E8500 - Overclocking Beginner

[lifeainteasy20]

Everyone has to start somewhere and I try to learn as much as I can about computers and I'd like to step into overclocking. I read the basic guide on overclocking here http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overclock-quads-duals-guide but I still have no idea what I'm doing in the long run. From what I gathered from the guide, with the ram I have, I can't push the FSB further then 533 when it is currently at 333.33. I hope I am right so far lol. I am using Real Temp and Prime95. Do I need any other software? My core temps sit at 31-32C idle. I ran a torture test with Prime95, I chose the blend test, and after an hour my max temps, according to Real Temp were 46C. I know the tjmax for my cpu is 74.1C. I'd like to push my cpu from 3.16GHZ to 3.5GHZ if possible with a max temp of 60C or under. Is this possible? I have read quite a few people can push their e8500 to 4ghz on air cooling so I'd like to try for 3.5 for now. If you need any more info, I can get it, but can someone please walk me through on the do's and don'ts and maybe guide me through what I should change in my bios? The guide led me to believe I should be changing more then just my cpu fsb, multiplier and voltage. Help? lol



AIR COOLED (6 fans + cpu fan)
Case - Antec 1200
Mobo - EVGA 132-YW-E178-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI FTW
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz (E0)
CPU Cooler - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
Ram - Patriot Viper(2x2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 PVS24G8500ELKNB
GPU - EVGA 01G-P3-1281-AR GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3
PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W
HD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM

 

[Rustyy117]

Right you should be able to do 3.5Ghz with no voltage adjustment at all. But first what I would do is see how low you can get the Vcore whilst maintaining stability at the stock 3.16Ghz, So for this all you need to do is this

1) Enter your BIOS
2) Just change the Vcore down a notch
3) Boot into windows and check for stability for 15mins with Prime95
4) If its stable, repeat the last 3 steps.

Do that until your CPU becomes unstable and then up the Vcore a notch or 2.

So now you have found the lowest possible Vcore for your stock speed of 3.16Ghz and therefore your temps are really good too, happy days.

Right onto overclocking, Firts thing I would do is to put the memory multiplier to the lowest possible setting so that your RAM is running at its lowest speed and so wont cause any problems.

Next do the following:

1) Up the FSB by just 10Mhz
2) Boot into windows and run prime 95 for 15 mins
3) if all is well, restart, enter BIOS and up the FSB another 10Mhz

When it becomes unstable up the Vcore 1 notch and test for stability again. Remember to monitor those temps.

Hope that helps.

 

[Rustyy117]

P.S welcome to the forum and thanks for listing your full system spec's and looking at the guide before posting : )

 

[ubernoobie]

Are you using a retention bracket/backplate? a backplate if you want, you should buy a backplate for lower temps, It will improve temps by a lot but it will require removal of thermal paste and reapplication of it too

 

[jsc]

Beside the generic Core2 guide, look for a guide for your particular motherboard. The BIOS for the nVidia chipset does things a little differently than the rest.

 

[lifeainteasy20]

Are you using a retention bracket/backplate? a backplate if you want, you should buy a backplate for lower temps, It will improve temps by a lot but it will require removal of thermal paste and reapplication of it too

Yes I do have the retention bracket for my cooler.

 

[lifeainteasy20]

Right you should be able to do 3.5Ghz with no voltage adjustment at all. But first what I would do is see how low you can get the Vcore whilst maintaining stability at the stock 3.16Ghz, So for this all you need to do is this

1) Enter your BIOS
2) Just change the Vcore down a notch
3) Boot into windows and check for stability for 15mins with Prime95
4) If its stable, repeat the last 3 steps.

Do that until your CPU becomes unstable and then up the Vcore a notch or 2.

So now you have found the lowest possible Vcore for your stock speed of 3.16Ghz and therefore your temps are really good too, happy days.

Right onto overclocking, Firts thing I would do is to put the memory multiplier to the lowest possible setting so that your RAM is running at its lowest speed and so wont cause any problems.

Next do the following:

1) Up the FSB by just 10Mhz
2) Boot into windows and run prime 95 for 15 mins
3) if all is well, restart, enter BIOS and up the FSB another 10Mhz

When it becomes unstable up the Vcore 1 notch and test for stability again. Remember to monitor those temps.

Hope that helps.

All of that sounds easy enough but when you say bring the Vcore down or up a notch. What would you consider a notch? Right now it is at 1.200. Bring it down by .1 until the system doesn't boot? Also, when bringing down the multiplier, which is currently at 9, just keep bringing it down by 1 until I am unstable?

 

[Rustyy117]

Make sure your not getting confussed with your CPU multi. Bring your memory multi as low as it goes for now.

When i say a notch i mean the smallest possible change, 0.1V is alot of change, im talking about something like 0.01V or less at a time.

So now its at 1.200V try it at 1.19xV

 

[lifeainteasy20]

Make sure your not getting confussed with your CPU multi. Bring your memory multi as low as it goes for now.

When i say a notch i mean the smallest possible change, 0.1V is alot of change, im talking about something like 0.01V or less at a time.

So now its at 1.200V try it at 1.19xV

I'm sorry I don't understand what you mean by the memory multi? I can't find a multiplier for my memory anywhere in the bios unless it's in a different form of 1-9x? I appreciate your help so far though.

 

[Rustyy117]

Sorry man, its been along time since i overclocked a s775, im using a 1366 now and it has a seperate memory and CPU multi

So your CPU's multi is 9.5

So we have 9.5 x 333(FSB) = 3.16Ghz CPU speed

And the memory is 4x the FSB so 4 x 333 = 1333Mhz memory speed.

Its late and ive had a few beers, There must be a way because I had my old e8400 all the way to 4.5Ghz with 800mhz RAM

I'll get back to you when im not tipsy 😀

 

[marcellis22]

Don't worry about the voltage, push the FSB to 400mHz, set the memory at 1:1, you should hit the 3.8 gHz sweet spot with no effort, I'm running a stock Intel CPU cooler at 43 C with the E8500...

 

[jsc]

And the memory is 4x the FSB so 4 x 333 = 1333Mhz memory speed.

DDR2 memory clock is 2 X FSB. DDR3 is 4 X FSB.

I'm in Saudi Arabia. I can haz beer?

 

[Tat]

My setup is fried...
Well, the CPU is probably still ok, but all but my CPU fan itself has died, so it kept crashing and dying until I opened it up and put a large room fan pointed into it... On top of that I underclocked it to 2,66Mhz with a somewhat lower voltage...
My 8800 Nvidia is reaching 100+ degrees when running 3D games for too long . . .

That's what happens when you get a *** cabinet...

Anyways, once I get paid again, I'm getting a proper CPU cooler with some magic paste and a nice big well ventilated cabinet designed for OC... Then the aim is to, as a minimum, run it at stock speed and hopefully, get it up to a decent OC . . .

I should post a picture of my crappy setup, but no cam

 

[Rustyy117]

Tat, It would have been best if you created a new thread, as you've just revived a almost 3 month old thread. : /

 

[Tat]

Oi - my bad - new on this forum...
Will check date next time...

 

[reilentless]

Here's my E8500 results for OC. I found these settings where the best since it keeps my ram FSB 2000mhz at 1:1 ratio which apparently are the best to have your ram on for top performance and lower latency. Temps weren't to bad when on 4.26ghz, was rather high at 4.5ghz with my air cooling so i didn't keep it on that setting for too long. i found that playing games on my 4.26ghz actually got me better frames then when it was on 4.5ghz. That's also after setting my GTX285 clock settings to the Black Edition clocks GPU Clock 729, Memory 1368mhz and Shader 1620mhz.

Hope it helps.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y270/rheyan0809/45ghz.jpg
500 x 9 @ 1.45v - ddr kingston hyperx 1066 5-5-5-15 @ 2v

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y270/rheyan0809/424ghz.png
533 x 8 @ 1.3v - ddr kingston hyperx 1066 5-5-5-15 @ 2v

Running a Megahalem http://static.tz.nl/f/tap/19517_1969295d.jpg + 2x 120mm silent scythe 1500rpm fans