Okay, I got my Q8300 and installed it with the stock fan/heatsink (will be upgrading in 1-2 wks). I ran it on stock settings for a few days, then decided to try to OC a little bit. My motherboard is the ASUS P5B running BIOS version 2101, which supports the 1333MHz FSB. My RAM is Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-6400 @ 800MHz. The Q8300s multiplier is max 7.5 and minimum 6.0.
I did a lot of reading and watched some tutorial videos before I tried this. So, I commenced to overclocking. All I changed was the bus speed because my RAM is tied to the bus. I did 4 adjustments in total. On my 3rd one, the CPU temp got too high, so I did a 4th adjustment and got the temp back down, with a few degrees to spare. I'm just going to share my last successful settings.
What I Did
1. Changed AI Tuning to Manual. 2. Changed CPU Frequency to 360. DRAM freq automatically adjusted to DDR2 - 720MHz from 667MHz when I put it in. I let the CPU multiplier stay at "Auto".
Results
CPU speed went up to 2.7GHz and the bus speed increased to 1440MHz. My CPU temp is running between 62-64 degrees Celsius, which is below the 71 degree Celsius max for the Q8300.
I gradually got the CPU up to 3.0GHz with RAM increasing to 800MHz, but the CPU temperature spiked to 89 degrees Celsius, so I immediately changed to the above settings.
Observations & Questions
1st Issue - When I went into the BIOS, I noticed that the CPU was only running at 2GHz. The Q8300 is supposed to run at 2.5GHz. So, my CPU was actually underclocked out of the box. Why would Intel do this?
2nd Issue - My BIOS stats and CPU-Z stats don't match. CPU-Z is way off on CPU speed. My BIOS shows I'm running at 2.7GHz, but CPU-Z shows 2.16GHz. I would think my BIOS would show the correct information before CPU-Z would. Am I right? Which one should I rely on for accuracy?
Is there a way to squeeze more performance out of my CPU on the stock heatsink/fan? I didn't touch any voltages and I didn't mess with the multiplier. All I did was change the bus speed a little at a time. Should I have actually set the multiplier at 7.5 instead of leaving it on "Auto"? I don't know what the 'auto' setting is, so would that make a difference?
Conclusion
I'm fine running at 2.7GHz at a safe temp until I get an aftermarket heatsink and fan. Especially since out of the box I was running at 2GHz. But, I know I want to go higher, so I'm going to need a better unit. Are there any good ones for less than $30.00? I'm not a gamer. The most processor intensive thing I do is encode short video blogs (10 minute length max) for YouTube. I just want to OC as far as I can, safely. Recommendations for a heatsink/fan would be great.
I did a lot of reading and watched some tutorial videos before I tried this. So, I commenced to overclocking. All I changed was the bus speed because my RAM is tied to the bus. I did 4 adjustments in total. On my 3rd one, the CPU temp got too high, so I did a 4th adjustment and got the temp back down, with a few degrees to spare. I'm just going to share my last successful settings.
What I Did
1. Changed AI Tuning to Manual. 2. Changed CPU Frequency to 360. DRAM freq automatically adjusted to DDR2 - 720MHz from 667MHz when I put it in. I let the CPU multiplier stay at "Auto".
Results
CPU speed went up to 2.7GHz and the bus speed increased to 1440MHz. My CPU temp is running between 62-64 degrees Celsius, which is below the 71 degree Celsius max for the Q8300.
I gradually got the CPU up to 3.0GHz with RAM increasing to 800MHz, but the CPU temperature spiked to 89 degrees Celsius, so I immediately changed to the above settings.
Observations & Questions
1st Issue - When I went into the BIOS, I noticed that the CPU was only running at 2GHz. The Q8300 is supposed to run at 2.5GHz. So, my CPU was actually underclocked out of the box. Why would Intel do this?
2nd Issue - My BIOS stats and CPU-Z stats don't match. CPU-Z is way off on CPU speed. My BIOS shows I'm running at 2.7GHz, but CPU-Z shows 2.16GHz. I would think my BIOS would show the correct information before CPU-Z would. Am I right? Which one should I rely on for accuracy?
Is there a way to squeeze more performance out of my CPU on the stock heatsink/fan? I didn't touch any voltages and I didn't mess with the multiplier. All I did was change the bus speed a little at a time. Should I have actually set the multiplier at 7.5 instead of leaving it on "Auto"? I don't know what the 'auto' setting is, so would that make a difference?
Conclusion
I'm fine running at 2.7GHz at a safe temp until I get an aftermarket heatsink and fan. Especially since out of the box I was running at 2GHz. But, I know I want to go higher, so I'm going to need a better unit. Are there any good ones for less than $30.00? I'm not a gamer. The most processor intensive thing I do is encode short video blogs (10 minute length max) for YouTube. I just want to OC as far as I can, safely. Recommendations for a heatsink/fan would be great.