q6600 & asus maximus formula

[thestepster]

i was wanting a bit of info as im a total noob when it comes to overclocking ive managed to get it to hit 3.33ghz but i soon figured out its unstable, i didnt change much on it just the fsb to 370mhz x 9, ram voltages were at default at 1.8 but the box says 2.1v so i changed it to that and the rams speed OCZ Flex II, stock @ 1150mhz overlocked to 1184mhz (1150hmz wasnt selectable) i really didnt want to mess with anything else and i was paranoid i would fry the cpu and not sure if one things running to fast for the other things and thats where the unstability comes from any help would be greatly appreciated

here's a better look at what my set up is

CPU: Intel C2Q Q6600 G0 stepping ( 2.4ghz stock clock just now)

M/B: Asus Maximus Formula

Cooler: Corsair H50 with 2 120mm Antec Tri Cool Blue LED's in Push Pull, pullin in air from the rear of the case like corsair advises

RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 OCZ Flex II 1150mhz

GPU: ATI Radeon 4850 1GB (stock)

PSU: Tagan TG530-U15 (530W?)

Case: Antec 300

Fans: 5 120mm Antec Tri Cool Blue LED's (2 on the H50 in push pull) & 1 Tri Cool 140mm @ the top

stepy

 

[°TheMadDutchDude°]

Up the voltage on your CPU a tad. Keep going until it's stable. You won't fry anything. Those CPU's can take a good beating.

I presume you know about stability testing?

 

[thestepster]

Up the voltage on your CPU a tad. Keep going until it's stable. You won't fry anything. Those CPU's can take a good beating.

I presume you know about stability testing?

yeah prime 95, orthos, 3d mark 06, intel burn test, temps really aint an issue this h50 seems to work really really well, you think that i only need to up the cpu voltages?

 

[GavX]

MOAR VOLTAGE!

Keep throwing more through til it stops crashing, that is how you overclock...

(Would like to point out I have a habit of killing components, so might not be the best to give advice to.. ment to be a PC Engineer as well...)

Gently up the voltage from stock, which I think is 1.45 on the 6600's, try 1.5, you are on water so heat shouldnt be much of an issue, but I would hazard 1.6 would be the max vcore you can get away with. As for northbridge voltage, I have mine on water but I give it hell with 1.71v, generally 1.6 will see you to a tasty 400fsb. And as for RAM, I would be inclined to drop the speeds, I know they can do 1150, but that is probably there limiatation, else they would be put in teh 1200Mhz RAM bin, drop a divider and find your CPU max, rather than CPU/RAM max, as you are only giving yourself more hard work.

I got the same board, so if you need any more help give us a collar!

 

[thestepster]

MOAR VOLTAGE!

Keep throwing more through til it stops crashing, that is how you overclock...

(Would like to point out I have a habit of killing components, so might not be the best to give advice to.. ment to be a PC Engineer as well...)

Gently up the voltage from stock, which I think is 1.45 on the 6600's, try 1.5, you are on water so heat shouldnt be much of an issue, but I would hazard 1.6 would be the max vcore you can get away with. As for northbridge voltage, I have mine on water but I give it hell with 1.71v, generally 1.6 will see you to a tasty 400fsb. And as for RAM, I would be inclined to drop the speeds, I know they can do 1150, but that is probably there limiatation, else they would be put in teh 1200Mhz RAM bin, drop a divider and find your CPU max, rather than CPU/RAM max, as you are only giving yourself more hard work.

I got the same board, so if you need any more help give us a collar!

the stock voltages on my cpu is 1.2625 so 1.45 seems like quite the hike at .19v higher? my cpu temps on it are 21, 22, 17, 21 and the motherboards 28, the north and south are still air cooled, the temps for the northbridge and southbridge as 39 and 38 degrees centigrade the voltages are 1.34v and 1.07v it says the ram is 1.97v so i should maybe put it up to its specified 2.1v?

as to the multiplier i can only go down to 6 then should i set the ram to 800mhz?

cheers

 

[I Hunta x]

My old (g0) q6600 took 1.4250-1.45v to get stable at 3.6 (400x9) it should also work for 450x8 (higher fsb should give a little better general performance) temps on my freezer 7 pro were around 65c on cores 0 and 2 and 63 on cores 1 and 3.

But as gav said the Q6600's are hardy chips and can hadle some punishment if needed.

I was also running it @ 3ghz from time to time on 1.1v when my room was realy hot so it may have just been my chip being nice to me.... (im on a p5k mobo btw so yours should be better but its more dependant on your chip tbh =\)

 

[°TheMadDutchDude°]

Mine needs 1.45v for 3.6GHz 100% stable.

I'd up your volts to 1.3 to start with and see where you go from there. I can get to 3.2 stable at 1.3v (1.2875v VID )

 

[I Hunta x]

I can get to 3.2 stable at 1.3v (1.2875v VID )

looks like i had a nice chip for lower clocks then (1.1v was the lowest i could go)

 

[thestepster]

My old (g0) q6600 took 1.4250-1.45v to get stable at 3.6 (400x9) it should also work for 450x8 (higher fsb should give a little better general performance) temps on my freezer 7 pro were around 65c on cores 0 and 2 and 63 on cores 1 and 3.

But as gav said the Q6600's are hardy chips and can hadle some punishment if needed.

I was also running it @ 3ghz from time to time on 1.1v when my room was realy hot so it may have just been my chip being nice to me.... (im on a p5k mobo btw so yours should be better but its more dependant on your chip tbh =\)

so is this all i need to know? just up the voltage on the cpu till its stable? not need to change any other voltages? you used a freezer pro 7 to do a 3.6 oc i just got shot of one of those off mines cause i didnt feel safe going over 3ghz with it and i managed to pick up a 1 month old corsair h50 for a real good price cheaper than a TRUE or zalman cnps 10x extreme without the worry of space in this tight antec 300 case

ill try and up the fsb slowely along with voltages, will i do the same with the north and southbridge? and what will i do with the ram? try and keep it at a 1:1 ratio? and change the voltages to the 2.1v its rated at? also what about things like ive seen ppl doing changing the pci-e to 100mhz?

im pretty new to this proper oc'n benchmarkin (against my half assed attempts) cause i was scared of breaking my pc and not having a job money is tight :nono: then i would have been right up crap creek without a paddle and i need my daily gaming and internet fix like my weekend beer fix, but from what you have said and what ive heard that the q6600 was a really good overclocker depending on the chip but im not lookin for any totally mad 4.0ghz clock just a good 3.6 would do me perfectly

i got all the parts in this practically second hand i got the q6600 second hand with a p5kc m/b about a year ago for £130 (sold the p5kc for £60 last week), got the maximus formula about 4 weeks ago for £40 with everything it came with, the 4gb flex ram to replace 3gb corsair xms2 for £50, the 1 month old corsair H50 was £40, the ati 4850 1gb set me back £55 to replace a 512mb sapphire 4670 that i punted for £30 last week, the psu is from an old amd athlon x2 4400+ 939 and dfi lanparty nf4 ultra d m/b and 2gb ocz pc-4200, so in all i think ive got myself a pretty good rig for the price only new thing was the case that was £39.99 from ebuyer

 

[thestepster]

Mine needs 1.45v for 3.6GHz 100% stable.

I'd up your volts to 1.3 to start with and see where you go from there. I can get to 3.2 stable at 1.3v (1.2875v VID )

ive had this stable at 3.2ghz without having to change the voltages i think well thats where im going to start anyway cause i know i can do 3.0 no problem with only an fsb change

 

[thestepster]

looks like i had a nice chip for lower clocks then (1.1v was the lowest i could go)

ive never actually ever tried to undervolt it, ive seen ppl doing that to see how low they can get it then to start overclockin from there that the proper way 2 do it?

well im gonna get to it now ill keep you posted on how i get it on, is the intel burn test a good thing 2 use to check for stability since its pretty fast unlike orthos and prime 95? cause when i ran it on that 3.33ghz oc it blue screened literally 1 second after i pressed the start button

 

[I Hunta x]

occt is a good tool for long stability tests, try prime95 if it passes after 15-30 mins move up a little/lower volts a little try again, once you get a bsod/no boot back track a step or 2 and run occt for a few hours, if its still fine when you get back/ it finishes your good to go

above is what i usualy do tbh.

 

[thestepster]

right here's an update

FSB: 356 x 9

CPU Vcore: 1.29375v

CPU-Z shows the Vcore jumping all about between 1.200, 1.208, 1.236, 1.240

Dram core: 2.1v Bios

Dram core Everest Ultimate: 2.16 > 2.18

Dram Timings: 5-5-5-15

Dram:FSB Ratio: 1:1

Northbridge core: 1.34v

Southbridge core: 1.07

Southbridge core: 1.52

i ran intel burn test (high setting) on it, it got past one pass then on the second at around 20-30 secs into it, it blue screens

ive upped the vcore to 1.30000 and ill get to that when i get home tonight got to go and help my sister move house

 

[GavX]

seems you got a fair bit of vdroop going on, but I am not sure what to believe, CPUZ or BIOS< eitherway, chances are CPUZ is more accurate, so if you want 1.3v, try 1.35 etc

I think that NB voltage is very low, but then I do clock the crap out things.

 

[thestepster]

seems you got a fair bit of vdroop going on, but I am not sure what to believe, CPUZ or BIOS< eitherway, chances are CPUZ is more accurate, so if you want 1.3v, try 1.35 etc

I think that NB voltage is very low, but then I do clock the crap out things.

any idea how to sort out the vdroop? and much would u say was a safe up of the nb voltage?

 

[thestepster]

got a fold nearly finished and got the urge to get a bit of overclockin done again on this see if i can get it more stable than last time was thinkin of puttin the volts up to 1.44 then seeing how high i can get the fsb b4 it gets unstable again

what you think?

 

[nepas]

These are what I am running atm for 3.6(although it will do 3.8 with a tad more voltage)

I know mine is a DFI,but yours cant be too different

 

[thestepster]

3.6 would be exactly what im lookin for i dont have the skills to get 4ghz outta this even tho i doubt it would even manage that, kinda cooler do u use mate?

 

[thestepster]

oh and did you have to up any of your n/b s/b and thats voltages?

 

[nepas]

I am W/C my Q6600 and in that pic you can see my N/B is up to 1.45( I may need more if I want 3.8 again as I am now using 4 sticks or ram),I have not touched my S/B volts