**Official e8400/e8500 Retail OC Thread

[cincyrob]

E8400 Q815A077 on stock vcore (CPU-Z says it bounces between 1.184 and 1.200, can't make change stick due to F4 BIOS glitch on EP35-DS3L) at 9x370 (3.33GHz) seems good so far on small FFT p95

DDR2-800 running at 740 to stay 1:1, PCI-e locked to 100MHz, C1E and EIST disabled, stock cooler with fan on max and 60*C Prime95 according to RealTemp 2.60

I'll try 375 later, the first time I tried it I had my RAM at 900MHz at the same time and one core failed prime95 (large FFT, max heat test with some RAM) in about 5 minutes, but it could've been the RAM that was unstable.


Ambient is around 30*C

you have basicly the same mobo as me. except i have a few more goodies onboard. you should be able to get 3.6ghz with ease.
bump your freq up to 400. go to your mem and put it in manual and change settings to 4-4-4-12. then go down to the bottom of screen and set your mem volts up to +.03 or +.04 that will get your mem up to its required volts.(the mushkin mem is rated at 2.1v i think) so you would need +.03 to get it there. then the setting right above the mem you just changed set it at auto and it will do what it needs for the vcore and such.

if your mem was at 900mhz you had to have your freq at 450mhz 450x2=900
and 450freq on the cpu will give you a nice 4.05ghz oc... thats why it failed on you... try it at 400 with those setting i suggested and you will like what you get.... very easy 3.6ghz...i will tell ya now with these type gigabyte boards you/i have it runs warmer than others with different/better boards

EDIT:
doing a little more OC. i got it up to 4.1ghz i think its stable so far. im running orthos now and all is well.
here is my question.
i set my vcore up to 1.3975v(higher than the max 1.3625v) but with the vdrop im only getting 1.33v is this normal/OK... which shouldi be trying to get to run stable? what im getting with the vdrop or what the actual setting is i have set at now?i think with the vdrop i would have to take the actual setting up to 1.4250v or some where in that range to get it running at the 1.3625v.. ill do a screen shot of orthos and everything else once orthos has bee nrunning for 20 mins or so.

oh yea my temps right now with orthos runnin is 74-76c. 30deg away from the TJ max of 105c or 95c which ever you tend to go buy.

[mskvorc1]

Intels rated max for the E8400 is 1.3625v so anything over that they say may degrade the lifespan of the cpu. With all the reports of degradation around, I'd stay under that.

Lower the vNB and keep retesting to see what happens, all boards are different.

I don't understand anymore. What's the maximum allowed voltage? Some say under 1.4V, some under 1.3625V (at least say's so on Intel site). Come on guys, will you finally agree all together on maximum allowed voltage? I mean, we all know maximum allowed temprature is 72 C, but every few pages I can see different opinions about maximum allowed volotage...

[zfactor]

the rated max from intel is 1.3625 (from what i was told by intel) but most believe and have tested them to be fine at up to 1.4... some run even a bit over that 1.4 and its fully stable and a few short peaks of temps over the 72 imo should not make a differnce its a continued load at those temps where you will prob have a issue

[mskvorc1]

the rated max from intel is 1.3625 (from what i was told by intel) but most believe and have tested them to be fine at up to 1.4... some run even a bit over that 1.4 and its fully stable and a few short peaks of temps over the 72 imo should not make a differnce its a continued load at those temps where you will prob have a issue

Thanks for the reply. So with 1.376V and maximum temperatures under prime of 63 C I have no problems...

[cincyrob]

the rated max from intel is 1.3625 (from what i was told by intel) but most believe and have tested them to be fine at up to 1.4... some run even a bit over that 1.4 and its fully stable and a few short peaks of temps over the 72 imo should not make a differnce its a continued load at those temps where you will prob have a issue

i was told the same thing from intel about the 1.3625v max

but as i posted up above i have just set my vcore again and its up to 1.4000v now(orthos faild at 18mins on core#1) but in everest/cpu-z it shows my vcore as 1.328v-1.340v. so should i keep raiseing it in the bios until i hit the 1.3625v?

this is what i have as of now with the vcore set to 1.4000v in the bios.


i only get these 70's temps when running these stress test. under normal load of dvd-rebuilder and such i only hit like 66-68c is this ok too?

[AriciU]

i was told the same thing from intel about the 1.3625v max

but as i posted up above i have just set my vcore again and its up to 1.4000v now(orthos faild at 18mins on core#1) but in everest/cpu-z it shows my vcore as 1.328v-1.340v. so should i keep raiseing it in the bios until i hit the 1.3625v?

this is what i have as of now with the vcore set to 1.4000v in the bios.


i only get these 70's temps when running these stress test. under normal load of dvd-rebuilder and such i only hit like 66-68c is this ok too?

Yeah... Gigabyte's vdrop like hell... specially their cheaper models.

[zfactor]

seems your board has some wicked vdrop... do you have a setting for vdrop in the bios? if not i would raise your bios vcore a bit more if it was me till i saw the actual i wanted. but if your are at 1.328 you are def fine.. your temps are high like mine are though. 68 is still high for sure but imo as long as my system isnt running like that all the time its not a huge deal. even when encoding a dvd i only saw 61 or so where with orthos i jump to around 68 and stay there. i would only step up in small amounts though with the vcore now. do you have c1e enabled or disabled? with the temps we both have im running with it enabled and this way when im not really doing anything but browsing or using word it will drop my chip to about half speed..then temps are not a problem. i dont know your bios and heck im still learning this crazy dfi one...

just watch your temps though to much higher with vcore and your may get to hot.. i would not push to much farther myself. maybe just a small bit..also maybe you should try a different cooler. that one is ok but for the oc you are wanting imo you need a better cooler

[inCore]

ahh yeah sorry i didnt look at your sig. ill bet with more setting you prob could tweak it more. isnt there some secret pages in that bios or am i thinking of a different mobo??

You're thinking of the right motherboard, but the settings aren't really useful for overclocking CPUs, as far as I can remember. I have the same motherboard, but I'm stuck at 3.85 Ghz with 1.41 V due to an amazingly crappy CPU.

[aussie-revhead]

Is E8600 info/results etc going in this thread too ?

[Pisklink]

As you can see on the previous page I have set my Vcore to 1.4325V in bios right now. With Vdroop taking into account CPU-z gives me 1.41V and that with Load Line Calibration on performance in P5E3-Premium bios. I have to admit that this LLC feature helped me getting the Vcore a bit more stable and gave me less Vdroop.

In the end I think temps are the most important reference for the danger of frying your CPU. Moreover if your on water you can accept a bit higher voltages IMO. Unless you want to be absolutely save and tend to use your current CPU for the upcoming 10 years or so, then I would obey Intel specs. However, I don't think anyone on this forum is planning to use his/her CPU for 10 years that's why I mainly focus on temps. According to RealTemp my temps under Orthos load are 54 and 49 with Vcore on 1.4325V in bios.

[cincyrob]

no my bios dont have anything for the vdrop. not htat i know of. i will try bumping it up one setting at a time now.. orthos failed again at about the same time. 17mins 45sec.
im gonna bump it up to 1.4120v and try and get it closer to 1.3625v. i have C1E disabled. that makes since to have it enabled. like you said theres no need to have it running that high just to surf the net and send emails.

ive just been reading the article from here about the better coolers. im thinking of getting the OCZ Vendetta 2. that looks like a very sweet cooler.

as for your DFI mobo... all them different settings in bios has kept me from trying one... seems like alot to go through in them bios.... i need to learn a bit more before i tackle something like that...lol
ok going to change vcore again.

InCore
do you see anythign different when you hit ctrl & f1? i dont see anything different that allows me to do anything?

i found this thread here(named wrong) it deals with some OC'ing stuff with the E8600
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ighlight=E8600

[zfactor]

nah its not as hard as you think. took me maybe a week of reading and testing but im got it pretty good now.. i just need a bit of help fine tuning now im hoping praz or someone like rgone or anyone here will help me with. the dfi is soooo nice as far as bios goes. there is so many options to help you around every corner. for instance i could not boot at all at any vcore over 1.23??? yeah odd i know but using the special add vid feature i could at anything i want now. then with even using add vid anything over 4.1 (and i mean anything at all even 10mhz) it refused even to post. i got a quick on then off.. so i used the boot up speed feature and set that for -200 so it will boot for me now at 4.0 then go up to 4.2 when its okay to do so... things like that are pretty sweet imo

and yeah GET a better cooler at 76c i would not go nuts if you see your temps go up more

[HamTard]

So my E8400 is 8+ hours Prime95 small FFT stable at 3.33GHz (9x370) around 58-60C on stock cooler.

CPU-Z seems to suggest my core voltage is fluctuating between 1.168 and 1.184, I'm using a GA-EP35-DS3L with F4 bios, which is known to have issues with voltage settings. In the bios it says the default CPU voltage is 1.225 (and I haven't touched the setting) so I'm confused about the CPU-Z report, which I guess indicates vdrop from reading the last few posts. I hope when I eventually flash it to F5 and voltage settings stick, I can bump it up to 1.200

[zfactor]

sorry yeah i mistyped.. i didnt mean to mislead anyone i was talking about vdroop

[HamTard]

Ok, then my vdrop is 0.025v (idle 1.200v vs bios 1.225v) and my vdroop is 0.016v (1.184v load)

Is this bad? What voltage should my E8400 have on load with stock cooler by default?

[cincyrob]

well it dont look like it is ment for me to run this E8400 at 4.1ghz or higher. stays stable about 40 mins at max. im not gonna take the volts up any higher than i have. ive backed it back down to 3.6ghz. until i get a better board i doubt i try 4.0ghz again on this one.

i am gonna get a better cooler. the TRUE120 looks like a good/awsome cooler but from what ive seen you need to lap it to get it good and flat. along with buying another 120mm fan it would be well over $100. to much for me for a cooler. i like the OCZ Vendetta 2. i might get one of them this weekend.

[zfactor]

i can say this is def nice to run 24/7 at 4.2... things are just ridiculously fast now lol...

[HamTard]

At 9x370 (RAM 1:1 at 740mhz) I am stable for 10 hours prime95. At 9x375 (RAM auto at 900mhz) I am unstable. Do you think it was because of the RAM not being 1:1 and going too high, and I should try again to go above 370 fsb?

Is 3.33GHz a pretty bad oc?

[zfactor]

i may have missed it but what is your vid cincyrob

[zfactor]

At 9x370 (RAM 1:1 at 740mhz) I am stable for 10 hours prime95. At 9x375 (RAM auto at 900mhz) I am unstable. Do you think it was because of the RAM not being 1:1 and going too high, and I should try again to go above 370 fsb?

what are the rest of your settings? are you running your timing set to auto?? i can not run my sticks on auto the board if have doesnt like it. i set them manually and it opened up a whole new amount of fsb for me ...i wish i knew more about the giga's you guys are running but they seems to pretty basic in the settings the offer you..

[cincyrob]

my vid is 1.1125v its nice and low.
running orthos right now on the 3.6ghz i set it back to. temps are only 66c under load right now. thats on both cores.
also my mem is in manual set at 4-4-4-12 and the voltage control is all set to auto. and my vcore now is 1.180v

hamtard
something dont add up if you have your freq @ 9x375 that wont put your ram at 900mhz only at 750mhz.

[HamTard]

what are the rest of your settings? are you running your timing set to auto?? i can not run my sticks on auto the board if have doesnt like it. i set them manually and it opened up a whole new amount of fsb for me ...i wish i knew more about the giga's you guys are running but they seems to pretty basic in the settings the offer you..

I am running my RAM timings on auto, I don't know what keys to press to unlock manual (ctrl+something I think) is that a problem? What should I run my RAM at?

[HamTard]

hamtard
something dont add up if you have your freq @ 9x375 that wont put your ram at 900mhz only at 750mhz.

on 1:1 yes, but I previously had it on "auto" which set it to 900. I've got it on 1:1 now and it's 750, doing another prime95 test to see if the RAM at 900 was my problem. I've made it longer than my last 375fsb attempt in prime95 so far, so I'm hoping my problem was the "auto" RAM speed setting way overclocking my RAM, since that is fixed now.

I just really want to get to 3.4GHz on my E8400.

[cincyrob]

I am running my RAM timings on auto, I don't know what keys to press to unlock manual (ctrl+something I think) is that a problem? What should I run my RAM at?

when in your bios. just under where you set your freq it will say something like memory control???? it will have boc that you can highlite it will say auto. arrow to it then hit enter it will let you in the setting and change it to manual.
then it will open the boxes right below it and you can go in there and set each spot in the mem manualy.... what kind of ram do you have? ddr2 800/1066???

[HamTard]

when in your bios. just under where you set your freq it will say something like memory control???? it will have boc that you can highlite it will say auto. arrow to it then hit enter it will let you in the setting and change it to manual.
then it will open the boxes right below it and you can go in there and set each spot in the mem manualy.... what kind of ram do you have? ddr2 800/1066???

DDR2 800, my sig has most of my info, what timings should I run, the ones listed on the package, or change them?