Any Overclockers on here?

[sir doris]

Hi,
I've had my E6600 running conservatively at 3GHz for about 4 months now and it's been totally reliable. However in the last week i've started to get crashes which i've discovered are due to memory errors. Although the RAM is overclocked by about 30MHz it not running timings as tight as it's spec.

I don't understand why it's been fine for all these months and now problems are showing up.

The System fails memTest after only a couple of minutes with multiple errors. If I revert the memory divide back to 1:1 (DDR-66?) it's fine.

System is as below:

E6600 333*9
2Gb Corsair Dominator DDR-800 4-4-4-12
- running 333fsb 5:4 memory divide approx. effective 833MHz
Abit AB9 Pro
Gigabyte Galaxy II water Cooler
CoolerMaster Aluminium ATCS Chassis

The system has good cooling and airflow over the DIMMs, voltages seem ok and Temps are low (CPU & GPU)

Would giving it a bit more RAM voltage sort it out or is that a slipery slope?

I understand that increasing the RAM speed above 1:1 dosen't give big gains but I want an explanation of what's gone on

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Neb]

...

Well overclocked components tend to have much shorter life span than if not overclocked. You may check if the voltage that the RAM gets is the same as it was initially when you overclocked. PSUs tend to drop slightly their rail voltage over time and it may have been that which makes your RAM fail, IF it is the RAM.
Try upping the memory voltage one notch and see if it fails in memtest.

 

[Skrying]

Is your northbridge being properly cooled?

Also, your CPU temperature is most likely wrong depending on the program. Only one truly reliable for a C2D is TAT (Intel Thermal Analysis Tool). For instance, Speedfan will read the my CPU as 35C load, its realistically at 57C load. C2D are hot, believe it or not.

 

[sir doris]

Thanks guys,
I'm using CoreTemp and the motherboard BIOS & Abit's uGuru for temps and they are both lower than friends/ brothers stock air cooled C2D's (mostly also E6600). The chassis has good airflow and the exhaust is always cool, as opposed when I had my A64 which was usually worringly hot (but stable).

I'll check the North bridge.

Then i'll try upping the RAM voltage, how far do you think I should push it the minimum the BIOS will allow? .2v?

BTW all voltages at the moment are BIOS defaults.

I'll get back with the results...

 

[Neb]

Thanks guys,
I'm using CoreTemp and the motherboard BIOS & Abit's uGuru for temps and they are both lower than friends/ brothers stock air cooled C2D's (mostly also E6600). The chassis has good airflow and the exhaust is always cool, as opposed when I had my A64 which was usually worringly hot (but stable).

I'll check the North bridge.

Then i'll try upping the RAM voltage, how far do you think I should push it the minimum the BIOS will allow? .2v?

BTW all voltages at the moment are BIOS defaults.

I'll get back with the results...

Yes check that all coolers/heatsinks are properly attached. Up the RAM votage one notch (in your case +0.2) and test. Although dont go to far up with the voltage for the RAMs safety.