overclocking issues - q6600, ocz reaper and asus p5k premium....

hell_on_ice

hell_on_ice

hell_on_ice

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ok guys,

im writing this to you after taking a great deal of time to get prime95 running for more than 5 minutes without failing with the whole expected 0.5 but got 0.4 message (becoming a pain in the ass). its still running now, approaching 10minutes no problem.

now, i bought a q6600 in the hope of hitting 3ghz easily, and with the amount of people saying how good it was, i wanted to make sure i got there so i didnt skimp on the ram or motherboard. the ocz got some really got reviews, and i managed to get the pc-8500 2x1gb set that guarantees it can run at 2.3v and 1066mhz. I also went for the p5k premium (black pearl edition) as again, it is branded as being a great overclocker, and has some nice features on the board.

now, i initially stepped it up and up and finally reach the 3ghz barrier quite quickly, with the ram running at around about 900mhz, but obviously, buying 1066hmz ram, i wanted it to at least run at this, and hopefully a bit more.

so, the nearest setting in the asus bios was 1022 or something, so i set it to that. booted up into windows, but i got some blue screens etc and with a bit of playing, managed to get it running sweet and it benched ok, as well as ran prime for a good 20mins with no errors (before it would fail in under a minute)

so, i toyed with the voltages, and then got it stable at 3090hmz (cpu) and the ram was at 1090mhz and again, no prime errors. the cpu i have running at 1.350v and the ram was happily sitting at 2.3v ok.

now, it was ok for a week, then wierd stuff started happening. more blue screens, games crashing - hell, it even completey forgot i had a graphics card in my machine (lol)

so, i toyed for the voltages again, and even setting the ram to 2.4 and the cpu to almost 1.4v, it would not be prime stable, and i was getting crashes loading vista in multiple places, or it would get in then hang on the desktop. deep joy.

i have now clocked it back to 3025mhz @ 1.350v and the ram at 1070mhz @ 2.35v and prime is still running with no errors in the time its taken me to write this.

now, onto the question - should i be able to get more easily? where am i going wrong (if anywhere) and has anyone got experience of using the hardware above with problems? (ram and motherboard im thinking of)

other useful info for the uber-geeks out there - ram timings are currently set to 5.5.5.15 and the ratio is reporting to be 5:8 (wtf)

i await peoples brilliance...... :)

craig
 
not sure how to measure temps of the RAM but idle temps are 31 (cores sit around 21-25) and under load, the temps are 49 (cores sit around 30-35).

i run a completely silent air cooled system with 120mm fans spinning slowly but they do shift a lot of air.
 
speedfan, which normally reports high i thought? im 100% sure temps are not a problem.

ok coretemp reckons 40, 40, 36, 38 as opposed to speedfans 25, 25, 21, 23......... now im confused lol
 
Forget SpeedFan for temps. Use CoreTemp and see what that reports under load as it's more accurate.

It might also be worth running MemTest for a while to see if you get any memory errors.
 
now thats an idea. i did have memtest but im not sure on what version i need now. not providing my overclock is stable - i guess i wouldnt get errors? or would i get errors if the memory is faulty but currently stable?

could someone link me to the latest memtests i need.

any ideas about pushing the overclock higher?
 
another question - what about the ratio of the ram to cpu - anyone have the p5k premium and know what it likes to be set at and where to set it properly for the best speed results (ignoring actual speed). ive read a lot about running ram in synch i.e. 1:1 about it being faster, but in benchmarks, it doesnt make a great deal of difference? is it true?
 
have you set the FSB to Northbridge Strap? If not set it to 333mhz

also if you have it enabled disable the transaction booster
 
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ok, set strap to 333, just removes loads of the options and it does keep the option that i was using at the moment which is a good sign i guess.

also disabled the transaction booster as it was set to automatic.

anything else you recommend with the p5k premium?
 
Have a look here.. should be very similar for your board
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17825087

I am not 100% certain but I think I have read there are issues sometimes using OCZ RAM on Asus Boards.. maybe worth looking into or testing with different RAM if you have some avaliable..

Also bit of a silly question but do you have the RAM in the correct sockets? i.e. RAM is in two sockets of the same colour?

Your vcore looks fine for the clock you are trying at, you are running only 2 sticks of RAM? in which case Northbridge shouldnt need a bump but you might try it at 1.45v not going to do any harm... Is a bit of an odd one.. again I have a feeling its the RAM could try a memtest on it or swap it out and see if you get the errors with a different brand.. maybe someone else has some ideas as well! :)

Try the following

CPU Multi 8
FSB 400
RAM Timmings: 5-5-5-23 @ 2T Command Rate
Set DRAM Volts: to the max recommended by the manufacture
Enable the voltage Dampner
Set CPU Volts to 1.4 (this is overvolting for that clock in my experience and from what I have seen so keep an eye on the temps)
Set Northbridge volts to: 1.45

That should work
 
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mate, your a star, thanks for your help. ill give it a go tonight and let you know

yes im running the ram in both the coloured slot (dual channel) and im only running 2 sticks

what are the sort of differences you see when dropping the multiplier but upping the fsb in terms of speed / benchmarking?
 
no worries, if that is stable you can start to tighten the RAM timmings up, should beable to get 4-4-4-12 with no issue, but we just want to eliminate the RAM as the issue when running Prime
 
Pneumonic said:
I am not 100% certain but I think I have read there are issues sometimes using OCZ RAM on Asus Boards.. maybe worth looking into or testing with different RAM if you have some avaliable..
Click to expand...
i may have been lucky with my asus board , maximus formula se, runs OCZ ram @1200 no prob
 
Here are my settings i use to get 3.6 - using my ram @ 800

DSC_0351800x600.jpg


DSC_0352800x600.jpg
 
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