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Q6600 upgrade itch

DBT85

DBT85

DBT85

Soldato
Joined
8 Oct 2006
Posts
5,784
Location
Midlands
Ok,

I have
Q6600 G0
Gigabyte 965P DS3
2x2gb Geil Black Dragon

I recently added a Gigabyte 460GTX 1gb in place of my 8800GTS 640 as i had gone from a 1650 to 1920 monitor and wanted the extra get up and go for SC2.

I've tried numerous times to overclock my Q6600 to extend it's life with the best I've managed being 3.06 which doesn't seem anywhere near enough Even then it stopped being happy with the clock a few weeks back and has been running at at stock (please forgive me). The temps were certainly not a problem. If i knew i could buy another board and get 3.6 out of it i'd probably keep it but of course that isn't the case.

I don't know if it is the chip or the motherboard but I'm reluctant to buy another 775 board for £70 odd to try and get a few more hz when at some point i'm going to need to do it again anyway. It just seems like a bit of a waste.

I have been looking at the i7 930 or 950 (different offers), an Asus P6X58D-E and some ram (as yet undecided).

I've read that both the board and the chip are good for around 4ghz in most instances and am seriously considering the upgrade.

I've had the setup since 14th February 2007 and it's done well. Nearly 4 years between upgrades I think is pretty good going for a every 12 months guy!

The only concern i have really is the P6X58D-E board having the two 16x PCI-E slots so close. Since the 460GTX is now so cheap i could SLI fairly cheaply at some point but the heat buildup with two back to back wouldn't be ideal.
 
Wait for Sandy Bridge in January?

Alternatively try the MM for a 2nd hand P45 board. I've not yet seen a G0 chip which struggles to do at least 3.2GHz on a decent board, what's the VID of your chip?
 
Redmint said:
Wait for Sandy Bridge in January?

Alternatively try the MM for a 2nd hand P45 board. I've not yet seen a G0 chip which struggles to do at least 3.2GHz on a decent board, what's the VID of your chip?
Click to expand...

From what I can see the Sandy Bridge chips that I and most here are going to be interested in are the ones due in Q3.

I'll try and find the vid tonight. C1E and EIST off and check the vid once under load correct?
 
Similar to my situation, my old board wouldn't even overclock at all (seriously) and was probably one of the worst investments I've ever made. It was a P5N series SLI.

Bought a P5Q deluxe off here. My logic was that overclockers were only really going to sell hardware that overclocked well. And it did, I got 3.4 out of a B3.

The only reason I've not done what your currently mulling over, is that my current machine runs games maxed out as long as I leave AA off (and I can't tell the difference with it on anyway).

P.S I also went from 1650 to 1920 monitor, but a lot of people recommended to me on here that I would need a GTX 470 to get proper use out of the screen without fps problems. Me personally, I think you need SLI 460's to get proper usage out of that screen. Might be completely wrong though.
 
Michaeljcox24 said:
P.S I also went from 1650 to 1920 monitor, but a lot of people recommended to me on here that I would need a GTX 470 to get proper use out of the screen without fps problems. Me personally, I think you need SLI 460's to get proper usage out of that screen. Might be completely wrong though.
Click to expand...

I tihnk it depends on what you are playing. I'm not a fan of the system busting games (Crysis and Metro i believe but i could be wrong) so i dont need as much grunt.

Though that was why i was wondering about the motherboard, the 460 is so cheap that it would make sense to double up at some point but i don't want to run back to back because of the heat.
 
Well, almost all Q6600 G0 would hit 3.6GHz no problem with the right board (i.e. decent P45 chipset board). The reason you can't get a decent out of your Q6600 at the moment is definitely because if your motherboard holding it back.

I use to have a MSI nforce 650i chipset board, and my Q6600 wasn't never really stable at beyond 3.0GHz, but after I change to a Asus P5Q Deluxe (which I picked up from MM 2nd hand for just £30) , I overclocked my Q6600 to 3.6GHz without breaking a sweat. One of the four cores for my Q6600 is weaker than the other three, so I have to use higher vcore than what should had been necessary to be prime stable. I think most Q6600 G0 would not require 1.49 vcore to be prime stable.
 
under prime 95 load coretemp says 1.2625v VID and CPU-Z said was core voltage 1.328v though it fluctuated a little but that was its max.
 
Jan 2011 is weeks away, why not wait perhaps Ocuk will have some SandyBridge Core i7-2600 @ 4.5ghz bundles ;)

Theres always something better coming out 6 months after, soon as SB comes out you got Bulldozer arriving 3-6 months later, and then 3-6 months after that its updated higher end Sandybridge....... and yes 3-6months after that is Sandybridge Ivy-bridge Cores and goodness knows what socket thats coming on ;)
 
I was going to try and get a P5Q Deluxe from the MM and see how I fare. Possibly going to pick up a new Silver Arrow cooler too as the format will work on the new 2011 chips due in Q3.

Now i need to see if i can find out how well this chip will clock ion my current board.
 
Ok, after reading a little more about the January chips i've decided to wait. in the meantime I'm trying to ascertain how far this Q6600 might go.
----------------------------------------------------------
My VID is 1.2625
for a little playing around i have set my vCore to 1.5v
Under load CPU-Z reports the vCore as 1.392 which if I have my terminology right is a 0.1.08v droop.

I have just set the multi to 6 and the fsb to 400 to see if the fsb will go that high. I also changed the memory multi to 2 to keep it at 800. Booted up fine and about to see if it wobbles under load.

Idle temps are 45c on the hottest core, 39c on the coolest. Core 4 has always been 4 or 5 C cooler than the others.
6x400 = 2.4ghz - After a brief 12 minute Prime95 I had highs of 69c to 63c. No problems (i know not long enough)

Booted into 7x400 = 2.8ghz fine. Idle of 47c-43c. 15 minute Prime 95 ran fine. 72c - 67c max.
Booted into 8x400 = 3.2ghz fine. Idle 48c - 44c. Ran ok for about 25 minutes. Highs of 80c-74c. Computer evenutally went into standby. Once back i started to get an odd tone from the PC speaker which stopped as soon as i stopped the prime test. Just added 0.3v to the fsb to see if the beeping comes back. It came back, now checking that its not some kind of fan fail warning. Its not failing but if the chip is getting hotter than the preset that might be it.

Just updated the BIOS from F10 to F14 and have been at 8x400 for 15 minutes prime with no beeps. Either it stopped or i turned off the beep in the bios :P
 
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Bit disappointing that 250 post rule. I buy computer gear all the time and would rather buy from a trustworthy source on here than elsewhere. Recently I would have looked for a 460GTX and 4 GB RAM on here and maybe a new mobo and hard drive, but I have been forced to turn to ebay which is not my cup of tea. :(

How long will it take me to get to 250+ posts without spamming!!!
 
robfosters said:
How long will it take me to get to 250+ posts without spamming!!!
Click to expand...

really not long at all. certainly not 6 months which is the other stipulation. Its to prevent people just popping up and scamming someone.

Back to my Q6600 though. I managed to boot to 9x400 = 3.6 last night but about 20 seconds after starting prime the PC blue screened. Temps were within expected levels so i'll have a fiddle and see how far i can get.

Currenly however i'm waiting for the power to come back. Hurrah for having WiFi hotspot on the mobile and a laptop tbh!
 
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I nearly picked up a P5Q premium from t'bay over the weekend but the seller said it was very picky about ram which is a substantial enough problem throughout the range to be aware of.
 
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