Mild overclock on a Q6600 with Asus P5K : How are these values?

[Draeger]

Hi folks,

Just got a Q6600 from here in the MM to replace my excellent little E6300 which was sat at 3.2Ghz on air on my P5K board.

A while back some kind soul here posted some values to use for the E6300 and once I installed the Q6600 I basically used the same ones in the BIOS with a couple of minor changes. Can someone in the know take a look at the values I have and advise?. Ideally I'd like it to sit at around the 3.0-3.2 Ghz mark. I'm using a vanilla P5K with 4Gb Geil ULL DDR2. The Quad is now sat at :-

Advanced --> CPU Configuration
CPU Ratio Control = Manual
Ratio CMOS Setting = 7
C1E Support = Disabled

Advanced --> JumperFree Configuration
Ai Overclocking = Manual
CPU Ratio Control = Manual
Ratio CMOS Setting = [See above]
FSB Frequency = 450
PCIE Frequency = 101
DRAM Frequency = DDR2- 800 MHz
DRAM Command Rate = 2T
DRAM Timing Control = Manual
CAS# Latency = 5
RAS# to Cas# Delay = 5
RAS# Precharge = 5
RAS# Activate to Precharge = 15
TWR...to...TRTP = Auto
DRAM Static Read Control = Auto

Transaction Booster = Auto
Clock Over-Charging Mode = Auto

CPU Spread Spectrum = Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum = Disabled

CPU Voltage = 1.3000
CPU Voltage reference = Auto
CPU Voltage Damper = Enabled
CPU PPL Voltage = Auto
DRAM Voltage = 2.10v
FSB Termination Voltage = Auto
North Bridge Voltage = 1.25v
North Bridge Voltage Reference = Auto
South Bridge Voltage = Auto

Many thanks in advance for any assistance!!.

 

[veryrandom101]

show us the temps after running in full load, then we'd be able to tell you. at the moment those idling temps look pretty decent. Very strange how core temp and cpu-z report different speeds.. but if i was you i would definitely oc a bit more, you'll reach 3 easily, and 3.2 if you work a little harder, but still very easy to achieve

 

[Draeger]

Okeydokey. After 35 mins of Prime95 I get these below. I did notice during the test that Core Temp ( and to a certain extent CPU-Z but not as noticeably ) showed the frequency fluctuating between 2799.64Mhz - 399.95 x 7.0 and 2599.67Mhz 399.95 x 6.5. Not sure why that was?. Anyway, here are the results :-

 

[veryrandom101]

those are really good temps you have there, nice one mate! what cooler are you using btw? and you say you want to be in the 3-3.2 range, i'd recommend trying for 3.6 if you have the patience, but there you might have to up the voltage a little more. but it is well worth the performance with anything above 3. my guess with that fluctuation could be some sort of intel speedstep (not sure what its called on 775) adjusting the cpu to load conditions. wow, i wonder what that aux thing is, hopefully not your ambient temps lol
play around a bit man and let us know what speeds and temps you reach

 

[Draeger]

Thing is, I'm not exactly sure where to start as far as changing things goes!!.

Just "up" the FSB and Vcore to begin with, a little at a time?. Roughly what basic settings should I be looking to start changing to get me a base of 3.0Ghz to begin with?. The cooler is the same one I had on my E6300 - Arctic Seven Freezer Pro, the old type not the revision one. Used AS5 paste on it. Was thinking of sourcing a Tuniq Tower but if the temps I get look fine then I'll stick with the Arctic 7 for now.

Oh, and I didn't have a clue what that "AUX" temp of 119 deg was until I Googled it!!!.

Found this :-

Also, SpeedFan's "Aux" is simply an unassigned spare input, which may randomly toggle through values upt to 127. This is a known issue, is not a problem, and can be deselected for display, and disregarded.

 

[iNPUt]

You have speedstep on is why you clock is dropping, turn it off to try and get your best overclock then turn it back on when you want to use it for everyday use, can cause problems overclocking.

Regarding your overclock 400fsb is pretty good, try bump your multiplier up 400*8 = 3.2GHz
400*9 = 3.6GHz , not sure how your temps would handle the increased vcore needed to reach those clocks,
but a least you don't need to worry about your north bridge volts for a while since you have it stable at 400fsb.

I think you will need better cooling, I see you are looking into it, but I found when I had a asus p5kc is was a dog at clocking quads, I maxed out at about 2.8, wasn't even stable very well then, on my gigabyte p45 I got it to 3.2 no sweat. So I would try to push it a bit to see if the board can handle it without the temps being too high, if you've hit the barrier because of temps then get a better cooler ( or if it is running hot )

Good luck.

 

[Draeger]

Bumped it up to 400 x 8 but although it booted to the desktop when I began to run Prime it spat the dummy and I ended up with a BSOD Code 124.

Can't help thinking that I have missed something in there that needs changing as surely it should achieve 400 x 8 without much hassle?. My DRAM Frequency was still at "Auto" for some reason so I changed that to 800Mhz.

Also can't seem to find where to turn off Speedstep?. I have CPU Spread Spectrum and PCIE Spread Spectrum disabled as well as C1E Support disabled.

Read on another forum that if you change the Ratio CMOS Setting from 6 to 9 it turns off Speedstep completely but haven't tried that yet. Is there any real benefit to turning off Speedstep?. I'm sure I read somewhere about it dropping volts when it fluctuates between the 6 and 9 values when it turns on and off?.

 

[iNPUt]

Did you up the volts when you when to 400x8 since you were running it at 1.184v before and im pretty sure that won't handle 3.2 its vid is 1.3v so maybe try 1.25v.

Have you got a LLC option anywhere? load line calibration (I think its called)

Can anyone confirm CPU PPL Voltage is CPU PLL (might need to tweak that, read around for best settings)?

 

[Draeger]

Did you up the volts when you when to 400x8 since you were running it at 1.184v before and im pretty sure that won't handle 3.2 its vid is 1.3v so maybe try 1.25v.

Have you got a LLC option anywhere? load line calibration (I think its called)

Can anyone confirm CPU PPL Voltage is CPU PLL (might need to tweak that, read around for best settings)?

Hmm. I see what you mean. What voltage setting needs changing from 1.184v?. I have my CPU Voltage at 1.3000v and Northbridge at 1.25v. Whereabout do I change 1.184v as I can't see it anywhere?.

**EDIT** I think it is showing 1.184v because of this damn Speedstep again!!.

I'll have a look for LLC and see if that is in there somewhere.

 

[iNPUt]

Figure that out and your grand, there are many powersaving options turn them off for the time being, have a look at the descriptions, if they are fiddling with the volts or multi tell them to stop it.

Quick google brought up: C1E, CPU TM Function
C1E I know but i don't know what the TM Function is :/

If your board don't have LLC I wouldn't worry just accommodate for some vdroop.

 

[Draeger]

Ok, I went back in and reset the BIOS values to default then started from scratch. This time in the BIOS I could see Intel Speedstep. Apparently if you start setting some of the overclocking options to "Manual" the Speedstep option vanishes whether it has been changed to Disabled or not. Pretty annoying!.

So I Disabled it and went back through the settings again and changed them to pretty much what I had. Set the Multiplier to 400 x 8 and the vCore to 1.3250v.

Booted up and it seemed fine. However, Coretemp is still displaying the Multiplier as x 6 for some reason? :-

CPUZ says otherwise as you can see. Whats that all about?. Which one is right?.

As well as that, despite setting the vcore to 1.3250v its only showing in CPUZ as 1.280v. I assume that is the vdroop issue?. So should I bump up the vcore higher in order to compensate, is that what you mean?.

I apologise for what must appear to be a load of daft newbie questions. Appreciate you guys taking time to post and assist me!!.

 

[iNPUt]

Trust cpu-z on its vcore reading, its a bit odd they are not complying with frequency.

You have to put some load on it to see if there are some powersaving options that are decreasing vcore and multiplier. Put some load on it and see if either increase you will need sharp eyes incase it bluescreens on you.

Im only thinking this because .4 vdroop is pretty high on relatively low volts, p5k's can be pesky though. I really think you are missing some power saving options.

Have a look at: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17972811

Also maybe try the older version of coretemp 0.99.5 I think its is, .6 is a new release.

 

[Kelt]

Did you find if there's an LLC option?

 

[Draeger]

Doesn't appear to be - no.

I turned off everything under "CPU Configuration", C1E, CPU TM, Vanderpool etc. I can't see where else there would be another energy saving setting that needs disabled in order for Core Temp to show the same ( x8 ) Multiplier that CPUZ is showing.

There must be some setting I'm missing though because as soon as I start Prime, Core Temp shows the same fluctuation in multiplier as I noticed before and under 100% load Core Temps reading increses to that of approx the one CPUZ shows. Stop Prime and Core Temps reading drops back down to the x6 multiplier again.

 

[iNPUt]

What bios revision are you using, maybe its worth an flash / update,
or live with it, try get your overclock (3.2?) stable.

Energy saving options aren't all bad, saves you some penny's.

Is vcore fluctuating overly (a little is fine, normally drops a bit under load from experience)
It may cause problems, if not go for it, 3.4

 

[Draeger]

Idle, vcore is shown by CPUZ to be at 1.352v ( as I said, set it in BIOS at 1.4000v ). Running Prime it goes to @1.280v.

As far as updating the BIOS goes from what I have been Googling this afternoon the Asus BIOS updates were a hit or a miss when it came to allowing Speedstep to be "properly" turned off. I can't recall what BIOS version I'm running, will check though. As far as I can see ( maybe you guys can confirm ) my overclock to 3.2 appears to be working fine when it should as when running Prime Core Temp shoots up to that level. Then at idle it drops back to x6 multiplier. So I guess thats not too tragic?. Suppose I can live with what appears to be Speedstep stuck on as long as it isn't affecting my overclock when I need it to step back up to 3.2?.

At least it isn't the other way around, one guy I read about said his did the opposite - started off at his overclocked value and under load it stepped down to x6!!.

Would still like to know why it does that in Core Temp and not in CPUZ though?. Surely if Speedstep was working as it should then CPUZ would show the fluctuation and change in multipliers also?.

 

[iNPUt]

Have you tried coretemp 0.99.5? To make sure.

Also you may want to back into the bios and turn on speedstep / c1e back on if you can't get it to drop properly, it might show the drop in cpu-z then.

Wouldn't like to be that guy, I think you can check bios revision in cpu-z btw

That is some pretty hefty vdroop but I think those boards are a bit notorious for it, think there are pencil mods etc you can do to improve this, but im guessing you aren't worried too much.

 

[Draeger]

Also you may want to back into the bios and turn on speedstep / c1e back on if you can't get it to drop properly, it might show the drop in cpu-z then.

/slaps head

I didn't even think of that. Probably why CPUZ isn't showing the change. Will try an older Core Temp and see how that goes.

Had a look, I'm running the 603 BIOS. Certainly won't change up to the 705 that the bloke who had the opposite problem was running!. I had read that the P5K suffered from horrendous vdroop, there it is confirmed again!.

 

[Draeger]

Have you tried coretemp 0.99.5? To make sure.

Well I eventually tracked down a copy of CT 0.99.5 and tried that and guess what?. It's now showing what would appear to be the correct multiplier, same as CPUZ is. Reading on the CT forums there are quite a few folk having issues with incorrect readings despite a "fix" being released so I think I'll stick with 0.99.5 for now! :-

 

[iNPUt]

Sweet, now if you want to go to 3.6GHz you probably want to sort out your vdroop and maybe get a better cooler.

Try get that stable, quite a nice overclock on a p5k

Been a good journey, pretty enjoyable enjoy

Also loving the sig chane.