E8500 System Clocking FIRST REAL ATTEMPT

[Jmacs]

okay so i have recently purchased a small upgrade from an e2160 to a e8500 and decided i wanted to take a shot at clocking..

 

 

basically an e8500 with PC6400 OCZ Reaper 4 gig 1066 ram, nvidia 260 GTX OC , being cooled with a zalman copper cooler. And the mother board is a P5E-VM HDMI.

 

its running at 4.05 at an FSB of 450 and a multiplier of 9.\

core voltage is actually at 1.45 sadly so it can stay stable =[

idle is 38 - 39 degrees

north bridge is at 1.39v although im not even sure what this is for =[

 

I'm aware that i can use a 9.5x multiplier but the problem is that whenever i switch to the 9.5 multiplier i become very unstable.. so i'm currently stumped as to what is causing this problem. i was previously running a 4gig 800mhz kit but i couldn't get passed 3.8ghz at the time so i upgraded to a 1066mhz 4 gig kit.

 

also as you can see in my cpu-z my FSB:DRAM ratio is 5:6 i can't seem to get it to go 6:6 or 1:1, if i could do that maybe my Prime95 wont fail within 30 seconds of starting the stress test =[

 

should i be switching my dram clocking from 5-5-5-15 to something else? i'm not too sure on how to get to the 1:1 ratio =[, i've tried reading the guides thoroughly but i think it must be something thats just not sinking into my head..

 

Any help would be wonderful.. thanks!

 

P.S i'm kinda suspecting i need PC8400 ram maybe at a 1066 frequency i don't know.. too confused right now and its currently 4:11 am =[

Edited June 2, 2009 by Jmacs

[Verran]

Have you tried the 9.5x multi at lower FSB settings?

 

You memory shouldn't be a factor considering that 450mhz is still below their factory rated speeds. Sounds like you either need to increase voltage or lower speed. If it fails Prime in 30 seconds, it's not even close to stable.

[Jmacs]

Have you tried the 9.5x multi at lower FSB settings?

 

You memory shouldn't be a factor considering that 450mhz is still below their factory rated speeds. Sounds like you either need to increase voltage or lower speed. If it fails Prime in 30 seconds, it's not even close to stable.

 

I'll give that a shot. Currently trying at...

 

9.5x 430fsb

Cpu voltage is at 1.45v

North 1.45v

South 1.20

 

I had prolems before running stable with anything lower than 1.4d sadly I'"l let u know how it goes

[Jmacs]

I'll give that a shot. Currently trying at...

 

9.5x 430fsb

Cpu voltage is at 1.45v

North 1.45v

South 1.20

 

I had prolems before running stable with anything lower than 1.4d sadly I'"l let u know how it goes

 

 

sorry for the typing errors was on my blackberry when i typed that out haha.. anyways

 

looks like 9.5x with a 430 fsb multiplier is stable so far running at a 4.05ghz

so far temps are 38 idle with a peak 64 degrees on occasion it hits it for just a second then goes back 2 down. so i would say it kinda twiddles around 61-62 on full load.

 

its been about 4 hours .. So i'm just going to stop prime and try to bump the FSB up by 15 and i'll see what happens.

 

 

btw whats the south bridge for? should i lower voltages to 1.05? or keep it at 1.20? on a side note i got my FSB:DRAM ratio 1:1 by turning down the frequency of my ram so that may be the

cause of it being more stable too.

 

EDIT: just bumped up the FSB 445 x 9.0 same voltages and core one insta fails, core 2 runs for a bit didn't end up bothering with waiting for it to fail.

So i'm assuming I can't hit 4.2ghz with my heat sink o_O cause i need more voltage?

 

not sure whats goin on here.

Edited June 2, 2009 by Jmacs

[9KRacing]

For everyday use I use that exact same speed. 450 X 9.

 

Trying to get over 4.1 is a real challenge for me too. I can boot into windows at 4.27 but it's anything but stable. However my VCore is waaaaaay lower than yours... i have mine at 1.30625 in BIOS.. it shows 1.288 in cpu-z. I'm also running 1.4 NB volts I think. I have a post in my OC thread with the voltages I ended up with for a stable 4050mhz clock.

 

Your temps sound right about where mine are as well... however your voltage is higher. What cpu cooler are you using? TBH I only hit like 60ish now under prime95 load but I have seen as high as 64 on hot days.

 

My Thread

Edited June 2, 2009 by 9KRacing

[Verran]

I'd be willing to bet that the problems you were having at 9.5 multi really had nothing to do with the multiplier. Sounds to me like the extra final clock speed from increasing the multi was more than your chip could handle at that voltage. If you're barely stable with 9x, you're probably only going to get more unstable with 9.5x unless you lower the FSB. I mean that's just simple logic.

[Jmacs]

For everyday use I use that exact same speed. 450 X 9.

 

Trying to get over 4.1 is a real challenge for me too. I can boot into windows at 4.27 but it's anything but stable. However my VCore is waaaaaay lower than yours... i have mine at 1.30625 in BIOS.. it shows 1.288 in cpu-z. I'm also running 1.4 NB volts I think. I have a post in my OC thread with the voltages I ended up with for a stable 4050mhz clock.

 

Your temps sound right about where mine are as well... however your voltage is higher. What cpu cooler are you using? TBH I only hit like 60ish now under prime95 load but I have seen as high as 64 on hot days.

 

My Thread

 

i'm runnning a zalman copper http://cbit.ca/product.aspx?ProdID=6074

 

i could try to lower my voltage again

 

and run with settings..

 

9.0 x 450 , dram clock 5-5-5-15, i'll see what happens.

 

I'd be willing to bet that the problems you were having at 9.5 multi really had nothing to do with the multiplier. Sounds to me like the extra final clock speed from increasing the multi was more than your chip could handle at that voltage. If you're barely stable with 9x, you're probably only going to get more unstable with 9.5x unless you lower the FSB. I mean that's just simple logic.

 

thats what i was kinda figuring, So what should i invest in so i can clock higher? would it be water cooling so i can bump the voltages up? just out of curiosity i don't think i'd spend that much money for my e8500, i'd justl ike to know the options =] thanks very much for all your guys's help

Edited June 2, 2009 by Jmacs

[Verran]

So what should i invest in so i can clock higher?

A lot of people seem to think the answer is always to buy something more. Have you considered that you may have actually just reached the ceiling for your chip?

 

You could spend $200+ on watercooling and get another 200-300 mhz out of that chip, and for what? It's not going to make any difference in games. You'd be much better off to spend that money on a video card upgrade or save it for a new Phenom II or i7 setup.

[DLS2008]

One thing to check is your RAM voltages also. Reapers take 2.1V, which is higher than what most motherboards give them. I had to set it manually on my mobo. And like Verran said, the little extra you'll get out of you chip probably isn't worth the investment in water cooling.

[Jmacs]

One thing to check is your RAM voltages also. Reapers take 2.1V, which is higher than what most motherboards give them. I had to set it manually on my mobo. And like Verran said, the little extra you'll get out of you chip probably isn't worth the investment in water cooling.

 

alright i'll give that a go, i want to just get my system back to 4.0ghz stable again T_T some reason i can't.

 

@verran yeah i suppose you're right , its just this whole time i thought it had something to do with me and i was doing something very wrong.

[9KRacing]

@verran yeah i suppose you're right , its just this whole time i thought it had something to do with me and i was doing something very wrong.

 

 

Naw, 4+ ghz is just really, really fast and it produces a whole lotta heat. It took me about 5-6 days of steady tweaking to end up with 4050mhz... and tbh it's not what most of these guys would consider stable... I get errors in prime after an hour or 2. However it never freezes, crashes, or BSODs me when I'm using it normally, so I guess that's good enough for govenment work.

 

Edit: BTW the difference between 3.8ghz and 4ghz is MAYBE 1 fps and about 2 seconds off a large render time... basically it's not worth the effort and possible destruction of your chip. But it's your harware man.

Edited June 2, 2009 by 9KRacing

[Jmacs]

Naw, 4+ ghz is just really, really fast and it produces a whole lotta heat. It took me about 5-6 days of steady tweaking to end up with 4050mhz... and tbh it's not what most of these guys would consider stable... I get errors in prime after an hour or 2. However it never freezes, crashes, or BSODs me when I'm using it normally, so I guess that's good enough for govenment work.

 

Edit: BTW the difference between 3.8ghz and 4ghz is MAYBE 1 fps and about 2 seconds off a large render time... basically it's not worth the effort and possible destruction of your chip. But it's your harware man.

 

yeah true, i'm thinking i'm going to clock down to a 3.8 and use lower voltages, should give me enough time for a newer chip + mobo, i'm wanting to go sli later =]

 

thanks for the replies i really appreciate it.