Q6600 overclock Asus 790i Ultra. HELP!

[cje]

I did have another thread, but that was more of a questions thread. I've got arctic silver, and a second cpu fan, and temps have dropped 6 degrees or more on all four cores. I hope this thread will help me achieve a decent overclock.

System:
Q6600 G0 SLACR VID 1.3volts
4 x 1gb Corsair XMS3
Asus Striker II Extreme 790i Ultra
9800 GTX+

EDIT - since first posting this, I've by passed 1400 -1600 and is currently stable:

FSB 1600
multi 9x
Vcore : 1.48750
Loadline Calibration : Enabled
pll : auto
vtt : auto
mem : 1.66
NB : 1.46
SB : 1.6

It is unstable when FSB : RAM ratio is set to unlinked, I get instant errors with intel linpack. But, with 5:4 divider, and running ram at 1280 it is stable.

I thought unlinked left the ram alone? Whats up?

EDIT 2 - Temps are arpund 40 degrees idle, and around 67 average on prime85 after 5 minutes. Are these a little on the high side? Intel Burn Test fails straight away with maximum memory is selected. It causes BSOD within 2 minutes on half memory option. What does this indicate?

 

[cje]

OK, got it stable at 3.6 Ghz with the following settings:
Vcore : 1.5
Loalinde cal : Enabled
Pll : 1.52
VTT : Auto
Mem : 1.66
NB : 1.46
SB : 1.6

Prime95 produces max temperatures of around 58 degrees after 10 minutes.

However, Intel Burn Test will almost always report errors with maximum stress option. If half the memory is used, it seems fine.

Intel burn doesn't make it BSOD or crash, just reports errors, with error checking off, it runs through just fine, with the hottest core at 67/68 degrees.

Any advice on this?

 

[cje]

Right, forget what I said earlier, I've got it totally stable at 1570 FSB, with a BIOS Vcore of 1.4875. Temps on Intel Burn test are in the mid 60s. Played GTA 4 for an hour last night, got about 10 FPS improvement, and the temps didnt rise above 40 degrees.

What I want to ask, is 1.4875 vCore alright for 24/7 use?

 

[MooMoo444]

1.4875 is on the border of the 'upper limit' for the acceptable voltage of a q6600, however - aslong as your temperature is fine, it's not an issue.

Temperature is more of a killer than voltage I would say, as some people can run 1.6-1.7v on them under phase without an issue

 

[cje]

Yeah cus if I want 1600 FSB (3.6Ghz). I need 1.5 volts to be stable, and speedfan reports vcore voltage as 1.56. Temps are hitting 70 degrees with Intel Burn. And I think that was too high.

So I think I am better off with 1.875 and lower temps. Speedfan reports vcore as 1.49 now, so it's under 1.5.

I benchmarked it just fine at 3.6, but I didn't want to run it at those high voltages.

 

[zykan]

SB seems a little high, is it too hot too touch? if so you'll need a fan blowing onto/over it.

 

[cje]

Its hot, but not too hot to touch. I've got it in an Antec 1200 case with the middle optional fan installed, so its blowing between the two gfx cards, and where the SB heatsink is, so I guess its ok? Is there any way to check the temps?

EDIT - Maybe I don't need that much voltage, I read somewhere that 1.6 SB is desirable with an SLI setup. Don't know if this is true?

 

[cje]

I just updated CPU-z to the latest version.

I set Vcore in BIOs to 1.4875, cpuz reports it as 1.568!!, the older cpuz reported it as 1.486 (or close to that cant remember). Speedfan reports vcore @ 1.49. But, Asus PCProbe reports it as 1.58. HWMonitor reports it as 1.57.

Is the motherboard giving the cpu more voltage than what I've specified in BIOS?

EDIT - Cpu-z ver. 147 reports Vcore as 1.488 but cpuz ver 149 is reporting it as 1.568. PCWizard reports Vcore as 1.488 also, so does speedfan. I don't know which to trust.

EDIT 2 - SiSoft Sandra is also reporting 1.49. So I guess the new CPU-Z and ASUS pcprobe is wrong then.

 

[cje]

Right I've finally got this stable at 3.5Ghz. But voltages seem to be a bit high. What do you guys think? In the picture below the older cpu-z is used, in the newer it reports vcore of 1.58, even though I set it to 1.4875.




The current BIOS settings are:
Vcore : 1.4875
Loadline Calibration : Enabled
PLL : 1.52
RAM : 1.68
VTT : 1.38
NB : 1.48
SB : 1.5
NB GTL : +10mv

Actual reported voltages in windows :
Vcore : 1.56/1.58
RAM : 1.72
VTT : 1.42
NB : 1.5
SB : 1.5

Hottest core on idle is 42 degrees, ghottest core after 20 passes of intel burn test is 66 degrees.

Any advice/ suggestions? It's been stable for 2 days now games and prime smal FFTs and blend no crashes.

 

[cje]

Anyone? please