Q9550 on Asus Maximus SE failure

Greebo

Greebo

Greebo

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Okay, I give up and I need help from the forums.

I don't consider myself a noob at overclocking after having my q6600 at 3.85Ghz on both my ABit ip35pro and my current Asus Maximus SE mobo but I have recently bought a Q9650 from this forum where both users have had it to 4.4Ghz with evidence

Now, I know my mobo can do 475 fsb since I had my q6600 at 8 x 475 stable. Looking at reviews these boards max out on the FSB at around 490 as well.

I know my memory can do 900 at 4-4-4-12 and 1080 at 5-5-5-18 since I have records of it running at that speed with my q6600.

But, although I have being reading around the net, I am struggling with my q9650 and Asus board and I would like to improve it.

Currently running prime stable at 4Ghz (small tft and blend) at the following settings:

9 x 444
vcore 1.23v
CPU PLL 1.3v
NB: 1.3v
Dram: 2.04v (the asus overvolts so this gives 2.11v to 2.12v in real life)
FSB Termination: 1.3v
SB: 1.1v
SB 1.5v: 1.5v
CPU GTL: 0.63x
Memory: 5-5-5-18
Load temps: 53C

Cpu and mobo watercooled so nb temps (43C) and cpu temps not an issue.

Now I know the x38 boards aren't the best overclockers but my q9650 ran at 4.4ghz on Asus Rampage x48 boards on this forum and the maximus isn't a million miles away from that. Is it worth swapping the bios to the rampage bios? Would I see any gain?

Anyway to the problem:

If I up the fsb to 445 it isn't stable in prime anymore. Even setting the memory to 6-6-6-18 makes no difference and upping the vcore right to 1.4v in steps made no difference.

If I set the multi to 6x it still isn't stable at 445 with mem at 6-6-6-18

Playing around last night I managed to get 6 x 450 stable with FSB of 1.8v and NB of 1.8v :eek:

I just kept upping both FSB and NB by one notch each to try and find max FSB. Is this correct? Should I be altering something else to get the fsb stable? SHould I just be altering the FSB voltage at all to find max fsb speed or just the NB voltage? Does CPU PLL have a bearing on fsb stability?

Okay, fsb hole I thought and I have tried both 460 and 470 and although it boots into windows, no stability as blend fails on core 3 within one minute.

And in general because I like to know these things, when should I alter SB and SB1.5v settings? What do these have an effect over?

It was much easier on the ABit IP35 pro to max out my q6600 as fewer settings so I am now a bit lost with the Maximus bios.

Should I be touching the ddr gtl settings? What about AI twister and all those other silly things?

Any help or pointing me in the right direction is greatly appreciated.

Okay, chances are I will settle of 4Ghz for day to day running since everything is at low volts and easy to run and keep cool but if I could get 4.2Ghz or more working at not much more I would quite like that for 24/7 use.

Oh, and my cpu only needed less than 1.3v vcore to run at 4.2Ghz from the preivous owners of it.

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
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Greebo said:
Any help or pointing me in the right direction is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Buy a P45 board.


The x38-Q9xxx FSB isssue has been mentioned a good few times on this board, as recently as last week.

My Q9450 did 475mhz in my IP35 Pro, >500mhz in my P5Q Deluxe, but wouldn't exceed 450mhz in my Maximus Formula SE.
 
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Your also running 8GB which would limit your maximum overclock. I'd try taking 4GB out and then re-clocking and see where you get to :)
 
Sorry dude.


But x38 only was and only ever will be for those that needed a pair of x16 PCI-E lanes and couldn't afford an x48 board. I sold mine after 2 weeks of banging my head against the (fsb) wall.
 
Sorry I should have said that my overclocking attempts have being done with only 2 ram chips present, not all 4.

Cob, what's the best p45 for q9xxx overclocking then?
 
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P OR R?

Both of these seem to be getting 500+ with q9650. Anybody know the difference between P and R?

Is this a good choice?
 
Cheers for that Happy, you are indeed right!

Before I click buy for £104, any other boards I should consider? Especially interested in people with q9xxx and high overclocks.

I will miss having my mobo watercooled and my optical out though.:(

Would a x48 board do as well or would that just be a sideways move? There are some cracking deals to be had on x48 boards atm.
 
I would say since the Gigabyte X48 is £99 is should be looked at, but since you didn't initially want to upgrade the mobo in the first place, I would get a P45 since it's much more likely to get a better clock. Just had a look on the site, and for another £11 just get the Tpower I45.
 
You's recommend the Tpower I45 over the Gigabyte EP45-UD3R? Similar money (in fact gigabyte slightly cheaper) and I have only researched the Gigabyte board so far and seems to be happy at 500+ with q9xxx.
 
I've just being reading through all 81 pages of the original owner of this cpu's thread on another forum and he hit a 460 fsb wall with his x38 mobo. Funnily ernough he also failed with the Asus p5q to get above 465 and it was only after getting a EP45-UD3P that he got the cpu to 4.4GHz.

Looks like to play it safe I am best getting a EP45-UD3P. I would hate to swap mobos just to find I can get another 100Mhz more.

On the other hand I'm not sure I can bothered tbh. I hate having to drain my watercooling loop and strip everything out and swap boards and make the cables all tidy again. Not sure its worth it for a 300-400Mhz gain just for that little bit of extra performance.

I'm thinking now that if I was going to go to all that hassle then a x58/i7/ddr3 combo would be the way to go. Should only cost me £70-£80 to swap it all, maybe less.
 
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