Overclocking a Q9300

[Jim89]

Hey fellas,

Had a Q9300 for about 18 months. Finally decidided to do a bit of an overclock on it to try and get it up to 3.0GHz. My first time overclocking so things are a bit up in the air and I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing.
Hardware-wise I have the following set up:
Q9300 @ stock ~ DFI LAN Party P45 T2RS ~ Noctua NH-U12P ~ 4GB Corsair Dominator RAM ~ Saphire Radeon HD5830 ~ OCZ 'Mod-X-Stream' 900W PSU ~ 2x200GB Seagate Barracuda HDD's ~ Antec 900 Case
Everything is set at default values except the DRAM Voltage which I've upped to 2.0v (RAM is rated at 2.1v).

As I said, I'd like to up the speed to 3.0Ghz, with an FSB of 400Mhz (on a 7.5 multiplier). I've read the introduction to overclocking sticky so I know the basic procedure. My main query is which voltage(s) to up when I get to an FSB that's not stable at the set voltages?
Going into the voltage settings, I have the following options:

CPU VID Special Add
DRAM Voltage Control
SB Core/CPU PLL Voltage 1.55, 1.75, 1.95 or 2.15V
NB Core Voltage 1.1825 --> 1.9700V
CPU VTT Voltage 1.10 --> 1.60V
Vcore Droop Control --> On/Off (currently on)
Clockgen Voltage Control --> 3.45, 3.60, 3.75 or 3.85V
CPU GTL 0/2 REF Volt --> 0.67x, 0.63x. 0.61x or 0.58x
CPU GTL 1/3 REF Volt
North Bridge GTL Ref Volt
FSB Vref

Temperatures seem to be reasonably low, current temperatures are:
Temp1: 18C
Temp2: 32C
Temp3: 39C
I might be reading the wrong temps though.
I managed to get it up to an FSB of 350Mhz last night (speed = 2.625GHz) but beyond that seemed a bit unstable so I've dropped things back down to stock speeds.
I appreciate any and all advice,
Cheers,

Jim

 

[Jim89]

Bump for some help please.

 

[Arthalen]

For voltages, tbh just set them all to Auto to start with or leave them at Default.

CPU VID Special Add - Leave this as is for now
DRAM Voltage Control - Default this
SB Core/CPU PLL Voltage 1.55, 1.75, 1.95 or 2.15V - - Default this
NB Core Voltage 1.1825 --> 1.9700V - Default this
CPU VTT Voltage 1.10 --> 1.60V- Default this
Vcore Droop Control --> On/Off (currently on) - ON!
Clockgen Voltage Control --> 3.45, 3.60, 3.75 or 3.85V - Default this
CPU GTL 0/2 REF Volt --> 0.67x, 0.63x. 0.61x or 0.58x - set to 0.67x
CPU GTL 1/3 REF Volt - Default this
North Bridge GTL Ref Volt- Default this
FSB Vref- Default this

Essentially, drop your memory divider to as low as possible, set your FSB NB Strap as loose as possible (generally 400FSB) and then start upping your FSB to overclock you CPU a few small steps at a time and do basic stress testing (Prime95 30 minutes to 1 hour) as you go along. Generally, you should not need to start upping voltage until you hit the past 350FSB, and then I imagine it would only be CPU VID or CPUv Vcore or whatever the DFI BIOS is calling it these days. The 350FSB is a rough guide however, its dependant on how much base voltage your CPU actually needs to be stable.

A good way to check for other voltages to tune is when you reach a overclock your happy with and start stress testing with Prime95. Prime95 has three different stress testing modes:

Small FFTs - CPU Core & L1 cache test only
Large FFTs - CPU Core, L1 & L2 cache, small amounts of Northbridge stress
Blend - CPU Core, L1 & L2 Cache, much larger stress placed on Northbridge and Memory.

- If Small FFT stress fails - Up Vcore to try and get it stable

- If Large FFT stress fails after small FFT completes, look at FSB Termination voltage or CPU PLL votage tweaks to get it stable. Some additional Northbridge voltage may also be needed.

- If Blend then fails after passing a Small and Large test, up Northbridge and DRAM voltage to help make it stable.

But be aware of voltage limits. Never go crazy trying to get it stable - there's points that you'll reach that no matter how much voltage you throw at it, an overclock just isn't 12 hours Blend stable.

Once you have a stable CPU and FSB overclock, you can then start adjusting your memory divider and NB FSB Strap to give improved memory performance on top!

Hope that helps.