Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale OC?

wildmanuk

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Hello,

I have the following cpu:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16ghz

I am fairly new to Overclocking but have managed to get it up to 3.8ghz by just changing the FSB and mulitpliers in the bios.

I am currently on 9.5 x 400 = 3800mhz.

Anything over this it fails to post and the PC will try to power up and fail a few times in a row before the bios rolling back.

All voltages etc are set to auto still I have only changed the FSB and multiplier.

I understand I need increase the voltages to get to higher speeds but have no idea what I am doing.

Can anyone offer any advice or point me towards a guide on how to do this safely?

Just to add I have a corsair Hydro H50 cooler and my CPU temps are in the 30-40 degrees C range currently at 3.8Ghz so I think I can safely get a bit more out of it if I know how. :D

Thanks in advance.

WildmanUK
 

deadjon

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Volts are needed to get anywhere in the Overclocking game on the old LGA775 systems.
Northbridge and Southbridge volts want to go up
Vcore wants to go up
Ive seen E8500s go to 4.5ghz, they are STUPIDLY fast at that speed, even by todays standards.
Keep the multi at 9.5 and up the FSB to 443 - Increase the Vcore to around 1.4 - 1.45v.
Increase memory voltages to their maximum - 2.1v for DDR2, 1.8v for old DDR3 etc etc.
FSB voltage needs to go up by about 0.2v
Northbridge and southbridge by about the same or possibly more (maybe 0.25v)
Disable intel Speed step and PCI Spread Spectrum always when overclocking an LGA775 board.
These settings will help you hit 4.2ghz
All the above settings depend entirely on your board - if its P45 its gonna be different to X38 for eg.
Hope this helps.
 

wildmanuk

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Thanks for the information, I believe the board is a P45 board.

I will have to double check later just at work at the moment.

I found it quick confusing at times when reading certain guides as they used certain abbreviations like VTT etc which I couldnt see in my bios but then managed to work out some as it was just different names for the same things.

I will check things out later on and report back with the exact board memory speeds etc.

And the available settings I can change in my bios section.

WildmanUK
 

deadjon

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Once you get back with that I'll be able to throw some numbers your way.

I know how to Overclock the Core 2s ;) I might build a collection of Core 2s and Overclock them all (including the Celeron and Pentium versions of the Arch :D) - I will always miss bumping up that FSB from 1066 to 1600 and making my mobo cry :')
 

wildmanuk

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Ok

Motherboard is Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R

I have 4gb of RAM

DIMM1: Corsair XMS2 CM2X1024-6400
Module Size 1 GB (1 rank, 8 banks)
Memory Speed DDR2-800 (400 MHz)
@ 400 MHz 5-5-5-18 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 22-42-3-6-3-3 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)

DIMM3 is the same

DIMM2 and 4 are similar but it has

DIMM2: Corsair XMS2 CM2X1024-6400C4

Which is the same but everest has got enchanced performance profile section for these 2 DIMMS.

CPU is

DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
CPU Stepping C0

Bios

Award BIOS Type Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Award BIOS Message EP45-DS3R F4

Hopefully you will be able to give me some numbers based on this thanks.



 
Some things true, half true, and wrong here.

The usual noob mistake is neglecting your memory settings. If, for example, your memory settings are on Auto and you are running at 3.8 GHz (400 MHz X 9.5) in a G'byte motherboard, your memory is actually running at (400/333)*800 or DDR2-960 speeds.

This should be your first stop.
Core2 Overclocking Guide (generic guide based on an Asus motherboard)
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/259899-11-core-overclocking-guide

Shadow's Gigabyte motherboard OC guide:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-245679_11_0.html
It's for an EP35-DS3L but all the Gigabyte Core2 BIOS's are similar.

Go through the guides. Then take your core voltage off Auto and set your memory voltage to factory recommended values. Change the System Memory Multiplier from AUTO to 2.00. Then when you increase the FSB, the memory clock will rise in in proportion with it. At an FSB of 333 MHz, your memory clock should be at 667 MHz.

If you find that your memory is holding you back, increase the RAM voltage to 2.2 volts if not already there, and relax your memory timings to something like 6-6-6-24. Core2 systems are relatively insensitive to memory timings and speeds.

Keep your core voltage under 1.45 volts and your load temps under 70 C.
----------
Overclocking since 1978 - Z80 (TRS-80) from 1.77 MHz to 2.01 MHz


 

deadjon

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Max Safe voltage for DDR2 is 2.3?
When the? What the?
If Id have known this...4 years thinking I had to leave my RAM at 2.1...god damn it my overclocks could have been rock solid.
On another note - I always increase the southbridge volts, maybe by a bit less than the northbridge but I have seen in increase stability in some cases.
I always disable Speedstep, Ive lost hundreds of mhz to it before and 12hours Prime95 stable with speedstep disabled is good enough for me.
 

wildmanuk

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Well after setting:

Vore to 1.4v
with 9.5 x 422 to get 4.0ghz

I set the DRAM voltage to 2.0v as the other motherboards numbering switched from white to pink after 2.1v so this put me off a bit haha.

I also manually set the PCIE freq to 100hz and set the memory multi to 2.0

I made no changes to North or South Bridge.

The bios posted and windows booted I then tried gaming for a bit and kept checking my temps. (Max temp on the cpu got to 50c.)

But after a bit it kept having odd graphics problems, the graphics crashed then it sort of sounded like the gfx card or maybe the pc powered down very briefly and the game minimized saying the driver had failed and recovered.

This seemed to be a common thing after so long, I have now gone back to auto settings with 400 x 9.5 at the 3.8ghz as this seems stable.

The gfx card is an HD6850 DirectCU which is OC'd to 905 gpu and 1100 on the memory.

Any idea whats making this unstable? For now im staying with the safeness of 3.8ghz until I get more information..

Thanks

WildmanUK
 

deadjon

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Spread spectrum is disabled then?

Alter your northbridge and south bridge by 0.15v and 0.1v respectivley

Set RAM to 2.1 as this is safe.

The Driver shouldnt fail due to an overclock but it may be an underlying issue from somewhere. Try stabalising your system with higher volts (NOT ON CPU)

And increase FSB volts by 0.1v
 

wildmanuk

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Not sure where Spread spectrum is enabled/disabled in the bios.

I have posted the 3 images showing the overclocking part of the bios but cant see to see this option anywhere..
 

wildmanuk

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When you say:

"And increase FSB volts by 0.1v"

Is this CPU Termination voltage on my screen shots of bios?

I have worked out MCH is Northbridge and ICH is South which was a bit confusing to start with but still unsure which value is the FSB voltage.


Thanks

WildmanUK
 

deadjon

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I beleive that board uses Phased Lock Loop after taking a look (its another way of looking at an FSB)

Thats the PLL Voltage in the BIOS settings. Try increasing by 0.1v and try increasing the CPU Termination voltage, as this is linked to the memory controller and can pretty much fix major stability issues.

That board is very complex, from what I can see the CPU Reference Voltage should go up with the Vcore - and the MCH reference should go up with the MCH Voltage.

Leave the reference volts for now - we will see later.
 

wildmanuk

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Right I tried again at 4.0Ghz 422 x 9.5

Vcore 1.40
Northbridge up by 0.15 as you said and South by 0.1
Set DRAM Voltage to 2.1 and memory multiplier to 2.0

This is now running stable I had prime95 running for about 30mins and temps were 50-55c

Also now tried the gaming again and its been stable.

Thanks for the help up to now most appreciated and have a much better understanding of OCing now, both limits and terms.

Since your FSB is meant to be half of the RAM speed so DDR2 800 is meant to have a FSB of 400, is the RAM going to bottleneck me from going any further?

I mean its currently set at 422 so is this just about doing it and anymore would be too much? As you pointed out 443 would get me up to 4.2Ghz is this worth trying or would the memory stop me?

WildmanUK
 

deadjon

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You can set the memory Ratio to something different, or try a different mode. Unlinked is very unstable though, so dont use that one.

You can try pushing the extra 200mhz out of it and the RAM would hit 886mhz. A modest overclock - loosen the timings to about 6-6-6-18 on the RAM and it should be okay. With 2.1v coursing through timings that loose the extra 86mhz should be fine. And dont worry about performance loss, on a dual core that 200mhz will increase your performance by a noticble amount.

If your heading for 4.2 you might want to up the PLL and CPU Termination Voltage aswell, by about 0.1v from stock (The CPU termination Voltage and PLL Voltage are both linked into the memory in some way shape or form, increasing the volts on these should decrease the chances of memory being the weak link)

If your unstable, try going to 6-6-6-20 on the RAM. Make sure the PLL Doesnt go over 1.7v on your system either.
 

wildmanuk

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Well I had already changed the RAM to 6-6-6-24 from a post someone made above.

I will try give it a go tomorrow as im out for drinks with work later so wont be toying about with voltages this evening for the safety of my hardware haha.

Will try and up the PLL and termination voltages later and give 4.2 a go.

Would 443 x 9.5 and just upping the PLL and termination by 0.1v be ok with the memory multiplier at 2.0B? since the timings at 6-6-6-24? or would I need to change the DRAM multi?

WildmanUK
 

deadjon

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Running the multi at 2.0 is the most stable, even if it is a modest overclock on the RAM, it should be able to handle it with timings that loose.

Im glad we got you to 4ghz, which is a nice overclock of 1ghz (33% increase in speed over 3ghz :D) now its time to push the extra 200mhz we all know those wonderful Wolfdales can do.
 

wildmanuk

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Yea I was toying with the idea of using my Christmas bonus to get a new set up overclockers uk have got a bundle with an I5-2500k 3.3ghz decent motherboard and 8 gb of ddr3 1600 ram, but they overclock it for you at 4.6ghz stable with a cooler as well. Was going to get that plus a new case and then just use the HDD, Gfx DVD-rw etc I already have.

But if i can get the wolfdale to 4.2 stable I might hold that upgrade for a bit longer :)
 

deadjon

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I bought my Q6600 on release (2007), and If I had a better board I wouldnt be upgrading to Sandy after new years. Its @3.3 stable(ish) now - on a Good board it would hit 3.6, at which point I would wait a few months for Ivy. Its 4.5 year old chip for christs sake and its still eating games up for breakfast!

I could tell you what parts im going for with my i5 2500k build(Ive researched the hell out of this) but It might incline you to get rid of the Core 2, and I have a soft spot for em as you can tell xD
 

galilaiosgr

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I Will like to have some tips for my own e8500 plz
i have a strange issue!
i was able to oc that cpu at 4ghz (1687 fsb) without any freezing problem's for a month
but i upgraded from my old gtx 260 to my new gtx 480 and i cant have a strange oc!
Here is my Computer specc!
Motherboard: p5n-e sli
cpu: e8500 :p
Ram OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel 2x2 gb (never managed to prevent crash with sli option enabled)
gpu: elitegroup gtx 480

While my computer was stable with gtx 260 i was at those configuration
V-CORE 1.354
MEMORY VOLTAGE AUTO
NB VOLTAGE AUTO
VCORE VOLTAGE AUTO

sli option for my memory was disabled and everything was stable for about 20 days untill i upgraded to gtx 480 and all my overclock tries failed!