New to clocking - q6600

Spuderoony

Spuderoony

Spuderoony

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Evening all.

I've been reading all the introductory overclocking threads and guides I can find, but I'm still a little confused by my experiences so far.

Cpu-z says that my multiplier keeps varying from 6 to 9. Is there any way I can keep it forced to 9? Or is this some form of Intel Cool N Quiet reduction thingy that I used to have on my old AMD?

Also, could anyone give me some general tips/tell me what I should be realistically aiming for with the following:

Q6600 95W SLACR
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R
Tuniq Tower

It's all paired with a 8800GT, but I can just about handle moving sliders in Rivatuner for that one :o
 
The changing multiplier is due to SpeedStep, and is controled using the C1E and EiST options in the BIOS.

There's a couple of good Gigabyte guides in the motherboard forum. One is stickied at the top, and the other is here. The majority of the posts are for the older P965 versions, but they use the same options, and the later posts are almost all for the P35 versions.

And you should get atleast 3.4ghz with that set-up.
 
Right, I've got myself up to 2898mhz so far (9 x 322) and I've increased the VCore from 1.3125 to about 1.34.

However, I've experienced a couple of blue screens above this. This was when I was both using a higher VCore (about 1.4) and a higher FSB (about 335).

Which, obviously, is well below the 3.4 target you suggested. Any ideas?
 
you will need to increase the vcore as you increase the clock..

before you start to o/c the machine you will need to make sure that when you are running stress tests that it can only be the CPU failing... so before increasing the FSB I would unlink the memory or reduce its timmings right down this way you can be sure that its the CPU failing in a stress test and not the RAM..

Once you have this sorted I would first aim for around 3 - 3.2Ghz put your vcore to 1.4 and boot into windows.. run a prime95 stress test and keep an eye on your temps using vcore... anything up to 65/70c in a prime95 test is ok.. if the test is stable for 30 mins then go back out and drop the vcore down... do this until the test fails, then put your vcore back up to to the previous setting and run a prime for a good few hours.. if this fails put it up again.. eventually you will find the stable setting.. then from this point you can raise your FSB, should be ok to do it in 10mhz steps (90mhz on a *9 multiplier to your CPU speed)... again keep raising your vcore until you hit the 65/70c load temps in which case you will have to slow the clock down.. or until you can get stable in prime95... rinse and repeat to your desired clock

vcore wise no higher than 1.5, make sure your RAM is set at the manufactures recommended voltage, if you are using more than 2 slots then might want to touch you northbridge volts up a little if increasing the vcore isnt giving you a stable clock
 
I just tried 1.4 (and a couple of notches below it) and 340 x 9 and it won't even boot to BIOS. I put in the 5-5-5-18 timings of the RAM into the first 4 DRAM slots in the BIOS screen.

I feel like I must be doing something fundamentally wrong.
 
tbh I have no experience what so ever with the gigabyte boards... but try it at 400*8 and see what it does maybe an issue with the board at that FSB.. if that doesnt work try running with just two moduals of RAM.. hopefully someone with experience of the board can tell you what BIOS settings you need
 
tbh they can run dog slow whilst you trying for a stable clock.. you can sort them out latter.. again not exactly sure how the RAM speeds and timmings are done on that board.. but i would start them at stock setting and reduced timmings
 
Unlinking and setting low speeds, putting +0.3 on the default 1.8 for the RAM, and using a Vcore of about 1.35 seems to have worked a treat. Thanks a lot dude.

Has booted perfectly into a 3.1 clock. Let's see where I can go from here. By the way, how does using a RAM multiplier (here I'm deciding between 2 and 2.5) affect performance and clocks? Obviously I've seen that my memory was limiting my CPU before, but there must be an advantage to having 2.5 x 400 as opposed to 2 x 500 (just as an example).

Ta for your help so far by the way.
 
tbh really wouldnt worry about your RAM performance until you get to the clock that you want, as the final performance of your RAM will generaly be based at the FSB you end up at.

Really not to sure what that memory multiplier is equating to in my BIOS as rather unfortunatly they all like to call them different names in different manufactures BIOS :) If its the Ratio between RAM and FSB then its better to have @ 1:1 or better ratio with the RAM being quicker that the FSB.. Or it might be the FSB strap I guess? in which case its the default value its calculating the RAM speed off??! Really I am not to sure as I havent have a Gigabyte board in years
 
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