system:

Intel E8400
Gigabyte P35 DS3L
8800 512MB GTS
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C5DHX
500g Western Digital HD
Scyte Mugen heatsink
Sony DVD-R

What do I need to do for my BIOS settings?

Adjustments to voltage, ram voltage, etc?

My cpu frequency is showing up as 2.4ghz and i believe it's a 3.0ghz chip.

My MOBO book advises me to change my "CPU Host Frequency" to 300 to accommodate the 1333mhz FSB of my processor. But there aren't a lot of other suggestions or direction for the other settings.

I also get a disk boot failure, but I'll tackle that after I get these BIOS settings in place so I have a stable system.

I want to get the most out of my system w/o overclocking.

Could be outdated bios. Pick out your revision:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Product [...] uctID=2599

Click bios. See if yours need updating. You'll need at least F8a. Restart your pc. Look for the bios version. Think it's at the bottom of the screen. Or get cpuz that shows the bios version.

You might have to press CTRL ALT DEL in the main menu in bios. Then MIT. Change the host frequency to 333mhz, and clock ratio to 9. Leave everything else as is.

333 is default. 1333 / 4 = 333. Always divide fsb by 4. Then 333 x 9 = 2.99/3Ghz. x9 is the multiplier. You can't o/c unless you understand this. Your ram will be at 666mhz. 333 x 2 = 666. That's default. You can try 400mhz. 400 x 9 = 3.6ghz and ram at 800mhz. Should be ok on stock cooling. If not, either up the voltages or read a guide. Keep cpu under 1.45v.

As for disk boot failure, you need a bootable os disk otherwise I would get that too. Make sure your boot order in bios are:

1 = CD/DVD
2 = HDD/FLOPPY
3 = HDD/DISABLED