Overclocking an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400

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CMP02

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I decided today to finally overclock my Intel Quad 2 Q8400 @2.66GHz. I am not a complete noob, but it is the first time I mingled with the prozessor clock.

After some investigation, I found that the best FSB to use was 400Mhz at 8x to reach a very comfy 3.2Ghz.. I read a little guide that told me to increase FSB to the desired frequency in 5-10Mhz steps, and when the system malfunctioned, to try and add voltage to Memory/Chipset/Core (In that order, if the previous didnt solved the problem).

So I did just that. I own a P5K-EPU motherboard with latest BIOS/drivers with 2x 2GB Kingston Hyperx RAM sticks (one is clocked at 1066Mhz, the other at 800Mhz, bought different frequencies by accident ) and a Thermalright True Black 120 heatsink with a Scythe high speed fan.

First thing I noticed was that the BIOS gave me the option to Overclock using an "Overclocking AI", meaning that I only had to specify the FSB and the multiplier I wanted, and the AI would assign the voltage/frequency to the required elements. Stock FSB was 333Mhz, and gradually incrementing it to 400Mhz showed no boot trouble whatsoever. I did a benchmark of the CPU each time I incremented the FSB to make sure everything was going allright.

As I reached 400Mhz, I did a torture test (Prime 95) for about 5 hours. No problems whatsoever, and thanks to the exeptional cooler max. temp was at 50 C. I even ran a RAM benchmark to make sure my memory was not having any problems, and it wasnt.

My question is: Is it ok if I leave all the voltages at auto and allow the AI to assign it? I read that the problem of leaving auto was that it generated more heat, but my system is running pretty cool (On iddle it doesnt go past 30-35C and while playing it hits a maximum of 40C). As I stated, I havent encountered any problems during the day, even played some BF:BC2 (God, I need BF3 to be released here on europe) while Prime was running, with no problems.
 
The Auto AI usually applies more Voltage than what is needed. Since you know what the Auto AI voltages are at your settings you can try lowering them and see what happens. Worst comes to worst you can just reset them to the Auto values.
 
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