OC tutorial with Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 & DFI BI-P45 Elite

Core 2 Duo series are the first CPU with LGA775 socket; after launching C2D for few months,
Intel released the hi-end LGA775 solutions “Core 2 Quad”.
Currently, Core 2 Quad is still expensive. It costs more than USD $170 even you buy the cheapest one.
However, after price competition between AMD & Intel in mainstream market, the price of C2D is more acceptable.

For example, there are E8X00 (FSB 333MHz/ 6MB L2), E7X00 (FSB 266MHz/ 3MB L2),
E5X00 (FSB 200MHz/ 2MB L2) and E6300 (266MHz/ 2MB L2) for mainstream & extreme performance.
Or, you can also choose entry level solutions like E1X00 (FSB 200MHz/ 512K L2). All above CPU are based on C2D micro-architecture,
there are only different in L2 cache & frequency.

One of the leading roles today: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500/ 2.93GHz/ FSB 266MHz/ 3MB L2 cache.
E7500 CPU and cooler by Intel


There is no cooper basement in this cooler; you can see it only in Quad core processors.


E7500


P45 is the latest chipset which supports LGA775 CPU, the potential of overclocking is very good.


DFI usually adopts ”Red” PCB into Blood-Iron series.
There is a sticker near north bridge to remind “Warranty avoid if you remove the cooler”
(as you see, there is no metal cover to protect Intel P45 chip).
In my experience, if you change the cooler without damage the chipset, DFI will cover the warranty.
So, please be careful when changing north bridge cooler.


P45 motherboard is the best OC platform for LGA775 CPU.
To get higher performance, you have to fine tune some options for E7500 (R0 stepping).

BIOS setting for 500 x 8 => 4000MHz
CPU clock0 Skew: choose 100 or 200ps


GTL is key option for R0 stepping when OC FSB
The suggested number is 0.63/ 0.67/ 0.58X


If you want higher DRAM frequency, you can try 3/3/1 as the picture below.
If the DRAM quality is not good enough, you can ry 4/4/1.



Testing platform
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
MB: DFI LANParty P45-Elite
DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator TWIN2X4096-8500C5D
VGA: MSI R4890 CYCLONE DDR5 1GB
HD: CORSAIR CMFSSD-64GB2D (RAID 0)
POWER: CORSAIR 400W Power Supply
Cooler: Thermaltake BigTyp VP


Default stting
CPU 266 X 11=> 2926Mhz
DDR2 1064 CL5 5-5-15 2T

Hyper 2 X PI 32M=> 18m 44.029s
CPUMARK 99=> 442


CrystalMark 2004R3


CINEBENCH R10
1 CPU=> 3549
x CPU=> 6825


PCMark Vantage=> 7969


3DMARK Vantage
CPU SCORE=> 5843


The default frequency of E7500 is 2.93GHz; it’s powerful enough for most tasks.
In addition, 3MB L2 is also large enough.


Testing under overclocking
CPU 500 X 8=> 4000Mhz
DDR2 1000 CL5 5-5-15 2T

Hyper 2 X PI 32M=> 14m 13.228s
CPUMARK 99=> 577


CrystalMark 2004R3


CINEBENCH R10
1 CPU=> 4807
x CPU=> 9355


PCMark Vantage=> 9769


3DMARK Vantage
CPU SCORE=> 7883


Core voltage under Hyper PI 32M is 1.248V, but t drop to 1.232V in full loading.
It means E7500 needs only 1.232V when OC to 4GHz, such as E8X00 series.
Under two different Vantage benchmark, it also needs 1.232V for 4GHZ.


3D test with MSI R4890 CYCLONE.


StreetFighter IV Benchmark
1920 X 1200=> 18500


Biohazard5 Benchmark


With 4890 and overclocked E7500, StreetFighter IV & Biohazard work smoothly under this platform.


To challenge the OC limitation under air cooling.
CPU 411.7 X 11=> 4529MHz
Hyper 2 X PI 32M=> 13.931s
CPUMARK 99=> 654


To compare with 4GHz  1.232V, you can get higher result to 43.GHz by over voltage a little bit more.



Between E8X00 & E5X00 series, the E7500 product position is peculiar.
Someone think E7500 is just E6XXX with larger L2 cache, but I don’t agree.
According to the frequency and performance, E7500 should be hi-end product such as E8X00 series.

If you need to compress or en/decode audio & video files, E7500 with 3MB L2 cache is better than E5X/6X00 with 2MB cache only.
E7500 is a little bit more expensive than E6X00, but not so expensive as E8X00, I think it’s a compromise choice :)