E8400 Question?

[Matt1970]

I just got an e8400 off a user here. Specs say it's a 1333 bus so I am assuming I will need a 1600 bus board to overclock it?

 

[Matt1970]

Here is a review on newegg:

Pros: Overclocked to 4.21ghz for 3.5 years - I really have not had a need to get an i7 cpu - I know they are faster, but have not needed one - I have this with ASUS P5N32 E SLI mobo - 8gb mem (OCZ Reaper an Fatility Memory)- Win 7 64bit pro - Two Samsung spinpoints 1TB each RAID 0 w/ 32meg cache - and Two MSI GTX 260 Max O/C 740mhz core clock - STUNNING is the word for my rig old school rig-

The ASUS P5N32 is a 1333 bus board so how is he overclocking it? There are a bunch of reviews like that.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

You do not need to have a 1600fsb mobo. You overclock the BUS to achieve the OC on CPU.

 

[Bman123]

Have fun overclocking that sucker my e8400 was a beast

 

[jumpncrash]

Have fun overclocking that sucker my e8400 was a beast

indeed, mine is still running 24/7 A 3.6, I've had it pretty much since it was available here. i used to have it at 4, but I lowered it to save it a bit

 

[Matt1970]

Ugg, it looks like e8400 isn't gonna happen. I have a ASUS P5GC-MX/1333 that I was hoping the e8400 was gonna work in. The board will only do 1333 FSB if overclocked and no voltage adjustment. The e8400 will only do 3.0 and barf on anything after that. It looks like any decent board for overclocking that chip will set me back at least $75 and most are NOT PCI Express 2.0
E8400 - $65
Board - $75
4gb DDR2 - $40

$180 total and that isn’t bad however I do however have an e7500 that is running at 3.6 stable in my ASUS P5GC-MX/1333 board. I took that setup in trade with 2GB Ram so I have next to nothing into it. That and the fact that I can get a Sandy Bridge Celeron G530 with a decent AsRock board and 4GB ram for $125 which will leave lots of upgrade options in the future. The G530 actually benchmarks a tad higher than the E8400 at stock.

This all came about by my OLD gaming rig needing an XP Re-install. I just happen to look on ebay and my Pentium 4 Extreme Edition SL7CH Socket 478 chip was still selling for $100, the same thing I paid for it 5 years ago. Upgrading was a no-brainer at that point. The chip already sold for $100 and I will probably get $40 for my old GeForce 6800 GT AGP, $30 for my Albatron 478 board and another $30 for my gig of DDR Ram so I will actually make money upgrading this rig.

 

[SpeedTester]

Hmmmm Asus says your board suppports the e8400


Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.00GHz,1333FSB,L2:6MB,65W,rev.E0)

ALL




0402




O.C support FSB1333 CPUs



Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.00GHz,1333FSB,L2:6MB,rev.C0)

ALL




0312




O.C support FSB1333 CPUs

 

[Matt1970]

It ran at 3.0 on that board but even the slightest bump from there it would barf. No V-core adjustment available. If I can't overclock the e8400 I am better off with the Sandy Bridge Celeron.

 

[PG]

Yes. http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=7977&pageid=8060
Of course if you go Sandy Bridge you can see from that review how much faster an i3 is.

 

[Matt1970]

Thanks PG for the link. Even more evidence I should go Sandy Bridge all the way.

 

[grimpr]

Yes. http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=7977&pageid=8060
Of course if you go Sandy Bridge you can see from that review how much faster an i3 is.

Nice little review, we need more like this comparing budget modern chips to the core 2 duo generation, the Celeron G530 is indeed the worthy heir to the C2D 8400 at only 50$.

 

[Candymancan21]

You dont need to up the voltage to overclock an E8400. Itll go pretty high before a voltage increase..


My E8400 FYI has been overclocked to 4.4ghz for like 3 years now.. lol its so fast i havent found the need to upgrade it yet.. My system runs skyrim maxed out at 60fps 1680x1050 4xAA 8xAF so i see no need for a new computer ATM.. I really disagree with the ending statement of that review in that link... It says that E8400 Users should consider upgrading there old machines..

You know, in all those benchmarks the guy did the E8400 was getting 50+ fps... all you need is that in any game you play and until my E8400 starts to run in the low 40's and 30's there is no need to waste money on current cpu's to get 90fps.... I'd rather wait.

 

[Matt1970]

You dont need to up the voltage to overclock an E8400. Itll go pretty high before a voltage increase..


My E8400 FYI has been overclocked to 4.4ghz for like 3 years now.. lol its so fast i havent found the need to upgrade it yet.. My system runs skyrim maxed out at 60fps 1680x1050 4xAA 8xAF so i see no need for a new computer ATM.. I really disagree with the ending statement of that review in that link... It says that E8400 Users should consider upgrading there old machines..

You know, in all those benchmarks the guy did the E8400 was getting 50+ fps... all you need is that in any game you play and until my E8400 starts to run in the low 40's and 30's there is no need to waste money on current cpu's to get 90fps.... I'd rather wait.

Believe me I am all for getting the last bit out of a system. I was gaming on a socket 478 till 2 weeks ago. The issue is this. The e8400 at 4GHz or better will be a fine machine but I am still looking at $180 for board/chip/ram and I will have no warranty and more than likely no PCIe 2.0. When it is time to upgrade I am replacing board/chip/ram and a Windows re-install. For $60 less I can have a machine that will be damn close in terms of performance, PCIe 2.0, warranty and when I am ready to upgrade I just have to swap out a chip.

 

[peonyu]

Believe me I am all for getting the last bit out of a system. I was gaming on a socket 478 till 2 weeks ago. The issue is this. The e8400 at 4GHz or better will be a fine machine but I am still looking at $180 for board/chip/ram and I will have no warranty and more than likely no PCIe 2.0. When it is time to upgrade I am replacing board/chip/ram and a Windows re-install. For $60 less I can have a machine that will be damn close in terms of performance, PCIe 2.0, warranty and when I am ready to upgrade I just have to swap out a chip.

The E8400 is a great chip but if you have to spend all that to get it working @4ghz then you SHOULD take the dive and get a Sandy Bridge setup. Id reccomend at the very least a I3 cpu. The performance is well worth the extra $.

Also Im not sure if there are K I3's but I would try and go that route as well [even if you have to even more]. A K chip obviously, will overclock easily. Without a K chip you are forced to OC via the Blck and in my experience if you dont have a I7 setup the Bclk might get a OC from 100blck to 103 at most [which is absolutely nothing].

 

[daveybrat]

I agree that the E8400 is not the way to go with the pricing you are getting it for.

But i would not get the Celeron Sandy personally. I would spend a couple bucks more for the G620 Sandy for the extra MHz and cache.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116399

 

[skipsneeky2]

I think the best route to go would be with a i3 2100,i had one and it was a excellent performer and basically in nearly every game and app,it appeared to be as fast if not faster then a q6600.

Strongest dual core processor period and worth every nickel with it outperforming some of the amd quad cores,the purchase is gold.

 

[Matt1970]

Well poop.The overclock bug bit me too hard I guess. I bought this to go with my e8400

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=33205164&highlight=#post33205164

Abit I-P35E 775 motherboard
4 gb (2 x 2gb ) Corsair XMS2 DDR2 4-4-4-12 800mhz $40

 

[Matt1970]

Well I got my board. The e8400 seems to be flying along. I got some boot times that reminds me of XP (Pre-SP2) on a Sata. Don't laugh at my Video score. It's only a 9500GT. I guess there are 2 flavors of e8400 and I have the lesser stepping but 4GHz so far ain't to bad.

 

[Matt1970]

Nobody Cares

 

[KingFatty]

I care, I have a secondary computer with an E8400 and it was passed on to me from a friend who upgraded. Since I'm not the original owner, I'm not super familiar with it or how to overclock it, plus I have an HTPC video card in it instead of a powerhouse GPU.

Anyway, I'm wondering if you could share your overclocking strategy, and whether you have a kill-a-watt meter and could check what the difference in power consumption between pre-overclocking and post-overclocking?

I like to overclock and I think it would be fun to overclock my E8400 system, but since I'm unfamiliar with it I've not been contributing to this thread, just watching it with interest only because I'm kind of ignorant.

It was nice to see your results, good work! It inspires people like me to dig in and try it, and also helps me understand that I could get some good performance out of it and may be worth putting a more powerful GPU in that sucker and overclock the crap out it...

 

[Matt1970]

I don't have a very accurate amp meter but I think the difference is negligible. To overclock, your BIOS needs to be able to adjust the FSB (Front Side Bus) and even better if it can adjust the core voltage. Even without overclocking the E8400 is a powerful chip. Check into your motherboard and let us know what ya got.