phatman81

I have bought a new setup and have been working to overclock the chip/memory/video. I have only focused on the chip/memory for now, but i am getting discouraged by the results i am getting. I have overclocked in the past, but working with this board i am getting results (at least to me) that seem a bit weird. I just wanna check with some of you to see if this is normal behavior for this chip/chipset...

My original goal was to have a process speed of 4.5GHZ. I was willing to forgo the memory overclock to get this speed stable, but i seem not to be able to keep stable anywhere near it. I am almost down to 4.0GHZ now and i am still taking errors. (at work and do not have the specific numbers, but can remember most, so ask if you need).

The odd part i mentioned above is that the system will restart, not give errors in prime95 or OCCT. IS this a commonplace for these chips/chipsets to basically crash and restart while the test is running? I fear i may have a bad power supply or similar. Yet on lower overclocks, it will just say it encountered errors and stops the test. I will go through my profile now to update what i can in my sig to hoefully provide any information that anyone may need...

grmnasasin0227

780i's and other nVidia chipsets have issues with OC'ing, if you push too far (and 4.5GHz on an older Wolfdale chip is DEFINITELY too far) you'll get corruption on your SATA ports...meaning you just lost your OS install. With that in mind, keep it easy on the OC, and bump it up after you're sure it's stable at a benchmark. I don't think you'll be able to get 4.0GHz stable with that board/chip combination, the lower-binned Wolfdale just isn't getting it done anymore. Try an easy 400 x 9 OC for 3.6GHz and work up from there, 423 x 9 for 3.8GHz, etc. I'd use 1.35V on the CPU to see what I could get out of it. Plus at that FSB you won't blow out your memory. Good luck!

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phatman81

thanks for the insight... as for the hard drive, i could care less since i am only using 1 for testing and not the raid array (and i have 40GB spares, they are nice and cheap). The memory did cross my mind as being affected, but i was going off a toms hardware article that tested these modules and they got a much better overclock than i could. Also, i have seen other on this forum reach 4.5GHZ on an E8400, so what is the main difference between my setup and those?

more info:
Memory - Unlinked and set to 1066.
set to 2.1V, timings 5-5-5-15-22-2T
FSB - set @ 1.3V
vcore - set @ 1.45 but vdroop is 1.38V

ericeod

What voltages are you running? I just helped nemlich22 OC on his xfx 780i and he used the following for a 4.3GHz. More important are the motherboard voltages for the 1840 QDR OC.

vcore: 1.36v
Memory: Manufacturer Specs
SPP (northbridge): 1.45v
FSB Voltage: 1.30v
MCP (southbridge): Auto
MCP<=>SPP Auto
GTL REF (All): Auto


So with those settings (with the exception of the vcore), you should have no problem running 4.0GHz. If you have those voltages and cant run 4.0GHz stable, then your CPU is the limiting factor.

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eVGA 680i Overclocking guide .......... ASUS P5E/Maximus Thread.......... 4.4GHz CPU-Z

grmnasasin0227

The problem with your setup is basically that you have a new chip (I'm assuming). As brands get older and Intel comes out with newer versions (like the 8500, 8600) they put more effort into those and the OC'ing potential drops on the lower-end chips, like the E8400. In essence, the newer E8400's don't OC as well as the ones made last January did.

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phatman81

Memory - Unlinked and set to 1066.
set to 2.1V, timings 5-5-5-15-22-2T
FSB - set @ 1.3V
vcore - set @ 1.45 but vdroop is 1.38V
SPP - i believe the auto setting placed it at 1.4V

I tried bumping up the spp/mcp/mcp<==>spp slightly, but it seemed to not help in the longrun. I will verify and try to run prime95 tonight with those settings and see what happens. I would hate it for the CPU to be the limiting factor, but what ya gonna do? i bought this one not think... had i did a tad more research, i would have got the E8600 for the higher multiplier... oh well.
Thanks for all the input and hopefulyl i can get a stable overclock soon. I made it 6+hours on one core, while the other core failed @ 4+ hours last night. I believe i had the processor @ 4.1+, so i think a 4.0GHZ should be doable... though i really wanted 4.5GHZ.
Would additional cooling maybe help to stablize this CPU at higher speeds?

phatman81

ok, i have gotten it stable, but i had to set the memory timings to auto. Also, i used OCCP instead of Prime95 since it only needs a 2 hour test (will prime95 it when i go to bed).
Any suggestions from anyone as to how i can maybe squeek some more out of this setup? (still on the bench and not running SLI oir video overclock yet)

Memory - Unlinked and set to 1066.
set to 2.1V, timings 5-5-5-15-22-2T AUTO Timings (But OCCT shows 1.8 reguardless of what the bios says)
FSB - set @ 1.3V
vcore - set @ 1.45 but vdroop is 1.38V (OCCT shows 1.42)
SPP - i believe the auto setting placed it at 1.4V

EDIT: i just set the memory back to the timings listed on the module and OCCT has 30 min left before it passes. Why would prime 95 fail at these settings and OCCT not?

jasoncho92

I see it as the opposite. The majority of E0 E8400s have been overclocking like crazy. Mine is a good example because i can hit 4.2 stable at 1.264 which many people get near with their E0s

ericeod

Agreed, the E0s ae OCing very well. But the older C0 released later in production were not oCing as well. I dont know why, but it is the same thing that has happend to the Q6600 G0.

__________________
eVGA 680i Overclocking guide .......... ASUS P5E/Maximus Thread.......... 4.4GHz CPU-Z

darkhider

I have some problem with my e8400 also. It's not stable, maybe my voltages are wrong. I'm using EVGA 750i FTW mobo, with e8400. My ram is pc8500 so its 1066mhz.

These are my voltages:

System Voltage:-
CPU core: 1.4v
CPU FSB: 1.20v
memory: 2.1v
nForce SPP: 1.45v
NF 200 voltage level: 1.25v

And my FSB is 1800mhz

My mobo uses the "Pheonix Award Bios" company, and these are the voltage options that I have which I can change. I'm looking for 4.2ghz. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks