noticed at 3.5Ghz my system is stable but - firefox hangs after some time i think it has something to do with overclock. i am fed up at the moment have taken every thing at stock. can you please help with the settings??? i would be very thankful.

You try bmping up the voltage by .2 or .3? If it's broke, then blow that sucka up!

yes i tried bumping up the voltage but no help. infact if i give NB voltage a 1.32 or 1.34 and FSB Termination Voltage 1.42 or 1.44 the system is highly unstable. so is it too much temperature??

"and Jam please tell me the NB voltages and FSB voltages i have used are they safe. can i go over the max VID for the processor" There should be no reason to increase the NB voltage. The P45 chipset is capable of running at 400MHz (1600MHz FSB) so you're really not pushing it. Voltage increases generally are only necessary to enable the hardware to run beyond what it's rated for. Take your DDR2-1066 RAM for example. It runs at 2.1v, right? According to the JEDEC standard, true DDR2-1066 should be able to run at it's default speed (533MHz) at 1.8v. Since your's it rated at 2.1v, it's not true DDR2-1066. Most likely, it's DDR2-800 that has been factory overclocked & has heat spreaders installed to help deal with the excess heat caused by the added voltage. But if you're running the CPU:DRAM ratio at 1:1 like you should be, there's no need to run the RAM at 2.1v. It *should* run just fine at 1.8v. Try running CPUZ, click the SPD tab, then check the Timings Table....see what voltages are listed for the different frequency settings. FSB Termination Voltage isn't something I'm very familiar with, but I doubt it has to be messed with. Have a look at this artcile about a different ASUS board & see what you think: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/ma... "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

yes you are right the RAM has heat spreaders on it. about the overclock i changed the whole scenario. 400*8.5 couldn't even boot-up at 1.3625V. gave higher voltages for FSB termination and NB voltage but no success i think it really need more voltages to boot up at that settings. so i changed it to 350*10 at same voltage. and about NB not being puched enough - i doubt it because i have to raise FSB termination voltage and NB voltage other wise the system isn't stable and in some cases it just doesn't boot.