~The E8400 preparation thread~ - Page 2

I haven't seen my CPU temp over 43C yet, but I haven't run anything for 4 hours straight. I ran two instances of Prime95 for 20 minutes, though...

I've also got an E8400, in a Sonata II case. I'm running the stock HS/fan, at stock speeds. My voltage is only 0.98 or so, though.

Clint

Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4 boots with currently shipped F1 bios and E8400. Q-Flash from USB stick to F2, which officially supports E8400, worked.

Sakamura, thanks for the advice!!! That Ultima-90 is sick haha. Ill defos get an aftermarket cooler!!!

cheers!

Nice prices out there! Jump on them quick if yer looking to buy people! The lower priced stores are selling out with hundreds-thousands on back order (like the store I bought from).

I am kinda pissed off though bout the store I purchased from (BLT Telecommunications).... They only had 6 left at the time (last week), so I rushed the checkout.... Accidentally shipped via the d@mn US postal service!!!!!!! It took a few days to correct the error and now it's on its' way via FED EX (to arrive tomorrow)....

I SHOULDA HAD IT ON TUESDAY! RARWWWWWG!!!! >=( Why do they even have the US postal option for this!!!? I JUST WANT TO DIE, the wait is killing me!.......

huff huff huff....... do your breathing gamebro....... Good, good..... Now put down the gun......... there ya go....

So I got my Xion case, with DS3L in it, and other parts hooked up ready to go.... But no brains to run it all! My super sexy BFG 8800GTS (G92) is very mean looking, but powerless in it's current situation =,(

Ok, so tomorrow I should get my CPU "finally". I'll be sure and post back how the DS3L works with it, and perhaps try a 4ghz OC if I can fight the urge to game (I'll probably game lol). I am encouraged to see others getting such a good overclock on the stock heatsink\fan, and it was expected. The chip is much cooler running then the old core 2 duos, and uses less power.

Also, by looking at charts like this--- http://www.anandtech.com/casecooli [...] i=3202&p=6
(scroll down the page to the comparison chart)

You can see that the retail heatsink\fan is almost as good as all these ridiculous and heavy after market coolers everyone brags about. Now bare in mind the retail HSF listed here is probably not the same one on the E8400, but still.... I bet people with a tunic tower won't see more then a few hundred mhz (vs stock HSF), and when were talking speeds 4+ghz, what's that? lol, a couple percent? Hardly worth the time, money and effort IMO.

People will probably hit MOBO limitations before heat becomes an issue (on the CPU) eh?

@ Jaywill

I've stuggled like anything to get it much past 3.8ghz on the TRUE in an Anec 900 case. I've had to get my CoolIt Freezone out just to get it too 4.2Ghz stable 24/7. With added voltage the E8400 temps skyrocket! I can boot easily at 4.5Ghz but load temps hit 80 odd .

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=302489

I'm at 1.44Vcore with 24/7 4.2Ghz 69C Load, but to get 4.5 stable i need 1.55 and that makes even my idle temps nigh on 55-60C.

For an example of my cooling @ stock forced 3ghz load was 15C CPUTIN 1.06vcore. Idle 7C!

*EDIT* vcore is what i've set in bios not cpu-z readings.
*P.S* this processor pushed my system to just over 18k in 3dmark06 with vista on a 24" screen .

This reminds me of some of those warning lables they put on certain products. Like not using the hairdryer in the shower type stuff.

Yes Q-Flash will work with the E8400 in the socket. We tried it on my friends new DS3L based build and it went with out a problem.

His specs:
E8400
8800GT 512MB
Corsair 520HX
P35-DS3L (w/ new beta BIOS)
2*1GB Corsair XMS2
DVD Burner
Zalman CNPS7700 (or some smiler Zalman, not 100% sure about the model)
Oced to 4.1Ghz, and still running Prime95 (3hrs so far).

E8400's being sold to those lucky americans at both newegg and zipzoomfly:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037

and

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Prod [...] e=10007603



if only they sold in europe too

Yep, hopefully you won't need to bother flashing the bios either.

First build eh? I am kinda a noob at this too, but I better give ya advice that woulda saved me hours of needless work last night----

Be careful during the install now. I forgot to put pushup mounting screws on my case (I know better, just forgot as it's been a few years since I put a PC together), so I moronically mounted my mobo directly to the case which caused a short (nothing started up lol) as the mobo components were touching case metal. I then had to remount it and clear the CMOS, in order for anything to fire up. (strangely my manuals said nothing about mobo to case installation!)

When ya put the CPU in you won't need to apply thermal paste if using the stock HSF (should have 3 patches on it already, that smooth out (I think?) once pressed down onto the CPU. And the stock HSF was very hard to install..... Until I realized you need to push the pins down diagonally lol. (so far my temps are right were they should be)

but before you apply the heatsink----
It takes sickening force to push the cover back down on the CPU once it is in place, felt like I was gona break it! Just do what the instructions say and grit your teeth and press in the 2 spots the manual says to (lever and cover), it worked.

E84 and 8800GTS are fantastic performers, my only complaint with this build is how I wish hybrid or SSD hard drives were available and cheap now. The HD is the only thing slowing me down now =)

If you look at the reviews of the DS3l on Newegg.com, alot of people are saying that the E8400 WILL work as is with the wolfdale installed BUT, they are still flashing it to F8a because of something to do with the voltage...

Could someone explain why they are still flashing if it works already? Is it necessary?

Yep the E8400 worked very well with my DS3L F6 bios, but I didn't pay attention to the voltage, so I am not sure what the voltage issue is (if any). I was able to get a 3.6ghz OC very quickly (just changed fsb to 400, and locked PCI-X at 100mhz) but my temps were about 65c (rather high!)

Could it really be that hot!?


I read that the temps were probably not displaying correctly as the F6 bios does not officially support wolfy (does yorky, but not wolfy). So I updated my bios to F8a using the @bios utility, and my core temps are now down to 50-61c in idle (definite improvement). This is according to CoreTemp (3rd party program)- and is probably not fully accurate even still. Otherwise, using the stock HSF and 3.6ghz, everything has been stable so far, and OMG is it fast! Games like Crysis and Oblivion load soo freaking fast, I don't have time to eat junk food anymore . It was nice enough at 3ghz, but that extra 600mhz is very nice!

I will keep it at 3.6 with the stock HSF probably until summer when things heat up. Then I'll probably get a thermal take cooler or something similar and push for that 4 - 4.5ghz OC..... Yes I am sure I could take it higher even now, but it's kinda like, why? It is already soo freakin fast!

I can't believe intel sells these things for only $200 bucks lol.

haha I felt the same way when I was installing my cpu, sounded like I was grinding the pins! It was my first time working with an LGA 775 socket so your post gives me good reassurance that I installed it properly.

Opps lol =0, that's a bad habit for me too.

When I put my rig together lastnight with the new E8400, my bios on the motherboard was F3a (Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L) and I was able to load up windows, which was weird.

Yeah mine installed Vista fine with the F6 BIOS, I forgot to put F8a on my USB stick before unplugging everything from my old computer. I thought I'd give it a shot and everything installed fine, but I have since updated it to F8a using @BIOS.

DS3R= Raid + 8SATA, 1*PCIe x16
DS3L= std, no frill motherboard 1*PCIe x16, (solid caps only)
DS3P= 2*PCIe x16 , better parts (Ferrite core chokes, Low RDS (on) MOSFET and Solid Capacitors).
See:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Product [...] ,2746,2747

PS: Note that the P35-DS3L dose support 1600FSB.

I had the same concern as you, except my mobo is an Asus P5K3 Deluxe, and the I got a E8400. The board and CPU were both brand new, too. The first time you boot the computer, you will get a CPU error code. It will still allow you to install Windows, but do not! Instead, reboot and do the ez-flash update. The mobo will still allow you to update the BIOS using ez-flash and a USB flash drive without any problems. I did not need a different CPU.

(Edit: the BIOS version that shipped with the mobo was the original version for this model.)

After that, I installed Windows and the system is stable. No problems with BIOS ver. 1001 even though it's still beta.