Q9400 need help

[Bman123]

Well my temps are good but my overclock is not.

437 bus is the farthest I cna get
440= BSOD, 450= no post=460 = no post

I am at 437=3.5ghz my cpu temp during intel burn test on max never exceeds 55c so I have good temps.
I dont know if I hit a wall or if it is my ram.
I am running ocz ddr2 2x2 800mhz gold ram and I believe it is up to 874mhz

What do you guys think?
I am on my rig in sig.Just trying to see what she'll do here guys thats all

 

[sirmonkey1985]

i would blame the ram.. make sure the ram timing is loosened to 5-5-5-18.. and set it to 2.1v ya might be able to get some more out of the ram..

if the rams recommended timing is 5-5-5-18 already.. then loosen it to 6-6-6-24 and see what happens.. but personally 5-5-5-18 is about my limit.. an extra 10-15mhz of headroom isnt worth that much performance loss..

 

[Bman123]

I will try to losen the timing some and see what happens.
If it is the ram that is the culprit how can I get around this? I mean I know to try different ram but what speed? SHould i use 900 or 1066 ram

 

[Zero82z]

Divide the RAM speed by two to find the maximum FSB that you are guaranteed to be able to run with them. For example, DDR2-800 will let you run an FSB of 400MHz, while DDR2-1066 would give you up to 533MHz. For overclocking a Q9400, I'd recommend at least DDR2-1000. To hit 3.8GHz with your CPU you'd need an FSB of 475MHz, which would come out to a speed of DDR2-950 which is much higher than what your current sticks are rated for. As it is, you're already running them at 874MHz which is a pretty hefty overclock.