[SOLVED] I'd like to have some additional productivity from my quad8400 2.66. CPU Cooler is "ID Cooling SE 903". Advice needed.

[Garry423]

Hello everybody! Look, Guys, Core Quad q8400 2.66. Have installed ID COOLING SE 903. Have somebody any Xperience in stable overclocking without any harm to CPU with such cooler? Other CS fans inside spaceous rig are 2 DEEPCOOL XFAN's 120 L/B.
So, overall cooling system is good. I symply can't find any info about succesfull overclocking with this type of CPU cooler. Any advices would be valuable and even precious, especially with some proof with a link or self experience. Thank you. Hope for your Help!
Other specs (if needed)
EP41UD3L
4Gb RAM
SSD 120Gb
GT730 2GB GDDR5

The aim of this sacrifice is Wolfenstein II The New Collosus.

 

[13thmonkey]

Core 2 Overclocking Guide

Edited on 09-May-2008: Guide is now version 1.6.1 – minor corrects made and slight re-ordering of sections. Before you continue, I wrote this guide with the newbie in mind, so please don't reply criticizing it for being too simplistic -- it's this way by design. Also know that the steps for...

forums.tomshardware.com

Is this the cooler?
http://www.idcooling.com/Product/detail/id/47/name/SE-903

 

[DSzymborski]

Do keep in mind that the gains won't be massive. You'll eke out some extra frames, especially in games more reliant on the CPU, but if you're unhappy with current performance, it won't be on the gamechanging level.

 

[13thmonkey]

^ Agree, 5-10% faster than slow is still slow.

 

[Garry423]

Thank you so much. Had much work and not enough time to be here earlier.

1. 13th monkey, your link leads exactly to my type of cooler.
2. Thank you, DSzymborsky, desided to let it be as is...
3. It would be better to throw additional RAM to the Rig instead of torturing rather old and reliable CPU...

 

[Garry423]

Do you think it's still possible to obtain 2x4 Gb DDR2 800 type of Ram anywhere with a reasonable price?

 

[Garry423]

The guide for overclocking was interesting. Thank you. Finished with it. Very Helpful. Still trying to find suitable memory around... Any advices or links will help...Need 2x4 Gb's (to get it work in dual mode).

 

[mike_ep45]

Hey Garry423, I have been running a Q8400 overclocked to 3.57GHz and find it stable on a similar cooler. I'm a newbie to this a swell, and have had good luck with Gigabyte's Easy Tune6 by clicking the big shiny overclock buttons in the past. I have an EP45-UD3P and Corsair PC2-6400 (800) RAM.

The Q8400 has an 8x multiplier (it's hard coded into the cpu, listed as CPU Clock Ratio in the bios), so you take that and multiply it by your CPU Host Frequency/bus speed (333) and you get 2.66GHz. Since the CPU multiplier can't go any higher, we have to increase the Host Frequency setting which increases the speed of other stuff on the mobo like RAM as well. I have mine set to 447, it can go higher but then the fan is audible and I don't want that, 8 x 447 = 3.57GHz. It seems you need to bump up the CPU voltage, but I've actually put mine lower to lower the temps, and it seems stable at 1.21875 volts. Intel lists the max voltage as 1.3625V, and temp as 71.4c so don't go over that.

Since you have a dual bios like me, if the system does crash it just reloads the bios with the last settings so it's pretty easy to tinker with this stuff. You can use Easy Tune6 to easily set the overclock, or do the fine tuning in the bios. Once you set the overclock, check system stability with prime95 and keep an eye on the temps. Mine stays under 60c at full load which seems to be what people recommend. I just kept bumping up the bus speed, stress tested. If it crashes (within a matter of minutes) bump up the voltage a few ticks or the bus speed down. I used maximum power consumption test in prime95. When you're happy, run Blend tests with SUM(INPUTS) error and Round off checking options enabled for 24 hours and you should be stable.

There's some other processors that can be found cheap like Q9550 with an 8.5x multiplier. Since your bus will only go so fast before it crashes, a CPU with a higher multiplier will get you higher speeds. My next project is to get a Xeon X5460 or X5470 (9.5x and 10x multipliers), you have to mod the bios and cpu socket to make it work. Unfortunately the CPU fan seems to blow directly out the back, and does not blow towards the motherboard cooling the RAM. I was looking at a new fan that could cool the other parts of the motherboard as well like this but that's money better spent on newer computer.

TL;DR Here's my changes in MB Intelligent Tweaker

* Clock Chip Control *
CPU Host Clock Control Enabled
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) 447
C.I.A. 2 Disabled

* DRAM Performance Control *
Performance Enhance Standard
System Memory Multiplier 2.00D

* Mother Board Voltage Control *
Load-Line Calibration Disabled
CPU Vcore 1.21875
DRAM Voltage 1.820V

Also disable energy saving features in Advanced BIOS Features C1E, C2E, C4E, TM2, EIST while overclocking. I re-enabled them after I was happy to save some energy and haven't had any problems.

If you ever installed Dynamic Energy Saver, I recommend turning it off before uninstalling it. I installed it so I could have my fancy power LEDs on the board, and it has given me terrible DPC latency ever since. Even after uninstalling it, even after bios upgrades and resetting, it still killed my DPC latency. To disable it, I had to install it, click the button to turn it off (immediately solved DPC latency), then uninstalled it.

 

[Garry423]

Thank you, Bro!!! That's what I really needed. Thank you so much. Mobo Voltages and other BIOS settings was helpful. Keep them at hand now. Already got some stable results though not so tremendous as yours, but 2.9 Ghz. For me that's enough. Further temps are too high. Productivity gains good and I can see it not only virtually now. Got some additional fps. Have you experienced any memory issues during RAM upgrade on this mobo? Want to throw 8 Gbs of RAM and I'd like to use 4x2 in two slots to run it in dual mode, but after reading the article about our motherboards and some RAM features, thinking... How much of the Corsair PC2-6400 (800) RAM you have in your rig?4 or 8 Gbs in total? If 8, how you managed to organize it? I tried to put 4 x 2 Gb recently (Kingston KVR 6400 D2N6/2g), but it's impossible because of the chipset limitation, so, this also interesting for me. Want to get PC to it's top 8Gbs. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! YOUR ADVICE WAS BY FAR THE MOST HELPFUL!!!!

 

[13thmonkey]

All of those voltages are great for his, mobo, his chip and his ram. Using them on yours could be unstable or overly hot. Core 2 was the first range to offer easier ocing, but you still needed to do the work. I started with safe values on but first e6600, 5s later the mobo smoked itself.

 

[Garry423]

I've got exactly the same mobo and quad 8400 like him. The specs are almost the same with the exception of the DDR2 manufacturer. I've got 4Gbs Kingston KVR 800 6400 and that's all the difference.

 

[13thmonkey]

And every component is different, cpus need slightly different voltages, mobos provide slightly different voltages under load. Prior to core 2 ocing was hard, you had to work at it and understand what you were doing. Core 2 made it easy but not guaranteed safe, i series made it much safer. My oc should have been safe, but no warning, no second chance, mobo dead. So be careful, understand the risks, then do. If you can't afford to replace your mobo & cpu then don't do it.

 

[Garry423]

Even the cooler type is the same and that's an important info for me. I'll be cautious, of course, in applying the advice to my config, but it seems mentioned above is possible, but I don't need so high overclocking on air like him. Achievement of 3.0 Ghz will be enough for me after some experiments. Just now I'm in progress with renewing my 120' coolers inside case to get better overall cooling. I'll go with further overclocking after the making my CS better. Thanks.

 

[13thmonkey]

The cooler being of the same type is not very important. Anyway, you've got all the information you need to make an informed choice.

 

[Garry423]

Thank you, 13thmonkey, I have 2 additional mobos for 775 of the same type and same manufacturer from aftermarket)))), CPU is one<(((( Another is Core2Duo 7500, but it's too slow for MAFIA III and Wolfenstein The new Collosus. but I am trying my best to be careful. Seems, finally, today got stable 3.0Ghz. and core temps around 46 without load. Trying to remake my inside vents for a bigger type right now. Thank you for advices, everybody. I have enough info for me and i'll try my best. Good Luck everybody. I think problem is solved.