[SERIOUS ISSUE] Overclock Q8300 to 3.0Ghz using Arctic Cooler

FS

Senior member
Jul 7, 2007
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So I 'upgraded' to an Intel Q8300 (2.5GHz) from my Intel core 2 duo E8400. It feels slow in everyday tasks compared to my old processor. Since they are single threaded apps I was wondering if there was a way to assign different apps to different cores or maybe if I could simply overclock the Q8300 to 3.0GHz so it has the same single threaded clock frequency as the E8400. Please take a look at the attached image for more info about the setup and please suggest me whether I would be able to overclock it and how.

I am using Arctic cooling freezer and atm it idles ~40C and load ~56C. The cpu lowers the speed on its own like the E8400 to 2000MHz(2GHz) so it would help to know whether it would automatically lower speed after overclocking when it's not being fully utilized to save energy. It would be awesome to have it working at 3GHz when needed and at 2GHz when not being fully utilized just like E8400

System Info:

24lkkes.png







Check out my Sale thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2151948
 
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Apr 20, 2008
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The board doesn't look like (on paper) that it should OC well, but my EP45-DS3L looks like it has the same caps and heat sinks. I too have the Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7.

I was going to explain to you how to overclock using the standard GB BIOS, but your ram is too slow to OC with a 1333fsb CPU. In fact, it looks like your memory is having to downclock at stock to keep up with the CPU. You need at least PC-6400 ram to overclock the Q8300 to 400FSB (3ghz) stable.

Edit: By the way, that slowness is probably based on placebo. Everyday tasks and especially multitasking should be much faster. It's only because you know the clock speed is lower and are now blaming it when something else is being slow. Your drives are for sure the bottleneck in your system for everyday tasks. It has four physical/logical CPU's instead of four. That alone (even if two cores were L2 cache-less) makes a tremendous difference in usual tasks.
 
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Dadofamunky

Platinum Member
Jan 4, 2005
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He's right, the RAM is way too slow! Fortunately RAM is still pretty cheap (check Newegg).

Otherwise, I would bet you should have few issues using that Gigabyte board to OC that chip.
 

betasub

Platinum Member
Mar 22, 2006
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Being limited by the 7.5x upper multiplier on the Q8300 doesn't help overclocking. 6x is the power saving multiplier on both the Q8300 & E8400, but the 9x upper multiplier of the E8400 gives it the higher stock clock speed, plus easier overclocking.

Nevertheless, short of benchmarks, there should be very little noticeable difference in user experience for "everyday tasks".
 

FS

Senior member
Jul 7, 2007
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I appreciate all the replies. I just recently bought the Q8300, 4GB of PC-5300 DDR2 and XFX Radeon HD 5550(this cpu can handle hd videos on its own thus the card is on sale). So I can't simply just go and get new ram once again, especially since my mobo has only 2 slots. I guess I'll try the Trade section and see if someone is willing to ship their DDR2 6400 so I can send them my DDR2 5300 + shipping cost etc. hehe ... there must be someone, for some reason, willing to do that.

I am using Windows XP Pro SP3 x86. I don't know how well it can handle the job of assigning apps to different cores. Also, I understand that it could be placebo effect but then, when I look at the cpu usage it's just 1 core that's going to 70-80% and even hitting 100% resulting in random lags while the others are sitting still. Anyway, I am thinking about another upgrade which should actually give me some improvements as far as everyday tasks go. Yes, I am talking about using an SSD and using Windows 7 (64-bit) on it.

PS: just want to make sure that if I take the trade route and end up getting ddr2 6400, would I be able to overclock to 3GHz(nothing special) or would I be limited by the multiplier in q8300. Going through the link in 1st response, I see that 333.33Mhz speed of ram needs to go to 400MHz so when multiplied by 7.5 it's at 3000MHz but since the lower multiplier is 6.5, the lowest speed would be 2.6GHz and not 2.0GHz. Even if that turns out the be case, it's not really an issue but just want to make sure that ddr2 6400 makes it happen. So, please do tell me the probability of it happening. I didn't really understand anything about v-core and other fancy stuff from reading but simply changing the RAM sounds like an easy solution. In case it makes a difference, I am using Antec Earthwatts 500 PSU that came with my Antec Sonata III case.
 

cusideabelincoln

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2008
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I am using Windows XP Pro SP3 x86. I don't know how well it can handle the job of assigning apps to different cores. Also, I understand that it could be placebo effect but then, when I look at the cpu usage it's just 1 core that's going to 70-80% and even hitting 100% resulting in random lags while the others are sitting still. Anyway, I am thinking about another upgrade which should actually give me some improvements as far as everyday tasks go. Yes, I am talking about using an SSD and using Windows 7 (64-bit) on it.

So you have multiple programs open but they only use one core? That would be your problem.
 

tweakboy

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2010
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You should get that to 3.2Ghz without touching the voltage or any of the voltages.

Just ram divider it 1:1 if possible,, if not nothing over your RAMs speed downclock if you have to.

You can OC 2 ways,, multiplier or FSB

Yo should have no problem getting that to 3.2Ghz no special tweak or voltage tweak needed. Just make sure you run the RAM at proper speed. gl
 
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FS

Senior member
Jul 7, 2007
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^ Could you expand a bit more on what you said. Honestly, it just went over my head; so I would appreciate if you could be a bit more clear with the explanation. You did not say anything about RAM like almost everybody else so do you agree with them or did you mean to say that I should be able to easily hit 3.0GHz(you said 3.2 but 3.0 is enough for me ... lol, don't want to get greedy) with the current RAM and board ?


So you have multiple programs open but they only use one core? That would be your problem.

Yea, I noticed that trend so I did some reading and it seems like XP likes to utilize 1 core fully before loading other cores. In other words, it's not very efficient at load balancing unless your app is multi-threaded like some of the video encoding apps. Windows Vista fixed that a bit and now Windows 7 is even better at spreading load of single threaded apps over multiple cores. So, it seems like I'll have to upgrade to win 7 pretty soon
 
May 13, 2009
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It's been so long since I overclocked 775 so excuse me if I'm rusty, but just like tweakboy said put ram divider at 1:1. You could probably overclock your memory some. Try a 375 fsb speed and loosen ram timings if you have to. That should get you 2.8ghz on the CPU and the memory would be running 750mhz. A nice little free speed bump. The low multi (7.5) and the low speed ram really limit the overclocking ability.
 
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FS

Senior member
Jul 7, 2007
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Just tried overclocking using the Gigabyte tuner utility, raising the FSB to 350 is the best it could do, 375 resulted in a freeze state. Restarted the pc and then tried it through the BIOS, ~355 was aok but anything higher and the system freezes while getting closer to the login screen.

So it seems like PC-6400 is the only way to go. Thanks for all the help, definitely gave me some courage to play around with the speeds.
 
May 13, 2009
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Yeah it probably is the ram. That q8300 is a 45nm chip and should overclock really well. I bet you could loosen ram timings and give the ram a little voltage bump and get the 375fsb.
 
Apr 20, 2008
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The CPU itself should overclock very well. A few members have taken Q8200's to 3.5-3.7ghz while being at 1.4V or less. It's the motherboard and ram that will be the limiting factor before the CPU. What chipset is your motherboard based on? P45, P43, P35, G31?
 

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
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The CPU itself should overclock very well. A few members have taken Q8200's to 3.5-3.7ghz while being at 1.4V or less. It's the motherboard and ram that will be the limiting factor before the CPU. What chipset is your motherboard based on? P45, P43, P35, G31?
its says GA-73PVM-S2H (GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i Chipset) in his screenshots.
 
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FS

Senior member
Jul 7, 2007
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I didn't see any setting to loosen the timings in the BIOS. Also, I don't really want to take any risk by changing voltage and timings etc. I would rather stick with the easier methods. So far getting DDR2-6400 ram appears to be the best option.

btw, before I got hunting for ddr2 deals, I would like to ask whether my mobo would be able to support 3.0GHz overclock as someone just brought up mobo in the discussion. CPU shouldn't have any problem even if choose to go upto 3.2, Heatsink should be able to handle it and the Antec EW 500 PSU shouldn't have a problem as well and we have already figured out that RAM ought to be upgraded to 6400 so that leaves the mobo. Do you guys think it'll handle it ? It has integrated graphics, would that cause any problems ?
 

FS

Senior member
Jul 7, 2007
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I assume you're talking about the options: Auto, 1:1, 5:4, 3:2 and I can't recall the last one ... something "sync". If this is what you mean by divider, then yes, I am able to change it. In fact, I tried 5:4 but got scared when it showed that the RAM is running at ~920MHz and insane RAM speed at 3:2 as well, so I ended up sticking with 1:1 and now I am back to Auto.
 

FS

Senior member
Jul 7, 2007
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^ Could you expand a bit more on it as to why I should take the multiplier route instead of the fsb. What are the advantages/disadvantages of both?

btw, I have already ordered ddr2-6400 from a fellow member here and should be here in 2/3 days.
 

betasub

Platinum Member
Mar 22, 2006
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^ If you had the option of using higher multipliers, an overclock could be achieved with a lower FSB, and work with lower-rated memory. (e.g. a overclock to 3.0GHz with a 7.5x multiplier works with FSB400 & DDR2-6400, whereas with a 9x multiplier only FSB333 & DDR2-5300 are needed).

But your Q8300 doesn't have access to 9x; Intel has locked the highest multiplier for the Q8300 at 7.5x.
 

FS

Senior member
Jul 7, 2007
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IMPORTANT UPDATE:

ok, so I just got the ddr2-6400 sticks and booted up the system and they were working fine. Then I tried Gigabyte Easy tune 6 and increased the fsb to 400 and that froze(?) the pc. The fb:ram in cpu was 5:6 or something along those lines. I restarted the pc, went to the bios and set it to 1:1 and then increased the RAM frequency from 333mhz to 400mhz and now my pc is not even booting up. It stays at the Award Bios screen and does not even get to the HDD, dvd drive detection etc. I see the options to get to the Bios but when I press DEL nothing happens :( I removed the battery from the mobo and put it back but to no avail, still stuck at the same screen.

More info about the stuck screen below, in case it matters. Please help me get back to the normal stage. No more overclocking experiments from now on ... it's not fun :(

GA-73PVM-S2H F9e

Main Processor: Intel (R) Core (TM) 2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 3.00GHz (400x7.5)
<CPUID:0001067A Patch ID: 0A07>



<black screen>




<Del>:BIOS and so on ...
 

FS

Senior member
Jul 7, 2007
321
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Reset the bios and now it is back to the stock speed but I still can't boot up windows. It gets to the "starting windows" screen/stage and then BSOD and it restarts and the cycle continues. I tried fixing the problem using the repair utility but to no avail. Disconnected parts to try with the bare minimum and then connect everything back one by one but it still happens. Tried booting up with only 1 memory stick(w/ ddr2 5300 and 6400) but still no luck. It's really pissing me off. I would really appreciate some solution(s).
 

heat901

Senior member
Dec 17, 2009
750
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IMPORTANT UPDATE:

ok, so I just got the ddr2-6400 sticks and booted up the system and they were working fine. Then I tried Gigabyte Easy tune 6 and increased the fsb to 400 and that froze(?) the pc. The fb:ram in cpu was 5:6 or something along those lines. I restarted the pc, went to the bios and set it to 1:1 and then increased the RAM frequency from 333mhz to 400mhz and now my pc is not even booting up. It stays at the Award Bios screen and does not even get to the HDD, dvd drive detection etc. I see the options to get to the Bios but when I press DEL nothing happens :( I removed the battery from the mobo and put it back but to no avail, still stuck at the same screen.

More info about the stuck screen below, in case it matters. Please help me get back to the normal stage. No more overclocking experiments from now on ... it's not fun :(

GA-73PVM-S2H F9e

Main Processor: Intel (R) Core (TM) 2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 3.00GHz (400x7.5)
<CPUID:0001067A Patch ID: 0A07>



<black screen>




<Del>:BIOS and so on ...

Easy tune is a pos... do not use it.

I have a GA-965P-DQ6 and I remember a while back I was messing around with my OC getting it to 3.2. Got it there fine then I went back into bios and messed around with other settings and didn't remember what i changed. A week later I noticed "man my games are running like shit". I didn't think with the the last things I changed in my bios settings would have affected the OC because I didnt change anything in the bios related to dividers and such. After some searching, long and hard I found out with Legacy USB devices enables for some strange reason it would actually lower my clock lower than its normal clock and not even consider the OC.(Maybe a gigabyte thing?) Just for shits... check if you have it enabled... if you do disable it and check your overclock setting then give it a whirl.