Hey all,

Decided to try overclocking for the first time with my new E8500. Normally I'd not do such a thing but after reading the reviews of the E8500 and how tremendously overclockable it was, I had to give it a shot.

Initially I overclocked it from it's 3.16 up to 3.3. The next day up to 3.5. There seemed to be no issues, at first. Temperatures were a-o-k.

However, over the weekend I left the computer on for over a day. Some of this time included very long periods of running applications like Fallout 3 on High quality graphics and Left 4 Dead. These all ran fine... Well, in the first day.

Part-way through day 2 of the machine being on I started having problems. Left 4 Dead locked up and went into a sound loop. I killed the process, started the game up again, and it happened again shortly after.

Still hoping it was a fluke and I wasn't having instability problems, I started up Fallout 3 which I had run probably for 4 or 5 hours the day prior with no issues. About 10 minutes into it I got an XP BSOD and the system immediately shut down.

After that I put the clock speed back down to 3.16.

Here are my questions. Sorry if they're silly but I haven't done this before

First... I got up to 3.5 just raising the FSB. Nothing with vcore (I think that's what it is called?) I know not having enough power going to it can cause instability, but it is normal for it to be able to go for so many hours like that when the vcore is too low?

Also, I haven't done anything with RAM speed or anything like that. Is that something I need to be looking at right now?

I just don't want to go off randomly doing things to my new processor and end up killing it

Hi, PhoenixRedeemer, Welcome to PCHF.

Boy inst this going to be fun to explain

Ok, lets get one thing straight, every CPU that comes off the assembly line just don't function the same PERIOD. One CPU for instance Intel quad core blah blah with 10 multipliers, runs at 2.8 MHz. Jim bought the same CPU to match his friends. Friends CPU overclocked to 3.5 and ran stable for 3 days and more. Jim over clocked his and couldn't keep his system stable at 3.5 for nothing. Although they are the same CPU.

Usually a persons system is held more accountable than a CPU difference would. Generally if even the CPUs are slightly different results in comparison should be close.

What effects a CPU's ability to over clock are many factors, but the more realistic ones are of course:

Cooling
Ram
Voltage
Quality

With having the right speed of ram you can increase the speed that the CPU communicates with it, this is the FSB (Front Side Bus). Increasing this slows down your RAM. You can make small adjustments with out making voltage adjustments, but eventually your computer will not run stable if the settings become to high.

Anytime you make something run faster you are increasing its temperature, so having proper cooling and airflow is best. Also make sure you use a good thermal compound, a good heat sink and a fan that has high CFM. You could also go liquid cooling.

The 2nd thing you can do is adjust multipliers although this function isn't always accessible.

You can also increase your ram speed.

Generally i push my CPU and ram to their limits slowly in small increments and over a period of a week. A system needs to be stable at max performance for at least 3 days with out any signs of wear and over heating to be confirmed overclocked successfully in my opinion.

The first couple days i will push it until i lose this stability, then back it down some, and make small increases in voltage to the ram and CPU. I will then increase my CPU and ram timings back to where the system became unstable and configure my results. Continue like this, and make sure you watch your temperatures, though anything over heating is killing your components. And overclocking it self takes the life away of your components.

That last, is quality. Having a good set of RAM, installed on a Good motherboard can say a lot. Do your research on chipsets for motherboards, and also do some research on quality ram, and their timings. Good luck, but I'm sure with a little effort and a little more research you wont have any problems getting that thing at 3.5 stable

Try raising the core voltage a TINY bit. Maybe .05 volts