E8400 + Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 starting OC

[dttuner]

Can anyone help me out and give me a good starting point from where I can begine OCing my E8400 CPU and Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 motherboard?

I know the correct steps to take, and I am familiar with the risks and the need to be careful. But surely there's a starting point I can goto before performing the trial and error "baby steps" process.

I see some of you have gotten your E8400 up to 4.0ghz.
Can anyone with an E8400 please post Clock speed, FSB, Multiplier, and Voltage required in order to achieve your current 24/7 OC?

Thanks.

EDIT: E8400 has a Thermalrite Ultra-120 cooler, with a 120mm fan. So cooling is covered.


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[drew and not u]

You can start with 400MHz FSB if you want. When I got mine I just set it right to 445MHz, 9 multi, 1.375 vCore, 4GHz. Depending on the board you may need to bump the chipset voltage one increment. With your RAM you may need to play a bit with the multiplier to and memory divider to get the optimum RAM speed.

[dttuner]

Whats a good start for the RAM? Check my sig for details.

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[screwballl]

always take the baby steps to see what the limit may be with your specific setup. Jumping straight to 4GHz may end up killing something or simply not booting so it is better to go in 50-100MHz increments, working your way up.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by screwballl

always take the baby steps to see what the limit may be with your specific setup. Jumping straight to 4GHz may end up killing something or simply not booting so it is better to go in 50-100MHz increments, working your way up.

My preferred way too. Although you can probably squeeze 3.6GHz right out of the box from most Wolfdales, without adjusting the voltage.

[drew and not u]

Just set your ram to the lowest divider to keep it from holding back your CPU overclock. Once you've got the 8400 where you want it, then you can go in and mess with the ram speeds and timings.

And you're not going to kill anything unless you start jacking voltages way up.

[simple_inhibition]

ive been playing around with this overclock on my setup (see sig)

cpu multi 8x
cpu fsb 500mhz
cpu voltage 1.3625v
fsb voltage (NB) +0.20v
(G)mch (SB) +0.125v
Memory Strap (DDR2 divider) 2.00D
DDR2 Voltage +0.3v (for a total of 2.1v)
memory timings 5-5-5-15

EIST Disabled
C1E Disabled
vDroop Calibration Enabled

now keep in mind thats on an X38, so your fsb voltage may be different as i dont know whats safe for P35

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by simple_inhibition

ive been playing around with this overclock on my setup (see sig)

cpu multi 8x
cpu fsb 500mhz
cpu voltage 1.3625v
fsb voltage (NB) +0.20v
(G)mch (SB) +0.125v
Memory Strap (DDR2 divider) 2.00D
DDR2 Voltage +0.3v (for a total of 2.1v)
memory timings 5-5-5-15

EIST Disabled
C1E Disabled
vDroop Calibration Enabled

now keep in mind thats on an X38, so your fsb voltage may be different as i dont know whats safe for P35

Here on P35

cpu multi 8x
cpu fsb 500mhz
cpu voltage 1.385v (IIRC)
fsb voltage (NB) 1.40v (IIRC)
Memory Strap (DDR2 divider) 400MHz
DDR2 Voltage 2.1v
memory timings 5-5-5-15 (although run at 5-5-5-12, but the last number makes no difference)

All crap disabled, vDroop fix is called load-line calibration.

It really is the sweetspot for my E8400 and this board. Getting the most out of it and my memory without going crazy in voltage.

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by dttuner

Can anyone with an E8400 please post Clock speed, FSB, Multiplier, and Voltage required in order to achieve your current 24/7 OC?

Keep in mind that even on two setups sporting identical components, individually results can vary wildly. Rather than simply mimic what someone else is running, ideally you want to understand the 'hows' and 'whys' and then find your ideal settings.

That said, I don't see anything wrong with shooting for 3.5GHz or 3.6GHz right from the get-go, but leave the volts alone. If it's not stable, your Gigabyte board will likely reboot several times before reverting to default. Or you may be required to clear the CMOS. But if it is stable (and it should be), you can continue to push the frontside bus higher.

As a general point of reference, I have an E8400 sitting here at 4GHz on a Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 with the following settings:

Multiplier = 9
Frequency = 445
CPU Voltage = Auto (CPU-Z reports 1.296 - 1.312)

Keep an eye on your memory frequency and adjust the divider as needed.

[Capper]

Paul is 100% correct, results can vary widely between two identical systems.

Having said that, the E8400 is a fantastic processor for overclocking. You'll have no problem tinkering with it and getting results you'll be very happy with.