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Help O/C'ing E8400 on EVGA 680i SLI

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DVL

Member
Joined
May 23, 2009
Location
Houston, Texas
Hello all. I was looking for a little help getting an O/C stable. I have an EVGA 680i SLI mobo, running a Intel E8400 Wolfdale. Stock speed on the E8400 is 3.0GHZ and right now I have it up to 3.6GHZ @ 1.35 volts. Oddly while running Prime95 however CPUID is reading only 1.296 volts? Anyway, I've had one of these before and I had it up to 4.0GHZ stable, but on a gigabyte board, where the bios was much less complicated.

So far at this point I've only pushed the fsb, and the core voltage, well plus some RAM playing around, but that really shouldn't effect the CPU O/C'ing as the mobo has a nice unlinked mode allowing me to push the CPU and RAM individually. What other forces should I play with to get it up to the 4 GHZ? Should I adjust the FSB voltage? In my bios it's telling me it's auto set to 1.3v, I'm not sure what the SPP and MCP voltages are for in the bios either, so I've left them untouched. My CPU multiplier is x9 @ 400 fsb, rated fsb is 1600. Oddly enough it seems that I can't get my multiplier any higher than x9.

So I've done what I really know here, and am looking for any advice to get my O/C stable, oh at 3.6 running prime95 my temps on each core are 50, and 46. I'm really looking to push the chip as much as possible without causing any damage to it, so any more advice you guys have for me would be greatly appreciated. Here are some screenies to show what I'm working with...

capturebv.png
capture1cm.png
 
The reason you can't get the multiplier higher is because that chip has a 9x multiplier... you can go lower but not higher...

as for the voltages... that's vdrop, on the newer boards it's no where near as bad but that board is not the best... i used to have it and it was a rubbish overclocker... mind you that was on a quad...

Take voltage settings off auto as well, during overclocking auto tends to overvolt and that is not a good thing!! Have you raised northbridge voltage at all?
 
Sandy has you taken care of on the multi...as far as the voltages.... Thats called vdrOOp. VdrOp is the difference between your bios settings and idle. VdrOOp is the difference in windows between idle and load voltages.

If your bios does not have LLC (Load Line calibration), which I do not beleive it does, you will need to mod it with a pencil to reduce/eliminate that vrdroop (though I doubt its the issue at this point). http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154897

You are well on your way though. I would read the C2D/C2Q overclocking guide found in this section. As noted, overclocking with the major voltages on AUTO will tend to overvolt in favor of stability. I would set them all to default and push on up until she doesnt boot.
 
Sandy has you taken care of on the multi...as far as the voltages.... Thats called vdrOOp. VdrOp is the difference between your bios settings and idle. VdrOOp is the difference in windows between idle and load voltages.

You are well on your way though. I would read the C2D/C2Q overclocking guide found in this section. As noted, overclocking with the major voltages on AUTO will tend to overvolt in favor of stability. I would set them all to default and push on up until she doesnt boot.

oops...my mistake... i missed the part where the OP said it was loaded with prime... thot that was an idle pic... sorry!!
 
My Ram and cpu core voltages are not set to auto, ram is at 2.0, CPU is at 1.35 I believe. FSB is set to auto, though I have no idea what's a good setting for it. I've been looking around and I believe spp is the north-bridge, and the MCP is the south-bridge is this correct?
 
FSB and SPP (Northbridge)/MCH(Southbridge) should be off auto. 680i shows stock settings I believe. Set them to that or .1 over that for now.
 
ok, FSB was at 1.3 on auto reading current value, so I took it off auto, and made it 1.3, SPP was at 1.4, and I made it 1.4, MCP was at 1.5 and I made it 1.5. HT SPP - MCP was at 1.2, and I made it 1.2.
 
Start raising the FSB... and when it fails to boot or is unstable, adjust voltages and repeat... always keep an eye on temps...

Edit: +1 to what earthdog said... i haven't heard of anyone getting to 4GHz on that board... if you do.... i will give you a medal... :D
 
4ghz should be achievable with a dual core on that board. Its the quads that make the 680i weep like a baby...
 
Well I ran into the same problem I had before, where the system freezes, or hangs up. Had to force reboot, so I upped the cpu voltage to 1.375 gonna try that out. I didn't make 5 minutes before.
 
The general rule for that chipset is to stay away unless you need SLI. I didnt find it THAT bad, however there are more noteable issues with it than say the 965/X38/P35 chipsets that were around at the same time.

Bump the NB up .1 and FSBt .1 and see if that helps.
 
So far so good, been running prime95 for nearly 30 minutes, and it hasn't froze yet, which considering I couldn't go five minutes before is a plus. I bumped the SPP from 1.4 to 1.5 and the MCP from 1.5 to 1.6. Hopefully we're on the road to more stable.
 
So far so good, been running prime95 for nearly 30 minutes, and it hasn't froze yet, which considering I couldn't go five minutes before is a plus. I bumped the SPP from 1.4 to 1.5 and the MCP from 1.5 to 1.6. Hopefully we're on the road to more stable.

You got to 4GHz....?
 
Eh, still getting freezes, just not so many and quickly. I went about five hours before the first freeze, then got another after two hours. Then had to go visit family out of state for thanksgiving.
 
You got to 4GHz....?

yeah I'm at 4GHz and she's pretty stable for awhile. But I was getting freezes before I went on vacation. I'm running prime now to see how long she can hang before a hiccup.

EDIT: Well went three hours without a hiccup. Then I hear several beeps, and my system locks up. Beeps weren't their before.
 
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