overclock q9550 using p5n-d motherboard

realBabelfish · 8 Jun 2011 at 08:10

hi guys.

im struggling to get satble overclocks on this system so looking for some advice. i can only seem to get AI overclock at 5% stable and manual i can only achieve about 3ghz too. (stock is ~2.83 ghz IIRC) stepping is E0

am i better to get an ATI motherboard (just bought a 6950 flashed to 6970) not using the nforce chipset (seems to be the thing holding me back) or just buy a better CPU heatsink/fan?

if so can anyone give me some ideas for a hsf/new motherboard. maybe a crossfire one for future proofing myself.

also just looked at some water cooling. would £70 get me the 4ghz or would i need other stuff too? my case is ok with a 120mm exhaust fan at the rear near the CPU

cost is a factor as my son is due september so i can spend much on toys these days

cheers gurus!

pastymuncher · 8 Jun 2011 at 08:35

Your problem is the motherboard. Nvidia chipsets are terrible for clocking quads. If you really wanted to get 4Ghz out of it then you would need a Asus P5Q Pro series or good Gigabyte P45 board. Have a look on the bay, you should be able to get one for around £40 second hand.

realBabelfish · 8 Jun 2011 at 09:34

pastymuncher said:
Your problem is the motherboard. Nvidia chipsets are terrible for clocking quads. If you really wanted to get 4Ghz out of it then you would need a Asus P5Q Pro series or good Gigabyte P45 board. Have a look on the bay, you should be able to get one for around £40 second hand.

thx for the advice. would i need a new heatsink/fan too? what kind of OC would i expect to get? could i push 4ghz on air with a decent mobo and hsf?

would this be a decent hsf:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-072-AK&tool=3

pastymuncher · 8 Jun 2011 at 10:28

That's a very good cooler. I had a Q9550 in a P5Q Pro Turbo and easily hit 4Ghz. It went on to a max of 4.13Ghz. Lot's of good info in this thread. Most of the Asus P5Q range have very similar bios so the settings are easily transferrable.

realBabelfish · 8 Jun 2011 at 10:45

pastymuncher said:
That's a very good cooler. I had a Q9550 in a P5Q Pro Turbo and easily hit 4Ghz. It went on to a max of 4.13Ghz. Lot's of good info in this thread. Most of the Asus P5Q range have very similar bios so the settings are easily transferrable.

did you use stock cooler? do you use any other cooling to get a stable 4ghz?

pastymuncher · 8 Jun 2011 at 12:57

Stock cooler always stays in the box. Don't even think about using the stock cooler to hit high clocks. I am on water but in that thread i posted earlier people were hitting 4Ghz+ on air cooling with no problems.

realBabelfish · 8 Jun 2011 at 15:10

ive not looked at water really (used to be really expensive). after reading up it now seems the additional noise is bad. are there any silent solutions? if not i will get that hsf

btw - bidding on ebay for a P5Q Pro Turbo <crosses fingers>

realBabelfish · 8 Jun 2011 at 15:41

sod it, ordered the hsf as OC only had one left!

pastymuncher · 8 Jun 2011 at 19:21

The Venom? It's a very good cooler. Good luck with the auction.

realBabelfish · 9 Jun 2011 at 10:00

thanks for your help mate.

realBabelfish · 13 Jun 2011 at 15:48

damn, i can only get another 0.1 Ghz out of this motherboard using that HSF and a q9550

any tips on OCing an asus p5n-d? i know its not great but i would hope to get 3.2 out of it without water cooling. or does anyone here have a decent mobo for sale to get 4Ghz out of this chip?

on a side note, i can lower the multiplier to 8 and set fsb to 400 but its unstable as hell.

realBabelfish · 13 Jun 2011 at 16:32

looking at a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R now. ive read good things about these...

realBabelfish · 15 Jun 2011 at 08:50

sod it, got the q9550 to 3.2 stable by going multiplier 8 and fsb as 400, with some voltage tweaking. now i just need to tweak them down over time.

maybe look at selling mobo, 2 cpus old 8800gtx, ram etc to get a sandybridge @ 4.6. wife has a bun in the oven at the moment though so i cant really just buy kit like i used to be able to.

Puppetmaster · 15 Jun 2011 at 10:38

What voltage are you using for the cpu?

realBabelfish · 15 Jun 2011 at 11:48

Puppetmaster said:
What voltage are you using for the cpu?

about 1.39v IIRC.

i can most likely get them down a bit. had to whack up NB HT and SB too.

i cant seem to get it stable @ 3.3 using 8.5 multiplier. 8 multiplier and 400 fsb seem to be the best this board can handle with a venom cooler.

btw - does anyone know if you can rotate the cooler? at the moment its pushing air up to the heatsink. it might be better to push from the side as i have front intake and a rear exhaust 120mm fans in my case. not sure why i didnt try this at the time! <facepalm>

pastymuncher · 15 Jun 2011 at 12:50

1.39v for 3.2Ghz? That's shocking. Mine did 3.65Ghz on stock volts. 4Ghz only took 1.28750v while 4.13Ghz only took 1.325v.

realBabelfish · 15 Jun 2011 at 13:05

pastymuncher said:
1.39v for 3.2Ghz? That's shocking. Mine did 3.65Ghz on stock volts. 4Ghz only took 1.28750v while 4.13Ghz only took 1.325v.

i have a useless p5n-d motherboard, i bought it when my old decent mobo died and i wasnt gaming. wish i had bought a better one now!

will try some more tonight. 3.3Ghz seemed stable in windows but i got errors on prime95.

i know if i get an intel board i could most likely push 4GHz on less volts.maybe subconsciously im trying to blow it up so i can justify a 4.6GHz sandbridge!

pastymuncher · 15 Jun 2011 at 18:57

Or you could just give up, sell the lot and just buy a SB setup.

No matter how crap the board is at clocking, you should'nt have to knock the cpu voltage that high to achieve a clock speed that should easily be achieveable at stock volts.

realBabelfish · 16 Jun 2011 at 08:27

hey, its the highest clock ive seen not using water on one of these crappy p5n-d motherboards!

yeah, think i will look into i7. just got to be good with my money as wife is giving up work next week in preparation for my son being born!