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.
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.