[DinJerr]

I just installed a new Zalman cooler on my CPU, it's now running at 37°C compared to 44°C on the stock fan. Cool. Now I went and updated ASUS's EPU-4 engine and AI engine to the latest version for my day-to-day underclocking needs (yes yes, I'm an tree-hugging idiot, stop bothering me).

I do however, feel the need for speed when certain games demand it. Since I'm not a fan of BIOS overclocking because the changes there are permanent, I'll be using the AI Booster+Fan Xpert to tweak the settings. What are the settings I should use to get my clockspeed from 3ghz to say, 3.5 ghz? Currently the CPU Freq. is at 333 while the ratio is 9.0 My RAM I think is underclocked at 800mhz, at least that's what CPUZ seems to say, I have no idea where to find out what it's actually operating at.

What should I be tweaking here to achieve the safest result? A good little-by-little guide would be helpful instead of the tweak-everything in most guides I have come across (not to mention being out-of-date.... 2005?oO).

 

[Princess Garnet]

1. Your RAM probably isn't underclocked. It's likely running it's stock value of 800MHz, but at that speed, it's running higher than it needs to when your CPU is at 3.0GHz (edit: I just checked your signature, and you have 1066MHz RAM, so it technically is underclocked, by my point that it's running higher than need be is still valid). With a FSB of 333MHz at 3.0GHz, that's all your RAM needs to be at. If you care about not having excess, set your RAM to 333MHz (667MHz effective) when at 3.0GHz. That will give you a 1:1 match, so you won't lose any speed. You may, in turn, be able to either tighten timings or lower voltage a notch.

2. I recommend upping it to 3.6GHz when you want more speed. Why? Does the extra 100MHz matter? Well, no reason other than it makes for a nice even 400MHz (1600MHz effective) FSB, and a nice even standard matching 400MHz (800MHz effective) for the RAM. If you want 3.5GHz, that'd be ~389MHz FSB and ~389MHz RAM (this will give you slightly over 3.5GHz, as it's really 388.888... that will give you 3.5GHz). That CPU should pull that off at stock voltage, especially if it's an E0 stepping one (but even my old C0 stepping E8400 did 3.6GHz at stock). Don't worry about messing with multipliers. It'll probably just add unnecessary confusion by the sound of things. Most people with the E8400 go from 333MHz to 400MHz for the first step, as it's pretty guaranteed, safe, sometimes (usually) possible on stock voltage, and a good jump, all while being mild. From there, most go to 3.8GHz, 4.0GHz, and then whatever they can get beyond that.

 

[StriderVM]

I'd just be adding an extra something..... Don't use any AI booster or overclocking software. It's much better and more efficient to do it yourself. Most overclocking software overvolt too much in my experience.

 

[SCHUMI_4EVER]

The problem with AI Booster is that you have no voltage control, thus it could set your voltage to unsafe levels automatically.