PC Club Enpower Sabre Extreme: E6600 Made Easy
by Jarred Walton on August 29, 2006 4:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Overclocking
We mentioned earlier that since a standard Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 motherboard is used, end-user overclocking is entirely possible. (The same should hold true for versions shipping with the MSI P965 boards.) There is risk involved with overclocking, and individual results will vary. After updating to the latest F4 BIOS and finishing the initial benchmarks, we gave overclocking a shot. The installed memory is pretty generic and we didn't want to push things too far, so we set the memory to a 1:1 ratio and decided to see if the CPU and the rest of the system could handle running at 334 MHz front side bus. We did have to increase CPU voltage slightly: we used 1.3875V, and though the system did POST at lower voltages it was not fully stable during stress testing. Other than that the 25% overclock was extremely easy to achieve.
What more is there to say about a $370 CPU that can easily overclock to the performance level of a stock $1150 CPU? This is using the retail processor heatsink and fan, and even under extreme stress testing the system remained stable and the HSF stayed under 45°C. We could have certainly gone farther with the overclock (see below), but most people will be more than happy with a 3 GHz Core 2 Duo processor running inside their computer system.
We will include results from the overclocked system in our benchmarking results for reference. In some instances, the increased clock speed will have a dramatic impact on performance. In other areas, the system bottleneck is elsewhere and the added CPU performance does little to help. Depending on how you plan to use the system, it may not even be worthwhile to overclock it. Perhaps down the road once the warranty has already expired and after adding a faster graphics card, overclocking will become more beneficial.
After fully testing the 25% overclock, we decided to push things a bit further. With a bit more voltage to the CPU, memory, chipset, and FSB (+0.1V), we also managed to run our full set of benchmark tests at 9x350, and then we tried 9x366. The CPU fan was definitely working harder to keep the processor cool, and we don't actually recommend these higher settings unless you're okay with potentially frying a $300 processor. A better CPU heatsink would alleviate our concerns, and we will be sticking with the 9x333 results as a setting that we consider truly stable and attainable by most users. The 9x366 result was "mostly" stable - our gaming benchmarks completed without problems, but 3DMark06 and PCMark05 would periodically crash. Apparently, the limit of the RAM and/or CPU is somewhere between 9x350 and 9x366. We would say the RAM is the more likely culprit, given some voltage and stability issues encountered (see the Reliability, Warranty and Support page for details).
One final comment is that the system we have for testing uses a Core 2 Duo E6600 stepping 4 revision B0 CPU, which is generally not considered one of the best overclocking revisions. This is also an engineering sample (ES) CPU. Final retail systems will not come with anything other than full retail chips, but the lead times required to get system reviews done in a timely fashion account for the processor used. All of the other hardware is stock and retail units should perform at least as well as our test configuration.
We mentioned earlier that since a standard Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 motherboard is used, end-user overclocking is entirely possible. (The same should hold true for versions shipping with the MSI P965 boards.) There is risk involved with overclocking, and individual results will vary. After updating to the latest F4 BIOS and finishing the initial benchmarks, we gave overclocking a shot. The installed memory is pretty generic and we didn't want to push things too far, so we set the memory to a 1:1 ratio and decided to see if the CPU and the rest of the system could handle running at 334 MHz front side bus. We did have to increase CPU voltage slightly: we used 1.3875V, and though the system did POST at lower voltages it was not fully stable during stress testing. Other than that the 25% overclock was extremely easy to achieve.
What more is there to say about a $370 CPU that can easily overclock to the performance level of a stock $1150 CPU? This is using the retail processor heatsink and fan, and even under extreme stress testing the system remained stable and the HSF stayed under 45°C. We could have certainly gone farther with the overclock (see below), but most people will be more than happy with a 3 GHz Core 2 Duo processor running inside their computer system.
We will include results from the overclocked system in our benchmarking results for reference. In some instances, the increased clock speed will have a dramatic impact on performance. In other areas, the system bottleneck is elsewhere and the added CPU performance does little to help. Depending on how you plan to use the system, it may not even be worthwhile to overclock it. Perhaps down the road once the warranty has already expired and after adding a faster graphics card, overclocking will become more beneficial.
After fully testing the 25% overclock, we decided to push things a bit further. With a bit more voltage to the CPU, memory, chipset, and FSB (+0.1V), we also managed to run our full set of benchmark tests at 9x350, and then we tried 9x366. The CPU fan was definitely working harder to keep the processor cool, and we don't actually recommend these higher settings unless you're okay with potentially frying a $300 processor. A better CPU heatsink would alleviate our concerns, and we will be sticking with the 9x333 results as a setting that we consider truly stable and attainable by most users. The 9x366 result was "mostly" stable - our gaming benchmarks completed without problems, but 3DMark06 and PCMark05 would periodically crash. Apparently, the limit of the RAM and/or CPU is somewhere between 9x350 and 9x366. We would say the RAM is the more likely culprit, given some voltage and stability issues encountered (see the Reliability, Warranty and Support page for details).
One final comment is that the system we have for testing uses a Core 2 Duo E6600 stepping 4 revision B0 CPU, which is generally not considered one of the best overclocking revisions. This is also an engineering sample (ES) CPU. Final retail systems will not come with anything other than full retail chips, but the lead times required to get system reviews done in a timely fashion account for the processor used. All of the other hardware is stock and retail units should perform at least as well as our test configuration.
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unclebud - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
having to push the optical drives closed instead of being able to press the eject button to do it? terrible designhopefully it won't require a couple hundred customers rmaing their drives to change it someday
JarredWalton - Saturday, September 2, 2006 - link
I've never had a problem pushing the tray to close a CD-ROM. The trick is that you push it gently rather than trying to slam it shut. I could see children having a bit of an issue doing this, but I would wager heavily that most children pushed the tray in regardless of whether or not you can access the eject button.Iceboie - Thursday, August 31, 2006 - link
Will we see an article in the future for us who wants a Conroe system but on a low budget scale?JarredWalton - Saturday, September 2, 2006 - link
Just drop from the E6600 (tested) to an E6300, dropped the graphics card down to a lower-cost version, maybe get a smaller hard drive, and you can quickly get the cost down to under $1000 (not including monitor). The system as a whole is fine, so basically just get whatever CPU and other settings you can afford.giantpandaman2 - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Nice Review. Only things that'd be nice to add is how long it takes to get a system shipped to you and how difficult is it to RMA something. Can you take it to the store? Do they give you a run around? Is it painless? I figure you guys could use a girlfriend/buddy to bring in the computer so you can remain anonymous. :) Sounds like getting things fixed should be pretty easy since they have stores, but it'd be nice to know for sure.giantpandaman2 - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
oops, I know you can take it to the store.Capt Jook - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Hi all,James here, manager of the Tigard, Oregon PC Club. Just wanted to say thanks for a great review and maybe answer a few questions.
RMA through the web can be a bit of a pain...at the moment we do not offer a cross-shipping option for defective parts, so it can take a week or two to get back a good part after you send in the faulty one. In store, if we(PC Club) build the system and it is in warranty, we swap a new part right off of the shelf, 1 year warranty or 3. On 3 year warranty systems, we also cover End of Life(EOL), so if a CPU is 2 years old and EOL...we give you the logical replacement or an upgrade. We usually hire enthusiasts at our stores, so many people feel welcome when they want to discuss multipliers or voltages, etc.
We do use all standard, off the shelf components...nothing proprietary. Our "restore" CD is actually just an XP CD. We are sure to give the customer physical copies of all of the software installed on the system, in case of a catastrophic drive failure. We have a http://pcclub.com/forum/index.cfm">Customer support Forum that has help available 24/7. Mostly other PCC customers, but I know of at least 10 store level employees that frequent the forum on a daily basis(myself included).
The Allied 350W PSU has seen at least 10,000 hours of(combined) testing in the configuration listed. All of our system configurations must pass at least 5,000 hours of testing by our Engineering Department before they are released for sale to the stores and the web.
Each store is required to have a tech on duty 7 days a week, 362 days a year(we are closed xmas, Thanksgiving and 4th of July), so service is available if you are local to a store.
Thanks for your time!
JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - link
Thanks for the additional information, James. (I'm up north of you in Olympia Washington, so the closest store to me is in Tacoma.) I actually do know a couple enthusiasts that work at PC Club stores, so I agree that the local support should be good. I wish I had some place like PC Club close by my house, as other than ordering online my only options are an overpriced brick-and-mortar store down the street, or I can try my luck at Best Buy. Needless to say, nearly all of my purchases come from web sites.giantpandaman2 - Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - link
Thankfully I'm in Bellevue. I can go anywhere. :Pyyrkoon - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
I own a Vewsonic VA1912wb 19" widscreen monitor, and its a great monitor, however, its also rated @ 8ms, not 5ms listed in your review (I know what Viewsonics webpage says, but according to my box, manual, and newegg, this is incorrect) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82.... Perhaps Viewsonic has since reworked this part, but In my opinion, that would call for a new part # ?As for the Pre-built system, interresting choice of motherboards, they frown on OC'n, yet they offer the best OCable motherboard for the C2D ? You would think, they would have picked something a bit more stable like the ABIT AB9 Pro or something . . .