overclocking old hardware

mrt88

mrt88

mrt88

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Joined
8 Jul 2008
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113
Location
Uk
HI all,

its about time i upgraded my system. i plan on doing my new build in the summer :) I've got a nice shopping list in mind.

However, can someone point me in the right direction to getting some more power from my old system in the mean time.

i currently have the following.... (its old i know haha)

Q9550 (water cooled) running on a
P5Q-E with
4Gb g.skill ram (2x2gb)
Radion 4870

Everything is running at stock levels. I think my Ram is only 800Mhz, si there anyway i can check ?
I'm really not sure about my ram speed. Think it's showing up wrong on cpz
Thanks all, hope i can squeeze some more life out of her till July.

Theo
 
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hi guys,

i've now done some more reading. Will my ram be the limiting factor to my max overclock ? i'm at home today so i'm hoping i can get started with some guidance.
 
Thanks JonSmith.

I've printed out the overclocking basic guide from the sticky. I have it next to me. im just not sure where to start. any advice ?
 
Up the FSB to 400, set 1:1 memory ratio, might need some extra vCore voltage (I need 1.3v to run my q9300 at 400x7.5, suffers a little vdroop).
 
Thanks UTmanic,

As this really isn't my field (Photographer) should i be doing this in the bios rather than something like Asus' Ai tweaker ?
looks like i've got a lot more understanding to do before i can pull this off.
 
All in bios, yes (no idea what Asus AI tweaker is without googling it).

Upping the stock fsb from 333 to 400 is practically a given on these core2quads, if you get stop error 0x124 on the way to Windows loading up, you have vCore set too low (I run 1.30v 24/7, I've never tried more than 1.35v and that was while trying to get 425 fsb stable).
 
Ok buddy, that sounds ace.
Am I ok to just go in and only change the FSB to 400 as a starting point before I report back to you ? Taking into account if I get the error.
 
I'd make sure it boots first, set it to 400, memory divider 1:1 and the multiplier to 7. That should boot at stock volts and stock speed, but with 400 FSB. Then you can check that your memory speed and timings are correct.

If it does, then start incrementing the multiplier until it doesn't boot. Then bump the Vcore up in the smallest steps until it does or if you hit 1.35V, as you probably don't want to go much higher than that volt wise.
 
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Ok I'm in the bios now. Just changed the FSB to 400.
I can't see anything that looks like it relates to memory divider or multiplier.
Could they have different names ?
 
Thanks !
So changed the FSB to 400 and the dram frequency to 801mhz (never had the option for 800)

Thanks for sticking with my so far guys.
She's booted up ok. Is it worth running something like prime or do I need to make some more changes first ? So far I can't see any changes in cpuZ unless I'm being dense

I really appreciate the so far everyone. Means allot ! .
 
Have a read of this thread. It's all about clocking a Q9550 on the Asus P5Q boards. They all have similar bios options so we all put up our settings so that others could play with them to see if they could improve their overclocks. My Q9550 topped out at 4.13Ghz in my Asus P5Q Pro Turbo.
 
Hi Pastymuncher.

i've made a massive cuppa. i'll get reading! thanks for showing me it. im sure i'll find some great info in there.

here is what CPU-Z is showing currently after making those 2 changes.
clock_zpsa187173e.jpg
 
You RAM is rated up to 1000 mhz at 2.1V!

Basically means you can set your FSB at 500 and the RAM will be fine. It is exceedingly unlikely you'll get the chip running at an effective 4250 MHz though, but it gives us plenty of room to play with. As an example if you now wanted to increase the FSB past this point you would first raise your RAM voltage to 2.1.

Next step I would say is to run a Prime95 blend test for 10 minutes and see if it passes. Past this point it's going to be about tweaking the other voltages and I have little experience with that.
 
JonSmith said:
You RAM is rated up to 1000 mhz at 2.1V!

Basically means you can set your FSB at 500 and the RAM will be fine. It is exceedingly unlikely you'll get the chip running at an effective 4250 MHz though, but it gives us plenty of room to play with. As an example if you now wanted to increase the FSB past this point you would first raise your RAM voltage to 2.1.

Next step I would say is to run a Prime95 blend test for 10 minutes and see if it passes. Past this point it's going to be about tweaking the other voltages and I have little experience with that.
Click to expand...

so as a test i've now run prime for about a hour and everything looks fine.
so as the next move should i up the FSB to 500 and leave the Ram volts ? or do they need to go up to 2.1 at the same time ? that's the bit i wasn't clear on.
 
Once you start increasing the bus past 400 you'll want to set the RAM volts to 2.1, just to save yourself some hassle. Otherwise you'll be varying the RAM volts and CPU volts with the FSB speed - best just to peg to a value you know that will work in all cases.

What I'd do now is start raising the FSB whilst keeping the CPU frequency at or below 3400 mhz

We want to see how high we can get the bus without requiring tweaks to the CPU. You may need to start raising the NB voltage to achieve this. Someone posted these settings for 4GHz for a similar board:

Ai Overclock Tuner = Manual
CPU Ratio Setting = 08.5
FSB Frequency = 472
PCI-E Frequency = 100
FSB Strap to Northbridge = Auto
DRAM Frequency = DDR2-945MHz

(Probably ignore the memory timings)
DRAM Timing Control = Manual
CAS# Latency = 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay = 5
RAS# PRE Time = 5
RAS# ACT Time = 18 (all sub-timings on Auto)

DRAM Static Read Control = Auto
DRAM Read Training = Auto
Mem. OC Charger = Auto
AI Transaction Booster = Auto

CPU Voltage = 1.31875
CPU GTL Reference = Auto
CPU PLL Voltage = Auto
FSB Termination Voltage = 1.26
DRAM Voltage = 1.90-2.00 (set to 2.1 in your case)
NB Voltage = 1.26
SB Voltage = 1.10
PCI-E SATA Voltage = 1.50

Loadline Calibration = Enabled
CPU Spread Spectrum = Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum = Disabled
CPU Clock Skew = Auto
NB Clock Skew = Auto
CPU Margin Enhancement = Compatible

C1E Support = Disabled

This is what we'll try to aim for if we can, start by raising the FSB frequency in 10 mhz increments and running prime for a little while until it starts to become unstable. Obviously pay attention to temps and make sure they don't exceed the limit. Stop at 500mhz (if it makes it!) as there will be no benefit for going beyond that.
 
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