So I recently put together a new system, and I am confuzzled. In my bios when i look through my "Motherboard intelligence tweaker" it says my clock speed is 2.66 ghz (333x8), and in windows (vista 64bit) it says Its running at 3.00 ghz.

Here are screenshots of what it says in bios and windows:

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/ [...] owsCPU.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/ [...] CPU001.jpg

Here's my system:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128336
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231122
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811146047
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136098

So does this mean my E8400 CPU is running at the 3.0ghz its supposed to or not?
And if it is running slow as i suspect, what changes do i make to make it run properly, as I am afraid of changing the wrong setting and blowing up my puter :{

any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php download and run CPU-Z 1.46 and post what it says. Your CPU should be running a 9X multiplier at ~333.33MHz, for a CPU speed of ~3GHz.

I downloaded CPUz, and I am looking at the "CPU" tab, under "clocks" (Core#0) it says:

core speed- bouncing between 1999 mhz and 2666 mhz
multiplier- bounching between x 6.0 and x 8.0
bus speed 333.3mhz
rated FSB-1333.2

Vista doesn't know how to calc clock speed. It takes your FSB, and multiplies by the CPU's MAXIMUM multiplier, not the one it is currently running at (I guess to compensate for speedstep). You need to change your multiplier in the BIOS to 9, as it is currently 8 (it drops to 6 to save power when idle).

Once you change the multiplier to 9, you'll be at 3GHz (though it will still drop to 6 when idle - this is normal).

Thank you, I will do that.

I have one other question. I also downloaded the application Core temp .99 , It is saying my CPU temps are between 44-and 45. Is this kind of high, especially since im using:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003

(supposed to be a good cooler), and the CPU is currently underclocked? also, my BIOS said my CPU temp was 30 degrees, now Ive heard bios temp readings are inaccurate. any advice reguarding my cpu temp?

well, coretemp is what I use and it works well. That cooler you mentioned is what I have and I got my e6400 from 2.13ghz to 3+ghz without hitting 60C. 44-45c temps at stock aren't bad at all really since you have a stock cooler. anything over 62C i would be careful of.

Im not using the stock cooloer, im using the XIGMATEK HDT-512 S1283 120mm rifle cpu cooler (linked before). If 44-45 is good, thats good, but is that decent for this cooler? MY CPU is at stock speed, however (3.0 ghz)

If my cooling is adequate, do you know of a good barney-style guide for OC'ing at 8400, as I havent OC'd before, and I'd like to try.

It sounds like you have CPU Intelligent Accelerator turned on, which is supposed to fluctuate core speed and FSB. If this is turned off in bios then we have to look further. There is a bit of theory to know before overclocking, I suggest you do some reading before changing any voltages. Try typing "overclocking guide" into google and also make notes especially with regard to your motherboard and CPU. Start easy, don't make big voltage increases in the begining.

These are the sorts of things you need to think about and take note of, try and find more people with similar components to give you an idea, also in your case your going to need to know about RAM dividers and timings, I am betting you get 4.2-4.4Ghz out of your machine with that cooler and some suggested ram timings are 4-4-4-12, the G skill should cope.

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/ [...] p?t=684953

I had to do the same thing with my c2q q9450 but once I put the multiplier back to normal everything was fine.

people freak out about temps, firstly many quads have stuck sensors that give a misleading rep of its tempreature doesn't matter if your using real temp, core temp or whatever. If you see something like 45-45-30-45 then your thermal sensors are stuck on the way down and won't drop to 30c. 45nm cores also have a greater heat range than 65nm chips.

Intel has a maximum thermal value listed for all of its processors and this should be considered even though many exceed it with no problems. What you need to know for cpu longevity is the tempreature range that will render your silicons molecules useless, and that's basically done in overclocking competitions, when the cpu "bricks" itself to a certain maximum core speed.

thanks for the help guys

let your multiplier float and crank that chip to 3.8ghz!