E8400 with p5q se pro

[cauderer]

Hey guys, Im new to overclocking so i followed a simply guide that really only changes the FSB. When i put it to 400 and leave the rest on auto everything works fine, but when i use CPU Z it still shows my e8400 at 3.0 ghz and everything is exactly the same as before i changed FSB. I tried to manually change some stuff but i cant get any changes. Am i missing something here?

 

[SpidersWeb]

Try running Prime 95, start a tortue test, then look at CPU-Z.
Chances are SpeedStep is enabled and it's lowering the clock speed to save power in idle state (e.g. it's not doing anything so why pump at full speed?)

There might be other issues, but this is the most likely cause. 400 x 7.5 is 3000. At full load or with SpeedStep disabled it'd be 400 x 9 which is 3600 (should be easily capable on auto settings, assuming you have DDR2-800 or higher).

 

[cauderer]

Awsome thanks for that help, now i have another question... i hit 3.6 at 400FSB, but when i go to 425...i do in fact get 3.8 but my internet network adapter is no longer recognized...any ideas with that? at 3.8 the voltage was still well under the recomended for the e8400, i would like to get up to 4 ghz, but i dont understand why it doesnt recognize my adapters. I should have all the nessisary equipment to safely get to 4 ghz.

 

[SpidersWeb]

I'm not experienced enough to be sure on the network issue, but it could be a sign of instability (not necessarily CPU, you're also overclocking your RAM and North Bridge chip too). If you can run Prime 95 torture test without failure for a while @ 3.8, then it's something else, but it's quite possible its just unstable.

When I went over 400Mhz on my board I needed to increase the NB voltage. Also make sure you're RAM is capable of the higher frequency, e.g. if you have DDR2-800 RAM, at 425 it's running as DDR-850. Things like that, I got DDR-1066 RAM so I didn't have to worry about it.

Sorry I can't give any definate information. I've only done a single 45nm overclock.

What I have picked up though from reading:

- keep VTT under 1.4V (I run 1.38)
- keep PLL under 1.6V (or might be under 1.7) (I run 1.5)
- Vcore under 1.4 is safe, under 1.5 is probably safe, some people go as high as 1.8 but wouldn't recommend it (I run 1.52V load, 1.54 idle)
- adjustment of GTLRef can be the make or break (I run 0.67, any other setting causes instant instability)
- NB voltage should be played with (I run 1.5 and it has no issues with it
- make sure you're not asking too much from your RAM

All voltages should be as low as possible. Mine are the lowest my setup would do and stay stable, but I think this is due to the quality of motherboard (Asrock cheapie) rather than what's needed.

When I was stepping up (on mine, can't say it'll be the same for you), Vcore made a initial difference then NB voltage got me higher, then Vcore again, then GTLRef/VTT adjustments.

I'm stable at 4.37Ghz now (460 x 9.5) on the e8500 e0. You should be capable of 4 but it's a bigger overclock than you think on an E8400, its 33% faster than stock, so no suprises you need to fiddle to do it.

NB: ramble above isn't pro advice, it's based on what I've read and my setup, for best advice check with overclocking guides on the net or wait for some of the more veterans to post up. Trouble with overclocking is every system is different, so a lot of it is experimentation and hard to get solid answers sometimes.