Overclocking a Q8400
August 24th, 2013
After some investigation, I found that the best FSB to use was 400Mhz at 8x to reach a very comfy 3.2Ghz.. I read a little guide that told me to increase FSB to the desired frequency in 5-10Mhz steps, and when the system malfunctioned, to try and add voltage to Memory/Chipset/Core (In that order, if the previous didnt solved the problem).
So I did just that. I own a P5K-EPU motherboard with latest BIOS/drivers with 2x 2GB Kingston Hyperx RAM sticks (one is clocked at 1066Mhz, the other at 800Mhz, bought different frequencies by accident ) and a Thermalright True Black 120 heatsink with a Scythe high speed fan.
First thing I noticed was that the BIOS gave me the option to Overclock using an “Overclocking AI”, meaning that I only had to specify the FSB and the multiplier I wanted, and the AI would assign the voltage to the required elements. Stock FSB was 333Mhz, and gradually incrementing it to 400Mhz showed no boot trouble whatsoever. I did a benchmark of the CPU each time I incremented the FSB to make sure everything was going allright.
As I reached 400Mhz, I did a torture test (Prime 95) for about 5 hours. No problems whatsoever, and thanks to the exeptional cooler max. temp was at 50 C.
My question is: Is it ok if I leave all the voltages at auto and allow the AI to assign it? I read that the problem of leaving auto was that it generated more heat, but my system is running pretty cool. As I stated, I havent encountered any problems during the day, even played some BF:BC2 (God, I need BF3 to be released here on europe) while Prime was running, with no problems.
CMP02 replied: So I did just that. I own a P5K-EPU motherboard with latest BIOS/drivers with 2x 2GB Kingston Hyperx RAM sticks (one is clocked at 1066Mhz, the other at 800Mhz, bought different frequencies by accident
Make sure your ran is running at the same speed in dual channel mode (DDR = Dual Data Rate).
If the ram is not running in dual channel, the speed will be cut in half.
CMP02 replied: My question is: Is it ok if I leave all the voltages at auto and allow the AI to assign it? I read that the problem of leaving auto was that it generated more heat, but my system is running pretty cool.
If you don’t get blue screen under load, your voltages are fine.
Also watch your other temps and make sure there is good cooling in the case. An overclock like that overclocks the whole system.
Why stop at 400 FSB? Since it’s stable go higher. You should find out the FSB wall at your end first. After figuring out the max FSB tweak everything else. Aim for 500.
I tried everything to get it past 3,2. Wouldnt work i belive it has to do something with my board i should by a better one (not hapening). Fsb at 400 and vcore at a maximum of 1,036. Tried to clock down the ram didnt help. But im hapy with 3,2.
If there aren’t any problems, then you’ll do fine.