E8500/Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L

Meloco

Meloco

Meloco

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E8500/Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L - Overclocking Advice

Just wondering if anyone has this setup overclocked, and what results they are getting and at what speeds. Tried the intelligent motherboard settings in the bios, but not too impressed (actually seems to slow the processor down??).
 
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Forget the auto clocking feature and do it all manually. That's a fine board and i got a E2180 to 3.6Ghz on one. I would have loved the chance to play with a Wolfdale on one.

To get the best out of your E8400 you need the latest bios F9 if you don't already have it. After you have flashed to it (if you need to) clear cmos and reset all your settings. Go into the bios and press Ctrl+F1 and set the correct timings and voltage for your ram. Start off gently and try 9x400 (3.6Ghz). You may need to increase the NB voltage a notch or two but should'nt need any increase for vcore. Have a quick run with prime to check it's stable. If it is try 9x423 (3.8Ghz). Have another quick run with prime. If you need to try increasing vcore a notch or two. If that's stable try 9x445 (4Ghz). You may need to increase NB and vcore again but do not go past 1.4v vcore. Everytime you increase the fsb adjust your ram speed to keep it as close as possible to it's rated speed. It does'nt matter if it's under it's speed at this point as you just need to get the cpu stable for now. Keep an eye on temps all of the time. Have a play and let us know how you get on.
 
Its a good board, pastymuncher seems to have gotten to most of the points already. just let us know how your getting on.
 
Having some trouble updating the bios. I'm trying to do it via usb stick, went to the bios updater on the mobo (home or end at startup), but it does not detect my memory stick. Read around and one site says I need to make my usb stick have a bootable area?

EDIT: Nevermind, it turned up as a hdd.

Now on F9 - Date 07/10/2008

Going to try some of those clock settings now..
 
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Damn, Ran into some problems:

Tried to clock it at 3.4ghz with a vcore setting of 1.3, when booting it blue screened, physical dump and then rebooted. So i clocked it down to 3.2ghz, and it seems to be stable.

Here is a bios screen shot of the settings I used when it crashed:
Photo0036.jpg


Photo0037.jpg



Here is a CPU-Z screenshot of the stable overclock i'm at:

DESKTOPOVERCLOCK.jpg
 
Turn off that turbo thing. Any performance increasing settings can lead to instability at this stage. What ram do you have? Manually set your ram timings to what they should be along with the voltage. Gigabyte mobo's don't show absolute voltages so if your kit needs 2.1v for instance you need to select +0.3v. I must say i am quite dissapointed at that. I expected it to run at 9x400 easily. It can't be the cpu so it must be the board. Try increasing FSB overvoltage control to +0.2v and (G)MCH overvoltage control also to +0.2v. Stick it back to 9x400 and try again. If that fails again try to rule out vdroop by increasing vcore a notch or two even though i would'nt have thought that to be the problem.
 
pastymuncher said:
Turn off that turbo thing. Any performance increasing settings can lead to instability at this stage. What ram do you have? Manually set your ram timings to what they should be along with the voltage. Gigabyte mobo's don't show absolute voltages so if your kit needs 2.1v for instance you need to select +0.3v. I must say i am quite dissapointed at that. I expected it to run at 9x400 easily. It can't be the cpu so it must be the board. Try increasing FSB overvoltage control to +0.2v and (G)MCH overvoltage control also to +0.2v. Stick it back to 9x400 and try again. If that fails again try to rule out vdroop by increasing vcore a notch or two even though i would'nt have thought that to be the problem.
Click to expand...

Elixir 4GB (2x2GB) PC6400 DDR2 800 Dual Channel Kit - I believe it says v1.8, which setting is it in the bios to change this? As I heard it is default on the mobo so I left it..

edit:

Pics of Ram settings in CPU-Z

cpu-zram.jpg
 
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If it says 1.8v then leave it as that is the standard voltage. Some ram needs more that was why i asked. Anyway, do the tweaks and try again.
 
I just turned that turbo setting to standrad, increased fsb to 400x9. Left everything else, and it's booted up fine. At a cool temp of 42 deg. c.
 
Meloco said:
I just turned that turbo setting to standrad, increased fsb to 400x9. Left everything else, and it's booted up fine. At a cool temp of 42 deg. c.
Click to expand...

Now we are getting somewhere. :D:D:D

Is that 42 degrees at idle? That's on the high side. What cooler are you using and what case is it in?
 
pastymuncher said:
Now we are getting somewhere. :D:D:D

Is that 42 degrees at idle? That's on the high side. What cooler are you using and what case is it in?
Click to expand...

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler , Antec Three Hundred (Admitedly I need to do some cable management in there).

All temps from coretemp 0.99.2

Under load seems to go up to 52/54
 
Meloco said:
Ok, i'm running Prime95 100% load atm and it's at 50.
Click to expand...

You got that downloaded quick. That's good temps. Give it 30 mins or so and go for the next step. You will probably have to increase the FSB and (G)MCH overvoltage controls a notch for that and maybe the vcore a notch or two as well. You are ok as long as you don't go over 1.4v on the vcore but hopefully you will not need to go anywhere near that. How high are you hoping to clock? 4Ghz seems to be about the average for a E8400 so if you get to that on that board you will have done very well.
 
pastymuncher said:
You got that downloaded quick. That's good temps. Give it 30 mins or so and go for the next step. You will probably have to increase the FSB and (G)MCH overvoltage controls a notch for that and maybe the vcore a notch or two as well. You are ok as long as you don't go over 1.4v on the vcore but hopefully you will not need to go anywhere near that. How high are you hoping to clock? 4Ghz seems to be about the average for a E8400 so if you get to that on that board you will have done very well.
Click to expand...

Probably not higher than 4ghz, will have to see on the temps. Seems to be a very good board atm, just a bit more to play with than I'm used to. I will let you know what happens next.

Thanks for all the help:D

I'll conclude with some pics etc. for anyone else that has this setup and wants to overclock
 
Have fun. :D

Clocking via the bios really helps you to get to know what your rig can and can't do. It's also the best way of doing things. Don't forget that your next step will require you to change the System Memory Multiplier to the next setting down. Can't remember what it is now. 1.66 maybe? This will put your ram below it's stock speed but that's ok for now as we can tune that later.

I got to go pick up my better half now so won't be back on here until tomorrow. Just take it easy and increase settings a notch at a time.
 
slightly off topic.. (:

did you happen to look at the bios before you updated it? just wondering cause i havent updated mine, but mine doesnt have 'DRAM TIMING SELECTABLE' or The ram Timing Controls. Which did seem a bit odd to me.
 
RaV said:
slightly off topic.. (:

did you happen to look at the bios before you updated it? just wondering cause i havent updated mine, but mine doesnt have 'DRAM TIMING SELECTABLE' or The ram Timing Controls. Which did seem a bit odd to me.
Click to expand...

Have you tried Ctrl+F1 when in bios? It unlocks all the "advanced" features.

But my bios was F8, Rev 1.1
 
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