Motherboard and RAM for Overclocking E8400 to 4.0ghz

[Moondrinker]

Hi lads. . and lasses!

I give up! well, i told myself that overclocking would be silly (that was when i planned on a E6750 build) because i don't know how to OC and as a rookie it would only make my system unstable. But when i heard that the new Wofldale processors would hit the Danish market 1'st of Febuary my eyes suddenly rested on a E8400.
And as you all know, these babys overclock like cake! I heard that you could achieve 3.6ghz with the Intel Box Cooler (not that i intend this) and well, that really turned the plate.

I want to overclock my E8400! But now that i have settled on a system that is not "overclock friendly" i would appreciate if the community in here could help me get a good Motherboard and Ram for overclocking this CPU (or tell me if the components i choosed will do). Furthermore i would like it if you could comment on the CPU cooler i choosed.

Here goes (my current system):

Motherboard: Asus P5K Pro $75
Ram: 2x1 Kingston ValueRAM (i sense that i have to change these ) 2x $9 (man, they are cheap!)
CPU cooler: Scythe Ninja PLUS SCNJ-1100P Rev. B $32
PSU: Corsair HX520W

I am not going as far (money wise) as buying a 780i motherboard since it's too expensive and i wont going to use 3-way SLI but any offer within a reasonable amount of money will do (but please arguement/link to an arguement for this, i can't use a thread saying "buy this, buy that" with no good arguementation.)

Best regards, and thank you for your answers in advance!

EDIT:
Something that might be useful to know:
i will run Vista 64bit
I play video games, so is stress my components a lot.
My cabinet is a Antec p182 (which might add to the cooling effect of the CPU)
I have never overclocked before but am a quick learner.

 

[closed_deal]

Getting the E8400 to 3.6Ghz is easy as pie. It will do it on stock volts and stock cooler without so much as a blink. It's only when the volts increase the stock cooler will suffer!

As for mobo's it depends on what gfx you run and if you maybe inclined to go for a SLI/Crossfire system.

I went for a Crossfire system so choose the Asus P5E X38 DDR2 version. I've been very impressed with it and all you'd need to do to o/c your system to 3.6 is increase the FSB to 400 . Getting to 4ghz stable requires a voltage increase to around the 1.42/1.44 point to account for the vdroop with 445 FSB.

As for what ram you need it depends on your current set. If they are 6400 you wouldn't need to upgrade, if not a DDR2 6400 set atm is only £32.

If you did want a cooler the Arctic Freezer Pro 7 would do the job for 3.6ghz as the cheap option, but the Thermalright Ultra or Extreme 120mm will definitely handle 3.6Ghz+.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131219

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208283

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134

 

[Evilonigiri]

Another cooler worthy of consideration is the Zerotherm Nirvana. It can beat the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme (unlapped) and it comes in cheaper too. The only draw back is that it may be noisy.

You may need to replace your ram if you want to hit 4GHz, nonetheless it's worth the try.

 

[Moondrinker]

Thanks for the replys. For the record i'm not going to run either SLI or Crossfire (i've heard that the P5K series are poor at running crossfire, not that i consider it), just a single 8800GT. The kingston valueRAM is running at PC2-5300 and 667 MHz.

Hmm, what about these RAM?:
Kingston HyperX 2x 1gb Dual RAM, PC2-6400CL4 and 800 MHz. They are rather expensive though, costing $50 for two sticks (2gb). Any cheaper suggestion?

Well, i've heard some rather disturbing things about the artic freezer pro 7 (noisy, not so effective, dosn't fit etc, though cools better than stock), but as you say, it's cheap! Thermalright Ultra and Extreme seems like too high end choices and i don't consider an overclock of 1ghz on the E8400 to be extreme (as you also state, it will go 3.6ghz on stock).

Thanks!

 

[mweidler]

zerotherm nirvana installs pretty easy. comes with a fan so that saves you some cash. but you have to pull the MB to install it
I have my case open at the moment and I have to tell you its not too loud with the fan running full bore. I havent adjusted the rpm's yet. Im running prime95 for 24 hours.
with the side case covers on it will be even quieter

 

[Smoked Turkey]

The one thing I wish I would have done differently on my E8400 would be to buy a 120mm fan heatsinc and not the 90. The 90 can be noisy when it spins up. Also, I'd go with the Crucial Ballistix or something of the like. They run 80 USD but have a 30$ rebate. If you decide to take it over 3.6 these will help.

 

[vagetaqtd]

2gbx1 Crucial Ballistix Tracers PC8500 on sale at Newegg.com for $65.99 after rebates. This ram overclocks like a mother. I have it running at 1020mhz w/ 4-4-4-12 timings and is memtest stable for over 9hrs.

 

[Jak1s]

Here is a guide on how to overclock the e8400 to 4.3ghz
with DFI Blood Iron motherboard and Team Xtreem 1Gbx2 4-4-4-10 kit.

http://www.fransatech.com/whats-news/2008/1/27/overclocking-e8400-wolfdale-how-to-reach-43ghz-with-air.html

 

[hughyhunter]

Oh man I'm so excited... I got a 780i EVGA mobo on the way along with one of these E8400. However I purchased 2X2GB kit of OCZ reaper DDR2 800. I was about to get the DDR2 1000 kit but didnt think that it would be that much more overclockable than the other.

Does anyone have any experience overclocking an E8400 on the EVGA 780i with 2X2GB DDR2 800? I want to get it to at least 4ghz as long as temps stay super... and I mean super low. I spent the extra buck and got the thermalright ultra-120 extreme. I will use an old case fan (is this a good idea or should I invest in a better fan). I hope this system impresses!!!

 

[bhavv]

I have an MSI P35 neo 2-fr, G.skill HK 4-4-3-5 ram, and have hit 4.275 Ghz 1 hour orthos stable at 1.4v.

I tried 4.35 Ghz after and it froze up in 5 mins of orthos. So I guess 4.3 Ghz'ish is my limit. I use an asus silent knight 2 cooler, but have a buggered temp detector on my E8400

 

[hughyhunter]

Does anyone have any experience overclocking this sucker on an EVGA 780i mobo? I am running the aformentioned along with OCZ reaper DDR2 800 2X2GB set.

 

[theafricandude]

I got mine to 4 ghz with a crap ass cooler master fan / CPU heat sink with the dfi blood iron t2rl mobo and a 450 w psu its awesome the temp at load is 70 degrees Celsius and its stable as hell and running win 7 like a dream. even though the E8400 is a CPU it has problems reading temps though the most accurate is coretemp hey.

 

[dirtdiver]

As stated, 3.6ghz is literally an FSB setting away from being a reality on the E8400. Such a great CPU!

I have an eVGA 790i board, and I run my E8400 at 3.6ghz at 47C Idle. Not super low, but under load it only reaches 51C so I'm happy with it until I get my water cooling set up.

If you google "overclock E8400" you will find multiple guides on how to set yours up. A lot of trial and error once you get to the 4ghz level and beyond. Essentially, you are going to need to step your voltage (cpu) up by .05's until you hit the maxmimum stable voltage, then back it down by .05 volts (to keep it stable). Once your voltage is set, you can begin increasing your FSB to, allegedly, over 450! You should be able to get to 4.4ghz or so with a decent cooling setup (preferrably water).

I am not claiming that all of my info is correct, mostly what I have read and researched combined with what has worked in my machine.


My Rig
-eVGA 790i Ultra Digital PWM FTW
-E8400 @ 3.6ghz 1600mhz FSB
-4 Gb Corsair XMS DDR3 @ 1600mhz 9-9-9-24
-eVGA 9800GTX+

 

[dirtdiver]

An update:

Dropped a Xigmatek Dark Knight 120mm HDT cooler on my CPU and OC'd to 4.05ghz! It runs 36-39C idle temp now

Voltage increased to 1.3v click my sig to see more info.

Rather simple to OC this chip, especially on this board!

 

[jsc]

Yes, a Xig Darkknight is one of the more popular HSF's. Excellent performance /price ratio:
Xigmatec Dark Knight
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233029

overshocked, one of our serious overclockers really like the Sunbeam:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835207004

The ACF7P is a pretty good budget cooler, but the above work much better for not much more money.

hughyhunter, Google is your friend. Google "780i overclock".

 

[dirtdiver]

eVGA has a forums section that is pretty helpful as well--not quite as technical at Tom's but has a few product-specific guidelines. http://www.evga.com/forums/

 

[jsc]

Bad links. Sorry.

Sunbeam
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207004
Xigmatec Dark Knight
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029