My first overclock: e8400 + P5QE Questions!

Gone2mars

Gone2mars

Gone2mars

Associate
Joined
17 Dec 2008
Posts
103
Location
Birmingham, Uk
My first overclock: e8400 + P5QE - Finished w/ settings!

Hi Guys,

Now that i've finally managed to get my complete kit ready (see my sig) i want to start overclocking.

I've turned off C1E and speedstep and i'm currently running at 9x333.

Before i start overclocking, i want to get it right in my head about exactly what i need to change ... here are a couple of pics of my BIOS:

bios11.jpg


bios2.jpg


Ok ... heres a few questions about the above bios pics:

1 - [FSB Strap to North Bridge] - Do i need to change this?
2 - [Mem. OC Charger] & [Ai Clock Twister] - Should i disable these? What are they?
3 - Should any of those settings be changed to a manual value?


Now, I've been reading the (excellent) guide that is posted as the sticky in this forum, Interpretting it for my bios, is this what i need to do:

A - Adjust the [FSB Frequency] in +5 mhz increments
B - Adjust the [DRAM Frequency] so the memory isn't overclocked - Will changing this to 1066 or slightly lower be ok?
C - If the system becomes unstable adjust the [CPU Voltage] up a 'notch' - to a maximum of 1.36
D - Adjust the [DRAM Voltage] ?

Overclockers have just put the TRUE and my new power supply in the post so should be doing the proper overclock in a couple of days ... so you guys have got a couple of days to tell me what to do lol!

I'm going to try for a 4Ghz overclock, from what i've read this should be ok with my system?

All help will be much appreciated!

Edit: I have the E0 version of the e8400 :)
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't leave any main voltage at Auto on Asus Mobo ;)
You have to set vcore, NB v and SB v and RAM v manually.
Set strap at 333 - will be best for your RAM.
 
Cheers for that Blackwhite, I'll try looking for the correct voltages when i get home, i have no idea what to set them too.

Does the method in the original post seem ok? i.e. setting [DRAM Freq] to 1066 etc etc?

The method of keeping my ram at stock speeds while overclocking the FSB is the bit thats confusing me... i don't know the settings to change on my bios to do this.
 
Hi Mate

That's a very similar setup to mine, same mobo, CPU, TRUE and also 1066 memory. I have had this since Nov haven't really tried pushing mine too hard but got up to 4ghz as soon as I turned it on with no issues leaving all the voltages at auto. This was running very hot but I then ran into issues when trying to fine tune it at this speed.

My problem is I dont have a good enough understanding of things like CPU PLL volts or NB GTL volts to know what to adjust to increase stability - on previous motherboards I have only had CPU, DRAM and NB volts, this being my first Intel board doesn't help either.

At present I am running it at 3.8-3.9ish I think, I'm not at the PC now to check. I'm certain the chip can do way more than this as the CPU voltage is something like 1.18 - really low. It runs Orthos forever and never goes over 45 degrees according to realtemp.

There's not much I do that would benefit from going way over 4ghz so I am just running it at this speed for now but there's this niggling feeling that I may have a beauty of a clocker on my hands so I'm sure I will push it a bit more soon enough (interested to see what becomes of this thread).

Regarding the DRAM frequency, I'm not at the PC now but I'm pretty sure this is a calculated figure based on your FSB and FSB Strap - you get the option to choose different speeds, anything under your rated RAM frequency of 1066 is safe enough.

Feel free to let me know if you need anything, with our systems being so similar I would be interested to see what yours can do
 
Last edited:
Thanks for that mate, my target is 4.0 and i'll try and keep this thread up to date when i achieve it :)

I get all the bits tomorrow, (my SATA just arrived) so after installing it all and getting it tidy (which takes forever with my case) i'll start tinkering

I just like to put as much research into it as possible!

You don't happen to know where to get the 'default' voltages for the motherboard do you. I don't like having them at auto because i don't know what values the mobo is setting for them.
 
I don't know what it uses for default for volts but I do know they are too high. What I did was check each one - when you select it in the BIOS it tells you on the right hand side what the lowest is, I just set them all slightly above lowest (e.g NB minimum is 1.10, set mine to 1.12). I would like some sort of n00bs guide as to roughly what to set them to as a starting point though, and maybe what benefits/problems adjusting them can bring.
 
Its generally reccomended on the asus p5q boards to manually set the PLL, FSB-TERMINATION ,and NB voltages to +0.02v above auto, as on bios revisions that the board ships with, theese settings overvolt quite high on auto or the lowest manual setting.
 
Last edited:
I have roughly the same setup as you - first off, leave everything on auto. and bang your FSB straight up to 400. Your E8400 will take that with ease. You only need to start messing about with voltages etc. after this point (in my experience anyway)
I would recommend you manually set the RAM voltages and timings though, in accordance with the supplied info. Leave your divider at 1:1 for now.
 
setter said:
Its generally reccomended on the asus p5q boards to manually set the PLL, FSB-TERMINATION ,and NB voltages to +0.02v above auto, as on bios revisions that the board ships with, theese settings overvolt quite high on auto or the lowest manual setting.
Click to expand...

Aye but what is Auto? It doesn't tell you what actual voltage it is using, and the only way to change it is to manually type them in
 
This chart gives an idea of auto voltage and what they are really using in red.

p5qdeluxe0702vreadingscrj5.jpg


It says p5q deluxe on the pic but its safer to assume that this will be the same for the other p5q boards, its always better to take charge of the voltages yourself and besides +0.02 on theese are quite small and safe increases.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

danswan is correct ... the first thing i want to do is set all the voltages up manually and check they can run orthos stable. Unfortunately i have no way of knowing what voltages my bios is actually running!

A couple more questions ...

I'm trying to find NB and SB Voltages that i'm currently running at... how do i find this out? Asus website doesn't help and the bios doesn't tell me a thing - Just Auto!

Second, Everest reports that my CPU VID is 1.25V.

CPU-Z tells me that im running 1.208 ...

Thinking Everest was telling me what the bios was set too and CPUZ was telling me how much i was actually using ... i ran orthos and guess what, under load CPUZ DROPS my core voltage from 1.208 to 1.168??? Shouldn't this go up under load?
 
Thanks setter ... Are the values the same for SB as they are for NB? And do you recommend taking off AUTO and setting [CPU PLL VOLTAGE] in my bios too?
 
Gone2mars said:
Thanks for the replies guys.

danswan is correct ... the first thing i want to do is set all the voltages up manually and check they can run orthos stable. Unfortunately i have no way of knowing what voltages my bios is actually running!

A couple more questions ...

I'm trying to find NB and SB Voltages that i'm currently running at... how do i find this out? Asus website doesn't help and the bios doesn't tell me a thing - Just Auto!

Second, Everest reports that my CPU VID is 1.25V.

CPU-Z tells me that im running 1.208 ...

Thinking Everest was telling me what the bios was set too and CPUZ was telling me how much i was actually using ... i ran orthos and guess what, under load CPUZ DROPS my core voltage from 1.208 to 1.168??? Shouldn't this go up under load?
Click to expand...
The chart pic i posted above was done by a member of another forum who tested theese boards with a digital multimetre and found that the auto voltage was far to high, hence most users change theese voltages by +0.02v. regarding your cpu vid and the voltage reading in cpuz, the lowering of the voltage is caused by vdrop and vdroop.

explained here,

Vdrop
Vdrop is the difference between the selected voltage in the BIOS and the actual idle voltage, typically this is about 0.05V though new P35 boards seem to be a lot less affected by it. THIS IS NOT Vdroop

Vdroop
Vdroop is the difference between idle voltage and load voltage. The droop is actually related to the current draw of the CPU and is a peculiarity of Intel CPU design specs and as such AMD setups don't suffer from it to any great deal. Vdroop gets progressively worse as load more cores up on multicore CPUs. Some recent P35 boards now have the option in the BIOS to override the circuit in the motherboard power circuitry to pratically eliminate Vdroop. Other boards can usually have it overriden by a simple pencil mod, or with the addition of an extra resistor by soldering. 680i boards are notorious for high Vdroop with quad cores.

Theres an option in the p5q bios called loadline calibration (LLC) which can lessen the effects of vdrop/droop.
 
Thanks for the detail setter ... that explains it.

I know i'm not allowed to post the links to other forums, but i have stumbled across some example settings for the P5Q-E + e8400

I'll post the links to the pictures instead seeing as they are a massive use to anyone trying to find examples of manual voltages:

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=121128&d=1217606867
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=121129&d=1217606867
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=121130&d=1217606867
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=121131&d=1217606867

Seeing as my SATA drive is sitting in my car right now and my TRUE, Kase Fan and Corsair are due to arrive tomorrow i'm not going to play much ... i am however going to get all my settings to manual and check i can run orthos.
 
Ahh ... what a good idea. Only problem is, the only guy with the p5qe motherboard and his link doesn't work lol

I did take a note of all the voltages tho ... hopefully i can keep it < 1.36.

Currently have half of my options on manual and i'm running orthos for 30 minutes before i change the rest.
 
danswan - You may have seen on the other forum but i've figured out a BIOS template that i'm going to start at.

The following is what i've written up so theres some notes scattered on it, seeing as you have the same setup i thought i'd share. Could also be handy for people with the same kind of setup that come looking too.

Note: This was based around a P5Q Deluxe template, but modded with starting voltages and from what i've read on other forums:


JumperFree Configuration Settings:

AI Overclock tuner: Manual
CPU Ratio Setting: 9

FSB Strap to North Bridge: Auto
(333 recommended, 400 can be used too)

FSB Frequency: 333
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-1066
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A1: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A2: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B1: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B2: AUTO
DRAM Timing Control: Manual

1st Information :

CAS# Latency: 5
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay: 5
DRAM RAS# Precharge: 5
DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge: 15
RAS# to RAS# Delay : AUTO
Row Refresh Cycle Time: 55
Write Recovery Time: AUTO
Read to Precharge Time: AUTO

2nd Information :

READ to WRITE Delay (S/D): AUTO
Write to Read Delay (S): AUTO
WRITE to READ Delay (D): AUTO
READ to READ Delay (S): AUTO
READ to READ Delay (D): AUTO
WRITE to WRITE Delay (S): AUTO
WRITE to WRITE Delay (D): AUTO

3rd Information :

WRITE to PRE Delay: AUTO
READ to PRE Delay: AUTO
PRE to PRE Delay: AUTO
ALL PRE to ACT Delay: AUTO
ALL PRE to REF Delay: AUTO
DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
DRAM Read Training: Disabled
MEM. OC Charger: Enabled
AI Clock Twister: Auto
AI Transaction Booster: Auto
Common Performance Level [10] If I set previous to manual this one is at 5
Pull-In of CHA PH1: DISABLED
Pull-In of CHA PH2: DISABLED
Pull-In of CHA PH3: DISABLED
Pull-In of CHA PH4: DISABLED
Pull-In of CHB PH1: DISABLED
Pull-In of CHB PH2: DISABLED
Pull-In of CHB PH3: DISABLED
Pull-In of CHB PH4: DISABLED

CPU Voltage: 1.20 (max 1.3625)
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (0/2): AUTO
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (1/3): AUTO
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.50 (2 templates used it like this) (min 1.4)(max 1.56)
FSB Termination Voltage: AUTO (possibly 1.3)
DRAM Voltage: 2.1 (By RAM Manufacturer – P5Q Board overvolts by 0.08 avg)

NB Voltage: 1.1 – 1.20. (up to 1.30 for a 4ghz overclock)
can be [AUTO] if the FSB is below 400MHz, rising to 1.3V for 400-500MHz and a maximum of 1.4V for 500MHz and above (quote: Intel)

NB GTL Reference: AUTO

SBridge Voltage: 1.20
Controls HDD, LAN, Audio etc. go up to 1.3V

PCIE SATA Voltage: 1.50

Load Line Calibration: Enabled
CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
CPU Clock Skew : Auto (possilbly 400?)
NB Clock Skew : Auto (possibly 100?)
CPU Margin Enhancement: Optimized

Advance CPU Settings
CPU Ratio Setting: 9
CPU VID: Default Don't have this option
C1E Suppport: Disabled
Max CPUID Value Limit: Disabled
Intel® Virtualization Tech: Disabled
Vanderpool Technology: Disabled (dont have this either)
CPU TM Function: Enabled
Execute Disable Bit: Enabled



I'm going to start at those voltages and check they run 24/7 stable.

If they do i'm going to start slowing tweeking them up to a 4ghz overclock :)
 
Just got my e8400 to 3.9ghz stable for 1 hour on orthos - whoop!

I'm going to go for 4.0 now, when i think i've got it stable enough i'll leave it running overnight and we'll see :)

Running Orthos now for 15minutes with a FSB of 445x9 .. temp is 46/48 :P

If i do get it stable 24/7 i'll post a complete write up of my notes so everyone looking can see the bios settings i used. Couldn't find hardly any bios settings on the net so it might help someone....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom