OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

[sharpbiohazard]

I have overclocked my E8500 to 3.6Ghz, but I have a couple of questions regarding voltage and how to find out what voltage to use-

I ran orthos (blend) on my CPU for 8 hours with no errors at these settings-

Vcore- 1.3v
CPU Termination-1.3v
MCH Core-1.2v

Does that mean I slowly need to "tweak" these numbers down now?

Thx for the help :)

[Salty]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

They don't look high to me as they are, but I have only briefly played with an ep45-ds3, and run an x48-dq6.
I'm curious why you didn't use your full 9.5 multiplier for 3.8GHz?
For anyone to really help you should get an EP45 bios template from http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/giga...ettings-33613/

Open your bios and copy all settings into the template and post it here. Add a short explanation of what you want to achieve?

[Acebmxer]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

I have overclocked my E8500 to 3.6Ghz, but I have a couple of questions regarding voltage and how to find out what voltage to use-

I ran orthos (blend) on my CPU for 8 hours with no errors at these settings-

Vcore- 1.3v
CPU Termination-1.3v
MCH Core-1.2v

Does that mean I slowly need to "tweak" these numbers down now?

Thx for the help :)

Those numbers are fine. But that Cpu should be able to FLY depending on if you have a good cooler on it. If thats as far as you wanna push it then yea start to lower then untill you lose stablity. But if you wanna keep going 1.45 is max for Vcore 1.4 for cpu term 1.6-1.63 cpu Pll 1.4 mch

Edit - I notice you are using a very old bios in your sig. You might wanna try updating to the newest one you might find it to require to use less voltage for the same over clock or might be able to go higher on the same voltages :)

[sharpbiohazard]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

I'm curious why you didn't use your full 9.5 multiplier for 3.8GHz?

Well, I just got my ram figured out at a 400FSB so I figured I'm stuck at 3.6. Im a total noob to overclocking. I just went through all of this for my RAM http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/inco...45-ud3r-34224/

My BIOS settings are on the 3rd page- LSD's suggestions.

What settings do I ratchet down first out of those 3 voltage settings? Do I just set it until my CPU doesnt boot?

I have a Xigmatek HDT SD964 cooler with OCZ freeze.

[Salty]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

In your bios, set:
CPU Clock Ratio ..........................:[ 9]
Fine CPU Clock Ratio.....................:[.5]
CPU Frequency ...........................: [400]

The fsb stays 400 and does not change ram settings, but you get (9.5 x 400) 3.8GHz, easily. This is not a big overclock for an E8500.

On my x48-dq6 for 3.8GHz settings:

System Voltage Control____ [Manual]
DDR2 OverVoltage Control__ [+0.3] = 2.1V (I have 1066MHz ram)
PCI-E OverVoltage Control_ [+0.1V] for stability
FSB OverVoltage Control___ [+0.1V] for stability
(G)MCH OverVoltage Control [+0.2V] for 4Gig of ram, ignore if u use 2Gig
Loadline calibration ____[Auto]
CPU Voltage Control_______ [1.300]

You have EP45, maybe different, but yr voltages look fine to x48 owner.

If you are looking for minimum power consumption you can try scaling back. Then test with Prime95 or similar. Even if it boots, it is not necessarily stable, so u test it out for hour/s and use the lowest volts your setup is actually stable at. (i.e. passes Prime with no errors)

Download "Hardware Monitor" and "RealTemp". Check cpu and system temps while running Prime, Orthos, OCCT, LinX or whatever. The cooler things run the better, so a well ventilated case with plenty of fans is a good thing.

Standard Intel heatsink is marginal, and can be easily installed with one pin not fully seated which can cause higher temps.

Are you wanting to scale back because of temps? At those voltages I would not expect high temps.

[profJim]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

In your other thread you stated that you're using 2x2GB Ballistix Tracer ram.
You should add this info to your forum signature.

Higher Cpu Termination (VTT) can help with stability, but it is usually set at least 0.05 - 0.10 volts lower than Cpu Vcore.
Some ignore this recommendation when performing extreme overclocks.

As long as your cpu temperatures aren't too high, I wouldn't bother with trying to lower Cpu Vcore until you've reached your final overclock settings.

Intel BurnTest (IBT) is good for brief initial stress testing and seeing how well your temperatures are doing. IBT will raise your cpu temps higher than other stress testing programs. You only need to run IBT for 5 - 10 loops. I've passed IBT testing several times, only to have one of the OCCT or Prime95 tests fail.

When stress testing, I perform 3 separate overnight (or longer) tests to ensure that my system is stable. With Prime95, this means running:
Small FFTs
Blend
Large FFTs
OCCT offers the same tests, but calls them small, medium, or large data sets.

You should run gaming benchmarks to see how gaming performance changes with different FSB and memory settings.
This type of real world testing is more meaningful than running synthetic benchmarks.

You can save up to 8 different bios profiles. This is very useful if you want to restore the saved bios settings at a later time. From the main bios screen, F11 is used to save your current bios settings and F12 is used to load one of the saved profiles. You still need to keep a hard-copy of your profiles, including settings that aren't fully stable. You can overwrite a previous saved profile with a newer profile at any time.

Your system should easily be able to run at 3.80 - 4.00GHz. Your memory should be fine up to 1066MHz and possibly a bit higher. Often the best overall performance will be with memory speeds in the 900 - 1000MHz range using tighter memory timings.

[sharpbiohazard]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

Thanks a lot guys- you really cleared up a lot of my confusion. :)

My temps are typically 35C-I and the highest I've seen under load is 55C. So yeah.

I just got done running Orthos overnight on small FFT- The CPU stress test
Power was-
Vcore-1.25
Termination-1.24
MCH Core-1.2

No errors or hangs, so I guess thats a good sign. Now onto the 3.8 Ghz!

Oh, and I'm afraid to oc my ram- I keep reading on newegg about all of these people where they say their ram crapped out after about 3-5 months- multiple errors on memtest, BSODs etc. :S

[Salty]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

Fear is the enemy eh? That's ok. I've not had any dead ram from overclocking yet, touch wood.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

Not tracers, but you can see I pushed pretty hard on the new 2.0V rated Ballistix in the review link in my signature. No issues with them so far since either

Your tracers do come programmed with a 1000Mhz SPD Profile anyway, so you can for sure do that without harm so you have nothing to worry about really

[profJim]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

Oh, and I'm afraid to oc my ram- I keep reading on newegg about all of these people where they say their ram crapped out after about 3-5 months- multiple errors on memtest, BSODs etc. :S

Go back and re-read the Newegg reviews in another month, after you've gained some more experience.

I'm a big fan of Newegg reviews, but ....
When it comes to mobo or memory reviews, about 1/3 of the reviewers have no business seeing the inside of a computer case, let alone tweaking the bios. It really cracks me up when I read about a reviewer's sniveling about the fact that his mobo doesn't properly auto-detect the memory settings and his memory doesn't run at its rated speed.

With my memory, I've had several hundred-thousand Memtest86+ errors when my memory tweaks weren't stable. I like to think that I kinda know what I'm doing.

Don't worry.... be happy, you've got a nice hardware setup.

[Salty]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

If you are interested, read the overclocking guide (sticky top of forum).

The little halo guy on the right shoulder tells me to say "Stick to what u feel comfortable with", while the little horned guy on the left shoulder says, "Go on, tell him to overclock it."

You have the right spec parts there to do so anyway .

[sharpbiohazard]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

Well, I just about s**t my pants. :|

Here's my story-

Ran orthos last night on small FFTs to test the voltage on my cpu.

Woke up today and everything was fine, no failures no errors.

Went to class, and came back to my computer this afternoon with some random windows error message. Close the message. Try to open my web browser then BSOD.

Restart. In windows for about 1 min then BSOD.

Ran memtest on reboot with test #7. Multiple errors immediately show up.

Go back into BIOS and set optimized defaults- all seems to be ok- ran memtest #7 again, no errors.

BIOS settings when the BSODs/memtest errors happened-

MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)
Robust Graphics Booster ...............: Auto
CPU Clock Ratio ..........................: 9x
Fine CPU Clock Ratio.....................:0.5
CPU Frequency ...........................: 3.8Ghz (9.5x400)


Clock Chip Control
Standard Clock Control
CPU Host Clock Control..................: Enabled
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) ............: 400Mhz
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) .........: 100

C.I.A.2 .................................: Disabled


Advanced Clock Control [Press Enter]
CPU Clock Drive...........................: <<< 800
PCI Express Clock Drive.................: <<< 900
CPU Clock Skew (ps)....................: <<< 0
MCH Clock Skew (ps)...................: <<< 0


DRAM Performance Control
Performance Enhance...................: STANDARD
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.).....: Disabled
(G)MCH Frequency Latch...............: Auto
System Memory Multiplier ..............: 2.00D
Memory Frequency (Mhz) ..............: 800Mhz
DRAM Timing Selectable ................: Manual

Standard Timing Control
CAS Latency Time........................4
tRCD .........................................4
tRP'...........................................4
tRAS..........................................12

Advanced Timing Control
tRRD...........................................3
tWTR..........................................3
tWR............................................6
tRFC...........................................52
tRTP...........................................3
Command Rate (CMD) ....................:2

Driving Strength Profiles
Driving Strength ............................1066

Channel A
Static tRead Value.........................:8
tRD Phase0 Adjustment...................:Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................:Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................:Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................:Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank)....................:Auto
Twr2wr(Different Rank)...................:Auto
Twr2rd(Different Rank)...................:Auto
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)..................:Auto
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto ps
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto ps

Channel B
Static tRead Value.........................:8
tRD Phase0 Adjustment...................:Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................:Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................:Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................:Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank)....................:Auto
Twr2wr(Different Rank)...................:Auto
Twr2rd(Different Rank)...................:Auto
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)..................:Auto
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto ps
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...............:Auto ps

Motherboard Voltage Control

CPU
CPU Vcore….……….........................:1.25v

CPU Termination….........................:1.24v
CPU PLL………………….......................:Normal

CPU Referen.………….......................:Auto

MCH/ICH
MCH Core……………................:1.2v
MCH Reference….……............: Auto
MCH/DRAM Ref.….................: Auto
ICH I/O……………….................: Auto
ICH Core…………...……............: Auto

DRAM
DRAM Voltage ……................: 2v
DRAM Termination .…............: Auto
Channel A Reference ............: Auto
Channel B Reference ............: Auto

Advanced Settings
Limit CPUID Max. to 3.....................: Disabled
No-Execute Memory Protect............: Enabled
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)................: Disabled
C2/C2E State Support....................: Disabled
x C4/C4E State Support..................: Disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor 2(TM2) ...........: Enabled
CPU EIST Function.........................: Disabled
Virtualization Technology................: Disabled

Integrated Peripherals
Legacy USB Storage Detect ..............Disabled

I assume it's my ram of course :S

Kinda scary to see all that red on memtest when you are a college student and this is your only PC.

Any suggestions? Thx :)

[profJim]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

Are you still running with the F3 bios?
If you're leary of running with the latest beta bios, you can download the most recent FINAL bios for flashing.

Be sure to follow the procedures in Lsdme's Bios Flashing How-to Guide.

[sharpbiohazard]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

Could that be my problem- the bios version? I know how to flash a bios, I just don't like the risk...

[Acebmxer]

Re: OC E8500+EP45 Voltage Question

Well if your running F3 and they are up to F11. There has been many changes and tweaks since then so its recommended to at least try F9 or F10.