Afternoon all.

I've been busy trying to overclock my CPU. It's an Intel Dual Core E2160, rated at 1.8GHz stock. The CPU is said to be able to do +- 3.3GHz on about 1.3V. However, I already need 1.3625V to reach 2.68GHz. I think that my PSU isn't good enough, and it might cause instability. My PSU is an el-cheapo loud Codegen 550W. Would buying a better PSU influence overclock-ability in a positive way? The one I'm interesting in at the moment is an OCZ StealthXStream OCZ500SXS-EU, rated at 550W.

the Corsair HX series are prety good aswell.

Yeah a no-name PSU is likely to have very shakey voltage levels and usually don't put out anything like the power they are labelled with. Named-brand ones have much more stable voltages which are also closer to the intended values, giving a much better overclock. They are also a lot less likely to go boom and if they do, less likely to take out other components too.

Brands to go for are:

Antec
Corsair
Zalman
Coolermaster
OCZ
Enermax
Asaka
Thermaltake

Something else that's worth stating (just in case you or anyone reading this doesn't know) is that the results you'll actually get from overclocking will vary widely from CPU to CPU (different manufacturer batches, differently binned etc), from motherboard to motherboard (some boards 'like' certain settings that promote higher clocks), from RAM to RAM (no point having a superquick CPU if your RAM can't keep up), from user to user (difference in experience, knowledge, environment etc) and from just about anything else. Just because tester X from site Y got Z clock speed on A volts doesn't necessarily mean you'll match (or even get close to it). My Q9450 seems to be limited to under 3.2GHz but in all the reviews I'd seen with similar hardware they'd been getting 3.4-3.6Ghz. Don't get your hopes up that by buying a new PSU you'll automatically see a huge benefit.

Quote from amp88 :

My Q9450 seems to be limited to under 3.2GHz but in all the reviews I'd seen with similar hardware they'd been getting 3.4-3.6Ghz. Don't get your hopes up that by buying a new PSU you'll automatically see a huge benefit.

i have a 9450 running at 3.4, what hardware do you have?

Quote from Gunsmith :

i have a 9450 running at 3.4, what hardware do you have?

Heatsink: Xigmatek HDT-S1283
Thermal Paste: Arctic MX-2 Thermal Paste
Mobo: ASUS P5K-E
RAM: GSkill F2-8500CL5-2GBPK (x2)
Graphics Card: ATi HD3870X2
Primary Hard Drives: 2x74GB WD Raptor (RAID0)
Secondary Hard Drive: Hitachi Deskstar
PSU: Corsair HX620W
Case: Antec P182

core voltage is weak, up it to 1.376v and try again, you should be able to punch that FSB up to 1700

Any other opinions?

I just realised that my pentium 4 2.53 ghz isnt overclocked as i thought it was, that was my old one.

I have spent most of today trying to access my fsb/multiplier settings in bios but it looks to be impossible with this chipset (SiS651) All options in bios are greyed out, moving the jumper on the mobo makes it beep and not boot at all, So i thought, ok, ill overclock in windows. i tried clockgen, and could see the clocks but there were no sliders to move around, cpufsb won't work either, i get error reading pll. I may have to give up as i can't find a way, plus im not confident enough with what bios i have to risk flashing it.

Anyone know what else i can try to get this thing up to 3ghz ish. my last p4 was a 1.8ghz stock i clocked it up to 2.35ghz and it was nice and stable so in theory i should be able to hit 3ghz with this one, once i find a way to actually change anything.

This is everything that PC wizard tells me about my comp...

Stop hijacking my thread damnit.

Quote from hrtburnout :

Stop hijacking my thread damnit.

Sorry :hidesbehi

I was gonna start my own thread but when i filled the title in, this one came up as a suggested current thread.