Some noob overclock questions

Peter450 · 23 Oct 2008 at 20:32

Some noob overclock questions, Updated with results

I'm planning on upping the speed of my 3.16 E8500 to 3.4 to 3.6 GHZ, should i increase the stock volts from 1.2 to 1.25 to feed in a bit more juice to support this?

I have 4GB of corsair dominator ram, should i mildly increase the ram speed or try setting the timings at an agressive 4-4-4-12? i'm a gamer so if fiddling with memory is not going to give noticable gaming gains i'l leave it at stock 5-5-5-18 settings at 1066 speed

Ok chaps i did my overclock, first go got 3.4 was aiming for 3.6 but set the FSB 20 mhz to low......
Anyway decided to give it the full monty 400 FSB, set the volts to 1.26 (shows 1.24.8 in cpuz)
Mem at stock 1066, set the timmings at 5-5-5-15, for some reason they were at 5-5-5-18 despite the memory being 5-5-5-15 rated?

Anyway got it running at a nice 3.8 GHZ, i never thought i'd clock it that far, i am cautious by nature.. but thought what the hell, i know it's not a massive overclock but it's left me well happy, should run all the latest games no probs

Anyways now i got it going, i want to make sure it's nice and stable whats a good piece of software to test it on, prime? or that other one orthos?

The settings i used on P45QE were 400FSB, 100 PCIE bus, 1066 mem (manual 5-5-5-15), 1.26 volt core, 2.1volt memory, all other settings auto

Both cores idleing at 38c

Thanks for your help guys, i've got a lot of useful info from this forum and it's given me the confidence to play around with these things

decrypt3r · 23 Oct 2008 at 20:35

go for it

1.25 isnt really high

Peter450 · 23 Oct 2008 at 20:43

Ok cool, what about the memory? do you know how much of an impact timmings or MHZ increases have here? my guess is not much but not being the expert i could well be totaly wrong about that

I just noticed you got a very similar spec to me, i got the same 22" monitor, same mobo P5QE, and same cooler

decrypt3r · 23 Oct 2008 at 21:22

well ive just this second, overclocked my q6600 to 3.6ghz

running stable at 1.375 in bios and 1.440 on cpuz volt

with idle temps around 35-40

and blend prime = 65c average

but with small ffts i hit 70c in less than 1 minute on 2 cores so i stopped it.

need to get a better cooler

tell me how u get on

zykan · 23 Oct 2008 at 23:40

are you upping your voltages everytime you up your FSB?

and if you want to push it further, get one of these

42 GBP. good as a true, doesn't need to be lapped either.

Oh, and for the memory, worry about overclocking your cpu first, downclock your ram, so if you fail prime, you 100% know its your cpu letting you down.

Frositay · 24 Oct 2008 at 17:49

Never ever alter the voltages while experimenting with FSB, it just creates a lot more work for you. Keep all the voltages on auto until you hit a "dead" spot raising the FSB (dead spot meaning machine keeps restarting at BOOT or becomes unstable) then you can play with the volts although I still wouldn't recommend it.

Pneumonic · 24 Oct 2008 at 17:58

would ALWAYS set the CPU voltage even if its just to the CPU's VID, board voltages arent so important depending on the board.. AUTO will in most cases seriously over-volt the CPU not something to worry about at low clocks but once you get going you want to be setting them manually...

By leaving voltages on AUTO whilst clocking you also arent sure where a clock is failing

Peter450 · 25 Oct 2008 at 00:27

Thanks for your help guys, and all the others who helped when i asked questions over the past 2 months or so i've got a lot of useful info from this place and you guys. it's given me the confidence to play around with these things