Gigabyte i650 + E4400 OC Help

I'm having some major headaches trying to OC my new rig (see signature). I'm new to Intel, have had all AMD machines before this. It seems I can't get my FSB to go beyond 220MHz, and even getting to 220 took some doing. I've tried disabling all the extra CPU features in the BIOS, as well as increasing Vcore to 1.4v, FSB +.10v, and FSB-HT + .10v, and 220MHz is all I can muster. Increasing the voltages helped a bit, but I wouldn't think they would need to be increased at all considering that this board can natively support a 333MHz FSB. I don't think the overall clockspeed is getting in the way either because I've dropped the multi down from 10x to 7x, bringing my clockspeed to 1540, way below the rated clockspeed. I've also tried just jumping to the next strap speeds of 266MHz but that went over like a lead ballon. I'm sure the fact that I'm saddled with the 800MHz strap isn't helping things at all, but even so, that doesn't seem to stop anyone else from reaching 3GHz on their E4400 or E4300 models. Different RAM dividers don't help much, I've tried Unlinked, and every linked option I have. Any help you guys can give me would be great, Thanks!

run the ram linked and synced contrary to belief. see if that helps

but what you have to watch with this chipset set to unlinked lets the ram go wild and sometimes it sets it to a rate that you cant run the ram at. example my 680 i at unlinked runs my ram to the wall @ ddr2 1100. yes the ram is rated for 1150 but at the voltage i felt safe with its not possible for me.. caused all kinds of issues. just watch what linked and synced does to your ram.

Thanks for the suggestion extreme_ego, running the memory linked-synched did help a bit. I'm up to 2.3GHz (230x10), it's orthos stable on stock voltages, but then I hit another FSB wall. I tried dropping the multi and inching up to 240MHz, but I can't even get into windows. Any other ideas? I just can't figure out why this is giving me such a headache.

extreme_ego, were right about running unlinked, the chipset tried to do some crazy speeds unlinked (1066+ range) if left to "auto"

I know my 650i based p5n-e has FSB “hangups” I would try setting the vcore to something like 1.4 and just trying 280fsb or 300 fsb just to see if there is a little deadzone on your motherboard, my p5n-e doesn’t like anything between 3610MHz and 3.790MHz, but will run 3804MHz 24/7. I thought my FSB wall was solid – just on a hunch I shot for 3800MHz and everything worked great. I just had to get passed that dead zone on my mobo.

Thanks for the help guys!

ChinStrap, I seem to have the same problem you had with a FSB "hole" I couldn't get the FSB to budge past 230MHz but sliding up incrementally. I just had to take the flying leap up to 266MHz FSB and find whatever memory settings and clock multiplier worked to get the machine to boot up. In this case it was using a 7x multi and running the memory linked with a 3:2 ratio. It's almost like the processor or motherboard had to stretch first. I ran Orthos for a few hours to beat and stretch my FSB into shape at 266MHz, after that I was able to raise the multi back up to 10x and unlink the memory to let it run at the fully rated 800MHz. I'm just going to be using this for gaming, so I'll prolly just stay where I am, as 2.66GHz is plenty for a gaming rig.... for now If I get greedy I might try for 3.0GHz just for ****s and giggles, and to reduce game loading times

ChinStrap, The P5N-E has passive cooling for the northbridge correct? Does your heatsink get pretty damn hot? Mine sure does. I'm not sure what the temp is for the NB, as I'm having trouble getting MBM5 to work on this machine. But if your's runs pretty hot to the touch like mine does, it must just be part of the 650i's "personality"

Cheers to a successful overclock, by my standards!