Assistance overclocking Q6600.

[bamu07]

Hello All. I'm having noob trouble!

I decided to try to overclock my Q6600, stocked at 2.4GHz. I'm on a 680i board. I left all the settings at Default, and set Unlinked in the bios so the memory speed wouldn't scale with the FSB. I've gotten it up to 2.76GHz with no problems; however..

When i went to 2.85GHz, i played Everquest II for all of four minutes and bluescreened. My voltages are set at [Auto] which i know isn't right, but the one area of computers i'm not familiar with is Voltages. I believe when my CPU is in full-use, CPU-Z gives me a voltage rating of 1.248 on the vcore[while at 2.76]. Is that too low? If it is, what should i put the voltage at if i want to hit 3GHz?

Secondly, my ram is DDR2-800, right now it's running at 400MHz, default speed. My FSBRAM ratio is 10:13. Would upping my CPU speed help? Also, the timings are 5-5-5-18 on my RAM. Should i change that? If so, to what? Any help would be appreciated. I've tried reading the guides but i kinda get confused.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Toxcity]

You will need to set the voltage manually.. otherwise you will get BSODs.

As long as you stay below 1.5v you will be fine.. have a play.

 

[bamu07]

There are two CPU voltage settings; CPU core and FSB...which do i want to raise?

Late Edit; i raised it to 1.3v, but CPU-Z still shows that during play i'm only getting 1.248v.

 

[Luigi]

cpu-s lyes, you want to use something like everest to get volts.

 

[bamu07]

Um, i finally got it running somewhat stable; i have a 680i board, i had to set the voltage in the bios to like...1.39, because i had it set to 1.36 but it only showed 1.31 in Everest; when it's at 1.39 it shows 1.34. Is that normal?

 

[Rastalovich]

1.3v sounds a bit high to me. Esp Q6600 under 3ghz.

 

[bamu07]

Well, It's at exactly 3GHz. I'll lower it.

 

[Luigi]

try 1.3v in the bios, thats what i use and my friend too.

 

[bamu07]

when i try 1.3v in the bios, i bluescreen while gaming. It may be because my RAM is still at 800MHz, i'm not sure if that makes a difference. Overclocking is all new to me.

 

[Luigi]

err, maybe try 1.35v in bios...

 

[Rastalovich]

Weird, maybe it depends on the mobo.

I got a Q6600 here @ 3ghz atm @ 1.2125 (as if it could be that accurate) shows being from 1.15 to 1.18 in uguru - which doesn`t mean much. Stupid thing doesn`t even report temps properly.

 

[ScottY_]

Meh i beat you all 3.2GHz @ 1.475something volts... Good job im watercooled.

But voltage depends entirely on the chip, some need hardly anything whilst others need more. Some won't go above a certain clock no matter what, any overclock is a good overclock really.

Doesn't sound like you're stress testing ti at all, i suggest you download OCCT and run the test for 30mins, if it crashes it's not stable if it passes then try dropping the cpu voltage and trying again until it crashes, then you'll have the lowest voltage possible and it should be stable.

 

[Toxcity]

I wouldn't listen to any voltages from software.. use the bios.

Software always seems to get it wrong.

 

[Luigi]

i found asus probe (or whatever comes with the mobo) pretty acurate for volts after vdroop.

 

[Rastalovich]

Meh i beat you all 3.2GHz @ 1.475something volts... Good job im watercooled.

But voltage depends entirely on the chip, some need hardly anything whilst others need more. Some won't go above a certain clock no matter what, any overclock is a good overclock really.

Doesn't sound like you're stress testing ti at all, i suggest you download OCCT and run the test for 30mins, if it crashes it's not stable if it passes then try dropping the cpu voltage and trying again until it crashes, then you'll have the lowest voltage possible and it should be stable.

I know this chip doesn`t need 1.4+ volts to go beyond 3.2.

I don`t think it took more than a few clicks to get it over 3.33. Bit hot for my liking tho.

 

[FarFarAway]

A quad can take a little more volts as long as it's watercooled. 1.4v is nothing really, I've put 1.7v through a C2D before

 

[Luigi]

people have gone upto 1.8+. intel say its safe to 1.55v so i mean 1.6v probably isnt gonna do any harm,

 

[SBB]

Remember there is a bit of a vdroop, depends on board and chip combo but in my experience its usually about -0.1v off. So 1.35v will actually be 1.25v

Make sure you set EVERYTHING manually, dont use any auto settings as you have no control of them

 

[Ham]

Bare in mind electro migration is supposed to start between 1.5 and 1.55v for prolonged usage on 65nm cpus.

 

[Luigi]

hm, well intel say in the nvidia overclocking guide 1.55v is fine, so i think anything higher should be benchmarks only, and that you should use below 1.55v for day to day.