Help OC'ing Q9400 on Maximus II Formula

[MacAllah]

Howdy!:wavey:

Y'all helped me a while back with my last build. I'm hoping you can work your magic again. Here's the set-up this time:

ASUS Maximus II Formula (P45 chipset)

Intel Q9400 (Quad-core 2.66 ghz stock)

OCZ Reaper RAM (2 x 2GB 1066)

Tuniq 120 Tower CPU Fan/Heatsink w/ Arctic Silver

Corsair 620W PSU

EVGA GTX 260

I've already overclocked it a bit, but I'm almost entirely sure I can push it further and that the RAM is what's slowing me down. Right now I have these settings in the BIOS:

Ai Overclock Tuner: Manual

Ratio CMOS Setting: 8.0

FSB Frequency: 455

DRAM Frequency: DDR2 1093

CPU Voltage: 1.5v

CPU PLL Voltage: 1.5v

FSB Termination Voltage: 1.35v

DRAM Voltage: 2.21075

North Bridge Voltage: 1.40475

With those settings Windows is telling me I'm running at 3.64 ghz. So, 1 ghz over stock. The multiplier can only go 8.0x max. The problem is that if I lower my RAM speed a lot I can get to CPU to 3.8 ghz easy. The RAM is rated at 1066 and has HUGE heatsinks, so it should be able to go past the 1093 it's running at right now easy, right?

Should I change any of my voltages? What the hell is RAM bootstrap? Help me get the max out of this beast!

A step-by-step or even general comments like "bump up your xxx" would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance! :worship:

Love Always,

MacAllah

 

[°TheMadDutchDude°]

Dude are you serious at 1.5v on the CPU? The max recommended for that CPU is 1.38!

Yeah your RAM should be able to go past that, loosen up the timings a bit to hopefully make it run a bit smoother

 

[MacAllah]

MadDutchDude, I didn't know that. I lowered it to 1.38 and was able to actually squeeze it up to 3.72 stable (and 3.92 unstable). Thank you!

It looks like my RAM can run up to 1150ish and my processor could probably still keep going past 3.92, but the northbridge gets too damn hot and the whole thing blue screens. The mobo already has huge heatsinks, but is there anyway to mod a fan on there or something? I've already got 5 on the case...

 

[-VK-]

Bear in mind the guidelines I posted on Overclocking for P45:

http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=23663

 

[°TheMadDutchDude°]

Very nice, how about upping the volts on your RAM to say 2.3v?

You're welcome, I do my bit to keep people informed of what I know, and I like to be corrected if I am wrong.. but don't make a big deal out of it!

 

[MacAllah]

I'll try the RAM voltages up soon. I've set my fans to all high and I can get 3.8 ghz stable now (475 x 8.0), but my FSB doesn't seem to like anything higher than that...

I'd like to get the processor as high as I can before I do anything with the RAM.

 

[°TheMadDutchDude°]

Well you have reached your maximum volts so you're not going to be able to go much further, I don't personally know how much extra stress you put on it if you run it above.. I have never bothered to ask Intel or anyone like that. Sorry that was no use to you but it is recommended you stay below 1.38v on all 45nm chips!

 

[-VK-]

Magic Numbers for you.

1.2855V for the FSB

1.19275V for the Northbridge.

CPU multiplier to 6x

Don't touch any of the other voltages, you should then be able to raise the FSB to 480MHz.