Q6600 overclock details.

Therasense · Rated PG Joined: 17 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

Okay guys, here's what I've got.

I did as Jynxx told me and sat the QDR to 1333 Mhz (333 FSB), then i mixed it with Dr. Feelgood's tip and sat the memories to 667 Mhz. Every volt related crap were on Auto. I was amazed that my computer even booted after that, I was sure that I've tried all this before but obviously not. Anyway, the bootscreen loaded and ran through then my screen went black, no login-screen, no nothing. The LED on the screen was still green so i figured that it just was unstable wich caused it to freeze. I rebooted and sat the memories to 800 Mhz this time and i worked fairly good. I got into windows, ran CPU-Z, downloaded Nvidia s Ntune and installed it to check my temperatures and they seemed fair, about 40C give or take on all the cores. CPU-Z showed a FSB at 333 Mhz, so mission accomplished? No, not yet. I tried running a small test in Prime95 and it freezed. Not that unexpected though since i didn't change and voltages.

CPU-Z showed a Vcore on about 1.248V.

So guys, thanks for the help so far but what else do you got for me? I was thinking, the first thing i need help with now is make my system stable att 3Ghz, then maybe go up to 3.2-3.4Ghz then make sure it's stable again and so on. So, any other ideas?

Thanks again for your time.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:40:06 Post Subject:

Therasense · Rated PG Joined: 17 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

I will try that as soon as i get a chance. There's no other voltage I should rise? Like memory, south- or northbridge?

Thanks for the answer.

acruxksa · Posted: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:08:07 Post Subject:

You can also try to set you memory timings manually to something like 5-5-5-15 (for 800Mhz). Personally I'm not a big fan of the auto settings in the bios, but there have been times when it seemed to help. Have you disabled all non essential items in the bios? Also, most bios's will default to 1.8v for memory, so make sure you are getting 1.9v. (which is what your memory is supposed to run)

Jynxx · Posted: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:02:25 Post Subject:

Changing anything memory related on this board always resulted badly for me, so I always left it alone. The timings aren't great... 6-5-5-18... but there's no hangups or crashes.
Now since you got 3ghz ok, try playing with the voltages. I agree with Dr FG completely, start slowly. I got mine stable at 1.5.
Also, what OS are you running, and what temps are you getting when you bump up to 3ghz? Watch the temps when you bump the voltage as well.

Therasense · Rated PG Joined: 17 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

@acruxksa

I remember changing the timings to something like 4-4-4-12 and it seemed to work, didn't notice any major difference though, on the other hand i wasn't running my system for longer than 5 minutes at the time so... As far as the disabling goes, all the spread spectrums, Virtualization Technology, C1blabla, can't remeber all those short-terms at the moment but I think that everything that is supposed to be disabled are disabled.

When I am running 2 memory sticks the auto voltage shows about 1.88V in BIOS. When i put in the 2 extra sticks (4 total) the auto voltages shows 2.14 in BIOS.

@Jynxx

I won't change any memory timings or settings until I got my CPU stable. I'm going to play with the voltages later yes, one or two steps at the time and see where i end up. I'm running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 and all the latest updates. As i said, when i bumped it up to 3 Ghz i got a temperature on about 40C on all the cores, i will definitely keep my eyes on the temperatures when I change the voltages.

I forgot to mention in my last reply that, when i bumped my CPU to 3 Ghz i was acutally using 4 memory sticks. I simply forgot to take them out when i started and it seemed to work just fine, except for the freeze but that was most likely because of the auto voltage.

Will try this later tonight and I'll be back with an update. Thanks again for your time guys.

Jynxx · Posted: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:18:15 Post Subject:

No problem, glad to help!
Hopefully we'll get it working for you!

I should mention that although I am at almost 3.5ghz stable, I get BSOD's when I try to play certain games like Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. When I know I am going to be playing a game, I restart and use my OC Profile 1, which is basically everything at stock speeds. When I am done, I restart and load up OC Profile 2, which is all my changed voltages and fsb speeds, etc.
One of the coolest things on that board, imo.

Therasense · Rated PG Joined: 17 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

I will certainly have that in mind. Maybe it's not a bad idea to create two profiles, one original and one overclocked. Thanks for the tip.

Therasense · Rated PG Joined: 17 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

Okay, so now I've been experimenting for a short time. I raised the Vcore a bit at the time and it actually didn't work very good. Got to run about two small tests in Prime95 and then it freezed. I removed 2 of the 4 memory sticks just to try and voilÃ¡, worked like a charm. Ran a couple of tests in Prime95 just to check and this time it worked really good. I still don't like the fact that I have to extra memory sticks for no use so if you guys have any idea on how to fix that it would be much appreciated. Maybe raise the voltage on the memories or something?

Here's how it's running now:

Multiplier: 9
QDR: 1333Mhz (333 FSB)
Memory: Unlinked and running at 800 Mhz
Vcore: 1.26875V (Standard is auto and it then shows about 1.21V in BIOS)
All the other voltages are still on auto.
All the spread spectrum is disabled.
All the memory timings are still on auto.
The 2 memory sticks are running at auto (1.88V according to BIOS)

All my temperatures are just fine. Still about 40C on all the cores when running standard apps like Firefox, Winamp and so on. Not tested on full load yet.

I will keep on running at 3 Ghz for a while just to see that it really is stable. What i need help with now is:

Are there any way that i could use all my 4 memory sticks if i just change the voltage? And if so, what voltage do you recommend? As i said: 2 sticks auto 1.88V, 4 sticks auto 2.14V. What would i set it to manually?

The next time I'm going to raise my QDR, how much will i raise it to? I'm asking this because i tried 1280 and a bunch of other values before i came to you guys. Jynxx told me to set i to 1333 and everything suddenly worked like a charm. That's why I'm wondering, what will be my next value?

Thanks again guys, can't believe this is acutally working now. Grin

Jynxx · Posted: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:30:21 Post Subject:

Well first, you aren't using 4gb of memory with Windows XP. It's 32-bit, and ALL 32-bit OS's have a 4gb memory cap, and that includes any memory your graphics card may be using (even though its located on the card). So at the MOST you are probably getting 3gb from that 4gb.
The best thing to do would be to use 2gb of really high quality memory. This board WILL use 1066mhz memory, even though it says the highest is 800. If you still want 4gb, then go with 2x2gb sticks instead of 4x1gb. The Striker Extreme is notorious for not liking all 4 sticks present. I am using all 4 sticks, but I plan on bringing it down to 2x2gb as soon as possible.