# Overclocking my e8500



## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

My system specs are listed with my picture. I've just tried overclocking my e8500 for the first time. I have an aftermarket CPU cooler (ocz gladiator max), and an antec 900 case (3 80mm fans and 1 120mm fan). I upped my CPU frequency from 333 to 350, and set my RAM timings 5-5-5-15.
I am currently running memtest in 2 windows (one for 1440mb, and the other for 722mb) and using realtemp my temperatures are staying around 59-61 degrees. I'm not sure if this means things are going well or not. Any input would be appreciated.


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## Phædrus241 (Mar 28, 2009)

Antec 900 actually has three 120mm and one 200mm.

I don't know how hard memtest pushes your CPU in comparison to, say, Prime95, but if those are your 90+% load temps they're not too bad. What are your idle temperatures? Those should be 25-30C, ideally.

Have you changed your voltage at all? If your temperatures start getting too high, or if the computer won't boot, try increasing your voltage to compensate. Since your processor is a 45nm you shouldn't go over 1.4V or so. Remember, a little bit of juice can make a big difference.

Right now you're at 3325MHz (Clock speed = FSB x Multiplier; 350 x 9.5 = 3325MHz), comparable to the E8600 at stock. You *should* be able to get your E8500 to at least 3800MHz. I'm not sure how good a cooler the OCZ Gladiator is though, does anyone have a comment on that?

In any case, keep increasing your FSB until either you can't boot or your idle temp goes over 30C, then increase your voltage by about 1/8 of a volt, and when you get to a comfortable level run Prime95 overnight, and if you don't pass knock your FSB back by a bit and try running it again until you pass a 24 hour run of it.


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

Oops sorry about the case fans mistake. Memtest has the system going at about 98-99% load right now so I'm guessing that's ok. Would it be better for me to use Prime95? I'm going to try raising the FSB some more and keep checking the idle temps. Thanks for the help and I'll keep updating.


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

My idle temp is about 40 degrees currently, I had the voltage set to auto the first time I raised the FSB, I have the CPU voltage currently set a 1.225V should I increase this?


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## grimx133 (Jan 15, 2008)

That's kind of high with 61C on load, with only a 5% OC on it. You don't want to get more than a couple of degrees past that. Probably need to redo the thermal paste, try and get both the idle and load temps down. Mine runs at 400 x 9.5 and it's on 24/7 without approaching those temps. 
The vcore can be left on auto, it's not till you get up near the limits that you'll need to add. Intel recommends no higher than 1.365 (IIRC) for this cpu.


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## grimx133 (Jan 15, 2008)

That's kind of high with 61C on load, with only a 5% OC on it. You don't want to get more than a couple of degrees past that. Probably need to redo the thermal paste, try and get both the idle and load temps down. Mine runs at 400 x 9.5 and it's on 24/7 without approaching those temps. 
The vcore can be left on auto, it's not till you get up near the limits that you'll need to add. Intel recommends no higher than 1.365 (IIRC) for this cpu.


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

Ok I put the vcore back to auto, my FSB is currently at 370, and I removed the old thermal grease and bought some arctic silver 5 and applied it. My idle temp still seems to be sitting at 40C and isn't changing (using realtemp).


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

So I lowered the FSB back to it's default of 333 and put the other settings back to default, I now have the AS5 on and re-mounted my CPU cooler. My idle temp sits at 40C and doesn't drop, but my max temp under full load with prime95 (for 2 hours) is 45C.

There must be something I'm missing in order to get my idle temp down.


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## Phædrus241 (Mar 28, 2009)

What's the temperature reading in BIOS? What's the ambient temperature? That little difference between idle and load temps is very peculiar...


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

I've put the FSB up to 380 currently, idle temp in windows is still 40C but since adding the AS5 and re-mounting the CPU cooler the load temp only gets to a max of 49C. I just checked in the BIOS on startup and the CPU temp is 29.5/30C. I'm not sure why there's a 10 degree difference between the BIOS readings and the readings in Core Temp and Real Temp.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Have you set the TJ max setting in real temp? you should have it set at 95 for both cores.

40 degrees isn't bad for an idle temp, my idle temp is 37 but you should be concerned with going over 60 degrees on full load 72 is you max before cpu death but you should be aiming for 60 or less.

I haven't heard of your cooler before so I cant comment but it might not be very good.

Never trust the bios thermal temp readings, core temp and real temp are better especially real temp if you have it set correctly.


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

I just changed the TJ max setting to 95 and my temperatures went down. They're at about 39/40C at full load (using prime95).


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Dilemmachine said:


> I just changed the TJ max setting to 95 and my temperatures went down. They're at about 39/40C at full load (using prime95).


39/40 on full load? thats really good.

Remeber you need to test prime95 for a long time not just an hour or so. Some people do it for 24 hours I do it for 7 and you should also do a few passes on memtest 86 to see if your ram is stable.


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

So I have my FSB set to 400 right now (probably the highest I'll have it) giving me a nice speed of 3.80. 
I've had prime95 running for 3 hours now (I plan on running it all night) and the max temp was 50C (recorded by realtemp) and the temp recorded by core temp is 48-53C.

I think I've solved my problem (although idle temps on core temp still seem to be about 40C). And I'll keep the tests running.


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## grimx133 (Jan 15, 2008)

It's the load you need to worry about. 53C. is excellent for 3800Mhz. About what mine runs at. You can go higher, but I like 400 for a bus speed, seems the best balance.


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

Alright well I'll let prime95 run overnight just to make sure things are stable. I guess it was the thermal compound I had on there, removing it and adding the AS5 seemed to do the trick. Thanks a lot for all your help guys!


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

As Grimx133 says 53c is exellent at that speed. I have my e8400 runing at 433x9 or 3.91GHz and I get 54-56 at full load. I recently dropped my vcore down to 1.2 and now get 54. Not all cpus etc require that you up the voltage.

I have heard of people hitting 4.25 with my cpu and not raising the vcore at all.


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

Things are running great and I'm happy with 3.8ghz atm. Now that I'm stable do I need to change my ram frequency? It's at 800mhz currently in a 1:1 ratio with the fsb.

The RAM is corsair xms2 pc2-6400 1066mhz (2x2gb)


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## grimx133 (Jan 15, 2008)

Better check to make sure. PC2-6400 is 800Mhz. ram. 1066 is PC2-8500.

If it's 1066 for sure, then put it up there. There's about a 10% performance increase from 800 to 1066. Depends on other factors and software, of course. I got 10% increase in crysis demo fps, and a roughly 20% increase in MB processed in the winrar benchmark.


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

My mistake, it is PC2-8500. So I can just go into the BIOS and manually set the RAM frequency to 1066mhz?


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## grimx133 (Jan 15, 2008)

Yep, in ai tweaker-> dram frequency. The default is auto, see what the other settings are, Asus usually does the math for you and you just have to select the final result, not set a divider to get that final result. Should be either right there, or it'll display another setting when it's on manual to change the frequency. And with the bus speed at 400, you can hit 1066 on the nose, instead of just getting close.


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## Dilemmachine (Apr 23, 2009)

Perfect, thanks a lot for all your help!


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