Help OCing E8400 on EP45-UD3P

[SeanDude05]

Hey guys.

Got a E8400 E0 today to play with. (batch is Q040D922, havent seen any of this batch) Being cooled by a H50 p/p two scythe slipstreams
On the Gigabyte Ep45-UD3P is 4GB 2x2GB of DDR2-1150 OCZ Reapers.

My problem is: It will run 445x9 perfectly. memtest, IBT, prime95, superpi stable temps max 59c...

I try to bump it up to 456x9, and when Windows 7 starts loading, it either restarts or goes into system restore. 445x9 has no issues loading windows.

Settings are as follows:
F11d betaBIOS w/ Modded Intel RAID BIOS
445x9=4GHz
2.00D Multi = DDR2-946
5-5-5-18 timings tRD 11, Driving Strengths auto

1.325v VCore
1.30 Termination
1.50 PLL
Ref AUTO
MCH 1.26v
DRAM 2.2v


At 467 Windows will either reboot the machine during loading, or will go straight to System Restore. Dropping FSB back down, windows loads fine.

What is this indicative of? Ive tried 1.2v ICH, CPU Vcore up to 1.36, ALL DRAm multis, (a,b,c,d-200,266,333,400)

Im getting a little frustrated, tracking this HDD/windows issue is driving me nuts

Any help you guys can give would be very much appreciated!

thanks

 

[MattNo5ss]

I never needed to manually set FSB Term and Pll on the UD3P. When going over 400MHz FSB the board sets Term to 1.5v and Pll to 1.8v. I also used more NB voltage, like 1.35-1.4v. I could run my E8400 @ 500x9 as a daily OC.

Have you tried increasing Term, Pll, or NB voltage?

 

[SeanDude05]

I'll try raising some, but I think I need to start from scratch. Do you have any advice on a plan of attack? Should I just reset defaults and just raise FSB by itself with auto volts?

also, I've noticed once I get around 450+ FSB that I start to get HDD/OS issues. What setting should I track down for this? Is it the southbridge?

 

[MattNo5ss]

If you want to start from scratch, then manually set the RAM speed/timings/volts, set the RAM multiplier to 2.00D for 1:1 ratio, and set the vcore to where you feel safe that is less than or equal to 1.45v (Intel's absolute max in their datasheet).

The OS not loading and BSoD at startup is usually just an unstable CPU OC and should be related to not enough vcore or MCH. I've always kept the SB voltage at its default, even up to 600+ FSB. Now, if you were increasing PCI Freq, then that may cause SATA instability.

 

[SeanDude05]

Well you were right, I set term and PLL to auto and now I'm up to 489FSB. But she is BSoDing again, 0x0124 which if memory serves, means too low vcore, so I will be bumping it up. However, the board is reporting 1.85v PLL and 1.5v term, I noticed you mentioned these voltages, but are they safe?? I believe anandtech said anything above 1.5v PLL killed their 45nm quad.....?

I will push vcore to 1.38v and keep trying in the meantime..
thanks for getting me this far.

 

[MattNo5ss]

I ran with the auto PLL (~1.8v) for over a year, and I didn't see any side effects. Maybe I got lucky, or either anandtech was unlucky

 

[SeanDude05]

Haha, scientific eh. Heh. Anyway, I've arrived at 500FSB, but IBT is unstable currently at 1.4v BIOS, 1.38v cpuz, LLC enabled. I set term to 1.5v and pll to 1.75v, just paranoid for them to rise. Load temps at 68C w/18C amb. I'd like 4.6Ghz 512FSB, but if this vcore rises much more, I may be stuck at 500.

 

[MattNo5ss]

Yeah...anything that I didn't know what to set to manually, I just left on Auto. So, FSB Term and PLL was always on Auto...lol. Remember to try increasing NB voltage as you get into high FSB because that will stress the memory controller more so it may need more volts.

You can also try lowering your multiplier to 8.5 to see if ends up better than 9 with more FSB. I think when I ran the 8.5 multiplier I could do 525x8.5 for a daily OC.