E8600 Overclock @ 4.3Ghz on Air

[ToejaM.]

Hi peoples, new to the forum and consequently new to overclocking. Been doing alot of reading up lately on overclocking my CPU as its whats holding me back and I figure why not get the most outta my CPU before I decide if an upgrade is truely worth paying for!

My system:

Asus Rampage Formula
E8600 3.33Ghz @ 4.3ghz
Arctic Freezer Pro CPU Cooler
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Blade Memory Kit
OCZ Vertex 2 180gb SSD
MSI R5870 Lightning 1GB GDDR5
Antec Lanboy Air Case (

)

Overclocked settings:

FSB: 430 x 10
Vcore: 1.3625v (tried at the one below and was unstable)
Dram Volt: 2.1v
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.5 (lowest setting my mobo offers)

Now, last night I ran Prime95 like this (except pll voltage was on auto) for 1hr 17mins and no problems and then went to bed (switched it all off because I didnt like the idea of waking up dead)

Today when I got in from work, I did some tweaking around, figured I could get 4.5ghz (450fsb) out of it.. and I can and for the minute it runs the temps are fine but then I get a bsod and a reboot, same on 4.4ghz (440fsb).

I switched it back to 4.3ghz and ran it on prime 95, fine for 27minutes and then a rounding error.. argh! So I went into the bios and put pll voltage on 1.5 (i read somewhere thats a safe voltage but any higher and youll fry the chip)

I was just looking really for some help on fine tuning my system.

Currently running error free for over an hour at suitable temps:

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/5541/prime95c.jpg

I've tried lowering the voltage but I get instability and rounding errors so I'm not sure where to go with other voltages, ideally I imagine I want to lower the voltage to the minimum (for power saving/less strain on the cpu and less heat output)

Any advices?

 

[EarthDog]

You are going to need to up the Vcore. And also likely up the Northbridge voltage.

Check out the guide (link in sig) for overclocking your generation of CPU. It will help you out tremendously.


Oh and welcome!!!

 

[xoke]

Read the guide Earthdog pointed you too, also be mindful of your Ram settings, what ratio they are running at. You will want to run them at 1066 or less while figuring out your CPU overclock. That said, more Vcore...I'm surprised your good at 4.3ghz with such low voltage., sure your giving it 1.36v in BIOS, but per your attached picture the CPU is only getting 1.296v. If that board has LLC enable it and your Windows voltage should get closer to your BIOS voltage.

 

[EarthDog]

And will likely allow him to push on with the same voltage seeing that large vrdoop. I missed that!

CPUz mem and spd tabs would be great!

 

[ToejaM.]

Heya and ty for the replies.

http://img4.imageshack.us/i/memtab.jpg/
http://img299.imageshack.us/i/spdtab.jpg/

I've read that thread to a degree - at least for the bits that I've wanted to know but never from start to finish. Funnily have it on my bookmarks (dont pay attention to websites when I'm looking for info) and did a google for "overclocking forums" and here I am!

Whats more accurate? The bios voltage you input or what cpuz reports? I'm gunna check my bios for that LLC option.

I'm a bit weary of going over 1.4v with my cpu.. now, is it the temps it CAN generate or is it just in general having that much voltage going through it that causes degredation?

 

[xoke]

Heya and ty for the replies.

http://img4.imageshack.us/i/memtab.jpg/
http://img299.imageshack.us/i/spdtab.jpg/

I've read that thread to a degree - at least for the bits that I've wanted to know but never from start to finish. Funnily have it on my bookmarks (dont pay attention to websites when I'm looking for info) and did a google for "overclocking forums" and here I am!

Whats more accurate? The bios voltage you input or what cpuz reports? I'm gunna check my bios for that LLC option.

I'm a bit weary of going over 1.4v with my cpu.. now, is it the temps it CAN generate or is it just in general having that much voltage going through it that causes degredation?

CPUz is what you need to go by when determining voltage. Some motherboards are funky with dropping voltage. For instance I had a board I could put 1.5v in BIOS, the CPU only got 1.41v. If that LLC function is available it will help this...if not then you just have to add more volts in BIOS, reboot, and find out what you actually got. After a while you'll learn what your board gives vs. what you put in.

For a 45nm CPU 1.4v is commonly accepted for daily use max voltage. That said, I've had one well past 1.8v, it still runs. Chip degradation is a reality...but unless your hardcore benching 24/7...chances are the CPU will be worthless (as far as newer better stuff will come out) by the time it seriously kicks in. Do you really see yourself using this CPU in 5,7, or 10 years? Chip degradation as far as voltage is concerned happens with voltage, atoms actually get moved around regardless of temps...but the temps don't help any...more people will have temperature issues than chip degradation.

My opinion, if you keep the heat under control, give her 1.4v (per CPUz, not BIOS) and hive her H. E. double hockey sticks.

 

[ToejaM.]

Had it rocking 450mhz just then, was crashing on the second cycle.. so I upped the nb voltage some and manually set the multiplier (cant believe i hadnt done it already heh) - ran for 10minutes and crashed. Was running a little too hot for my liking though, max temp 72 with it mostly sitting on 68/69

Voltage was 1.38ish (1.4 in bios), I found that LLC setting and it has helped the vrdroop.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=35605&processor=E8600&spec-codes=SLB9L

That tells me 72.4 is the max acceptable and I'd rather keep it under that.

What would you guys do in this situation? I can't up the voltage as that only increases the heat, I'm not sure the voltage I should safely take the NB to.

Ram was running at 1080 aswell.

Currently got it on 440 (4.4ghz) max temp 68 so its about where I want it to be on max temp (this is only after 5minutes though, really need it to run for 30-1hr for temps. Running 65 average.

Voltage is 1.368v (in cpuz) at the moment.. thats a good 0.6 ontop of what I had for running it at 4.3ghz though so I'm thinking I can bring that down some really.

Ram is running at 1056mhz on this setup

 

[ToejaM.]

I really dont have the time right now to try every single setting and wait for prime95 to do its thing

Gotta goto bed for work tomorrow but I wanna stay and crack this!

I don't think 4.5ghz on air is going to be possible at acceptable heat levels. 1.36v cpuz seems to be about the max voltage I'll be able to put through it and keep it cool, so really I need it below that and tweak the other voltages to get it stable.

With 4.4ghz I was maxing out on 65 with normals around 61/61 max loadage which is fine, I was having to creep the voltage up but wasn't trying the NB voltage. Which isnt bad I guess.

Being really lazy now but is there a thread that has just e8600 overclocks in and the voltage/temps?

Trying to work out if its really worth getting another 200mhz out of my cpu for the sake of extra heat, I mean its only 200mhz more and I've already got myself 1ghz extra! Not going to see much if any performance boost in games for the tiny bit more.. maybe if I could hit 4.8ghz (1.5ghz extra) or even 5ghz (just cos its a shiney number) but thats really not going to happen on any kind of air cpu cooler.

Idea of me looking into overclocking was because if I wanted a better rig, its now at the stage with this overclock where I'd have to get a new mobo, which means a new cpu which means new ram.. which then means I'll be looking at getting the best I can for future upgrades.

I mean, how much further away in performance of the games I'm playing is my PC anyways. Guess I'd need to run some kind of FPS monitoring program for a bit in the games I play and have a looksy what other people are getting.

For the moment, taken LLC off and put it back to the stable voltage I had before on 4.3ghz.

I should be happy, I should be happy.. but am I happy?

You know what overclocking reminds me of? Those old bike chain locks with the four digits you had to spin round to find the right combination.. in theory its possible to get the combination to unlock it but its just time and patience thats needed.

 

[jason4207]

You can take the PLL up to 1.6v. Typically 1.55-1.6v works the best.

GTL settings can also sometimes help. They are not applied voltages, but rather how the signal is read, so you can try all available options w/o fear.

To zero in on where the problem lies I would recommend temporarily reducing your CPU multi to 6 or so and make sure the NB/FSB/RAM is stable. Run large-fft to make sure this sub-system is stable. Once you're good there you can crank the CPU multi back up, and work on that using small-fft.

 

[ToejaM.]

Sorry to necro my own thread but I'd just like to say thank you to you peoples who helped me and I think I'll be keeping my overclock at 4.3ghz. Its 100% stable at this. Thats an extra 1ghz ontop of stock on air so I'm pretty happy with that.. next step would be a whole new upgrade!

 

[ToejaM.]

A further necro.

I was just looking in FSB and I was wondering which would be better?

10x 430fsb making my ram run at 1033 (an underclock due to it being 1066)

or

8x 533 which gives me 1066ram.

Now, which is better in terms of performance?

10x clocks in at exactly 4300mhz
8x clocks in at 4264mhz

So I'm a little stumped to which is best?

 

[jason4207]

The higher FSB speed wins (assuming same CPU and RAM speed/timings), but will be harder to keep stable.

Don't assume that b/c your CPU is at about the same speed, and the RAM is at about the same speed that it will still be stable at the same BIOS settings.

But you can most likely OC that RAM at least a little bit. Don't get caught up in trying to get your RAM speed at some specific speed. See what they're capable of.

Step1: Get FSB as high as possible.
Step2: Get CPU as fast as possible while sacrificing as little FSB speed as possible.
Step3: Try available RAM dividers and see what's possible at different speeds (tighten RAM timings and Performance Level up as much as possible for each RAM speed you try). Run Everest Benchmark to compare setups, and pick the one w/ the best scores in both speed and latency (run Everest a few times for each setup as the results can vary a bit).

 

[freeagent]

That board and cpu were meant to be..

Before I sold it like the idiot I am... I was able to run my rampage with e8600 at 550x8 24/7, you have such an awsome board, I miss it sooo much.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=598279

I was able to get it to 601x7 but my ram really hated me for trying.

 

[ToejaM.]

Yeah I love this combination, tis amazing!

I've got it stable at 8x 533 at the moment