# E5400 stable overclock possiblity



## abdulrehmansule (Jun 15, 2010)

Guys I have bought a new GTS 450 and my processor(e5400) seems to be bottlenecking it. So I thought I would overclock it. My system specs are as follows
ASUS P5QPL-AM mobo
E5400 @ 2.7 ghz
EVGA GTS 450 FPB @ 822 mhz
Silverstone 500 watt powersupply (80 plus certified)
Kingston DDR2 2 gb ram(max bandwidth pc2-6400)
one Sata 1 hard disk
one combo drive

I bought two 80 mm fans in addition to the company heat sink of the processor to aid in overclocking. One on top of the processor and one mounted in the back. Both eject air. My cpu is 32-34 at idle and 45-50 degrees at full load of cpu intensive games. 

What I would like to know is what is the _limit of the safe overclock_ I can get from this processor and what would _safely_ run GTA 4 or pcsx2 nicely? Is my cooling enough? What about the power supply?

EDIT: Sorry for the double thread. Can't seem to delete the other one:4-dontkno


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

We cant tell you what a safe limit is because every cpu is different even the same type and speeds can yield different result.

I have another suggestion which could be a reason your system is bottlenecking. Your silverstone power supply is not a very good make, it is also underpowering your system.

These days you should have a minimum 550w psu for any pcie graphics card and if you do plan to overclock with that psu you will certainly cause some damage. You should be running a good quality psu and you should be running a corsair 650TX especially if you plan to overclock.

Your other post has been deleted.


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## abdulrehmansule (Jun 15, 2010)

Why exactly would I need such high power supply? The PCI-e card consumes only 106 watt at full load. That plus the system. I don't think it can exceed even 250 watt! An overclocked system may be could reach upto 300 watt. Is there some other way to tell how much wattage is needed? I mean even on Crysis 2500x1600 resolution, the maximum possible power that my card can draw is 106 watts. How can a 500 watt psu with 80+ efficiency not provide the required power? Shouldn't it have a 100 or so watts more to spare even after powering the system to the full?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gts-450-gf106-radeon-hd-5750,2734-13.html


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

I used to test power supplies for a living and can tell you that there are PSU manufacturers out there who lie and say their cards are such and such a wattage when they are not. Secondly Wattage isn't your main concern its amperage and your psu will not have the amperage required to run that card properly for a long time. This is why 550w PSUs are recommended because they should (apart from rosewills and other dodgy makes) have the rquired amperage.

You need to remember that you have other components that are in your system that require power too. Now if you use a psu wattage calculator to get what you really need you need to add 100w to what it says and usally also about 30%.

A psu does not use all of its power all the time only when required. It is better to have room to breath than to push it.

Silverstone make good cases they do not make good power supplies.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Very good advice from greenbrucelee.


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## MonsterMiata (Jan 5, 2010)

I also second this recommendation. Also take note that you only have 2GB worth of budget ram. If you operate in a 64bit environment 4GB worth of something faster might also be beneficial.You need to keep in mind that everything works together. The cheap psu, cheap ram, and slower CPU would be whats bottle necking. I doubt an OC of any degree with that processor will do much sense the system itself isnt up to par.


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## abdulrehmansule (Jun 15, 2010)

Guys all I can say is that I can't spend any more bucks on computer. So is there any solution to my problems with the present system? What if I unplug the combo drive and one of the fans? Will that provide stable power to the system? What if I downclock the gpu a bit? Actually I did lots of research before going for the psu. I was told that even a corsair 400 watt would be enough for it. The maximum anyone told me was 450 watt. I still got a little further for a 500 watt. 

I don't think the system ram has that much of an effect in gaming. The benchmarks show that clearly. Also I don't plan high gaming with this pc. Just casual gaming upto 1152x864 or 1280x1024 resolutions(at these resolutions I don't think the gpu even consumes half of its max power). I don't think i'll get much of bottleneck at these resolutions. It's just the cpu dependent games that show bottleneck. I am playing Crysis at 1152x864 very high and 4x AA. I feel no bottleneck. I'm not much experienced in these things. I would appreciate it if anyone can correct me if I am wrong somewhere....


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

who told you this.

A pcie motherboard with drives, with ram and with everything else even with a low quality graphics card should be running on a minimum of 550w. A psu doesn't use all its power if its not needed. But if you get voltage spikes or the power goes out or you stress the system then there will be head room for the psu to carry on. This is usually why the low quality low wattage PSUs in dells and emachines go bad,

Think of it like this you have a car that holds 30 gallons and can do 200 miles with one tank but someone tells you you only need 10 gallons to go 100 miles hwo crap are you gonna fell if you only get 50 miles and run out of petrol.

A psu isn't there just run your system at its bare minimum, life span and taking all the stresses and strains associated with converting ac electricity into dc electricity (which is what a psu does)is very hard upon a little box thats in your system this why a good make of psu is required and also a decent wattage. But more important is the amperage and you need atleast 48a and the corsair I recommended will give you 52 and if you plan to overclock you will need it.


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## abdulrehmansule (Jun 15, 2010)

Ok, greenbrucelee I guess you are right. I'll try to buy the corsair within a few months. But can you suggest anything for me to run the system stable uptill then?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

dont overclock alot until you get the better psu.


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