How to OC Gigabyte EP41-UD3L with E8500

Hey guys,

Trying to give my old PC a little lease on life before I replace it. Have tried almost everything in the BIOS (std Gigabyte upgraded to latest vF6) to get the stock 3.16GHz E8500 to run a bit faster (possibly at 400*9.5=3.8GHz, but also tried to get it to 3.5GHz to no avail). Followed several online threads & even some youtube videos (I know!) to sort it out, no cigar.

I have 4GB (2x2) of good quality Corsair PC6400 1066MHz DDR2 running in it, but it's irked my for a long time that it's was only clocked to the std 800MHz for DDR2. Sooo, I assumed if I can get the memory running at the full rated speed + the cpu with a similar increase, I'd see some noticeable performance improvements.

I've used CPU-ID, Speedfan & Orthos to check the speeds following tests, as well as keep an eye on temps, but haven't managed to get any increase.
I think I did manage to clock them down to a slower speed once.

Basically, the settings I changed in the BIOS were:
Robust Graphics Adapter: Auto
CPU Clock ratio: 9 X
Fine CPU Clock ratio: +0.5

CPU Host Freq: 400 (also tried 369)
PCI Express Freq: 100 (also Auto a number of times)

DRAM Performance:
Performance Enhance: Standard
MCH Freq Latch: Auto
System Mem Mult: tried 2.00B and 2.66D (a vid I saw said I should be using 2.00D for 400+, but I don't have that option in my bios...?)
Memory Freq: showed 800 / 1066
DRAM Timing: Auto

Timings: all Auto: 5 5 5 15

CPU Vcore: tried both Auto & 1.3V


Is the Gigabyte mobo locked or perhaps just unable to be overclocked for some reason? A couple settings I tried didn't post & the mobo rolled them back luckily, eh.

I've just left it with the memory performance enhance ootion on 'Turbo' after rolling all the other settings back, but can't see any gains in the apps mentioned above.

Any/all advice much appreciated guys. I see no reason why I can't get the memory to run at near full speed, unless the multiplier is making the cpu run too fast & it just can't cope. Not sure what other conservative values I can try safely just to prove that the mobo/bios will OC the cpu & memory any amount at all.

This was so much easier on my spare PC with an Asus P5KPL-CM & an E6700 2.6GHz (same RAM) - got that cpu running comfortably at 3.2GHz & memory over 1GHz just using a +20% performance modifier in the BIOS, too easy.
Cheers!

There is no 2.66 D strap. The 266 FSB references the A strap w/ memory multipliers of 2.50, 3.00, and 4.00. Since the P41 chipset doesn't offer a D strap, your only viable option is to select the 333 FSB B strap at a FSB of 400MHz, using the 2.40 DRAM multiplier (400MHz x 2.40 = DDR2-960. That's as close as you can get to DDR2-1066 without utilizing the lower 266 FSB A strap and 2.50 multiplier, which would result in an effective DRAM frequency of DDR2-1000. So essentially, manually change the strap / latch to 333 and the memory multiplier to 2.40.

redduc900 said:

There is no 2.66 D strap. The 266 FSB references the A strap w/ memory multipliers of 2.50, 3.00, and 4.00. Since the P41 chipset doesn't offer a D strap, your only viable option is to select the 333 FSB B strap at a FSB of 400MHz, using the 2.40 DRAM multiplier (400MHz x 2.40 = DDR2-960. That's as close as you can get to DDR2-1066 without utilizing the lower 266 FSB A strap and 2.50 multiplier, which would result in an effective DRAM frequency of DDR2-1000. So essentially, manually change the strap / latch to 333 and the memory multiplier to 2.40.

Click to expand...

Cheers mate, appreciate you clarifying all that. However, even when I tried it, the system seems hellbent on keeping the settings the same. I've just put in 2.66D with 2.50 multiplier & 400MHz on the cpu & nothing has changed as far as I can see! CPU-Z still reports a core speed under load of 3.16GHz max (idles at ~2000MHz); the multiplier is still X 6.0 (6-9.5) & bus speed is reported at 333MHz with Rated FSB of 1333MHz (assume that's just max for mobo...?). Anyway, let's try a bit slower with the default 333 & 2.4 mult...
...no cigar - cpu maxes out at 3.16 still & mem DRAM freq still showing 400MHz (X2), so presumably stuck at 800MHz.
I suspect either Gigabyte have locked down the settings in some way, or the E8500 cpu can't take even a mild overclock, so the mobo is defaulting everything.
As I know for sure the memory is rated higher, let me try 1 last thing - increasing just the DRAM speed...
Take 3. I'm trying 266MHz latch with a 3.00A mult: oops! lots of system beeping on restart so I had to hard reset & try again.
Take 4, back to all normal settings for now...giving up for the time being before I blow up the system!
(Windows is now stuck in a startup repair cycle I can't opt out of & can't even change the startup option to tell it it was just a power failure, as it insists on doing some imaginary 'repairs' & won't let me select the 'start normally' option, or it won't recognise the keyboard to scroll down to select it...never easy *sigh*...)