OC help

[xehrc]

Hello all,

I'm a newbie overclocker, and am trying to OC my Q6600 in my quest to play Battlefield 3 as well as possible on my PC.

CPU - Intel Q6600 2.4 GHz w/Zalman CNPS10x Performa

MOBO - Gigabyte EP45 DS3R, BIOS F8

RAM: 1x2GB Kingston DDR2 800MHz DDR2, 1x2GB Kingmax DDR2 800MHz

Graphics: 2x ATI 4850 512MB in Crossfire, OC'd (not fantastically to 625/990 both)


Based on CPU-Z and GPU-Z readings (and many a forum browse), I'm fairly certain my CPU is the bottleneck here. I've been trying to overclock it, but can't even seem to get a 10MHz increase in FSB (keeping CPU Multiplier @ 9x, PCIE frequency 100MHz, DRAM frequiency less or same as stock and voltage its normal 1.325).

And strangely, in BIOS my RAM's stock speed seems to be 667 while in Everest, it reads as 800MHz. Initially I thought my RAM was letting me down, but even with a stock cooler and crap RAM, I should be able to make SOME gains in FSB. Right?

Is there something blindingly obvious I'm doing wrong? I've been following the internet guides and youtube videos, trying to increase FSB by 5-10MHz, keeping PCI 100MHz, not OC'ing my ram). Tried messing with voltage once a tiny bit, but was hesitant.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[j.col]

hi and welcome to the forums.

this is a very basic explanation of overclocking

its basic maths. your Q6600 is rated at 1066mhz. you always divide this number by 4 so 1066/4= 266, this is your fsb. (or cpu frequency)
then your processor (cpu) has a multiplier of 9 (or cpu ratio)
so 266 x 9 = 2394mhz or 2.4GHz, your stock speed

if you download cpu-z, this will give you all this info,

boot into bios, and disable C1est, and any other power saving features.

unlink your ram, using the ram divider, so it stays at stock speeds, you can overclock the ram later.
this means leave it at 667mhz or 800mhz or 1066

raise the vcore to 1.4v.(cpu voltage) this is your problem, you need more voltage, the max voltage is 1.55v, so you are well within the safe zone.

then raise the fsb. yours is now 266. (266 x 9 = 2394mb or 2.4ghz ) try rising it to 280
boot into windows
download realtemp and coretemp (google them)
install and run them
then download intel burn test (ibt) and run it.
have a look in task manager and notice how much free ram is listed.

in ibt set threads to 4 (for 4 cores) and then click on custom ram and enter an amount just below the free amount.
eg. i have 2520mb free ram. so i enter 2500 into the custom ram.
run the test for 5 passes. for now,
and then at final speed you want, run for 50 passes
keep an eye on temps (do not let it go over 75.c)

or download prime95 and run the torture test/large fft's

if test runs fine, go back into bios, and change frequency (fsb) to 300 and repeat the tests.
keep doing this in 20mhz steps until windows will not boot. then just go back a step (remove 20 from the fsb) to the last stable frequency,
or
just raise the cpu voltage a couple of levels. it should now boot.
its a balancing act, higher voltages will get you higher fsb, but it will also give you higher temps.

my B3 revision Q6600 needs 1.39v in the bios to get to 3.3ghz.
if yours is a G0 revision, you should be able to get this speed at a lower voltage


the trick is to do this step by step, and not go straight to eg. 400 (400 x 9= 3.6ghz), just take your time.

also for some reason using the x 9 multi, i couldn't get past 3.0ghz
so i dropped it to a x8 multi and i got it to 3.3ghz easily.
get the cpu maxed before increasing the ram speed


your motherboard is excellent at overclocking, you should easily get to 3.3 to 3.6ghz

 

[j.col]

RAM: 1x2GB Kingston DDR2 800MHz DDR2, 1x2GB Kingmax DDR2 800MHz

this may be a problem,
if you have any problems, remove the kingmax ram, i would bet you can get a higher overclock.
when buying ram, always by matched pairs

 

[xehrc]

Thanks for the lightning quick response j.col, will try memory divider and vcore to 1.4v, though mine's a G0 revision

 

[xehrc]

J.Col, you sir are a legend!

Took out the Kingmax and it worked beautifully! I too hit a wall at 3.0GHz, so brought it down to 8x multi and FSB 380MHz without raising voltage.

Windows is stable so far, going to run Prime95 and leave it overnight, and continue my overclock tomorrow. Might settle at 3.3, but see how far this takes me.

Thanks very much mate, really appreciate it.

 

[j.col]

no probs.
personally for a quick test, i prefer IBT, it usually finds an unstable oc before 10 passes, which can be only 10 mins.
prime is as good but slower. i only use it at the final speed, i can get.

3.3 is good, there is not much difference between 3.3 and 3.6 except bragging rights.

 

[decto]

Quite happy with my Q6600 @ 3.0 in BF3 with a GTX280 on medium/high settings 1080.

Usage is around 65% balanced across all cores so doesn't need to be faster.

AD