- May 9, 2007
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So I got a new e8400 and paired it w/a dfi dk x38 t2rb mobo and am trying to hit that golden 4.0ghz plus. After no brainer OCs to 3.6 and then 3.8 that were prime stable for 2+ hours (400x9 and 420x9 respectively) I decided to try for the big 4.0ghz and went 450x9. Almost immediately after booting into windows my computer froze. That's right, no BSOD, no reboot, it just completely froze. I haven't seen windows freeze since the days of 3.1 when it happened ALL THE TIME... well I guess it happened a few times in 95 too but that's beside the point. I'm running xp pro w/sp3 and just installed it a week ago. Even when I OC'd my AMD x2 3800 I got prime errors or restrats/bsods, not freezes. Anyway, I backed off on the fsb to 444 and got it to pass prime 95 large fft torture test for 4 hours. Next I tried OCCT and the system froze every time I ran it.
Now to back up a sec and mention ram issues. The patriot ddr2 800 sticks I have show up in the cpu-z spd as being jedec @ 400mhz 5-5-5-16 1.8v | EPP1 400mhz 4-4-4-12 trc 21 2t 2.2v | EPP2 500mhz 5-5-5-15 35 tRC 2t 2.3v I had these sticks in an amd system on a gigbyte m55sli-s4 board and was able to get them to run at up to 475mhz at 5 cas (the board had no ram timing tweak other than CAS) and 2.1v (max I could select on the gigabyte board). When I stuck them in this new system on the dfi board w/the e8400 they booted up fine and I could get them to 4-4-4-12 400mhz np. But they wouldn't post past 410mhz, even when I set the timings to 5-5-5-15 and gave em plenty of juice. Turns out, I had to run em at 5-5-5-16 and they work now. Been wondering if there's a way to get em to run at the EPP standard up at 500mhz, well that's a different story.
Anyhow, once I figured that out, we're back at the beginning: 450mhz fsb freezes, 444 passes prime95 large fft for 4 hours but OCCT freezes the comp. So my next try (after reading the great sticky on OCing a c2d/c2q cpu; that's where I also learned that the small fft is the better test. I documented my results and need some help interpreting the data) was to push the vcore.
Series 1: 444x9 | strap at 1:1 (400:800) | 5-5-5-16 | Dram 2.175v | all CPU enhancements turned off except Thermal Management and multi core processing | all other voltages stock except cpu core voltage which is my variable.
1) +12.5mv vcore special add (cpu-z shows 1.248v for cpu @idle). Prime small fft fails after 25min
2) +25.0mv vcore special add (1.264v droop to 1.248). Prime small fft stable for 6hrs 18min when I halted it. Tcase temps hovered around 52-53c (when I callibrated speed fan, my thermometer was not that reliable, I'd give it an accuracy of +- 3c more likely it reads a little high.) I'm using a Thermaltake big typhoon (the newer one) and AS5.
At this point I figured that I probably have plenty of voltage and that the problem with freezing or whatever else lies somewhere else. On to series 2: testing Ram voltage. This time I used memtest to test the memory stability
Series 2: same as series 1 but with +25mv vcore leaving cpu @ 1.248 after vdroop at load | variable is ram voltage
1) 2.175v Memtest: system freeze w/in a few min of beginning the test. (same freeze as when I did the OCCT test)
2) 2.225v Memtest: system freeze w/in 5min
3) 2.25v memtest: freeze at 60% coverage (guesstimate about 10min in)
4) 2.275v memtest: freeze @ 180% coverage (guesstimate about 30min in)
5) At this point I thought that a big problem must have been ram voltage, but I wanted to test and see what affect NB voltage had, esp since I didn't want to push the ram juice much higher. So I put ram voltage back to 2.175 and bumped the NB up 1 notch to 1.278v (bios setting, I have no idea what it really is). Memtest caused system freeze almost immediately.
6) Then I Put the ram back to 2.275v and left the NB at 1.278 and memtest lasted until 98% coverage before freezing.
7) my last test was to see if the cpu clock speed had any affect. So left everything as it was and dropped the multi to 7x which gave me 3108mhz cpu. This time memtest lasted 1350% coverage before I stopped it. I'm guessing it was somewhere between 1-2hrs of testing.
At this point I'm a bit stumped as to what my next move should be. My gut says that the memory just isn't getting enough voltage at that clock speed, but I'm real skiddish about giving it much more b/c the bios voltage readout for the ram (only way I know to read it) was showing darn near 2.3v (if not slightly more) at the 2.275v setting. I noticed that as I gave it more juice it went from being lower than the setting to actually being higher. On the other hand, I don't know enough about the NB to say whether it has any real affect on the freezing, or whether the VTT might have an affect. Course, the fact that memtest ran stable for a fairly decent length of time with the cpu at a slower clock speed while the ram was still at the same speed is the most puzzling to me. That seems to imply that I may still need some more juice to the cpu. And I'm well within the CPU's safe vcore setting.
I hope someone can help me make sense out of this Ultimately I'd like to be able to hit 4.25ghz or better but will be very happy w/a rock solid 4.0ghz.
Oh 2 side note questions, I'm wondering if I should reseat the heatsink since I would have expected the TTake typhoon to be much more effective at cooling one of the new wolfdales, esp since I hardly added any juice to it and I got the e0 stepping.
Also, I'm wondering if I ought to get some 1066 instead of the 800 ram since the ram seems to be holding me back from a higher cpu speed and unfortunately I can't run the 800 any slower than 1:1 when the fsb is at 400mhz. I am definitely getting more ram (my current sticks have to go with my old comp) but would like to be able to get away w/a high oc and use 800 ram since it's a fair bit cheaper.
Now to back up a sec and mention ram issues. The patriot ddr2 800 sticks I have show up in the cpu-z spd as being jedec @ 400mhz 5-5-5-16 1.8v | EPP1 400mhz 4-4-4-12 trc 21 2t 2.2v | EPP2 500mhz 5-5-5-15 35 tRC 2t 2.3v I had these sticks in an amd system on a gigbyte m55sli-s4 board and was able to get them to run at up to 475mhz at 5 cas (the board had no ram timing tweak other than CAS) and 2.1v (max I could select on the gigabyte board). When I stuck them in this new system on the dfi board w/the e8400 they booted up fine and I could get them to 4-4-4-12 400mhz np. But they wouldn't post past 410mhz, even when I set the timings to 5-5-5-15 and gave em plenty of juice. Turns out, I had to run em at 5-5-5-16 and they work now. Been wondering if there's a way to get em to run at the EPP standard up at 500mhz, well that's a different story.
Anyhow, once I figured that out, we're back at the beginning: 450mhz fsb freezes, 444 passes prime95 large fft for 4 hours but OCCT freezes the comp. So my next try (after reading the great sticky on OCing a c2d/c2q cpu; that's where I also learned that the small fft is the better test. I documented my results and need some help interpreting the data) was to push the vcore.
Series 1: 444x9 | strap at 1:1 (400:800) | 5-5-5-16 | Dram 2.175v | all CPU enhancements turned off except Thermal Management and multi core processing | all other voltages stock except cpu core voltage which is my variable.
1) +12.5mv vcore special add (cpu-z shows 1.248v for cpu @idle). Prime small fft fails after 25min
2) +25.0mv vcore special add (1.264v droop to 1.248). Prime small fft stable for 6hrs 18min when I halted it. Tcase temps hovered around 52-53c (when I callibrated speed fan, my thermometer was not that reliable, I'd give it an accuracy of +- 3c more likely it reads a little high.) I'm using a Thermaltake big typhoon (the newer one) and AS5.
At this point I figured that I probably have plenty of voltage and that the problem with freezing or whatever else lies somewhere else. On to series 2: testing Ram voltage. This time I used memtest to test the memory stability
Series 2: same as series 1 but with +25mv vcore leaving cpu @ 1.248 after vdroop at load | variable is ram voltage
1) 2.175v Memtest: system freeze w/in a few min of beginning the test. (same freeze as when I did the OCCT test)
2) 2.225v Memtest: system freeze w/in 5min
3) 2.25v memtest: freeze at 60% coverage (guesstimate about 10min in)
4) 2.275v memtest: freeze @ 180% coverage (guesstimate about 30min in)
5) At this point I thought that a big problem must have been ram voltage, but I wanted to test and see what affect NB voltage had, esp since I didn't want to push the ram juice much higher. So I put ram voltage back to 2.175 and bumped the NB up 1 notch to 1.278v (bios setting, I have no idea what it really is). Memtest caused system freeze almost immediately.
6) Then I Put the ram back to 2.275v and left the NB at 1.278 and memtest lasted until 98% coverage before freezing.
7) my last test was to see if the cpu clock speed had any affect. So left everything as it was and dropped the multi to 7x which gave me 3108mhz cpu. This time memtest lasted 1350% coverage before I stopped it. I'm guessing it was somewhere between 1-2hrs of testing.
At this point I'm a bit stumped as to what my next move should be. My gut says that the memory just isn't getting enough voltage at that clock speed, but I'm real skiddish about giving it much more b/c the bios voltage readout for the ram (only way I know to read it) was showing darn near 2.3v (if not slightly more) at the 2.275v setting. I noticed that as I gave it more juice it went from being lower than the setting to actually being higher. On the other hand, I don't know enough about the NB to say whether it has any real affect on the freezing, or whether the VTT might have an affect. Course, the fact that memtest ran stable for a fairly decent length of time with the cpu at a slower clock speed while the ram was still at the same speed is the most puzzling to me. That seems to imply that I may still need some more juice to the cpu. And I'm well within the CPU's safe vcore setting.
I hope someone can help me make sense out of this Ultimately I'd like to be able to hit 4.25ghz or better but will be very happy w/a rock solid 4.0ghz.
Oh 2 side note questions, I'm wondering if I should reseat the heatsink since I would have expected the TTake typhoon to be much more effective at cooling one of the new wolfdales, esp since I hardly added any juice to it and I got the e0 stepping.
Also, I'm wondering if I ought to get some 1066 instead of the 800 ram since the ram seems to be holding me back from a higher cpu speed and unfortunately I can't run the 800 any slower than 1:1 when the fsb is at 400mhz. I am definitely getting more ram (my current sticks have to go with my old comp) but would like to be able to get away w/a high oc and use 800 ram since it's a fair bit cheaper.
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