P5k Premium, E8400, Overclocking Help.

[rodgg310]

System:

P5k Premium (Pear Black) Bios 702
E8400 (3ghz) @ (532 fsb x 7 - 3724 mhz)
4x1GB Crutial Balistix pc2 8500 @ 1066 mhz, 5-5-5-15 2T, Memory Ratio is 1:1
Coolmaster 700w PSU
Gigabyte 4850 1GB @ Stock
Aftermarket CPU cooler

Bios Settings -

Fsb North Bridge strap - 333
North bridge volt - increased one step
Cpu Volt - 3.125v
DRAM volt - 2.2v
Pci-e frequency - 100

All other settings are manual but set at stock. I do this as i was getting the no post error after restarts that i have read so many people complaining about. Changeing all settings to manual resloved this problem, this also includes disabling the Remap Memory option.

Additional -

Memtest pass - 1hr
Prime stable - 1hr
CPU temps - 39-41c idle to 51-55c under load.
OCCT - Stable for 10min manual stop due to a strange buzzing sound coming from the CPU as far as i can tell? But only at very specific loads and other times not at all. Strange, i dont think this occurd before the high FSB was set??? But i did not test with OCCT with lower FSB's. Is this a concern?


I am quite new to OC and i am after some advice.

First and most important is the high 532 FSB i have set. Is this Safe or should i lower the FSB and increase multiplier? What are the performance differences? These questions are linked to the FSB strap, should it be higher, lower?

I have tried many different settings aiming at around 3800mhz, some with lower FSB and Straps and higher multipliers.

I have tested using sis Sandra for memory bandwidth current setup shows 9.1GB/s and using say 425fsb x 9 gives 8.2GB/s

I basicly want to get my system running the best it can.

Any advice will be helpfull, if you require additional information please ask.

Thanks in Advance

[rodgg310]

Update - Vcore = 1.3125v

[rodgg310]

Also, how can i test what is the best setup? Which programs will give valid performance readings?

[GeorgeStorm]

Well, in general, a higher FSB is better than a lower one with a higher multi, however, i would say to go for something like 8x500 or so, to get 4GHz, and you could elave the RAM running at 1000mhz, or adjust the memory divider, so to get a little more speed out of the sticks, which will cope fine, being crucial ballistix....
What cooler do you have? I mean, by the soudns of it, its keeping the temps ok, if you want, you could go for 7x550, to give you a speed of 3.85GHz,
Although, you may need to put quite a bit more voltage through the northbridge, and amybe the cpu.........
Running something like superpi would be a quick and easy test (takes less than half a minute) to show any difference in performance between overclocks, although, therer probably wont be too much....

Just me..........

[Powderhound]

I'd run prime95 for a bit longer than 1 hour; I had an OC that crashed after about 3 hours, as this seems to be about the make or break time for Prime testing.

[rodgg310]

Thank you all for the advice, in the process of trying all recommended setting, Univercity work calls to me at the moment. So i will update as soon as possible. Thanks