Can somone help me get my Q9550 to 3.4GHz?

Jon20 · 21 Apr 2009 at 15:36

Can someone help me get my Q9550 to 3.4GHz?

Hi,

I'm trying to overclock my Q9550 to 3.4Ghz but I'm not having much success. I don't have that much experience of overclocking so I'm probably doing something wrong.

Spec is:
Q9550 C1 VID of 1.1375V
GA-P35-DS3L
4GB Kingston HyperX 1066mhz

So far I've set the fsb to 400, put the memory divider to 2.00 to give a 1:1 fsb:ram ratio and have been slowly upping the voltage from initially 1.25000V to 1.28750V. Everytime I've tried running Prime95 Blend test, its just locked up or given a BSOD. CPU-Z reads the voltage as 1.216V when under load (I'm guessing that's due to vdroop?). Not sure what to do now?

Jon20 · 21 Apr 2009 at 17:53

Had another go, this time with 1.30000V set in the BIOS and it failed within 2 minutes:

Jon20 · 21 Apr 2009 at 18:13

Sorry I meant to put memory multiplier not divider, so the memory is running at 400x2=800mhz. Apologies for the confusion.

Jon20 · 21 Apr 2009 at 22:58

Is there anything else I need to look at? Surely 1.30000V in the BIOS is more than enough for 3.4GHz?

Jon20 · 22 Apr 2009 at 12:31

95thrifles said:
Should be, though looking at your first screenie you do have quite big vdroop bringing it down to 1.232 and you quote 1.216 so you could try pushing this a bit further. Have you got your DRAM voltage manually set? If not set it to 2.2V, you could also try setting your NB manually to around 1.35, if still no joy bump the NB a notch or two. If none of this works Id suggest it may be the mobo holding back the CPU, unless you can find anyone else with same mobo/CPU combo

I've got the DRAM voltage set to 2.1V. NB is going to be a problem as I've no idea what voltage is going through it at the moment as there's no sensor to read the voltage/temperature of the NB. Anyway looking around, it seems that this mobo isn't too good at overclocking quads and does suffer from big vdroop. It looks like I would have to get a new mobo if I want to overclock any further (currently at 3GHz), which isn't ideal. Looking at the Asus P5Q-E as that seems to get decent reviews.

Jon20 · 23 Apr 2009 at 14:48

Well I've bought a P5Q-E so will update once its arrived and installed, probably with more questions lol.

Jon20 · 23 Apr 2009 at 16:26

subbytna said:
jon20, where abouts in the BIOS did you amend your volts? or what did you use to tweak the volts?

Under the MB Intelligent Tweaker section in the BIOS and then changing the CPU Voltage Control in small steps which is an option right at the bottom. There's also other options for the NB (even though it doesn't tell you what voltage is going through it, just +0.1, +0.2 etc) ram voltage etc.

Jon20 · 25 Apr 2009 at 16:36

I recieved and installed the P5Q-E yesterday and I have to say I'm impressed with the build quality and the amount of options/settings in the BIOS. Haven't had much time to have a proper look around the BIOS, but it was simple enough to update to the 1406 release and put the Q9550 back to 3GHz.

Jon20 · 26 Apr 2009 at 19:32

Well I've had a look around the BIOS and I've managed to get it up to 3.4GHz. I've had Prime95 blend test running for about an hour and a half and so far it seems stable.

I've got the settings like this in the BIOS, but reading the P5Q-E thread it appears that the board overvolts if you leave the voltage settings to AUTO. So should I change anything and what to?

AI Overclock tuner: Manual
CPU Ratio Setting: AUTO
FSB Strap to North Bridge: AUTO
FSB Frequency: 400
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-800MHz
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A1: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A2: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B1: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B2: AUTO
DRAM Timing Control: Manual

1st Information:
CAS# Latency: 5
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay: 5
DRAM RAS# Precharge: 5
DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge: 15
RAS# to RAS# Delay : AUTO
Row Refresh Cycle Time: AUTO
Write Recovery Time: AUTO
Read to Precharge Time: AUTO

2nd Information :
All AUTO

3rd Information :
All AUTO

DRAM Static Read Control: AUTO
DRAM Read Training: AUTO
MEM. OC Charger: AUTO
AI Clock Twister: AUTO
AI Transaction Booster: AUTO

CPU Voltage: 1.2000
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (0/2): AUTO
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (1/3): AUTO
CPU PLL Voltage: AUTO
FSB Termination Voltage: AUTO
DRAM Voltage: 2.10
NB Voltage: AUTO
NB GTL Reference: AUTO
SBridge Voltage: AUTO
PCIE SATA Voltage:AUTO

Load Line Calibration: AUTO (I did set it to disabled but there was quite a lot of vdroop)
CPU Spread Spectrum: AUTO
PCIE Spread Spectrum: AUTO
CPU Clock Skew : AUTO
NB Clock Skew : AUTO

Jon20 · 26 Apr 2009 at 23:27

I've now set the voltages to this, after seeing post 292 in this thread. It still seems to be stable although I haven't done 8 hours of prime 95 yet. Edit: Just passed 5 rounds of Intel Burn Test for what its worth.

CPU Voltage: 1.2000
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (0/2): AUTO
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (1/3): AUTO
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.52
FSB Termination Voltage: 1.22
DRAM Voltage: 2.02
NB Voltage: 1.16
NB GTL Reference: AUTO
SBridge Voltage: AUTO
PCIE SATA Voltage:AUTO

cje said:
What does the board set the voltages to when on auto?

Download EVEREST and edit your post above, or make a new one, and beside each "AUTO" put what the EVEREST is telling you it is getting.

Are you stable at your current settings as posted above?

Where are these located in Everest? I can't seem to find them.

Jon20 · 27 Apr 2009 at 08:47

Well I left Prime 95 blend test running overnight and its passed 8 hours with no problems at all. Maximum temperatures were 60-59-64-60. Are these ok? Im using a lapped TRUE Black, with Noctua fans, in push pull for cooling inside a Silverstone Fortress. I suppose the temps will never get that high in everyday use anyway.