ASUS P5E/E8400 Success Story

[Habu388]

Since 95% of the threads on these boards are started by folks with problems, I thought I would open a small window of sunshine on this bleak upgrade world. I installed a new ASUS P5E motherboard (X38 chipset) and E8400 core 2 duo. Reused my 2 Ghz of Corsair XMS2 DDR 400 RAM (ok, I am a cheap bastard) and everything went very smoothly. Some of life's more anxious moments occur when shorting the power pins for the first time; but the system posted, beeped and gave me video right out of the box. I am slowly tweaking up the Ghz and have been running at about 3.8 for a couple of days. Cooling is nothing but the stock Intel heat sink and fan. Memory does not seem to mind running at 850 Mhz. Anyway, this is a combo that is working well for me. As always, YMMV.

 

[panfist]

I am running the EXACT same setup as you, I just installed everything today. I haven't tried overclocking yet but all seems well. The NB coolers feel a LOT cooler than the p5n32-e sli plus I was using before.

 

[Winterpool]

I'd like to run my Xeon E3110 at 3.6 GHz, a clean 9*400 clock. I hope to try it at stock voltage with the stumpy Intel cooler. What sort of temps did you get with only stock cooling at 3.8 GHz?

 

[panfist]

I've never tried stock cooling.

Good luck getting it to run at stock voltage, though. What do you mean by stock? Because at stock clock speeds the motherboard auto sets the vcore to under 1.2V. The chip is rated, however, to handle 1.3something, I can't ever remember if it's 1.325 or 1.375. At this voltage level, or maybe a little higher, you should be able to hit 3.6GHz. But I highly doubt you will be able to hit 3.6GHz @ anything under 1.3V.

 

[Winterpool]

Ach, I 've read a number of cases where users got their Xeons to 3.6 GHz at 1.2ish V. And there's this handy dandy graph of voltage v clockspeed on the CircuitRemix site (though they only tested for stability a ridiculous 30 minutes or so with Prime, I believe). Ideally I'd like to remain within the 1.225 V upper limit of Intel's stated voltage range. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if I fail to get 3.6 at less than 1.3 V. I tend to be an unlucky overclocker (never could get the Athlon XP 2500+ stable at '3200+' speed for more than a few hours). My cpu is already taking 1.19 V under load at default clockspeed (well, my Abit's 'default' of 3.06 GHz).

 

[panfist]

Originally posted by: Winterpool
Ach, I 've read a number of cases where users got their Xeons to 3.6 GHz at 1.2ish V. And there's this handy dandy graph of voltage v clockspeed on the CircuitRemix site (though they only tested for stability a ridiculous 30 minutes or so with Prime, I believe). Ideally I'd like to remain within the 1.225 V upper limit of Intel's stated voltage range. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if I fail to get 3.6 at less than 1.3 V. I tend to be an unlucky overclocker (never could get the Athlon XP 2500+ stable at '3200+' speed for more than a few hours). My cpu is already taking 1.19 V under load at default clockspeed (well, my Abit's 'default' of 3.06 GHz).

The voltage required to keep my e8400 stable goes up dramatically after about 3.4-3.5GHz. I can probably clock it at 3.4GHz at 1.225V, but it needs 1.300V at least to be stable at 3.6GHz.

 

[Winterpool]

Dang. Do you notice your heat going up significantly above 1.2 V? Though with aftermarket cooling, there would probably be very little additional heat going from 1.2ish volts to 1.3ish...

Of course, a 15 or so per cent overclock essentially 'free' is a perfectly nice bonus. But getting 3.6 GHz clockspeed seems a particularly compelling goal because it's a 'simple' 9*400 overclock and enables one to run PC2 6400 memory on a 1:1 divider.

This is all vanity anyhow, as I don't plan to run my cpu overclocked long-term -- not without aftermarket cooling and not during the summer (no air conditioning in my flat). Just want to test the quality of my chip a little. Have been tempted by that $23 Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro at ewiz though...

 

[imported_sandman]

I hope i have a success story also tried a AMD Asus M2NSLIDeluxe with a 5000+ BE but do not think I am getting the potential out of chip so am upgrading to a P5K with the E8400 chip and I am hoping I do not have to do a reinstall of vista Ultimate but I will if i have to to get a stable build. This E8400 cannot be kept on the shelves of stores the way i hear it. My E6750 is twice as fast as the 5000+ under Super-pi 1m. Do not plan on overclocking the E8400.

 

[panfist]

Originally posted by: Winterpool
Of course, a 15 or so per cent overclock essentially 'free' is a perfectly nice bonus. But getting 3.6 GHz clockspeed seems a particularly compelling goal because it's a 'simple' 9*400 overclock and enables one to run PC2 6400 memory on a 1:1 divider.

That's the exact reason I got the P5E motherboard in the first place. My last motherboard could not handle 400MHz FSB. I was hoping to easily get to 1800MHz FSB as my RAM can comfortably handle 900MHz. Unfortunately I need to go from about 1.32 to about 1.40V to be stable at 1800MHz and I'm not comfortable juicing my processor that much.

I have a ThermalTake Sonic Tower with a yate loon 120mm fan. It's basically a Tuniq Tower clone and I've always been quite happy with the cooling performance. When I'm running at stock speeds, my temp sensors read CPU 32, Core #1 37, Core #2 23. Ambient is abut 23C. It's hard to trust the temperature sensors on the e8400 because they weren't designed to operate accurately at the cool temps that these chips seem to float around. At full load in Orthos I see CPU 32, Core #1 37, Core #2 28. At 3.4GHz at load, I see CPU 38, Core #1 39, Core #2 36. At 3.6GHz, all three readings say 40C.

As far as the stock cooling goes, I've had a few socket 775 chips and all of their stock coolers were taller. The e8400 stock cooler has only about 1.5-2cm high aluminum fins. If you find a 775 cooler designed for a 65nm or 90nm processor you should be able to achieve 3.4GHz no problem, even in the summer with no air conditioning. On the other hand, I've come to realize that the difference between 3.0GHz and 3.4GHz isn't that great, and there's really no reason to clock that high everyday. The only time I overclock anymore is when I play supreme commander, which I'm not even sure that makes a difference. Your game runs as slow as anyone you play against and I don't know how many people out there have 3.8GHz core2duos. Also I think I need 4gigs of RAM before I notice 3.8GHz of speed in a big game of supcom.

Originally posted by: sandman
Do not plan on overclocking the E8400.

Why not? this chip is practically made for overclocking.

 

[imported_sandman]

If you get a chip with the temp problem I guess the proper thing to do is exchange the chip for a different one.

 

[panfist]

Originally posted by: sandman
If you get a chip with the temp problem I guess the proper thing to do is exchange the chip for a different one.

What temp problem? If you're referring to the temp sensor being wrong, that's not an issue for which they will let you exchange your processor. The temp sensor on board is designed for one thing only: to throttle the chip if it gets dangerously hot. The fact that it is inaccurate at the low temps in which this processor usually operates is not really an issue, so much as an acceptable consequence of design.

Besides...who cares what temp EXACTLY your processor is running? The temps are literally of no consequence. All that matters is that it feels cool, it's obviously not being thermal-throttled. Besides that, the only numbers of consequence to me are the max stable clock speed and the voltage required to operate there.

 

[imported_sandman]

I am sure that there are lots of builders that would have issues with temps that do not move and say stay at 40c I for one always check my temps on a build from time to time or at different seasons of the year to make sure that the case, MB and cpu are running as cool as they can. I know people even go so far as to check temps with many different programs or actual temp probes placed on the heatshreadder of the cpu and for one i have always been concerned with temps. So I guess you would not care if your processor was running at the max temp threshold all day long 24/7 or even higher at overclocked speeds and loads. I for one have never had a heat problem with my builds but I have read on other forums that there are temp issues with this chip maybe its not to be concerned with but that is why I have asked the question. They will exchange the chip because of this issue I have also found out so thanks for your info.

 

[panfist]

Originally posted by: sandman
They will exchange the chip because of this issue I have also found out so thanks for your info.

I have read on other forums that there are temp issues with this chip maybe its not to be concerned with but that is why I have asked the question.

I said it's inaccurate at low temps, so you'll know if you're running hot or not. If it's stuck at 40C that means you're probably below 40C. You can install a thermal probe on the heat spreader if you really are that curious that your chip is running below 50C or below 40C. Installing a thermal probe is just going to reduce the effectiveness of the contact between your IHS and the heat sink. You're also welcome to check as many programs as you want: speedfan, everest, coretemp, realtemp, nvmonitor, whatever you want, but the error in the sensor will prevent any program from giving you an accurate reading if you are in the error range, unless you manually calibrate it with another sensor.

I'm not sure what you mean by the second part...are there e8400s out there that run hot? or by temp issues do you just mean the sensors getting stuck?