QX6850 - What's the best I can hope for?

[RMF]

Hi folks,

I've got a core 2 quad extreme, QX6850. I'm currently running it at 3.33 GHZ stable although it get's really hot. 90 degrees almost according to core temp.

I've ordered a Noctua nh-d14 which should arrive next week sometime which will hopefully bring my temps down a bit, but I was wondering, what's the absolute best I can hope to get out of the QX6850? Has anyone here had any success with getting it to the 4GHZ mark?

Also, I want to add that I don't believe my temp readings that I get from core temp. Using everest or Aida 64 I get readings more than 10 degrees cooler. Also, when I quit prime 95 I see the temperature drop 20 degrees or so within a couple of seconds which seems impossible to me which is why I don't believe the readings are accurate.

Here is picture of my readings idle.

Full load after about 10 minutes:

Like I said before, when I exit prime 95 it will lterally drop 20 degrees in less than 2 seconds.

So I really have 2 questions here. First of all, which temp reading should I believe? And secondly, how much more could I get out of it with the Noctua?

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[dugdiamond]

it would be really hard to get 4GHz from the QX6850, even if it was LN2 cooled

if you are getting 3.3GHz and the temps are 90C with the stock cooler, you are NOT going to get a better overclock with the D14 on it - it will just be a little more stable

even at 70C, that is much too hot for the chip

 

[RMF]

it would be really hard to get 4GHz from the QX6850, even if it was LN2 cooled

if you are getting 3.3GHz and the temps are 90C with the stock cooler, you are NOT going to get a better overclock with the D14 on it - it will just be a little more stable

even at 70C, that is much too hot for the chip

Thanks for the reply.

My CPU exceeds 80 degrees on full load at stock settings. Which I believe is normal and perfectly safe with a stock cooler on the QX6850. I also don't really care if the CPU goes up in smoke so to speak. It was a freebie and I can replace it with an identicle CPU for free if it craps out on me

 

[dugdiamond]

~3.6 then

 

[dugdiamond]

it's you P5K that will let you down

not the best for overclocking

 

[RMF]

it's you P5K that will let you down

not the best for overclocking

Yeah I've read that it's crappy for OC

Any ideas on why I'm getting such different temp readings though?

 

[dugdiamond]

if you are using the thermal paste that came with the heatsink, that could be a problem

or

you have given the CPU too many volts

or

if you applied the thermal paste yourself, it may not be done properly, or may be poor quality goo

 

[RMF]

if you are using the thermal paste that came with the heatsink, that could be a problem

or

you have given the CPU too many volts

or

if you applied the thermal paste yourself, it may not be done properly, or may be poor quality goo

Thanks again but I don't think that you understood my question. I get radically different temp readings using different monitors. Core temp reads much higher than everest for example. And also, there's a 20 degree drop within 2 seconds of closing prime which seems impossible to me.

 

[RMF]

Well, here's the quick results I'm getting with my Noctua on this QX6850.

At 3.8GHZ full load after an hour...69 degrees. That's a massive difference. I'll let this run over night to make sure it's stable but who knows..maybe I will be able to push to 4GHZ with it after all.

 

[SieB]

Go for the 4.0ghz

To get lower temps you want to try and drop the voltage but those temps look about right with that chip. Different temp monitoring software will give you different results I think Cupid Hardware monitor is the most accurate but I prefer RealTemp, just because it looks better.

Also your temps dropping 20c almost instant is normal as well, I F@H which is as intensive as Prime and my temps are around 55c on my 2500k @ 4.5ghz and as soon as I press the stop button on F@H my temps drop down strait away to around 38c and then around 27c after a few seconds.

 

[marsey99]

with a d14 on that chip you should hit 4ghz+ for bench runs and might be able to get a nice 4ghz 24/7 setup depending on the volts you need.

that cpu has an unlocked multi so the only way the board will stop you is the power delivery :/ it should run 400 fsb with ease and then do the rest on the multi.

temps wise the tjmax on that chip should be 80c so core temp is 20c too high.

 

[RMF]

with a d14 on that chip you should hit 4ghz+ for bench runs and might be able to get a nice 4ghz 24/7 setup depending on the volts you need.

that cpu has an unlocked multi so the only way the board will stop you is the power delivery :/ it should run 400 fsb with ease and then do the rest on the multi.

temps wise the tjmax on that chip should be 80c so core temp is 20c too high.

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately, it wasn't stable at 3.85. It would reboot sporadically and I suspect that it's a power issue. Unfortunately, if I crank up the voltage any higher the chip gets too hot and it throttles back to 2.2 ghz or something around there. I've got it running stable now at 3.75 at 1.48v but I think I can bring that down a notch. Also at this voltage the temp is still a little high so hopefully I can lower it a little.

 

[marsey99]

I would think the cooler should be ok to remove the heat from 1.5v from that CPU, I might remount it to check the paste was making the contact patch ok and I hadn't used too much/little.

Is your case trapping the heat or does it have plenty of airflow? Best way to check is to take the side of and let it run on its back so any excess heat will escape, if your temps are about the same you know its not the case.

How much vdrop/vdroop are you getting? This will show if its the mobo delivering power that's an issue, plenty of software that can monitor this like hwmon and such.