First off let me admit my newbiness. I know lots about software, but this is my first attempt at overclocking anything. That being said I read the relevent stickies (I think) and if there is anything else that I should read please let me know

I'm running my E2180 with a Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L motherboard. I have disable all of the power svaing features and have not installed any of the overclocking/powersaving software.

I got it to a stable 2.7 GHz (300 x 9) on stcok voltage (1.325 V), but CPU-Z registers it as 1.296 V. Not accurate, but ok. The thing is, when I add more voltage (say I push it to Intel's max of 1.5 V) it still registers as 1.296 V. I managed to boot at 3 GHz (300 x 10), but it took 1.5 V and CPU-Z still read 1.296 V. I understand vdroop is a problem, but that seems pretty excessive. What's going on and how do I get more power?

Thanks for the help!

have you try update the BIOS to the latest beta version? but i still recommand you lower the multiplier to 7X and get more out of your FSB and ram altogether.

but before that sort out your vdrop problem. so the voltage dropped but the CPU multiplier didnt drop at the same time?

No, I haven't updated the BIOS. I guess that would be a good starting point. I'm not convinced my memory is very good (seems to crash at anything better than 5-5-5-12). For the record it is OCZ gold XTC PC2-6400.

The voltage was listed in the BIOS as 1.50 V, but CPU-Z reported 1.296 V. The multiplier was at 10x and the bus was 300. It was, sadly, the only time I got it to boot at 3 GHz. If it's worth anything, the temperature didn't seem to go up very much.

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=377600

I have had the most stable overclock using 9x333 with auto voltage and RAM timings. Even with auto RAM voltages they stay in the 2.0 - 2.10 range.

holy poo poo you have no idea how much you just made my day. I check your link and realized I messed up the FSBRAM ratio...I was setting that as high as possible to keep the memory at 400 MHz. Now that it's at 1:1 it runs beautifully. Thanks a LOT!

Does anyone have any links about what exactly the FSBRAM ratio does? Apparently I slept through that class....

I have the P35 DS3L and a E4300 all I did was set FSB to 333 and ram to 1:1 booted up at 3ghz flawless running 40C idle 54C load with stock cooler in a El diablo case(Huge fans BTW) Also running 4 sticks of ram 2x512 and 2x1gb corsair XMS-2 DDR2 675. With 800mhz CPUs ya dont need the faster ram to OC. stock volts as well on ram and CPU and NB/SB. Ram is manually set to 4-4-4-12. Odd reason is Corsair XMS SPD doesnt properly read as the ram is specced. It says 533mhz 5-5-5-15.

FSB:ram ratio is the say meaning as any other ratio.if something runs on certain speed the other one will be the1:x of the first speed.

just a word of advice from most of the enthusiast in here. always leave that ratio on 1:1 for best performance.

I flashed the BIOS....don't know what difference it made, but it can't hurt

I got a little bit too excited....the 333 bus failed Prime95 in about half a second. I set it down to 325 and it's been going ok for a few minutes now. It won't post if I set the ram timings to anything faster than the auto settings of 4:5:5:13.

Is it best to just let the mobo figure out the voltage and make sure they aren't too out of line?

PS thank for the fast replies everyone!

of course it wont. leave timing on 4-4-4-15 and 1:1 ratio and up the ram voltage to 2.1V.NO MORE! and adjust the vcore untill you get stable.

Just ran my benchmarks and WOW the FSB:RAM ratio made a big difference!!

I've got the voltages set to auto....should I be setting them manually?

YES!you should always do!

ok, will do. I'm still having that problem with CPU-Z, though. I set the voltage to 1.375 V and CPU-Z is reading 1.296 V when idle. I don't think it's misreading it because the voltage increase hasn't stabilized it yet.

First of all, what kind of power supply are you using? Strange that you would get that much droop. What about CPU fan? Just want to eliminate them as variables...

I am stable at 3.2 GHz on my 2180 by going 8 x 400 MHz, with 1:1 RAM, and 1.375 v. I tried some other settings at different points, but either they weren't stable, or produced lower SuperPi times.

Some of the resources that helped me along the way:
http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpu [...] hread.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] uals-guide

Good luck!

*braces for flames* I'm using the 450W PSU that came with my case...probably not top notch haha I thought that droop only occurs under load and I'm getting that much of a discrepancy idling. The CPU fan is stock.

It's good to know the E2180 can get that high
Thanks for the links!

so if you set it at 1.45V in BIOS what would you get?the e2xxx CPU max out at 3.4Ghz btw if you dont know yet.