Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Just because your mobo handles N freqency, doesn't mean it will handle that freqency at a different FSB.
In my case, my mobo + CPU will handle 8x400, no problem. Stable for 24hours. But if I choose 7x400, I get freezes. But 8x350 is also fine. Very strange to me.
Seconded. A e2160 on MSI P35 Neo2F/R I had for the longest would go from 1.8 to 3.0 (9x333) rock solid all day, and did that from day 1 until I replaced it with a q9550.
drop down to to 8x375 to get a better mem/fsb overclock, no post. this was with my first memory which was 2x1gb, even before I went 4x1gb.
the same mainboard is now overclocking a q9550 (8.5x441) with 4x2gb new memory. much more capable, but still rock solid than its predecessor.
To get that FSB pushing four sticks, I had to give the MCH 1.5v. Its uncharacteristic of me to push voltage to anything, especially to the NB, past an arbitrary 10%. I'm feeding it a 20% overvolt in this case, from 1.25 to 1.50. I'm sure I can only get away with this because of my cooling.
I think that the bootstrap theory is sort of correct, perhaps it has to do with the TRC memory timings, as the FSB scales, I believe this timing positively correlates with it.
I tested a e8400 on my abit ip35-e on a testbench me and a friend set up. even though the e8400 was a C0, we got it to 4.0ghz no problem. used very basic 2x1gb pc800 1.8v that looking back, seemed like diamonds in the rough, with a very sketchy power supply as well. I used the following rough, calculated, untweaked settings, and got a stable orthos run for over two days at 9x445.
mch:1.35
vtt:1.37
vcore:1.375
vdimm:1.9
I also tested the ip35-e with my e6420 after the e8400@4.0 run. got a max again, rough and stable oc of 3.4 with 2x1gb. when i throw my 4x1gb in there, it seems like 3.0 is the max i can get stable once more. im sure that the stress from running four sticks is holding the oc back.
keep in mind the e8400 is a 1333mhz fsb processor from the box, like my q9550 - and that the e2160 is a 800mhz chip like yours. I also have a 1066mhz chip (e6420), it tops out near the same wall as the e2160, I believe this was because they were early conroes, which are 65nm. The steppings are e2160/L2, e6420/B2, q9550/E0 (45nm).