New to overclocking, would like some help with my e8400

[i3uu]

Hello world.

Just a few weeks ago I decided to build a new system. I got all my parts together and all that stuff and now am on my new fun gaming machine. The only problem I have now is, I have this wonderful e8400 but have very little knowledge and experience of overclocking so I can't really use this thing like it should be used. I'm also a reserved person so I'm a bit scared to do anything that I don't know how to do, especially knowing the risks. I'm hoping that with the help of you wonderful and knowledgeable people, I can complete my task of OC this thing to 4.0ghz on air cooling.

I have read something articles and posts and whatnot and heard a lot about the FSB and how it can raise it up, so I went into bios and changed it from 333 to 400 and now CPU-Z says I am at 3.6ghz. Just recently I've read even more and hear that FSB raises more than the cpu and am wondering what I should do and if I would be just fine to raise the fsb even higher to get 4.0 with my x9 multiplier. I left everything else at auto because I was unsure of what they all meant and didn't want to mess anything up too terribly bad.

Right now, this is my system -

core 2 duo e8400
PNY 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
ASUS P5Q SE/R
Arctic Silver 5
XIGMATEK HDT-S963 92mm Rifle CPU Cooler

I've been checking HWmonitor and it says I idle around 41c with max load at 50-55

I'm using American Megatrends Inc. Version 0409 BIOS if that matters any.

Does anyone know of any good starting numbers or what exactly is important to change for OCing?

did you test it on stability ?
if not use OCCT Linpack test and run it at least for 4 hours

[i3uu]

Originally Posted by DreamSeller

did you test it on stability ?
if not use OCCT Linpack test and run it at least for 4 hours

I'm pretty sure it's stable haha.

I ran crysis max settings(very high/enthusiast) for about.. 6-8 hours straight(yea, I had nothing to do that day haha) and I never overheated/restarted/BSOD'd. It can sit 24/7 if I want(but I like to put it on sleep mode overnight since it has a LED that is bright and annoying when I want to sleep).

[silkstone]

Bump up the voltage in small amounts - i'd only go to 1.30v max tho as you have a kinda small cooler, and raise the FSB. you may have to lower the Ram divider.
You might not be able to get 4ghz with that small a cooler

read throught the overclocking guides on this forum. It should give you a good idea of what to do.

The only 3 settings you should touch are CPU voltage, FSB and Ram Frequency.

[i3uu]

Originally Posted by silkstone

Bump up the voltage in small amounts - i'd only go to 1.30v max tho as you have a kinda small cooler, and raise the FSB. you may have to lower the Ram divider.
You might not be able to get 4ghz with that small a cooler

read throught the overclocking guides on this forum. It should give you a good idea of what to do.

The only 3 settings you should touch are CPU voltage, FSB and Ram Frequency.

It's not a bad cooler imo, but okay. I've tried to read a few guides on here, but most of them are a bit outdated and it's hard for me to understand them(not only that, but I've read different 'guides' and have heard different ideas on what exactly I should touch)

But thank you, I can try some of that. If I can run stable at a higher fsb, do I need to raise volt? Or can i even try to LOWER the volt as long as I can boot?

EDIT: okay, so I just changed my FSB to 420x9=3.8ghz. I have left everything else at auto and I am assuming that that means the bios is basically selecting the best numbers for me, correct? When I booted, it was fine(obviously), and during the early loading of windows 7, I opened up HWmonitor and CPU-Z to check the vitals. CPU-Z verified that I changed the BIOS info correctly and HWmonitor was saying that the CPU was running at 54c. When I saw this, i was freaked out, but then realized "oh yea, I'm still loading all the startup junk". About 10 seconds later, the temps dropped to a reasonable 41-42c. I'm thinking of doing some kind of stress test real fast to test stability and see what goes down. 3.8 is pretty cool imo. It loaded through all the grub/boot menu a lot faster than the previous 3.6(probably also because I just now disabled C1E). I have another question for you gurus though: I've read of other people doing something like.. 480x8 instead of my 420x9. What is the major difference? I mean, I know my version puts less stress on my RAM and other components, is that it?

[i3uu]

I am running the OCCT stress test right now on my cpu and it's sitting at 66c. Tell me, is that a dangerous temperature for 4 hours? I mean, I know it's not good to be that high for like regular gaming use, but is that expected for a stress test?

[Dice]

i don't know if you'll get 4gh with that board. my bro has it and i found it didn't oc well. Good luck though and if your sucessfull i may well be pestering you for advice....

[i3uu]

Originally Posted by Dice

i don't know if you'll get 4gh with that board. my bro has it and i found it didn't oc well. Good luck though and if your sucessfull i may well be pestering you for advice....

I think I might agree with your bro. I'm not throughly impressed with it, but then again, I did kinda go cheap on the board. I'm just annoyed that the stupid express gate is annoying and I have to download the install for it and install it before I can use it. It didn't come pre-loaded on my board.

[Studabaker]

are you playing with voltage enough? you always have to increase the nb voltage a little bit, especially when you're going 400MHz FSB and beyond, i set mine from 1.1 to 1.2 to run at a bus of 400.

[silkstone]

Shouldn't need to touch the NB voltage, that is for advanced tweaking really. My mobo has no NB controls and will run at 490mhz max stable.

To answer your previous question. You can reduce the multiplier and increase the fsb (480x8 vs. 420x9) but this actually puts extra stress on your components. it will lead to a slight performance increase. but i'd leave it as is if i were you until you get more comfortable with overclocking.

[angelkiller]

What voltage does CPU-Z say you're running? 66C at 3.8GHz seems kinda high. Maybe the mobo is unnecessarily selecting a high voltage.

4GHz isn't that hard to do. First, up the FSB to 450. (450*9=4.05GHz) Then go down and change the CPU Voltage to 1.3. That should get you 4GHz.

[i3uu]

Well, everything was looking fine - (I ran the stress test for 2 hours but my computer went to sleep so it kinda ruined the entire process) but when I came back to using it and tried to install something, the system froze up. No BSOD or anything, just it froze. It could have just been what I was installing, because it was "express gate" and that messes with the boot system. Oh well, Just to be safe I went back to 3.6 for now (9x401) and CPU-Z is saying the vCore is 1.224. I think it was actually near 1.2 when it was at 3.8ghz but i'm not 100% sure.

[angelkiller]

Originally Posted by i3uu

Well, everything was looking fine - (I ran the stress test for 2 hours but my computer went to sleep so it kinda ruined the entire process) but when I came back to using it and tried to install something, the system froze up. No BSOD or anything, just it froze. It could have just been what I was installing, because it was "express gate" and that messes with the boot system. Oh well, Just to be safe I went back to 3.6 for now (9x401) and CPU-Z is saying the vCore is 1.224. I think it was actually near 1.2 when it was at 3.8ghz but i'm not 100% sure.

In my experiences, when Windows just freezes, that means that there's not enough voltage. But it means that there's just barely not enough voltage. So as I see it, Windows freezing is better than a BSOD.

I think your issue is the voltage. 1.2 is still on the low side. I would up the voltage a bit. Try 1.25v @ 4GHz. Or you could do 1.3v @ 4GHz because I'm pretty sure that'll be 100% stable. And these voltages are perfectly safe to use btw.

Oh, ExpressGate is really cool imo.

[i3uu]

Originally Posted by angelkiller

In my experiences, when Windows just freezes, that means that there's not enough voltage. But it means that there's just barely not enough voltage. So as I see it, Windows freezing is better than a BSOD.

I think your issue is the voltage. 1.2 is still on the low side. I would up the voltage a bit. Try 1.25v @ 4GHz. Or you could do 1.3v @ 4GHz because I'm pretty sure that'll be 100% stable. And these voltages are perfectly safe to use btw.

Oh, ExpressGate is really cool imo.

I'm just hoping the temps will stay comfortable. I have that cooler, and the raidmax smilodon case which has 2 90mm side intake fans (one goes right on the cpu hs and the other is on the back end of my GTX 260) 1 120mm exhaust and 1 120mm front intake fan.

[Dxwnd]

In order to avoid damaging your cpu with voltages,
use this site:
http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SLAPL
as you can see, the max temp they suggest is 72.4C,
as far as you got to 66C, it depends,
at games , your getting close to 66C?
It's pretty good temp for 3.8, I believe you can get to 4GHZ,
If your a bit afraid, get yourself a SCYTHE MUGEN II,
that is one of the best air cooling solutions for cpu.
Good luck, keep us updated with your OC.
* No matter what dont pass this: 1.3625V !