bizoot

my current system:
processor
intel core 2 duo e6750 2.66 right now OC'd to 3400MHZ (425X8)
MOBO
GIGABYTE GA-P35C-DS3
RAM
CORSAIR 2X1GB 1066MHZ
CORSAIR 2X1GB 800MHZ
(TOTAL 4 GB)
CPU FAN
******** VENDETTA 2
my question is...
If I buy an E8400 processor, which stable speeds should I be able to reach with it?
And what will limit me? My mobo? Ram? I know for sure my slow ram (800MHZ) will limit me, but if I remove it, will my mobo still limit me? (Remember, right now I'm at 425X8).
THANKS!!!

greenbrucelee

all cpus are different, I got my e8400 to 4GHz without issue but you may not be as lucky as me.

what is your psu? and what wattage? the psu is very important when it comes to overclocking and if you have an inferior brand then you could be asking for trouble.

Your ram isn't that slow, you may get to 3.6 with it but its all about experimenting

bizoot

my 2.66 is now at 3400.
I'm not planning on buying a new cpu just for an extra 200 mhz...
my psu is corsair tx750w
thanks

greenbrucelee

you would get better results if all your ram was the same speed. Having two different speeds of ram in your pc can cause big problems.

bizoot

suppose I remove the 800MHZ ram and replace it with 2 more gigs of 1066MHZ?
What then?

greenbrucelee

you should have all four slots filled this can have bad results, if you want 4GB then you would better off with 2 2GB in slots one and three.

You mentioned that you redid the paste and heatsink you shouldn't overclock until the paste beds in and if you used artic silver 5 it takes 200 hours to do it so you might see a drop in temperature of a couple of degrees after it has bedded in.

Then you need to start raising the FSB in small steps and each time you do see if it boots into windows. Overclocking can be a very lengthy process if done properly.

Read this to get some ideas if you are new to overclocking / read here for starters

The post back when you need help.

bizoot

I used the paste I got with the cooler (ocz vendetta 2). what happens if I don't wait 200 hours?
and should I really replace all my ram just because it's gonna be in 4 sticks?

wrench97

4 sticks can sometimes cause stability issues, try it with the 4 you have and see what happens Overclocking results are different on all motherboards/cpu's with all the ram slots filled you sometimes need to raise the NBridge voltage which can raise temps and cause instability, other times not, you need to test it.

greenbrucelee

The paste needs time to bed in properly to achieve maximum conductivity between the cooler and cpu. Some people overclock straight away but doing this you risk not getting a drop in temps.

For example:I rapplied my paste last week (Wednesday) and I am seeing idle temps of 37 degrees c once the paste has bedded in I should hopefully see a drop in that idle temp it can be between 2 and 5 degrees then I will reapply my overclocking settings and hopefully be able to get more out of it

bizoot

So I OC'd my E8400
450X9, 1.3500 VCore.

I ran OCCT but after 5 minutes it crashed because it reached the max cpu temp (which I changed from a default of 80 celcius - to 72).
I changed it to 72 because I saw on the intel website that the thermal specification is 72.4 celcius for this cpu.

Is this really the highest temp recommended? Or could I set the max temp a bit higher??
Thanks!

greenbrucelee

72.2 is the highest for that cpu but you should be aiming not to go above 60

I overclocked my cpy to 3.5 tonight before I go back to 4GHz at the weekend and my max temp was 45, lower your voltage.

greenbrucelee

what are you using to monitor your temps?

you should be using real temp as this is the best for 45nm core 2 duo CPUs, download it if you don't have it and set the thermal junction setting called TJ max to 95 for both cores this will give you proper temp readings.

bizoot

I'm using the occt itself and HWMonitor.
What does "TJ max to 95" mean?
is this the max temp I want to reach???

bizoot

now I watched a streaming movie from a website on fullscreen and after about 40 minutes the picture froze and I had to shut down.
I changed the OC settings to 445X9, 1.325 VCore.
right after boot, I started HWMonitor, and a few seconds later I saw the max temp of core#0 spiked up to 64 celcius (core#1 max temp is still at 58 degrees only)!
Is this ok? I don't understand, even after lowering the vcore why does this happen?

greenbrucelee

HW monitor wont report the correct temps it will probably be 5 degrees c higher than what it actually is. I have HW and it reports mine as 42 degrees c idle when infact its 37

You need to download real temp and set the TJ max to 95 for both cores.

TJ max is the thermal junction setting which in laymans terms means what the maximum thermal resistance of the cpu is.

If you have real temp functioning whilst you have Prime95 stress testing your cpu you will see the TJ max going up and down on both cores what you do not want is both cores saying zero or both cores saying 95 because this were the thermal resistance is non exsistant meaning the cpu will die or overheat.

greenbrucelee

you need to get those temps down but that being said if your using hardware monitor it will be wrong so by my calculations if you download real temp you should see 59 and 53 which is acceptable although I would prefer core 1 to be lower than that. Don't worry that both cores are different temps remember core 1 is ontop of core 2 so obviously core 1 will get hotter than core 2.

I think you should be aiming for 443 x 9 with a vcore of 1.218 thats how I had my 4GHz setup

bizoot

OK I've been running prime95 for about 2 hours and using real temp v3.0 to monitor temps.
I see the max temp reached by both cores is 66 degrees.
distance to TJ max is about 31 in core#1 and 33 in core#2...

greenbrucelee

have you changed the TJ max to 95 for both cores in the settings?

bizoot

yes sir :)

bizoot

is that ok?
so what are the final conclusions?