Overclocking (Cont.)

4Ghz

Again, the voltage on this new stepping is incredible.

4.275Ghz

Now I'm having to put quite a bit more voltage in comparison to the relatively low MHz gain.

4.5Ghz

Again to get a mere 200Mhz more I had to increase the voltage by 0.08v.  This is pushing the limits on how much voltage I want to push through the CPU.  Personally I would not run this here for an extended period of time.  Especially, when I can run 24/7 at 4Ghz and only 1.25v.

Benchmarks

OK it's time to throw some benches in.  This is more about overclocking than trying to get high benchmark scores.   But, why do we really overclock anyway?

SuperPI

Not bad scores at all.  With some tighter timings in the ram, it would probably be possible to get sub-10's.

3D Mark 06

3D Mark Vantage

These are some pretty nice scores.  However, you can really see that these scores are no where near what you can get in a quad core that isn't overclocked this high.

Conclusion

There has been quite a few people with C0 stepping E8400's that overclock just as well if not better than this.  However, from what I've seen posted on the internet, the E0 stepping has a much higher success rate.  This is the third E8400 I've had here in the past few months.  The two C0 steppings that I had took nearly 1.4V to be stable at 4GHz.  You can obviously see the benefit of the new stepping.  Should you run out and buy a new stepping E0?  Absolutely!  We are about overclocking.  Probably the majority of you reading this are into overclocking to some degree.  I know that Intel is on the verge of releasing a new CPU, but who cares?  There will always be something new coming out.  Most overclockers don't keep their system very long.  CPU's are constantly getting sold or traded so we can upgrade to the next big thing.  I wouldn't go from a quad core to this, but if you have a lesser CPU and can afford it, upgrade.  Just remember that there are still plenty of C0 steppings out there.  So if you are ordering online and the company isn't guarantying the stepping, you may end up with a C0.  Happy Overclocking!