# e8400 and P5n32-e SLI OC



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

I've got the following system and i'm having some problems OCing it. I'm pretty new to overclocking so any help would be great. I started overclocking it and got it up to running stable at 3.65 Ghz (1630 x9) but then i started trying to OC the videocards and it started messing up. so i removed the OC on the cards and it still would freeze during prime95 after like 5 minutes. so i bumped the OC down on the CPU to 3.3 and it wouldn't even post. so i reset the defaults and came here looking for help on what some good numbers would be for OC and the voltages. 

e8400 Wolfdale 3.0 Ghz 45 nm w/ stock cooler
Asus p5n32-e sli plus
2 gb (1x2) Corsair pc6400
8600 GT sli to 8600 GT (both OCed at factory)
180 gb 7200 rpm HDD
700 watt Antec Tru-Power trio
Antec 900 Case (5x120mm, 1x200mm)

temps were reaching 68C in everest under load at 3.65 Ghz.


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

i got it back up to 3.6 Ghz (1600 x9) at 1.25V core and 2.15V memory. i'm running prime95 now and its been good for about 45 minutes now. temps on the CPU are hitting 72C though according to Everest. Is that too high? do i need to install a aftermarket cooler?


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

if you want to go any higher than 3.6ghz you will need an aftermarket cooler like the Zalman 9700

your CPU Host Frequency (cpu clock) should be at 400 x multiplier of 9 = 3600


you ram SPD (ram divider) should be set at "2"

your ram voltage is fine

you should not need to increase your cpu voltage to run at 3.6 ghz


give us a screeshot from all tabs within cpu-z

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php


how many case fans do you have / where is each located in the box / which direction does each one move air ???? and what size is each fan ?

looks like your cooling needs to be improved

use this program to monitor cpu temps

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

yes 72C is too high for stress testing even


stress tests should not exceed 60C

run this one for dual cores

http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

ok i'm gonna install a scythe ninja cooler with a 120 cfm fan on it tomorrow morning. i've currently got two 120 mm fans blowing lots of air in the front center, a 120 blowing out the top of the back, a 120 in the top blowing across the cpu/top of the mobo area and a 200 mm venting out the top. standard Antec 900 setup. i'm currently sitting at fsb of 1600 so cpu at 400 x9 = 1600. RAM is at 440 @ 2.15 volts. 

i have no idea what the ram spd is. can you explain more?

i'll post pictures in a second


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

download cpu-z then give us a screen shot of each tab from with cpu-z

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php



system memory multiplier also listed as SPD in some bios >>>> this should be set at "2" which will give you a 1:1 ratio of ram to cpu


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

here is a screen shot from a P5NT-Deluxe >>>> yours should be similar


first step is you need to change that memory setting to "manual" then set it to 1:1


in the future if when you add your cpu cooler, if you overclock any higher I would advise you "unlink" the cpu / memory this will overclock only your cpu not your memory in unison, because DDR2-800 memory will get alittle flaky after 860mhz some say DDR2-800 will go all the way to 900mhz, but I havent seen that myself yet; without some burned up sticks within a couple of weeks anyway


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

and it also has a 120 blowing in from the side panel onto the GPUs. forgot bout that one sorry.


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

Image #1 - Everest
Image #2 - core temperatures on idle
Image #3 - core temperatures on load after 15 minutes


you can see how everest and coreTemp are giving different temperatures and Everest and CPUZ report different voltages too... idk what to believe


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

as to your comment on linking it, when i tried to run it linked, as soon as i got to 375 fsb, the ram was put up to 870. that seemed high to me, so i changed back to unlinked and left ram at 440.

on an unrelated note since apparently you don't want to change multiplier, i can't seem to change mine. whenever i change it from 9, it just changes back as soon as i save the changes...
i don't want to change the multiplier cause i've read on forums that the p5n32-e runs better at multiplier 9 and medium fsb rather than low mult and high fsb


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

yeah you need a better cooler / you should not get beyond 60C when running orthos at only 3.6 volt at least I dont with my E8400 :wink:

70C is way too hot ..... especially at stock voltage

the unlinking of the cpu and memory is a good thing leave it like that

dont worry about the multiplier, you cant set it higher than 9x and I am not a big believer in the lowering of the cpu multiplier and pushing the memory harder

I am not sure how much you are prepared to pay for the ninja >>>> but I think this one is still the king

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109140



or this one was damn close too


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...g=-1&PurchaseMark=&VideoOnlyMark=False&Page=2



one of these two is what I would get !!


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

ok after installing a scythe ninja cpu cooler that i got its running around 61-62 C (by Core Temp) and 53-55 C (by Everest) under Orthos load after 2 hours. so that's better. Is there anything else i can do to eek more performance out of it? Can i push the overclock anymore? For some reason, if i try to go over 410 FSB, the system becomes unstable. I've heard of plenty of systems going up to 500 FSB. Know any reasons why this would be happening?


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

so i ran orthos again today. now after 30 minutes, temperatures were soaring up to 75-77C before i shut the program down. i know that's not good. Do you know why such a dramatic change occured overnight when nothing happened to the pc? i'm confused... is orthos an unrealistic test on the machine a.k.a can i leave it at 400 FSB and not have to worry about it being stressed that hard while playing games and such or should i reduce the OC?


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

you should have no trouble whatsoever leaving it at 3.6ghz (400 x 9)


did you apply the thermal grease nice and lightly ????

the purpose of the thermal grease is only to fill microscopic voids i the surface of the cpu lid 

if you can see any of the grease oozing out the side of the cpu / then its installed too heavy which will make it overheat

too much is just as bad as not enough!

did you remove all old thermal grease from the cpu before you installed the new heat sink >>>>> if you lift the heatsink even for just a brief look once the cpu and heatsink touch, they you have to remove all grease completely and start over due to air bubbles trapped in the thermal grease

and dont use those worthless thermal pads >>>>>


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

what is the room temperature where your computer is running ?


first thing we have to go is get your rig to run cool at 3.6ghz it should run not more 35C at idle and 60C under orthos


to go higher than 3.6 you need to raise your cpu voltage but I would not do that until the temps are correct at 3.6


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

oh. well i'm gonna need to remove the heatsink and reapply the thermal compound then. lol i was planning on doing that anyway...but now i have proof i need to! i'll do that tonight and post some more benchmarks tonight


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

well i yanked the heatsink, cleaned it and reapplied the thermal compound. i'm running orthos now and it doesn't look good. temps were averaging 63C for the first 30 minutes, then sat average at 67C with jumping up to 73 occasionally. it would rise in temp for a minute, then drop back down, then rise up again over and over. 

it looks like i'm just gonna have to drop the OC down to 350 or something unless you know of some way to reduce the temperatures or someting i'm doing wrong. maybe the scythe ninja just isnt a good cooler... i've got plenty of fans in there. the air coming out of the case isn't even warm. theres tons of airflow... i don't understand whats going on


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

and core temp never ever dropped below 40C, even on idle. so... idk about that either. maybe i'm doing the thermal compound and stuff wrong.


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

I would suggest trying one of the two high performance "120" coolers I linked above

I am skeptical the ninja is anything more than average


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

i don't know if you'll be able to help with this, but i'm having a completely unrelated problem. 
I had the desktop (on my laptop now) connected to the internet and just idle. I then left my room and my roomates decided to jack my internet to play xbox live. so they pulled my cable from the wall and plugged in the xbox. when i came back to my room an hour later, my computer was turned off and didn't post the first time i turned it on. so i kinda freaked, got it into bios and removed all the OC. I rebooted and got into XP (which is for some reason taking like 5x times longer all of a sudden...it just sits at the startup screen for about 5 minutes) and now i can't connect to the internet at all. i just get Limited or No Connectivity. I've tried ipconfig /release and /renew and it just says my DNCH or whatever it is isn't working properly. i've also tried the trick of renewing the Winsock regkey, and the install a new inf protocol (which didn't work right i don't think) and still nothing... its kinda annoying having no internet


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

and on another unrelated note, i'm trying to hook up a second hard drive to my mobo. its an older IDE hard drive (2003-2004 i think) and i'm using my IDE port for my DVD-RW drive. I have an IDE to SATA converter that plugs into the IDE port on the HDD and then you plug power into it too and a SATA cable to the SATA port on the mobo. The light on the converter comes on but i can't see the drive in Windows. I have the jumper on Cable Select. Any ideas on how to get it to work? Any help on any of these problems would be most welcome!


----------



## veaviticus (Jan 28, 2008)

update! i removed the SATA cable connecting the second hard drive to the mobo and now the system boots up in seconds. So the problem with the bad boots and hangings came from that connection. now to get it to work properly...and to get a stable OC if possible


----------



## freezingfire (May 15, 2008)

I have exactly the same motherboard and cpu as yours, and i do have the same problem.
With the stock hsf, the temp is always above 55 C, after I bought a new Hsf( OCZ Vendetta 2) and new themal compound, the temp dropped to 42 C on idle, I have done anything to make this cpu OC better with this mobo, but the highest stable frequency so far is only 3.6g, i guess the cpu just doesnt like this mobo... sad


----------



## powderdonkey (Jul 27, 2008)

m8 if you've still got this problem, realtemp is the only temperature monitoring software that works for 45nm CPUs. coretemp is generally 10C too high XD

don't go over 1.41Vcore and you'll be fine


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

nvidia chipsets dont overclock nearly as well as their intel competitors! I hope it was the "SLI" you were chasing at purchase time and not the overclocking potential

hell; the intel P35 will allow you to overclock the E8400 with no changes whatsoever other than just bumping the FSB to the value of "400" and you have instant 3.6 ghz ......... from there on...... its tweaking your way to 4.0ghz


----------

