Q6600 overclock details.

Jynxx · Posted: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:32:37 Post Subject:

Wow, this was a long read... 8 pages and I read every post!
One, let me address qwwwizx's vista 64 problem... I just up'd to vista ultimate 64 too, so I feel ya... I am currently using Everest Ultimate v.4 to read temps/voltages/etc.
http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?ps=UE&lang=en

Works great, even the trial version shows most of the info you'll need (voltage, temps).

Now, on to my problem. I have a rig that seems fairly common for this kind of setup (for overclocking anyway)... Q6600, Striker Extreme, 3gb of Corsair Ballistix @800mhz, evga geforce 8800 gtx ultra ko, and a kingwin mach-1 850-watt psu.
I have an Xclio windtunnel case, a thermaltake "big typhoon" hs and 120mm fan, and a 120mm rear fan. The case has two 25cm side fans, and my ambient temp is never more than 65 F.
So here's the thing... I get temps on air that most people say are downright rediculous... overnight idle it is about 15c and in use its usually 26-28c. The most I have ever seen it hit was 33-34c, and that was at 100% load (althoug only for about 10 minutes).

And yet... I can't overclock past 3ghz stable for the life of me. Before, I would get BSOD's whenever I went into Vista 32-bit if I went NEAR 1333mhz fsb. My memory got good reviews for overclocking, but my board hates it if I even touch anything (wont post at all), so I leave it on auto, unlinked, 800mhz.
So, I re-formatted, added a 120 gig IDE for the OS, and set up my two 400gb sata's in a raid-0, then installed Vista Ultimate 64. That seemed to do the trick for 1333, as it was pretty stable, but any time I went over that, it crashed, or wouldnt post at all. I called ASUS (dumb move) and they told me to upgrade to 1305 BIOS... I was at 1203 (factory default).
WORST..... MOVE..... EVER!
Now I can't even get to 3ghz at all! I work in Audio/Video, and I bought the parts I did so that I could overclock to higher speeds without spending a lot.... Currently I am somewhat stable at 2.96 ghz, but like others before me, I have seen speeds in the 3.6 to 3.8 range. Heck, I'd be happy with 3.4 right now!
I upped all my voltages, tried everything I could think of... yet nada.

So here's my main question.... I dont have a floppy drive, so how could I roll back the BIOS? I tried EZflash2, but it never seems to recognize the CD... I have a friend with a USB key, so I may try that.
Secondly... does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this thing past 2.9ghz??

Here's a pic of my voltages and temps:

acruxksa · Posted: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:19:39 Post Subject:

Jynxx · Posted: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:50:19 Post Subject:

UPDATE!
Ok, so i went and got a cheap 2gb USB key and loaded the 1303 BIOS on there... even worse move. I have a Reclusa keyboard, and wasn't aware of the problems the 1303 bios had with them. Took me hours to figure out why I couldn't get past the "republic of gamers" logo.
When I finally gave up and looked it up from my laptop, I took out every usb device except my USB key drive.... it worked! I rolled the bios down to 1301 and OH MY FREAKING WOW.... huge difference. I also took out my two 512mb ram sticks, after reading the posts on THIS thread saying that the striker sometimes doesn't like all 4 sticks in use.

I am now stable at 3.4, and have been at 29c for over an hour!

Here are some screenies to show my results. I am ECSTATIC! I know no one replied to my post yet (there was barely time between my posts!) but a HUGE thank you to you guys, it was THIS THREAD that helped me (and I searched for days and days about this!!), so THAAAANK YOU!

TEMPS AND VOLTAGES:

OVERCLOCK STATS:

Razon · Posted: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:49:31 Post Subject:

Hey man, it's great to hear that it worked out for you, even though i didn't make any sugestions Smile

I...tried a few other things.:
increased my FSB voltage to +035...I don't know what the default is, but that's as high as I can go (there are no higher settings)
increased the cpu voltage to 1.56v,..that's 1.502 after droop. I tried increasing more using Easy Tune in vista and at 1.58 it it shuts down so fast as you unplug it from the wall Smile

it's not just a reset, it's a shutdown...hard drive stops...have to press the power button to start it again. So anyway...I backed it down to 1.5v.
I set the bus to 315 MHz.

Results:
It managed to load Vista and idled fine...then I ran 3DMark01 and it crashed half way through Sad

It kept crashing while loading windows, so I backed it down to 300MHz (which I can do with stock voltage). So increasing the voltage at any level does not make a difference.
So,basically I can't use a bus speed greater than 300MHz. I can't even use 336x8 or 450x6 which should yeld same cpu speed as 300X9, which works.
following readings are at 500ms saple intervals. Some of the temp jumps at the end don't make sense. the temp can't go up and down by that much in a core within 1 sec...in my opinion Core Temp kinda sucks (I hope I'm not offending anybody)
this is temps at idle
2835.00 52 52 50 50
2835.00 52 52 49 49
2835.00 52 52 49 49
2835.00 52 52 49 49
this is temps after 4 min of 3DMARK ...last recorded settings before the crash (bus at 315 X9)
2835.00 59 62 56 56
2835.00 58 58 59 58
2835.00 62 66 54 54
2835.00 58 58 59 57
2835.00 61 66 55 55
2835.00 58 58 58 61
2835.00 58 58 59 58
2835.00 61 66 55 55
2835.00 58 58 58 61
2835.00 60 65 56 56
2835.00 58 58 58 61
2835.00 58 58 59 58
2835.00 61 66 55 55
2835.00 58 58 58 61
2835.00 58 58 59 58

PyroSith · Rated PG Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Posts: 5

Ok so i overclocked my core 2 quad to 2.5 ghz but when i try to go higher that 2.7 it won't boot windows i need a tip on how to do this correctly

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:15:18 Post Subject:

Hey PyroSith... With this gear still?

Jynxx · Posted: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 09:23:27 Post Subject:

Also what OS? I had problems with Vista Home Premium. And it may also be your motherboard. Just because it's the first Intel board able to OC doesn't mean it does it well!
I co-sign Dr. FG, list your voltages and your ram specs, that's usually what helps.... that helped me Smile

PyroSith · Rated PG Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Posts: 5

ok here it is
fsb:1066
fsb voltage:1.250
MCH/ICH Voltage:1.525
Processor multiplier: 9(fixed)
Processor Voltage: 1.3250v

Ram
Frequency: 800 mhz
TCL: 5
TRCD: 5
TRP: 5
Transmin: 16
Voltage: 1.89

And i am running windows XP Pro

PyroSith · Rated PG Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Posts: 5

and the video card is an overclock edition

Razon · Posted: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 17:47:57 Post Subject:

So I finally had enough of it, so I went out and picked up a Asus P5K Premium. After 2 hrs of playng with it I got my B3 Q6600 to over 3716.9MHz (413x9). This is on air with ~1.56v. The memory runs at 619.6Mhz (so 1240Mhz) with 5,5,5,15 (I picked up another 2G, so now I have 4G).
However, I wasn't very happy with the stability at that level, so right now I'm running it at 3.6 with 1.52v. It will work with less voltage, but not stable under heavy load.
So, the Gigabyte motherboard I used before it's not really good for OCing.
I just wanna thank everybody that tryed to help me with this.