OCing

DStruct

DStruct

DStruct

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9 Dec 2008
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326
Just a quick question,
Will I be successfully overclocking if I simply just increase my CPU FSB? I didnt save the changes but I did it in BIOS just to see, and I could see the Adjusted CPU speed below it was also increasing.

All the other settings, voltages etc is on Auto so I assume they would increase/decrease as necessary automatically.

So is the above all I need to do?
I would ofcourse keep an eye on the cpu temperature
 
Don't keep the voltage on auto, go run CPU-Z, note down what it says for "Vcore", then set the Vcore (CPU core voltage, between 1 and 2 V depending on how old your CPU is) to that.

Auto always overshoots, it set my Vcore to 1.45 V when going from 2.8 to 3.4 which is already dangerously high, right now I'm running 4.0 at 1.34 V.

Also if you're unlucky, the memory speed might be too high. (Memory speed is also dependant on FSB), but if you're just overclocking a bit you shouldn't have to worry. It's more noticable if, for example, you have 800 MHz DDR2 memory and you're trying to set your FSB over 400 MHz using a 1:1 ratio (more on that if you're interested).
 
In CPUZ the numbers keep changing.
On Clocks Core speed it changes from 2005mhz to 3171mhz quite often, also the multiplyer changes from x6 to x9.5. Not sure why thi sis happening.

Same with the Voltage Core, that keeps changing too so I wouldnt know what to write down

Oh and I do have 800mhz ram :o
My specs are

MSI P43 Neo-F motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
4GB DDR2 6400+ 800mhz
Radeon 4870 1gb

Can I still deffinately not just increase the FSB in bios leaving all other settings on auto? :P That method would be sweet and prefered if it would work successfully, and not do any harm :] I dont want to OC it loads, this will be my first time. I just want a minor upgrade until I get a new pc for christmas, so a few hundred extra mhz would be fine :)
Any very easy ways in windows itself would be great. I have the MSI Dual Core application, is that good/safe?
 
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That's called speedstep, it lowers your CPU's speed / voltage when it's not being actively used to conserve power.
Just run a stress utility like prime95 and the numbers should instantly max out at 3.1 GHz.

As for your question, yes you can adjust just the FSB, but I really recommend just setting Vcore to stock as well.
I know that my MSI P45 Neo-F drastically overshoots the CPU voltage, you could really reduce its lifespan if its set too high, also it might get unstable.

Everything else can definitely be left on auto unless you're overclocking a lot (then you have to reduce stuff like VTT since it can fry CPUs very fast as well, but push up MCH to sustain the higher FSB speeds) - but that's getting technical.
 
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That is the power saving features of your CPU/mobo, you can (and should) disable them in your BIOS. Disable C1E, EIST and any other features that look as if they save power.

Perhaps someone more familiar with MSI BIOS settings will give you more info. Alternatively, have you googled for overclocking MSI p43?
 
Well, I have a MSI P45 Neo-F which I believe has nearly the same BIOS settings.
Also, make sure you re-enable Speedstep etc. once you're done overclocking. You just disable it to make sure it's stable at the speed you're actually setting it to, without it automatically getting slower when you're trying to test it.

You can also look for and disable "Spread Spectrum", which automatically varies your CPU speed by small amounts to reduce the electromagnetic interference spectral density. Nothing you need to worry about for a home PC.

If all this is getting way too technical for you then go ahead and leave everything at Auto if you aren't overclocking by a lot, those chips should be safe up to like 1.36 V either way.

Not quite sure what you mean by your previous post btw, Xanity.
Edit 2: Nvm that, uh, no, I really recommend just going into the BIOS to overclock. I don't know anything about that utility but you should definitely stay away from overclocking within Windows (unless it's your graphics card).

When booting just spam Delete until you get into the Bios, then go into "Cell Menu" I believe it's at the topright, you can configure everything there.

Edit: Judging by your specs you shouldn't have to worry at all about your RAM until you hit 400 FSB which equals 3.8 GHz, so as long as you stay under that you'll have 0 problems with your memory. (Actually to go that high you'd have a lot of other things to worry about as well, especially cooling)
 
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Yeah I do want you to know I have googled quite a lot about this I just cant seem to get the answers or advice that I need spefically for me

So im running Prime now and CPUZ is showing the core voltage at 1.280

Incase anything stands out and better safe than sorry, I took some screenies of CPUZ if you wouldnt mind checking :p

12224833.jpg

14661377.jpg
 
Yes cooling ha :P
When I launched Prime then, I left it running for some time and after about 10 minutes I opened up MSI Dual Core and the CPU temp was 72c, and I havent overclocked yet. :P
I think I need a new CPU fan, do you recommend any? I recently bought a Zalman: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-026-ZA but I had to send it back as it wouldnt even fit in my case heh, so I need a kinda small but good one if you know of any?
 
Xanity said:
Yeah I do want you to know I have googled quite a lot about this I just cant seem to get the answers or advice that I need spefically for me
Click to expand...

That's what these forums are for :D

Yeah everything looks fine on that, so you just set the Vcore in the BIOS to 1.28V and leave it at that. (1.36V is the max safe voltage for 45nm, ie. anything above that will probably reduce its lifespan)

How high are you planning to clock it?

Edit: 72°C is on the high end, I wouldn't overclock it until you buy a cooler (but once you do aim for the sky! ;) )
Not sure about coolers as I jumped straight from stock to watercooling, I can recommend the H50 for easy setup if you want to go down that route.

You'll have to wait for an answer from somebody else, though my mate uses a Noctua heatsink w/ two coolers and I hear his temps are pretty good.
 
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Well if you say stay below 400FSB, would 399 be okay or should it be much lower
Id be happy with whatever I could easily do and safely :p
 
By stay below 400 FSB I mean 400 to like 420 should be fine, RAM can actually be overclocked, but it's designated to run at 400 FSB.

400 MHz and 800 MHz for DDR2 RAM are the same thing, they run at twice the speed of the FSB.

I did notice however that your RAM is running in asynchronous mode by default (5:6) which means the RAM effectively runs at 400 Mhz instead of 333 MHz, however the BIOS sets that automatically correctly, so if you up the FSB it should drop down to 1:1 (synchronous mode), I read somewhere that gives a small performance benefit.

If you're looking for something like 3.5 GHz you could set the FSB to 370 MHz (370 * 9.5 = 3515), running the numbers that would leave your RAM running at 740 MHz in synchronous mode, should be fine.

So...

1. Get a proper cooler before attempting any of this!
2. Vcore to 1.28V
3. FSB to 370 MHz

Should work fine. I hear E8500 does 3.9 on stock voltages.

Edit: Oh and you could even tighten some of the memory timings a bit to get every last drop out of it, that way it would still be pretty much operating at maximum performance, but I'm guessing that's way out of the scope of what you need.
 
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Ty :]

So yeah I do
1. Get a proper cooler before attempting any of this!
2. Vcore to 1.28V
3. FSB to 370 MHz

Is there anything else I need to do, how do I go about doing what you said with the memory. Is it as simple as increasing the FSB or? :p
 
Yes it's as simple as increasing the FSB, the motherboard chooses correct memory settings automatically, I never once had to manually adjust them.
 
When I was a noob at oc'ing (actually, remove past tense, I still am ;P) I just opened up the bios and fiddled with the voltage/fsb. If it bluescreened I increased the voltage a tad until I got it to 3.2GHz stable (e5200, around 1.16v or something like that, was chuffed to bits, stock cooler too).

I wouldn't trust the above and jump straight in though, get a better grip before you change anything. :)
 
Yeah but if he isn't trying to serious overclock every single voltage should be set ok. by the BIOS, and reviews say the E8500 hits 3.9 on stock Vcore, so he wouldn't have to increase anything to make it stable.

True, for serious overclocking it would be best to get an overview of things first and know what you're doing, but everybody has to start somewhere.
 
How exactly do you remove/unplug "Push Pins"? My current stock cooler on my e8500 has 4 push pins in each corner, I cant seem to remove them. Have tried googling, even watched some videos on youtube but cant find any for removing, only for installing
 
To remove them, you turn them in the opposite direction of the little arrow on each pin, then gently pull them up.
I hate those stock intel push pins though, spent nearly 10 minutes trying to fit mine, and they kept popping back up.

At least that's for a Q9550 stock fan (I have it on my desk in front of me right now in fact), not sure if the E8500's are any different.
 
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