Need a little bit of help, Qx9650 overclock on a x48 Rampage Formula Asus mobo

opethdisciple said:
Would you say its impossible for the cpu to run 400fsb multi at 10x with stock volts?
Click to expand...

Increasing the multiplier will most definately need an increase in volts on the vcore. The amount of increase depends on that individual cpu itself. Generally speaking, you would need to increase the volts. Increasing the multiplier puts more strain on the cpu, increasing the fsb puts more strain on the northbridge.

Multiplier would need more volts on the cpu and maybe a small amount on the nb, while increasing the fsb would need increase in volts on the nb and cpu
 
I managed to get the pc to work fine for 1.30 hour gaming session with 400fsb 9xmulti at stock.

I didnt test for stability tho, which is something I will do tonight.

Is it theoretically possible I set the fsb to 400 multi to 10 up voltage to 1.3625, I test using intel burn test, it passes, but becuase I havent upped voltages on the nothbridge, I burn out the northbridge etc??
 
I tired to get my cpu stable at 3.6 today, using the method:

fsb: 400
multi: 9
ram: 1:1

At stock volts it failed the intel burntest, I then tried waking it up to 1.26v and it still failed the burn tests....
 
Isnt the stock volts for that chip 1.2875v?

My Q9650 does 4GHz with 1.29v:
fsb:445
multi:9
ram: 5:6 but my ram is rated at 1066mhz

Try the following:
cpu voltage: 1.3
fsb: 400
multi: 10
ram: 1:1
 
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Temi_D said:
Isnt the stock volts for that chip 1.2875v?

My Q9650 does 4GHz with 1.29v:
fsb:445
multi:9
ram: 5:6 but my ram is rated at 1066mhz

Try the following:
cpu voltage: 1.3
fsb: 400
multi: 10
ram: 1:1
Click to expand...

Thanks for trying to help me, but I didnt have any joy.

I set the settings above, and tried all the core voltages from 1.3 all the way up to 1.3625 either the pc failed to boot in to windows or it blue screened.

The only setting I didnt set was the ram at 1:1, firstly becuase I couldnt find this option, and 2 becuase, on auto, my ram is running at 800mhz.

Anyway, is it safe to run this cpu at 4ghz 24/7 on air?

This is my cpu cooler: Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia Tritium CPU Cooler

Im a bit puzzeld becuase looking at forum and webpages other have managed to achive this over clock, with lower volts, so Im obvioulsy doing something wrong.

Maybe I will have more joy running my ram at 1066 mhz.... I did buy overclcokable ddr2 ram 2 years ago, but becuase the system would randomly reboot, I gave up trying to overclock it, abd just stuck with default clocks.

What im going to do is find out whataare the correct voltages to get the ram stable at 1066, then I will try to achive the cpu overclock as you.

My ram by the way is this: Kingston HyperX DDR2 PC2-9600C5 1200MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX9600D2K2/2G) (I have 4 sticks) I run it at 800mhz, becuase when I previously tried to over clock it, my pc was just randomly rebooting, so I gave up and run it at 800mhz....

But I will contact kingston, get a stable voltage, run it at 1066mhz and then try to copy the method you use to overclock your cpu.
 
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Running 4GHz 24/7 is completely safe as long as the voltage used is within the specified range ie less than 1.36v

I think I've spotted a possible problem - you are using 4 sticks of RAM. First remove 2 of them (the ones in the white slots) and try the following settings (got the specs of your ram from the kingston website):

I also had a quick look at your mobo manual, options are almost exactly the same as mine

In the Extreme tweaker menu:

Code: 
AI Overclock tuner: Manual
CPU ratio: 9
FSB Frequency: 445MHz
PCI-E : 100
FSB Strap: Auto
Dram Frequency: 890MHz
Dram Timing: Auto for now

CPU Voltage: 1.3v
GTL: Auto
CPU PLL: 1.54
FSB Termination: 1.2v
Dram Voltage: (assuming its the kingston one) 2.3v
North Bridge voltage: 1.26v

Leave everythingelse untouched/auto
 
Thanks for taking the effort to do all this for me!

It is apreciated. With out the help, I probably would try and few more times, and then just give up.

I will try your recommendations when I get back from work tonight.

How come I have to take out two sticks of ram, to get the overclock to work?

Another question is how come your saying to run my ram at 890, when rather than 1066?
 
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Using a 1:1 ratio between cpu and ram, your fsb is 445 (x2 for ram making it 890.

445 x 9 gives you 4005 MHz, the overclock you wanted.

To get your ram to run at 1066 with that ratio, you would need an fsb of 533, meaning you would have to drop your cpu multiplier down to 7.5 if it has that, otherwise 7 and run it at 3.7GHz. The other option (sure you can still do it) is run a different ratio between memory and cpu, so your memory runs faster than the fsb. Im not sure what options there are these days for that. Id guess you would need a 4:5 ratio (CPU:RAM) so with a 445 fsb, your ram would run at 556 (1112MHz) i think.


Regarding using only 2 sticks, thats because there is less strain on the memory controller, making it easier to overclock.
 
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opethdisciple said:
Thanks for taking the effort to do all this for me!

It is apreciated. With out the help, I probably would try and few more times, and then just give up.

I will try your recommendations when I get back from work tonight.

How come I have to take out two sticks of ram, to get the overclock to work?

Another question is how come your saying to run my ram at 890, when rather than 1066?
Click to expand...

As puppetmaster said, using 4 sticks is known to cause stability issues. But its only temporary to find out if the chip can do 4GHz. Once its stable with 2 sticks, you can add the other 2 and raise the northbridge voltage slightly

As for running the ram at 890MHz, it can be run higher but its just a case of running at at the lowest possible setting for now, then increasing it again once it becomes stable
 
Temi_D said:
Running 4GHz 24/7 is completely safe as long as the voltage used is within the specified range ie less than 1.36v

I think I've spotted a possible problem - you are using 4 sticks of RAM. First remove 2 of them (the ones in the white slots) and try the following settings (got the specs of your ram from the kingston website):

I also had a quick look at your mobo manual, options are almost exactly the same as mine

In the Extreme tweaker menu:

Code: 
AI Overclock tuner: Manual
CPU ratio: 9
FSB Frequency: 445MHz
PCI-E : 100
FSB Strap: Auto
Dram Frequency: 890MHz
Dram Timing: Auto for now

CPU Voltage: 1.3v
GTL: Auto
CPU PLL: 1.54
FSB Termination: 1.2v
Dram Voltage: (assuming its the kingston one) 2.3v
North Bridge voltage: 1.26v

Leave everythingelse untouched/auto
Click to expand...


Ok, well the first thing Im going to do, is try these settings but with the 4gigs of ram installed.

You mentioned rasing the northbridge voltage. I see above you have mentioned setting the northbridge to 1.26v. Is this taking in to consideration the 4 gigs, or is 1.26v stock at this point and would need to be raised further?
 
1.26v is higher than the stock (1.1v) and what I use for my 4 sticks. So it should technically work if you try it with 4 sticks
 
Should I use prime or the intel burn test to test for stability?

I was using the intel burn test program yesterday, but its a bit inconsitant, the first time I ran it my cpu at 3.6 past the 5 cycle test, but then all subsequent tests failed....

Is prime better?
 
Just to let you know I don't think you're putting anywhere near enough volts through your chip for 4GHz. If I remember correctly I used to put 1.4v-1.45v through my QX9650 for 4.1GHz.

Also Q9650s and QX9650s were not created equal. The Q9650 is E0 stepping and therefore an inherently better clocker while the QX9650s were C1 stepping iirc. I wouldnt expect someone elses Q9650 BIOS settings to work for you.

Also try setting the FSB strap manually to 333MHz if its in your BIOS. I can't remember what it does but leaving it on auto used to cause my rig to become unstable.

I would up the northbridge a tad as well, Try 1.45v on the CPU and 1.4v on NB, check for stability and then scale NB & CPU volts incrementally till system becomes unstable then raise incrementally till you regain stability.
 
No luck so far with these settings,

AI Overclock tuner: Manual
CPU ratio: 9
FSB Frequency: 445MHz
PCI-E : 100
FSB Strap: Auto
Dram Frequency: 890MHz
Dram Timing: Auto for now

CPU Voltage: 1.3v
GTL: Auto
CPU PLL: 1.54
FSB Termination: 1.2v
Dram Voltage: (assuming its the kingston one) 2.3v
North Bridge voltage: 1.26v

Im ytrying to get the intel burn test to pass at 3.6 with 1.3625 cpu voltage

Ib put the ram at 1066 with 2.3 volts
 
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can I run the cpu on air at 1.4volts, 24/7?

Well the pc keeps restarting at:

FSB 400
Multi 10
ram 1066

cpu voltage 1.4
ram voltage 2.34

I didnt up the nb and sb volts as suggested.

Is this safe to do, and keeo running 24/7?
 
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Well the good news is that it looks like it is indeed stable at 3.6ghz using this:


fsb 400
multi 9
ram at 1066

cpu voltage 1.3625
ram voltage 2.3

Whats the next step to get it to go 4ghz... bear in mind I want the pc, to be within safe limits, and not burn out on me over the space of a few years...

If there isnt much difference between 3.6 and 4, then maybe Im good to go?
 
Not really sure about the nb volts, you can up them if you want to but definately dont touch the sb volts.

Reading around, it does indeed appear that you need to increase the cpu voltage to at least 1.4 to get 4GHz. As long as the temperature is below 70*c it should be safe

EDIT: the only place you really notice the difference between 3.6 and 4GHz is when encoding
 
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