Can it be true? is the 975x/g holding me back?

Vince · 13 Oct 2008 at 16:52

Hi All,

I have the rig in my sig, I bought the cheapest board that I could to get the Quad running at the time of purchase with a view to upgrading down the line. Now I have been trying to get a better stable overclock out of my Q6600 which has a VID of 1.2125, but it seems that no matter what I do, when I go 1mhz over the 333fsb the chip just isn't stable.

at 9 x 333 and stock voltages (1.2v) I am fully stable, 9 x 334, even with more north bridge and voltage to the cpu it falls over. Sometimes it will boot and crash after 10 mins, 1 day, or even 2, other times it will just not post at all.

So I head over to the DFI forums and it seems that nobody has managed to be fully stable with a q6600 (go) past 3ghz on this particular board, most can't even get 3.0ghz.

At this time I am sure that the chip has more to give, I have primed it for 8 hours at 3ghz and stock voltages 1.2v without a problem. I also use it to run Climate prediction and LHC through boinc 24/7 for the last 5 or so months.

What I want to know is... what am I likely to get out of this chip in a better board? Also is there any chance you could you recomend a board that will go okay with the rest of my system? I would quite like 2x PCI-E @ 16x if possible.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Vince

Rroff · 13 Oct 2008 at 17:03

How long have you had the DFI 975X? both of mine (original and RAM replacement) died within 6 months with the same symptoms.

Unless your really unlucky that Q6600 should give atleast 3.3-3.4gig on a decent motherboard and 3.6-3.8 if its a reasonable clocker and your prepared to push the voltage a bit.

Vince · 13 Oct 2008 at 17:05

I dunno must have had the fella for about 9 month now possibly longer.

Cob · 13 Oct 2008 at 17:06

It's pretty normal for 975x boards to not clock quads past 3ghz.

Vince · 13 Oct 2008 at 17:09

Is that something to do with "GTL" or the lack of it on 975x boards?

Cob · 13 Oct 2008 at 17:20

Nope. Its just that the 975x chipset wasn't designed to handle quads as they didn't exist when it came out.

Vince · 13 Oct 2008 at 17:22

In that case, I suppose it's not done me to badly... I mean is it worth upgrading the board for a jump from 3ghz to 3.6?

Cob · 13 Oct 2008 at 18:02

Considering the forums we're in, my answer would be a little biased.

decto · 13 Oct 2008 at 22:40

VinceB1 said:
In that case, I suppose it's not done me to badly... I mean is it worth upgrading the board for a jump from 3ghz to 3.6?

Depends on what you use your system for...

Unless you really load it up with encoding , a few minutes saved would make little difference.

For gaming a 3Ghz quad is still very good. You'd get more from changing graphics cards than a little more from the CPU.

My Quad will run >3.4 but I just run it a a little less than the VID, 3Ghz and enjoy the silence.

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