First build, OC not going well

[gsephton2000]

Hi,

Ok to begin with this is what I have:

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800Mhz/PC2-6400 Memory Unbuffered
Nvidia 8600GT
Audigy 2 ZS
1x Maxtor 200gb SATA (OS)
1x WD 500gb SATA
1x Samsung 750gb SATA
Sony DVD/RW SATA
Antec 900 Case
Hiper Type R 580w
Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler
Vista Ultimate x86

It's my first build and i was suprised at how easy it all went, the psu in the antec 900 sits at the bottom so atx cable was a stretch but system booted first time and i did a clean install of vista.
When everything was stable i thought i'd try gigabyte's easytune 6 as i have never overclocked b4 and it seemed user friendly and a good place to start.
It wasn't, system crashed n there was a horrible screeching sound.
I tried rebooting but it wouldn't post, so in bios i changed the settings back and vista would boot.
My next attempt was tweaking within the bios, keeping the multiplier set at x9and changing the fsb to 400 which should have given me 3.6ghz. System wouldn't post. Even slightest changes to the fsb caused system crashes and a number of blue screens.

I've kept trying and somehow managed to boot with 9x 360fsb which has given me 3.24ghz. I ran OCCT 4 an hr and the CPU peaked at 44.5 degrees, and has remained stable for 5/6hrs. However, i bought the e8400 over the q6600 because of how well it overclocks and i have seen it being sold at 3.6ghz. So it seems to me (admitted novice) that it's more likely to be a mobo and/or ram issue. I think the mobo is relatively new and there are no reviews of it either on OCUK or ****** etc.. the only review i have found was on youtube from tiger tv.

I'm not planning on doing anything hardcore but I would like to reach 3.6ghz and be stable. If any one has any advice as to where im going wrong it would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

[pieman109]

First off I'd be inclined to try 400 x 2, that'll give you 3.2ghz with the memory at 1:1 (use the x2 divider to set this) so its in synch with the fsb. I had the same ram as you so it should be good for about 425mhz I'd have thought. if the pc is stable at those settings, try to up the fsb to around 425mhz which'll give you 3,4ghz and check for stability. If thats ok, maybe try 400 x 9 (3.6ghz) with a little increase in vcore (this figure will be dependant on what the cpu "Vid" is) but I'd have thought around 1.325v-1.35v would be safe to work with. Don't go above 1.4v as this tends to damage these cpus apparently, but it shouldn't need to go that high. Ensure your memroy voltage (Vdimm) is set to 2.1v also. I doubt very much yuo'll need to raise the mch, or fsb voltage. One thing I have seen is that the "pci-e bus " speed might need to be set too 100mhz to ensure you're not overclocking that as well, but do try it in the "auto" setting first, the earlier gigabyte mobos prefer auto or so I've found in the past.

 

[gsephton2000]

Thanks 4 the help,

Did u mean 400x8 which gives me 3.2ghz? I've tried that however it wouldn't post, so i tried 425x8 and increasing the vcore and vdimm to 3.25v and 2.1v. It has booted and after an hour of OCCT the peak cpu temp was just below 49c (i think this is safe under load?). I'm going to leave it for a while and then try 9x400 to get the 3.6ghz but i'm beginning to understand that it's one step at a time. The improvement appears to have come from uping the voltage, as before i tried to leave all of these to auto as the voltages are the aspect i probably understand the least.

Cheers again

 

[Gunda]

i've found that leaving things on auto and trying to overclock never really works for me.

Try taking the fsb up in small increaments while leaving the multi at x8, once this is unstable then knock the vcore voltage up one notch and try again. Gradual increases and testing is the way.. slow and sure.
Had my e6600 at 3.4Ghz stable, but knocked it back down to 3.2Ghz since i was more than happy with the speed and thought i'd wait until i can get it under water to push it again.