Overclocking E8400

adam2008

adam2008

adam2008

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30 Nov 2008
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132
I just ordered a arctic cooling freezer 7 for my E8400, when i get it i am going to try clocking it to 4Ghz. I have it at 3.6Ghz now but i am wondering whether my ram will stop me going further, the ram i have is 2x2Gb at 400Mhz. So a couple of questions i assume that the arctic cooler will allow me to reach 4Ghz at safe temps, will the ram stop me from overclocking more? The board i have is a P5Q pro.
 
I assume that you have ddr2 so it's 800mhz. if its good quality ram it should be fine for a little overclock. Freezer 7 pro will also do the job. I have one cooling my 8500 at the moment. It's giving me 35 at idle and 55 under load. Not the coolest temps in the world but perfectly acceptable.
 
adam2008 said:
I have it at 3.6Ghz now but i am wondering whether my ram will stop me going further, the ram i have is 2x2Gb at 400Mhz
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Hey Adam,

at 3.6GHz (9x400) you Kingston 400MHz Ram (DDR2-800/PC2-6400) will be running at it's official spec (assuming the ram is running 1:1 sync). You work with the RAM's base frequency when overclocking and not it's effective frequency.
  • Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400
    • 3.0GHz (9x333)
    • 3.6GHz (9x400)
    • 4.0GHz (9x444)
To get your Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 running at 4.0GHz you will need your RAM to be running 444MHz (DDR2-888) which should be doable but not a given.

In your boots I would first do some *isolated* memory testing before pushing your main overclock because otherwise things become trickier i.e when you run into problems you won't know if its CPU related or Memory failure.

My suggestion is to first reset your system back to stock 3.0GHz (9x333) and check to see if your motherboard has detected and set-up your memory to run async on the 5:6 divider. If its all playing nice you should see this in CPU-z



Once you have confirmed this you are ready to start doing some *isolated* memory overclocking by surely but slowly raising your FSB from 333MHz to 370MHz. Because of the 5:6 memory multiplier by the time you hopefully hit 370MHz-FSB your Kingston will be overclocked to 444MHz (DDR2-888) which is the frequency you need it to run stable for your later 4.0GHz CPU overclock!

Most 400MHz Memory is able to overclock a varying amount but you won't know the exact amount until you try. A useful tip for pushing memory is to slacken the memorys timings (i.e from 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-15) and give it some extra vDimm (Ram Voltage).

You will need a good memory diagnostic to help you!

Memtest86+ V2.11

Download a .iso file and make a bootable CD-ROM (using Nero etc), once you start the system and assuming you have your BIOS set to boot from Optical first then Memtest will load right up! Needs a good few runs and any memory errors will appear in red. If this happen then you need to make some timings or voltage adjustments like I mentioned above!

Hope this helps and hear back from you soon! :)
 
Thanks Bigwayne that was really useful my memory passed the memtest so thats all fine, got the freezer 7 today was just wondering is it best to take off the intel stock thermal compound thats on top of the cpu. Or should i just leave it on? another thing i was wondering was whether lapping was worth the effort? Thanks
 
Hey Adam,

overclocking protocol dictates that you clean away the older/original TIM (Thermal Interface Material) before fitting your new cOOler which comes with some decent TIM pre-applied!

Lapping can be useful but is generally considered a more advanced aspect of a cooling set-up so I wouldn't worry about that at this point. It should become obvious in the near future if you need to lap either the HSF or CPU so thats something you can come back to if you see your idle/load temps are uneven!

So did you get that memory testing sorted then? and your 400MHz RAM (DDR2-800) passed Memtesting @ 444MHz (DDR2-888) ? . . . if so you are looking good for your 4.0GHz clock of your E8400! :cool:

You would just need to change the memory back so it's matched to your FSB (Sync 1:1) and you are ready to get clocking the processor! :)
 
Yeh got the ram up to 444Mhz memtest was fine, ok so ill remove the previous thermal paste what is best to use? As soon as my arctic 7 is fitted ill start with the ocing. Quick question in speed fan when looking for the temp of the cpu should i look at core temp 1 and 2 or cpu?
 
adam2008 said:
Yeh got the ram up to 444Mhz memtest was fine
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That's good, as long as you are sure you let memtest run long enough that sounds fine. Did you have to adjust any voltages? Have you tried powering the PC down fully (unplugged etc) and then power back up to see if it keeps the 444MHz ram speed?

adam2008 said:
ok so ill remove the previous thermal paste what is best to use?
Click to expand...
I use some IPA (isopropyl alcohol) on a bit of bog roll for simple cleaning, followed by more IPA on a lint free cloth. If the old TIM is a bit more stubborn I use some AKASA Citrus cleaner. It's not rocket science and your basically just trying to remove as much kak as possible and not cover the CPU with lint/fluff.

adam2008 said:
As soon as my arctic 7 is fitted ill start with the ocing
Click to expand...
I would quickly run the system at stock to see how the temps are and establish a baseline, then when you start overclocking and pumping vCore like a gOOner you can see how well your cooling is doing!

adam2008 said:
Quick question in speed fan when looking for the temp of the cpu should i look at core temp 1 and 2 or cpu?
Click to expand...
In speed fan you will probably see three readings relating to the processor, the first is CPU (socket) temps and is only really for people using CPU's without built-In DTS. Your CPU has Thermal Diodes built in which can be read by 3rd party monitoring programs and these are the temps we generally refer to. You should be paying attention to both Core 1 and Core 2 temps although if you fitted the cooler properly then both these temps should be the same (or very close).

Try these apps to measure your temps:

Real Temp v3.00

Core Temp 0.99.4

HWMonitor 1.13

You don't need to use them all but try them and see which suits you most! :)
 
So i have fitted my arctic cooler was a breeze, ive done my 4Ghz overclock, my ram is running at 445Mhz the clocks at 4005Mhz with a vcore of 1.384. Is that vcore a little high? i don't want to degrade my chip. Temperatures seem fine 30c at idle and 54c at full load, half an hour into orthos (fingers crossed) :D

 
I also have the E8400 running at 4Ghz my Vcore is 1.3 though.

I had the same problem as you with the memory was not going to cut it (considering its 677Mhz) but that clocks up really nicely to 814Mhz 5-7-7-19 just proves anything is possible.

I think you will be fine with your setup though, you could try droping the Vcore voltage a bit.

I do get the same sort of temps as you though :)

Ninja
 
So small fft tests were fine, i guess that means that the cpu is stable? But as soon as i do a blend test on orthos i get a freeze after 30 or 40 seconds. I tried upping the voltage to the memory to 2.00 and tryed slackening the latencies which then caused it not to post so i had to reset the cmos battery. I was a little confused as to how to properly slacken the latencies as there were so many options. Any ideas as to what i could do would be good thanks.
 
Do you have the choice to sync the FSB of the Memory and the CPU ?
because i sync it then change the settings around by dropping the FSB on the Memory back down to normal levels

Ninja
 
Ive come to the conclusion that my ram is b*******, its This i noticed it says dual channel on this one but mine is only single according to cpu-z. Under orthos blend tests it fails within minutes and also in games. I was thinking of maybe buying This. Hopefully this will let me break the 4ghz barrier.
 
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