OC E8400 on P5K-E, new to OC

[Frozen_Canuk]

Hey guys,

I'm new to this whole overclocking thing. The most I've ever done is using the onboard ASUS OC tool to pump my old Pentium D from 3.4 to 3.8GHz under load. I'm not familiar with the technical aspects of OC but i'm willing to learn. I'm a big gamer so all the power I can squeeze out of my rig the better.

Here's my current custom build, its about 6 months old now:

MoBo: ASUS P5K-E
CPU: E8400 @ 3.0GHz
Cooling: Swiftech H20-120 compact water cooling
RAM: 2X2GB Patriot DDR2 800
HDD: Seagate 400GB SATA
Graphics: XFX 9800 GTX
Sound: Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1
OS: Vista Business SP1

I'm looking for some helpful hints/steps on how I can pump a few steroids into it, namely the CPU, which i've seen can be clocked to 4.0GHz in some cases. I do have water cooling (even after gaming for hours on end at near 100% load (GTA 4) my CPU never passes 34 degrees C), so i'm not contrained by high temps. Again, i'm new to the manual overclocking and I don't have much knowledge of vcore etc...


Thanks guys!

 

[serpent1202]

Frozen,

go to google and type overclocking guides. The amount of information on the web on overclocking is staggering. While we could get into details and help you through it, the amount of information we would have to type is excessive, especially with how much you'll find with a 2 second search.

Here are a few basics. Multiplier X FSB = clock speed. You're probably running something like 10 X 300 or 11 X 266 or 12 X 250 or something similiar. Your ram, since its DDR2 will run at twice the FSB if the Memory Divider is set to 1:1. Your memory divider is set to 4:3 if your running at 300 FSB.

Assuming your multiplier is 10, and your FSB is 300.... A simple way to OC is increase your FSB, say to 333, will make your PC run at 3.3 gighertz.

If you have liquid cooling, you can probably change your FSB to 400, make your memory divider 1:1. Now, this will require you to increase the Voltage supplied to the CPU.

Changing the voltage is the part that if you go too high, can damage your cpu. If you simply change the FSB, without a voltage change, the worst thing that can happen is your PC won't post and you have to reset the bios. But, if you increase the voltage and you send too much juice, you can fry it. So you're going to have to ease into it.

I am not familiar with the stock voltage settings of your CPU, but when you log into bios, you can find out easily. I would increase it in .025 increments. So if the stop voltage is say 1.25v, go up to 1.275 and see if it posts.

Once your safely into windows, your going to want to run Prime95 or Orthos to test for long term stability. I always aim for the 12 hour mark on prime95. No common program or game will test your CPU as hard as prime95 will ever, so if it passes for 12 hours, you've got a safe OC.

Best of luck!

 

[Frozen_Canuk]

Thanks! I know there's alot of small technical details that would take forever to explain, but you gave me exactly what I was looking for, a basic start. I've looked at a few OC guides before, I'm just having trouble finding one that isn't written for hardware whizzes. They all get into way too much detail way too soon.

I really appreciate the help. I know helping newbies isn't always a fun thing to do. I'll give it a shot!

Oh, and if anyone has a simple, straightforward online guide to OC I'd greatly appreciate it.

Cheers!