What's stopping my E8200 system going further?

Stubbsy

Stubbsy

Stubbsy

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Joined
8 Aug 2004
Posts
156
Location
Sussex
So I don't seem to be able to stably get my E8200 past 3.36 Ghz, and I'd like to.
Here's my specs;
  • Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66 Ghz)
  • ASUS P5Q mainboard (not the P5Q-E or other variant.. just the standard one)
  • 4 x Corsair XMS2 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400C5 Memory Module
  • Corsair TX 650 W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU
  • HIS ATI Radeon 4850 512 Mb
  • Antec 300 / Syth Ninja / Hdd / DVD etc

I've been able to clock the FSB up to 420 which gives 3.36 Ghz (8x), and I have the Vcore set at 1.26875V for this (although it shows different in CPUz)

I've increased the Vcore as high as 1.29375V and the FSB to 435, and although it ran Orthos with no problems for 30 minutes, it crashed on COD6 after about 10 mins.

Two questions really:
How far can I expect to push this (the Vcore and the FSB)? and;
What's the limiting factor in the system? Is it the memory?

Thanks a lot,
Stubbsy.

Link to CPUz/GPUz output here


PS it's kinda annoying that when OC stop selling a product they remove it and all the subsequent comments that people made. I know there were a lot of Vcore/FSB feedback put there, it's a shame it isn't archived.
 
Sounds like it might be the ram, it could be running too fast for it to handle. You might need to change the FSB: DRAM ratio.
 
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If i were you id hunt down some cheap 8500 1066mhz ram mate, cheapest ones I found were the kingston hyperX, OCZ and corsair sticks. you could buy second hand to save a few pennies.

from looking at your system, could you not bump up the ram voltage a little, I ran some no-name 800mhz sticks @ 1.9-2.0volts and they ran fine at 930 odd mhz, dont use tight timings and you should be able to eek out 3.6ghz with little effort.
Thats what I ran recently, just pulled the old sticks out for a quick run to see if I could get 4ghz stable. can bench but not orthos stable, even at 4.3volts :|

good luck and give us a shout if you need any other help with it, im on the same cpu as you with a similar mobo :)
 
Id swap the cpu over, there is a good chance you swap the ram out to find the motherboard wont do the fsb on a 24/7 basis that you would want. Especially as ram prices are mad currently.

The low multi high fsb of the stock chip really works against overclocking.
 
His memory is only running at 840mhz, those sticks should easily be able to handle more.

What no ones seemed to have noticed is that he has'nt said he changed NB volts at all, and running 4 sticks of memory, you will deffinatly need to boost the NB volts. Either that or take out 2 sticks.

Aslo you can comfortable go to 1.4v on the vcore.

If my cheap, non branded according to cpu-z ddr2 800mhz memory can do 1000mhz, then im sure corsiar stuff should'nt be limited to just 840mhz.

Deffinatly try uping the north bridge volts, also ur memorys volts to something like 2.1v. If ur still having issues, try just 2 sticks of memory.
 
bifday2k said:
If my cheap, non branded according to cpu-z ddr2 800mhz memory can do 1000mhz, then im sure corsiar stuff should'nt be limited to just 840mhz.
Click to expand...
It's rated to run at DDR2-800 cas 5 so anything over 400MHz-FSB is gonna be overclocking his ram, my gut feeling is there not gonna be great overclockers! :(

Your quite right in your other points though re 4 sticks and Nb Volts! :)

Maybe you would care to walk Stubbsy through it! :cool:
 
bifday2k said:
His memory is only running at 840mhz, those sticks should easily be able to handle more.

What no ones seemed to have noticed is that he has'nt said he changed NB volts at all, and running 4 sticks of memory, you will deffinatly need to boost the NB volts. Either that or take out 2 sticks.

Aslo you can comfortable go to 1.4v on the vcore.

If my cheap, non branded according to cpu-z ddr2 800mhz memory can do 1000mhz, then im sure corsiar stuff should'nt be limited to just 840mhz.

Deffinatly try uping the north bridge volts, also ur memorys volts to something like 2.1v. If ur still having issues, try just 2 sticks of memory.
Click to expand...

Hmm i kinda figured the NB volts would turn themselves up if the extra load of 4 sticks was present.
So i'll adjust the NB volts a bit first, then mem clock rate, then the mem volts, and if i increase them all by say, 3% then i can do for a few more fsb for the cpu ?
 
Yeh i know what u mean about the memory, some will go high others just simply won't.

Im no expert but here goes, guys chip in if u feel its needed please.

Ok Stubbsy i suggest that you try this out.

Lower your Cpu multi to its lowest, most probably x6. Put the FSB/Memory to 1:1, so that we can test how far ur memory will overclock, without pushing the cpu at this time.

You may have to put abit more into the north bridge volts, i would suggest 2 steps up from what it is now.

Keep raising the fsb up by either 1 per time, if u want really accurate results, but is very very time consuming, or by 5 each time, untill the computer fails to boot because u have reached the max the memory will work at.

So say for example u do this and u find the memory maxes out at say 450, that would mean 900mhz in real terms, and would mean ur max fsb you can use would be 450.

You may want to do this test with all 4 sticks on, and also with just 2 in, to see if there is any difference.

Once you know what your memory is able to run at, overclocking your cpu will be a lot easier.

This is a time consuming thing to do, can take a few hours, of constant settings changing reboots, but in the long run its handy to know the max the memory will do.
 
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hmm i might have to wait until monday i suspect, if it's going to take that long. i've had too much to drink now to do it reliably, and the gf's going to be playing monopoly with my time over the weekend i suspect, so no opportunity to play..
i'll bump on monday and let you know how it goes,

thanks a lot, everyone, for your help
 
No probs allways glad to help, and yeh allways best to do that when sober lol.

It may not take hours, but sometimes it can, it can get abit tedious though with the constant reboots and changing of settings, but it really is worth it, being able to know ur max memory.

Especially for those of us that have to run 1:1 memory with the E8***'s.

Good luck with your testing next week.
 
do i have to boot all the way to windows each time? and if so, do i have to run some tester app each time? or can i just see it it posts?
My mainboard came with ASUS AI Booster, which allows me to change the FSB in windows, and I use that quite often.. presumably i can do that, right?
 
for memory testing, if it posts it generally will be fine in windows, thats what iv found with mine, so yeh if it posts its fine, move on to the next speed, and so on, untill the computer refuses to boot. you may have to relax the memory timings to get really high mhz out of them, but see how they go on there normal timings.

When it fails to boot, then thats over ur max memory speed, so put it back to last bootable speed and thats ur max memory speed, and the limit u can put ur fsb with the full multi.

You could use Ai booster, but id suggest doing it all from the bios its a lot better.

And this thing im getting u to do, is by far best done in the bios.

Edit:
Hope im making sense, not slept that much in the last few days, so forgive me if sometimes its all jibberish
 
bifday2k said:
His memory is only running at 840mhz, those sticks should easily be able to handle more.
Click to expand...

O/C'ing all four of them could be a big ask, You're right though, They should/will do more.

I have two of those sticks in a P5Q-PRO (With one of Kets modded BIOS') and they run @ 901MHz 1:1 with my 9X 450 FSB.
 
Cesar67 said:
O/C'ing all four of them could be a big ask, You're right though, They should/will do more.

I have two of those sticks in a P5Q-PRO (With one of Kets modded BIOS') and they run @ 901MHz 1:1 with my 9X 450 FSB.
Click to expand...

Yeh thats why i suggested he find out what his memory will do with both 4 and 2 sticks, before going back to the cpu.

Im still amazed my memory will do 1000mhz, i took a gamble on them over the more well known brands at the time, to bad the company seems to have gone or atleast that branch of the company.
 
Question: When the BIOS has a value of [Auto] what does it mean?
For a voltage is it the minimum?
For a setting is it enabled or disabled?
For a clock is it the minimum allowed frequency?

How could you tell that I hadn't changed my NB voltage? I don't see the output in CPUz.

How do I stop windows (or whatever is doing it) reducing the multiplier on-the-fly (presumably to preserve power/reduce heat). It's pretty annoying when saving CPUz outputs.

thanks,
Stubbsy
 
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