Need lots of help.

[Frapple]

I've read through the 'Beginners Guide to Overclocking' and another guide but I'm thoroughly confused.

Here's an image of my computer, running Vista x64.

I've overclocked my Q6600 to 310x9, couldn't find where to turn speedstepping off, but read that it doesn't really matter anyway. The processor idles at 39-43.

I ran the Prime95 program and choose small FFT, left it for 10-15 minutes. As of writing this they haven't increased. Here's the results

Anyway question time. (Sorry)

I have a Tuniq Tower with Arctic Silver 5, probably incorrectly seated due to the awkwardness of the Gigabyte X38 DS4 motherboard and the two case fans the Akasa Eclipse 62 came with. Are those temps indicating it's seated wrong? Too high? A friend on mine has the same processor @ 3.07ghz on air, and afaik the cooler isn't very good.

How is RAM related to the CPU when overclocking, and how do I go about overclocking it(In the BIOS there were some weird options several A, B, C and D's with 200-400 next to them.)

Voltages, I gave up here vDroop? VDrop? What? I haven't touched any of them in BIOS, just left them on whatever they were.

I'd like to go to 3ghz but don't know if it's safe to go any further, should I buy new/more case fans and reseat the CPU? I don't think I have any Arctic Silver left, only the stuff the heatsink came with.

Don't shout at me, and thanks

 

[dr. sarf]

OK mate, hope I can help.

Firstly - scrap speedfan and use coretemp. If you cant for whatever reason, then take about 10-15'C from those temps as they're wrong. So your load temps look fine.

You do need to run Prime for longer though - about 8 hours to see if it's stable.

As for the RAM, you should be able to run it linked or unlinked. Leave it unlinked for now - so as to ascertain what stable overclock you have. Once you have done that, you can start messing with the RAM settings and overclocking that by setting the CPU/RAM FSB ratio. Usually best to keep it 1:1 where possible. Your RAM should overclock all the same - I have my PC5300 overclocked to 800Mhz.

Voltage - Vdroop is the difference between load and idle voltages, Vdrop is the difference between Vcore set in the BIOS and your actual Vcore on the chip (can be seen via CPU-Z).

You'll certainly need to up the Vcore (CPU voltage) to maintain a stable overclock. Best way to check this is with Prime. The amount you need to raise it, depends on your individual chip, and what its auto default voltage is at (lower the better). I currently have my chip set to 1.475v in the BIOS, but I get a fairly big Vdrop - 1.45v.

Try setting your FSB to what you want (334x9) and running Prime - if it fails or you get a blue screen, up the Vcore a bit. Best to do it in stages (1 increment at a time) so you can work out the lowest stable vcore you can use. The lower your Vcore is, the lower your temps will be.

You may also need to increase your Northbridge voltage (MCH voltage). Plus make sure your RAM is running at its manufacturers stated voltage (boards tend to default to 1.8v).

It's prob best to disable Speedstep, I always think it is too. For this you need to disable the EIST & C1E feature in "CPU Feature" menu.

As for your Tuniq - just make sure it is screwed down properly - it may be fiddly but it needs doing and it can be done. These coolers are very efficient when seated properly.

Hope that helps, any more questions, just ask.

 

[Frapple]

Woah, huge thanks man, will have a crack at it tomorrow.

Not sure if one of the screws in the Tuniq is all the they way down, bit difficult to get in.

Should I stick to the 'Small FFT' option in Prime?

The G.Skill ram says tested voltage 1.8-2.0, do I set it to 1.8?

 

[CyZMyAssBaby]

Should I stick to the 'Small FFT' option in Prime?

The G.Skill ram says tested voltage 1.8-2.0, do I set it to 1.8?

As you mention enable small FFT's and check of "round of checking" as well to enable error reporting in prime. Leave your ram set at 1.8v in the Bios