**Official e8400/e8500 Retail OC Thread

[Dark-Energy]

Bump I need help getting my E8400 stable at 4 GHZ. Specs are

E8400
P5Q Pro
4850 @ 680/1080
A-Data DRR2 800
600 watt PSU

This is really, really frustrating me guys. Read carefully. I have been trying to get it stable at 4Ghz for 2 days now. I have tried every single possible combination of bios settings you can think of, to get this damn thing to stop restarting in games at 4Ghz. I have tried Vcores inbetween 1.225v (stock) and 1.45v, and it doesn't matter what voltage I use, at 4GHz and my PC eather crashes, locks up, or locks up and restarts finally in a game (Crysis). FSB:RAM ratio is 1:1 so ram runs around 900mhz. I have tried setting the PLL voltage from auto to 1.5, to 1.6, and still can't keep it from crashing. Tried FSB voltage at 1.2 and 1.3, it crashes. I can't even get into windows at 1.35v FSB. At 1.4v FSB my PC is stable, but locks in games about 15 minutes later. Northbridge voltage needs a minimum of 1.5v to even boot into windows, and at 1.56v, still reboots after 15 minutes in a game. I have messed around with SB voltage, PCIe sata voltage, still nothing. Some bios settings combinations won't get it into windows, some do but freezes, others just simply restart, and some will get into a game but then restart. Sometimes though, I am able to boot at 1.3 FSB / 1.4 NB, but my Vista theme changes to classic, steam doesn't start, CCC crashes, etc.

I'm pretty sure it's not my ram. I tested it at 925 Mhz and it's stable. What's weird is, prime 95 and orthos has never, ever errored in the whole 2 days I have been at this, not even once. It's really frustrating. What's more frustrating is temps on the CPU don't exceed 43C (AC7 Pro). The only problems at 4GHZ I am experiencing is eather lockups/restarts at boot, or lockups in games then I have to restart. I changed Dram from auto to 1.8 and games ran for about 10 minutes more before locking up, but that's it. Changed FSB straps, nothing. I have features like C1E, speedstep, TM function all disabled. I enabled OC charger, disabled the 2 options above (That say if it's disabled it helps with ram ocing), and still can't get it stable. I disabled both the spread spectrums, and have load-line calibration on. Margin enchancement is at performance. I just don't get what the hell is wrong. I have the E0 stepping, and many people on here can reach 4.4 with this board and let alone, a 500 fsb (with 8x multi). I am just ready to pull my hair out

I haven't messed around with Dram timings, PCIe frequency, changing divider to 8 and increasing FSB to reach 4 GHZ (Which I doubt my DRR2 800 can hit 1000 mhz), AI transaction booster, AI clock twister, CPU GTL ref, and clock stews. And I don't think the CPU nor Mobo is faulty, because it's running at 3.85 GHZ with stock voltages (1.225v) and everything. As soon as I go 50mhz more, all these problems start.

If anyone can help me, I seriously need an explanation to this. It's getting late so hopefully I'll get a reply in the morning

[MrHydes]

Here are the results from an E8400 Q829A147 I picked up from Microcenter today.

sys? nice results wc?

did some priming today. i love this chip

batch? air cooling?

[Rickpatbrown]

Dark Energy-

Orthos and prime95 running make me think it is your RAM. Loosen up your timings and up your DRAM voltage a bit, try 1.9V. Can you pass memtest?

Turn off load line calibration.

Windows changing to classic? Did you corrupt your windows installation. You should never mess around with sata and PCI buses. Maybe a Mhz her or there on the PCIe.

[Furiøùs]

Windows changing to classic? Did you corrupt your windows installation. You should never mess around with sata and PCI buses. Maybe a Mhz her or there on the PCIe.

Its not the windows, its the bad OC that is making things go haywire with his stuff lol.
Nothing wrong with his installation. But i agree, dont mess with PCI / SATA bus. you can take a HD or two out like that

[Dark-Energy]

Dark Energy-

Orthos and prime95 running make me think it is your RAM. Loosen up your timings and up your DRAM voltage a bit, try 1.9V. Can you pass memtest?

Turn off load line calibration.

Windows changing to classic? Did you corrupt your windows installation. You should never mess around with sata and PCI buses. Maybe a Mhz her or there on the PCIe.

Okay, what I'll do is try what I did before and get it to at least boot into windows, then I will do a memtest.

Windows only goes to classic when I don't raise NB voltage high enough, which is really odd.

[Dark-Energy]

Okay. I think it's a problem with the FSB or Northbridge or something. Tried 445 x 8 and still same problems, so CPU is not the issue. Increased ram timings and voltage, same problems. I still am leaving it at those settings to push it aside for the current problem. In order to boot into windows I had NB at 1.3v, but it crashed and restarted. Changed NB to 1.4v and it stopped crashing, but still froze and restarted. Then I changed the FSB voltage to 1.26v then 1.3v and still had it freezing. Now I just changed the FSB to 1.36v and haven't had it crash yet except in a game. This is what everything is running at right now. I'm still confused because people are hitting 4.4 GHZ with just 1.26 FSB and 1.3 NB on this board. Jesus, does the NB really need 1.5v and FSB 1.4v?

What's the next step?

[Xvys]

To eliminate your ram as the problem, try running your ram at 2.1v, set the timings to 5-6-6-18, and set your ram tRFC timing to 54 (my ram defaults to 36 tRFC on AUTO which causes instability on higher o/c), and DISABLE your Transaction Booster to lower your Performance Level for testing.

On my Asus P5K-P/E8400 system, increasing the VTT (FSB Term Volt) seems to reduce stability. I run mine at 1.1v @ 4320 MHz (480 x 9), with 1.5v PLL, 1.4v NB, 2.1v ram. I believe Intel's maximum recommend VTT is 1.115v.

[Dark-Energy]

Ok I will try that. But what if your default ram voltage is 1.8? Wouldn't 2.1 hurt it?

[Xvys]

2.1v is ok, especially for short term testing. Some performance ram, like my Crucial Ballistix, are rated to run at 2.2v. I run mine at 2.1v, 24/7. You will never be able to o/c your system to run stably above 400 FSB with only 1.8v.

[Dark-Energy]

Oh I see, I guess it could explain problems then. Haven't tried your suggestion yet but I will, and I currently am running at 433 x 9 now, but still having stability issues. I tried 1.1 VTT and it BSODs while loading so maybe it does need at least some VTT increase.

[Dark-Energy]

Nope. That did nothing. I'm still having to bump the FSB voltage and NB voltage very high to get it to at least boot into windows.

[Dark-Energy]

Update: I changed the FSB to 428 so the CPU runs at 3.85 and was still getting lockups and restarts, which scared me because it's never happened before that low. So I then changed the tRFC to 55 and it worked, but now crashes to the desktop in games. I think I'm getting there. I will try upping the voltage from 1.8 to 1.9 (Currently at auto), even though the ram is not being OCed that much (DRR2 800 with 1:1 ratio so only a 56 MHZ increase)

[Retrolock]

the VTT question still bugs me. I'm at 3.6ghz 24/7 stable and at cpu VTT @1.1v. while the vcore is at horrendous 1.28v. Will increasing the VTT allow me to lower the vcore?

Note: edit: will get another e8400

[gurusan]

try 1.18 -1.20 vtt and adjust your gtl refs. With 1.20 vtt I have mine set to .655/.655

[nullface]

Just got a E8400 Q822A521, seems only E8600 where Q822, untill now.

[LagunaX]

Just got a E8400 Q822A521, seems only E8600 where Q822, untill now.

I've had 2 q822a e8500's for a while now - see the link in my signature =)

[gurusan]

batch? air cooling?

Watercooled Q828A127

[Retrolock]

I'm getting a E8400 Q807A tomorrow. Please, let it have a low vid lol.

Oh and its an old C0 stepping

[LennyRhys]

Update: I changed the FSB to 428 so the CPU runs at 3.85 and was still getting lockups and restarts, which scared me because it's never happened before that low. So I then changed the tRFC to 55 and it worked, but now crashes to the desktop in games. I think I'm getting there. I will try upping the voltage from 1.8 to 1.9 (Currently at auto), even though the ram is not being OCed that much (DRR2 800 with 1:1 ratio so only a 56 MHZ increase)

Your problem is puzzling...your E0 should easily be doing 4GHz on about 1.25v real, so ≤1.3 BIOS. I would say it's an FSB issue but your mobo should easily make 445FSB for 4GHz with very little increase in voltage. Have you run memtset? Sometimes an unstable OC means simply that something is damaged/corrupted, unfortunately.

[Dark-Energy]

Yeah I don't get it. If I run at 450 fsb sometimes it won't even go through the loading screen to windows. If I restart it at same settings, sometimes it will boot into windows. If I restart it again with the same exact bios settings, it will sometimes freeze when loading the bars. All the stress tests like orthos prime 95 and mem test run without any issues for 3-4 hours, or until the system hangs and restarts.

When I do get into windows at that high of fsb, the VTT needs 1.3v at least to stop the windows theme from changing to classic, and to stop CCC from crashing, and to stop windows host process to from working. NB also needs like 1.42v

I'm thinking it's an issue with ACPI or something, so I'm going to adjust all my bios settings and reformat.

[LennyRhys]

I hope it's not your mobo playing up. I had 465 FSB stable (orthos, dual super pi 32m) but then my PC started to crash randomly in games just like yours, and sometimes it would freeze at POST which was very annoying. I'm blaming it on the 680i mobo because my other components are very capable but the 680i is notorious for FSB holes. I'm now down to 4.3GHz @453 FSB and will continue to go down until I get no random crashes/reboots. Good luck with the reformat.

[LennyRhys]

Here's my new 24/7 clocks (for the time being). Still playing with chipset/HT voltages.

BIOS values:

CPU 1.3625v
FSB 1.3v
Mem: 2.1v
NB: 1.5v
SB: 1.6v
HT: 1.5v

[gurusan]

Q820A732

[Leeghoofd]

What did you do now to make it stable Gurusan ?

[Ozzfest05]

Got another cpu the other day E8400 popped it in the machine with TRUE 120 and I have stuck sensors core temp shows 28 and 40 or something the on core will go up and if the second goes over 40 it seems to work. it E0 so im happy about that I plan on Dry icing it and keeping it on the single stage but its just upsetting for a brand new chip