CPU Usage spikes down to 0% during stress testing (Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz OC)

WolfDale7

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Jul 29, 2011
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Hey guys,

This is my first shot at overclocking my CPU. Began it all by installing a Noctua NH-U12P SE2 that I bought 2 years ago but left collecting dust on my shelf. The processor I'm using is an E8400 Wolfdale Socket 775 LGA chip that I got in 2009. My system is definitely in need of an upgrade, but I thought to myself, "Why not?" I can afford a new system if this one goes kaput on me, but I would definitely prefer to keep this around as long as possible =] (or at least until my GTX 260 dies on me so I can file an EVGA lifetime warranty claim xD).

2w6dp8j.png


As you can see, there are random spurts of CPU usage dropping to 0%. My pc also becomes temporarily unresponsive.

Is this an example of "instability" or is something wrong with my cpu? I will definitely have to try a long stress test with it on stock settings, will probably get to that sometime tomorrow.

Here's a CPU-Z screenshot of my setup:
qybhhu.jpg


It's OCed to 3.85Ghz with a voltage of ~ 1.450 or 1.425 (forgot what I set it up as in BIOS; I also have the feature that regulates voltage based on CPU usage enabled)

Finally here is a rundown of my temperature sensor test with RealTemp:

2cnjgvr.jpg



Again, I'm not too worried about this system, I'm sure I'll have a new one by the winter. I also reinstalled windows on my drive and moved all my old data to a backup drive.

Any tips on OCing these Wolfdale processors? My ram timing is set at: 6-6-6-17 and they've been set to run at 1066 (CPU-Z is reporting a frequency of 526.5 MHz and a ratio of 13:16 FSB : DRAM)


Thanks guys, and excuse my ignorance on the general topic. I have tried reading as much as I can on Overclocking CPUs. Up until now I've only toyed with the GPU.