E8400 questions

[Bman123]

Hello all I have a E8400 that I started to mess around with lately.
I use the rig for gaming(lost planet,cod waw,bioshock)

I now have the rig at 3.6ghz. 9x400 fsb,the core voltage is @ 1.280v right now.

I want to go farther on my OC but I dont know what voltage is safe for the E8400,My idle temps are 33cm, load under 60c. I set the mobo warning to go off when the cpu hits 60c so I can keep track of my temps.
Real temp always shows a temp of 58c since my temp sensor must be stuck.This is why I have the mobo set the warning for 60c so I dont get too hot and not know it.

It is my rig in sig that I am doing this on.
I have no clue either at what point does the overclock start to breakdown the cpu.I have heard that overclocking slowly kills the cpu,I dont know the truth about it so I am asking you guys for help.

Thanks for looking,hopefully you can share some knowledge with me so I can get this thing to or past 4ghz

 

[Bman123]

I have to have a stuck temp sensor becuase this makes no sense at all

Cpu id hardware monitor shows core 1 and core 2 at 63c
Core temp shows 58c
SPeed fan shows 63c

But my mobo warning never goes off and it is set at 60c
I dont know if there is anything I can do about this or should I not worry about it.

I have a AC freezer 7 pro for my cpu HSF.
I just dont want to go for 4ghz and have problems.That do you guys think.
@ 3.6ghz vcore is 1.28 volts,should I go for a higher clock speed on my cpu or no?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

with all my bios settings on auto and it running at default speeds the vcore reads 0.920v if i change the fsb without manually setting the vcore it goes up to around 1.2xx @ 3.6Ghz, try manually setting the vcore down to something like 1.1250v, i'm stable around there and even at lower volts... and around 70*F ambients at idle i see 22*-21*C

 

[FalseChristian]

Well, I've got my E8400 (C0 stepping) at 4GHz using 1.5v and my idle temps are 29C and load is 51C. You've got room to increase your overclock. Go for 4GHz.

 

[eternalone]

I used to own an E8400 with a stuck sensor alot of people do, most people always told me to just worry about the TCase temperature on those chips. Then again others will say pay attention to the core temps.

 

[Bman123]

After doing some reading over at toms I am gonna leave this alone.
Saying 1.36 is the safe voltage for this cpu.
I already have stuck cpu sensors so going higher in voltage is just gonna be me being even more paranoid about my temps.

I was showing 33 idle in the bios so I am wondering what my actual load temps are with the arctic cooler freezer 7 pro cooler.

 

[yh125d]

If you get a better cooler you can push for 1.425vcore or higher in bios and be safe. that should get you in the 3.8-4gHz range. But I'd get the better cooler first

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

pushing voltages only ruins a cpu, i had a FX60 and pushed it; got 3.0Ghz 24/7, a half of year later, i lost stability at the same settings

EDIT: stay within manufacturers specs

 

[Bman123]

I am at 1.28 for 3.6ghz right now.I dont think going any higher in my clock speeds will result in a big performance increase.
Most people are saying that 3.6ghz is the sweet spot.

 

[darkenedsoul]

I'm running about the same but dropped my FSB down to get to 3.4Ghz. It's been ok but now I ran into some memory management BSOD's this past week which I'm trying to troubleshoot. I think it's one of the Crucial Ballistix that's flaky. I dropped memory voltage down to 1.9 (was 2.0, bumped to 2.1 then backed off to 1.9). Slot 0 dimm passed 93 passed zero errors, I put slot 2 dimm into slot 0 to see if it'd fail faster and am running it through tomorrow morning or perhaps all day tomorrow as well while at work and see if it errors out. If it doesn't I don't know what to do at that point. I played GW a few times + left system up with original slot 0 dimm in place for >24 hrs with no problems. The BSOD happened while nothing was being done on system, just browser (firefox 3.x) and outlook email client, nothing else going on that I know of. Scanned with ad-aware and spybot and fixed any issues. Waiting to see if the shoe drops again....lol.

But getting back to point, I read about the 1.38x maximum on the E8400's. I never went that high, I was maybe 1.30x or 1.31x but dropped it down when I backed off 3.6Ghz to 3.4Ghz.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

You can follow my rules, someone else's, or make up your own.

I think I've discovered more than one limitation on over-clocking a Wolfdale. You'll either be limited by the CPU or the chipset and motherboard.

These E8x00 processors have a "retail-box" maximum voltage limit of about 1.25V. I have no doubt that others -- posting here before me -- have stable configurations with the CPU voltage set as high as 1.5V.

However, just as most people believe that smoking will shorten your life, it's clear beyond just "belief" that pushing the voltage too high on these processors will cause electromigration over a period of time -- eating away at the CPU like Stephen King's Langoliers.

So I settle on a self-imposed voltage limit that doesn't exceed the retail-box warranty by more than 5%. I currently have an E8600 system volted at 1.30V ("set") and running at 4.1 Ghz. The "monitored" idle voltage value shows up in both BIOS and VISTA as 1.28V under idle, and 1.26V at load.

I would think that the E8400 should be capable of something near 4.0 Ghz volted the same way, and I'm guessing that 3.8 Ghz is a certainty.

There is an additional danger for the Wolfdales for pushing the CPU_FSB voltage past 1.40V -- you'll find the low-down on that issue in a fall '07 Anandtech article on overclocking the Penryns in general and the QX9650 in specific.

 

[poohbear]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
pushing voltages only ruins a cpu, i had a FX60 and pushed it; got 3.0Ghz 24/7, a half of year later, i lost stability at the same settings

EDIT: stay within manufacturers specs

really? i've had my opty 165 running for over 2 years @ my overclock w/ no ill side effects. (knock on wood)

if u see anandtechs article on the x8xxx series, they say they're uncomfy going beyond 1.45 for a 45nm cpu. that's their .2 cents.