Can you overclock E8400 to 1600FSB? From standard 1333 - I want to match my ram

[stevef22]

I have a E8400 Wolfdale chip that I want to breath new life into.

I allready have
Chip: E8400 1333 FSB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

So on newegg I bought
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128496
Memory 1600 Speed: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144461

Along with a 6gb sec SATA HDD and Controller Card and HDD (my goal to have faster R/W speeds)

My question is what setting in BIOS should I look for to speed up the 1333 FSB on the E8400 Chip? The memory is rated at 1600.

I heard you should match the FSB of Chip to the speed of the memory? Is this true? If so, the E8400 would need to be 1600 FSB. Is this right?


Thank you,

Steve


Below are the goodies I ordered...

1

GeIL Value PLUS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model GVP34GB1600C9DC
Item #: N82E16820144461
Memory Standard Return Policy

$28.99
1

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822136795
Standard Return Policy

$119.99
1

GIGABYTE GA-P45T-ES3G LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813128496
Standard Return Policy

$79.25
1

HighPoint Rocket 620 PCI-Express 2.0 x1 SATA III (6.0Gb/s) Controller Card
Item #: N82E16816115072
Standard Return Policy

$24.99
Subtotal $253.22
Tax $0.00
FedEx Express Saver $27.28
Order Total $280.50

 

[MattNo5ss]

to OCForums!

What you may have heard is that a 1:1 FSB:RAM ratio is good to have. That's true for DDR2 RAM when overclocking the CPU since your RAM will be running low as possible while you work on the CPU. However, with DDR3 RAM a 1:1 FSB:RAM ratio is impossible for everyday use unless you are running DDR3-1066MHz RAM.

The actual FSB of the E8400 is 333MHz, and the effective FSB is 1333MHz due to QDR (Quad Data Rate). Now, RAM uses DDR (Double Data Rate) so DDR3-1600 RAM is actually 800MHz. To get a 1:1 ratio you have to match actual speeds, not effective speeds. Since the DDR3-1600 is actually 800MHz, your FSB would need to be 800MHz actual or 3200MHz effective, which is impossible.

So, don't worry about matching RAM speeds and FSB when using higher speed RAM.

 

[stevef22]

Awesome reply, makes sense. Looking at the stuff I bought, any minor tweaks you would perform in the bios to get more performance? Im just looking for a marginal gains, Nothing crazy.

Thank you,
Steve

 

[stevef22]

PS. Yes, that is what I heard 1:1 ratio. Thank you for the informative reply.

 

[stevef22]

By looking at my components. Where would be my "bottleneck" or weakest link? Is everything balanced?

 

[MattNo5ss]

The E8400 is a good overclocker and so is the P45 chipset, so you should be able to OC to over 4GHz with time and patience.

You don't need a SATAIII controller card for a mechanical hard drive. SATAIII and SATA 6Gbps are just "buzzwords" when it comes to mechanical hard drives, because the drives don't even come close to maxing out SATAII (3Gbps).

I don't see anything wrong with the components you selected, other than the unneeded controller card.

Also, there's an "Edit" button so you can just add to your post instead of making a bunch of consecutive posts.

 

[stevef22]

Cool, I prob wont take it that far. Not interested in so much gain. I just want a little. Thanks for the tips and advice.

Can you send me to a thread that has Overclocking basics?

For the E8400 do I just adjust the multiplier?

 

[MattNo5ss]

Here you go: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=515316

The thread was created back in 2007, but it applies to all C2D and C2Q CPUs. The E8400 has an upward locked multiplier so the highest it can go is 9. You'll have to increase FSB to overclock, which will increase both the CPU and RAM speeds simultaneously. So, be sure to set the RAM multiplier low while OCing the CPU so that your RAM will not be be running over stock DDR3-1600.