Problem Q6600, Striker Extreme and 4 Pcs of 2 Corsair DDR2

qwwwizx · Rated PG Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 23

Hi All,

I am back after a while. I am for some reason unable to overclock my computer, and dont know why.

My system setup is as follow:

ASUS Striker Extreme with firmware 1503 (beta)
Intel Q6600 G0 (temps: 25-45c using coretemp)
4 Pcs of 2 GB Corsair XMS2 Extreme DDR2 800/PC6400
EVGA Nvidia 8800GTX
Thermaltake toughpower 850W
Thermaltake watercooled CPU and Chassis
Seagate 250GB disk
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64

When I try overclock, the computer boots and start loading windows - after a short period it come up with hardware malfunction and a message asking me to contact my systemadministrator or something like that.

I have tryed to go for 2.8 GHz, 3 GHz, and 3.3 GHz, using the unlinked feature. All giving me the same problem.

I allready tryed different things:

Remove 2 of the memory modules
Adjust VCore to auto, to 1.35 and to 1.4.

It seems to have happend after I upgraded with memory, the bios from firmware 1301 and added the watercooling. Now that I have watercooling, there is less wÃnd in the chassis, so can it be the chipset that needs cooling to go above the 2.4 Ghz or what else would you recommend me to try next?

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:06:43 Post Subject:

How about the memory voltage? Maybe you need to increase that.

And are your temperatures measured with this water cooler? Are you sure everything is seated properly?

qwwwizx · Rated PG Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 23

I didnt do anything to the memory voltage. Since I use the unlink feature in the bios I dont expect the memory voltage to be a problem, but I might be wrong. Do you think that it will be the risk worth trying increasing the memory voltage?

About the temperature: when the computer is running games, for hours it will reach around 45c on the hottest cores. I dont know if the waterblock is settlet correct, so I will check that.

acruxksa · Posted: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:20:14 Post Subject:

The more memory you have, the greater the load on the memory bus. You may also want to try and increase the NorthBridge voltage slightly. I'm not sure what it's called in the bios on the Asus Striker, but just raise it one step at first and check your temps. This would be the case regardless of what speed you are running the memory at, because 4 dimms require more power than 2 and will cause the voltage to droop a bit.

You are right though, going to water cooling can reduce the air flowing across the chipset heatsinks. Usually this isn't a big deal though because the reduction in cpu heat keeps the case cooler.

qwwwizx · Rated PG Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 23

Success.

I tried some different things now. I found out that the 1503 beta firmware had some problems saving my settings, so no matter what I did, my linked/unlinked settings wasnâ€™t saved and neither was my memory settings. Looking around on the net to see if other people had the same problem, I found another forum where someone posted a link to new beta bios that isnâ€™t available on ASUS site yet - 1504 beta.

The 1504 beta bios gave me big headache, because my computer died completely after updating, so I thought that it might be a virus or something. Nothing worked and my motherboard display text was "code init". I tried different things to reset the bios but nothing worked, the computer was dead. The last thing I did was taking off the battery from the motherboard, while in parallel looking for a new motherboard on the net. After like 15 minutes I inserted the battery again and bling!!! the computer booted with the new bios...

Now that I have been over clocking most of the day I am on 3.6GHz, my special settings are as follow in the ASUS Striker Extreme bios -> Extreme tweaker:

AI Tuning: Manual
FSB & Memory config: Unlinked; FSB 1600; MEM 800
Over clocking: CPU Multiplier 9
Overvoltage: NB Core 1,5v; CPU VTT 1,5v

From Everest Ultimate I can read the following out when the system runs:

CPU kernel: 1.39V
FSB VTT: 1.42V
NB: 1.52V
SB: 1.50V
DIMM: 2.13V
DIMM VTT: 1.07V

Everything else is default/auto settings in the bios. I ran some burn tests to see how thing performs.

My core temps goes from around 37c to 63 c on heavy load now.
My 3Dmark 2006 raised from 10.700 to 13.000

Tonight I will try playing Crysis for some hours to see if it is really stable or not.

The adjustment with the NB seemed like a good investment, but I am a little unsure how much of the work is really done by the new bios. How do all the settings and results sound?