Quote Originally Posted by urraca View Post
So I'm pretty much frustrated with my board + e8400 right now, but maybe my expectations are too high ( I mean I only have a 1ghz OC)
be content with a 1ghz overclock...that is typical.

I've been running 4.0ghz for over a week now, but I'm not satisfied, because it takes me such a high voltage to maintain any sort of stability. I've been reading the 8400/8500 OC thread, and I'm quite worried about degradation--even if it's not true.

My main problem with my board, I believe is voltage drop. I'm using the beta 9 bios, and I get such a huge drop. I'm running 1.395v in Bios and the longest I orthos'd (small ffts) for was 2 hours without error, I never went beyond that because of degradation fears, @ 1.385 vCore I error at 30 minutes.

According to CPU-z and uGuru, in windows I'm at 1.37 core and at load it drops down to 1.34. I know that some drop is normal, but that just seems extreme. And it seems that everyone else is hitting 4ghz as much lower voltages.
Vdroop is a spec for intel processors...some board makers offer an override circuit to eliminate the droop but that increases the cost of the board...by how much, i don't have a handle on that.

EVERY cpu is different in overclocking potential and also with each motherboard...those lower voltages could be on boards that have vdroop control built in...remember...intel specs chipset design with vdroop.

According to uGuru: I Idle at 24*C and at full load hit 44*C.
if you are air cooled then the cpu temp should not really be below what your system temp is running at...

Perhaps I have a bad chip, and my question is better suited for the e8400 thread. I apologize if that's the case.
perhaps!...i sent back an excellent QX9650 because of a bad DTS sensor...my replacement is like yours...i get a reliable 1ghz overclock with moderate vcore...i am not a Prime 95, Orthos or OCCT fanatic...i use wPrime 1024M stability bench...it gives me what i need for stability.

I tend to think, it's something I'm doing wrong though. Since I've been out of the game for a while.
keep tweaking but you are probably close to a max overclock that will give you moderate temps.

I'm using the system in my sig and my bios settings include:

e8400 batch#:Q744A760 w/ 1.1125vid

1.395 vCore
2.0 DDR2 Volts
everything else is at default
5-5-5-15 Ram Timings by SPD
I've tried 63% gtlref voltages

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm hoping that there is just some obvious BIOS settings I'm missing.
try setting everything to stock speed and then set your vcore to actual vcore of 1.04v or 1.05v and then run wPrime 1024M bench...i can do that...maybe you won't be able to post at that voltage...my VID is 0.9625 but now with this latest beta, 16.b09, it shows 1.1375....so...try that low vcore to see if you even get into windows at stock speed...set enough vdimm to allow it to post to boot...some sticks need more than other sticks, especially if you are running 4 sticks.

remember, the various bioses will require different set vcores to get a certain target actual vcore....ie, i am using 16.b09..in the bios, i have to set about 0.06v above what i actually need for an idle load and then another 0.03 to 0.04v to account for vdroop to accomplis a bench or wprime.

good luck!