1st Time OC'er. E8400/ASUS Rampage Formula x48

[Majin]

As the title says, I'm finally taking the leap into overclocking. I've read a lot of good things about this ASUS board and I've dropped the 8400's stock heatsink for an Arctic Cooler 7 Pro. I'm also running 4 GB (2 x 2GB) of Corsair Dominator RAM @ 1066.

This may seem tame to some more experienced overclockers but for starters at least, I'd like to see if I could get this cpu running stable at 3.6 Ghz, possibly bringing up to 3.8 if things go well. Does anyone have experience OC'ing this board/cpu combination that could throw some help my way? TIA!

 

[Mondoman]

Well, I'd start by going back to the stock Intel CPU cooler, or a similar "downdraft-style" cooler that blows air down onto the MB and out in all directions. All those heat sinks/radiators around the CPU are placed there exactly to take advantage of this secondary cooling function of the CPU cooler.

Failing that, buy some small (40mm?) fans and set them up so they blow air through those radiators and heat sinks.

 

[Kapok]

Well I've got the same hardware but as cooler I've bought Noctua NH-C12P

So what is the next step ?

 

[greenbrucelee]

I have this board and am running an e8400 at 4GHz

You could first try the cpu level up function and select crazy and see what it gives you all other options are adjusted automatically. Mine gave me 3.52GHz.

Next you could try cpu level, crazy then select overclock from cpu level up in the manual settings and push the FSB to whatever you want but go in small increments at first.

I have done mine manually and this is what I did.

FSB 443
Vcore 1.218V
North bridge lowest setting
South bridge lowest setting
Dram voltage 2v (check your manufactures voltage ratings) mine is rate at 1.9 - 2.4

I have kept everything else on auto, I am using a tuniq tower and my max temps are 56 degrees.

Make sure you stress test everytime you increase the speed or voltage.

 

[greenbrucelee]

btw set the drams speed at 1064MHZ you wont get any better