Hit a Plateau on OC

[Whomastadon]

I recently overclocked My Core 2 Duo e8500 3.16 Ghz up to 3.7Ghz. Bus speed is at 390.5 on a 9.5 multiplier. Rated FSB is 1562 Mhz. The cpu voltage is running at 1.296v. Ram is DDR2 800 4gb at 4-4-4-12. 1:1 ratio.

I can't seem to get any higher. If i try to increase to FSB the computer will not boot so i have to reset cmos, load the stable settings and try something else or just continue with what ive got. I know the cpu can be pushed to around 4.2 Ghz as i've seen heaps of peoples results that have acheived this. I've tried messing around with the ram timings and upping the voltages of memory, northbridge ect ect but i can't seem to get a higher clockspeed that will boot.

Is it just my cpu and the fact its been thrashed with day and night long WoW, COD, BF sessions over the past 3 years?
If anyones got any advice im all ears. Thanks.

 

[henydiah]

Seem maxing out your DDR2-800, get some DDR2-1066 should help.
Try lossen timing at 5-5-5-18 n raise voltage ram at 2.0v - 2.1v , also Vcore at 4ghz need more 1.3-1.35v some had vcore over than it , enabled load line calibration.

 

[jsc]

Motherboard?

Enabling LLC may or may not help.

Intel'r recommended max voltage limits for the 45 nm Core2's is 1.45 volts. With decent cooling and a C2D CPU, you have a pretty good chance of reaching that before you reach the 70 C limits.

 

[Whomastadon]

Alright!!!

So i changed the ram timings from 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-18 and upped the voltage from 1.3V to 1.325V and I'm currently running at 4.03MHz at 49 - 51 degrees idle. The fact that it booted into windows with no problems makes me confident this will be stable. I'm going to go play some BFBC2 whilst monitoring the cpu temps, then run a prime95 test overnight and see how it goes.

Just curious if anyone would know what videocard would be balanced with a 4gig Core 2 Duo e8500. By that i mean i'm trying to find a videocard that will not be bottlenecked by the cpu, but one that can perform fast enough to use all the cpu's juice. I'm between a GTX 560 and Radeon 9870 atm but I'm all ears if anyone has a better recommendation.

Thanks alot for the help.

 

[henydiah]

Radeon 6870 or gtx 560 ... E8200 4ghz is perfect and fast , it can balance with both and GTX560 performs quite a bit higher than the 6870, and has shown to be exceptionally cool and quiet.

 

[Whomastadon]

Yah after looking around on different forums I thought the gtx560 was the way to go, thanks.

Just been trying to play BFBC2 and i can get through the initial intro video but when the "loading" screen comes on the game just shuts down and disappears. It didn't do this before? My fsb:ram ratio is currently 15:16 after upping the cpu to 4gig, could that be the reason why?

Should i run memtest or prime95 first and see what results i get.