Overclocking for the first time

[Furos]

Let me start by saying ive never overclocked before so hence why im asking you good people.

this is my current setup
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 12MB-cache
Asus Rampage Formula Intel X48
Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 XMS2 PC2-8500C5 TwinX
BFG GeForce GTX 280 OC 1024MB

now i dont know what to expect from my cpu but if it's possible i would like to get it to 3ghz. as far as overclocking goes ive looked at the bios and well if im honest i just looked confusing lol. ive read the guide for overclockign and seem to understand i increase the front side bus to get the cpu upto 3ghz.

now could someone please tell me which settings do i change in bios to get my cpu upto 3ghz or if it will even reach 3ghz

ive loaded cpuid and well im a little confused as it shows my core speed at 2000mhz when i believe it should be at 2600mhz. the multiplier is at 6x bus speed is 333.9mhz and rated FSB is 1335.7mhz

any help would be very greatful in getting my cpu upto 3ghz. again many thanks for your time and effort.

 

[bifday2k]

Ok firstly when u looked at cpuid and it showed 2ghz and a multiplyer of 6, thats just intel speedstep in use, its a power saving feature that reduces the multiplyer and vcore when the comp is'nt in heavy use, no need to worry about that, as soon as u load the pc up off it flys.

ok things u need to look at or change are below.

FSB will need to be changed to 375 from 333
Multiplyer left at 8
Vcore, left as it is for now
all other settings just let the mobo sort it out

You don't mention what cooler you are using so im gonna go by that u are using the stanard intel one, this is ok for 3ghz but best to stay at that for now.

So try just upping the fsb to 375, if it boots run prime95 for abit, or intel burn test to check stability, if it won't boot up or it fails the tests, then you will need to slightly up the vcore by 1 or 2 steps, and then test again. I personally think it will be fine on stock vcore for that speed but each cpu is different.

Give that a try and report back later, also im sure others will reply back too. good luck

 

[Furos]

my cooler is a Zalman CNPS9500A-LED CPU Cooler. I have increased the fsb to 375 and left everything else. the computer seems fine i ran 3dmark 2006 a few times and left the computer encoding dvd and again all seems fine.

bios reports the cpu running at 3ghz and temps are 38c idle. i gained 1400 points from overlocking the cpu in 3dmark 2006. im not sure what gaming performace will be but i'll look into that later tonight.

thanks for your help bifday2k

 

[bifday2k]

No probs glad to have been able to help, best way to test if its really stable is to use either prime95 or intel burn test, these will heat things up more then gaming and such, so they are worse case temps.

If you do try them and the tests fail, just notch up the vcore slightly untill they pass, but at that speed i think stock volts will be fine.

Congrats on your very first overclock, we all started just the same, in small steps.