Overclocking q6600 and P5n-D

alexthecamel · 31 Oct 2008 at 00:53

Hello all,

I'm after a little advice. I have just upgraded my system, spec as bellow, and specifically paid the extra for the guaranteed 3.0ghz chip.

Anyway, I have tried adjusting the FSB to various settings, but almost any OC Bluescreens before it boots. I have tried the VCore voltage at increments between 1.2 and 1.45 as advised, but nothing. Bluescreens before I get to desktop.

I'm not a virgin OC'er, but I'm far from an expert. I haven't adjusted any voltages other than the vcore, as I'm in unfamiliar waters tbh.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Q6600 - Guaranteed to 3ghz one.
P5N-D
Nvidia BFG GTX 280
Crucial Ballistix 4 x 1GB DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz @ 4-4-4-12 (5-5-5-15 same happens)
Zalman 7900 Fan
Well ventilated case in a freezing loft.

zykan · 31 Oct 2008 at 01:42

Have you changed your fsb:dram ratio to 1:1? if not you may be o/c'ing your ram too much without knowing it.
BSOD usually comes with memory errors/failure.

3GHz should be easy with that setup and a zalman.

alexthecamel · 31 Oct 2008 at 01:45

It's set to auto, which I had assumed would be 1:1.

I'll give it a go now.

**EDIT**

The only way it will allow me to manually adjust the ratio, is by having FSB-RAM set to Linked, which then forces the RAM to 1333 too.

I've only got 800, which seems like an awfully big ask, or am I misunderstanding something?

rjk · 31 Oct 2008 at 11:10

3GHz is 333FSB and 9X multiplier

shouldnt need to touch your voltages

you would have to be really REALLY unlucky for any q6600 to not run at 3GHz

alexthecamel · 31 Oct 2008 at 11:38

Sure, on this board it displays the FSB after the quad pump, so by default is 1066, a change to 1333 leaving the multiplier on 9 should result in a 3ghz. I had an E6600 going at 3 but had to lower the multiplier on that one.

I'm wondering if I may have another incorrect setting, but it seems all good according to the countless guides I have read over the last few days.

I have updated to the latest bios to, 0801 I think it is.

**Edit**

It will go to 2.6ghz on auto voltage, but any more bluescreens on boot regardless of voltage.

I'm thinking about trying the NB voltage next, but most people seem to think 3ghz should be a shoe in, any tips?

alexthecamel · 31 Oct 2008 at 17:44

BUMP

Sorry to bump, just desperately want to avoid an RMA.

decto · 31 Oct 2008 at 18:06

I have the same board with a Q6600 .... can get 3.6Ghz prime stable but run at 3.0Ghz since it gives me very little in games FPS for a lot more heat and noise.

In the FSB settings you can set it to unlinked and then just enter the memory speed as 800. Don't forget you may need num lock to use the numeric pad. The fixed ratios aren't great unless you have 1066Mhz Ram ...

That should fix it. Then overclock away by setting the FSB to 1333

On the voltages you should get 3.0Ghz at stock but if not 1.35v should be plenty

You may also need HT 1.3v and NB 1.3V

Hopefully you've attatched the fan is it gets very hot otherwise.

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alexthecamel · 31 Oct 2008 at 18:34

Thanks for reply.

Don't think I've explained very well, I have tried incremental voltages from auto, then 1.2 - 1.45

Any OC above 2.6 bluescreens before Windows loads, regardless of voltage.

Will try the other settings you've recommended see if that helps. I've noticed the NB runs very hot, but that seems to be a "feature" of these boards.

Thanks again.

alexthecamel · 31 Oct 2008 at 19:50

Cheers Decto,

Raising the HT and NB to 1.3 did the trick, is now quite happy at 3ghz:

Temps

31
32
32
25 ?? Should I worry about the that?

And also, do I need to do some trial and error with the HT and NB voltages. I'm a little worried about NB temp, ASUS Probe kept setting warnings off yesterday.

many Thanks anyway.

HiltonSteve · 31 Oct 2008 at 20:05

OK, here's my experience from the last week...

Bought the following -

ASUS P5N-D - upgraded bios to 803
Q6600 - currently running at 3.2
Memory - Corsair XMS2 6400
Graphics - 9800GTX Gainward
Case - Coolermaster Cosmos S
Cooling - Water cooling Swiftech kit for CPU only £150ish- after buying and giving up with Thermalright Ultima 90!

Put it together and found that i could not get it over 2.7 and after many questions asked and answered on here came up with the following settings -

My Q6600 vid is 1.325 (one of the bad ones)

Vcore - 1.45
NB - 1.5
SB - 1.5
HT - 1.5

Memory set at manufacturers settings in bios - 5-5-5-18 also voltage set in bios to 1.95v (memory rated at 1.9V)

Multiplier - x9
FSB - 1423
AI Tuning - Manual
memory clock mode - unlinked
memory ratio - manual
MEM (QDR) - 800

NB PCIE freq - 101

Also is the CPU configuration menu switch everything off apart from CPU internal thermal control.

This is with my watercooled system which now runs at 25deg idle and 45deg at full load, had to put the fan on the northbridge to keep it cool and stable.

With the Thermalright Ultima 90 I was getting temps over 70 deg at 3.0 so gave up with it.

I am a bit of a newbie as well but the advice I would give is don't just go and put my settings into your machine but use them as a target. Slowly increase your FSB to give you 500 mhz steps and when things go wrong start upping the voltages on the NB SB HT and vcore. Set your memory timings and voltage straight away before you change anything else so you know the auto settings are not causing any problems, this seems to help.

Take it slow, its frustrating at first but you should soon get to grips with it and keep your eye on the temps.

Swordfish125 · 31 Oct 2008 at 20:23

Im int he same boat at 3.2ghz, but i can boot into windows, jsut fail prime after 10secs. I need to up my voltages but my Zalman gets too noisy with the heat, so ive ordered a noctua (out of stock), just got to wait till i comes!!!!!!

alexthecamel · 31 Oct 2008 at 21:51

Just out of interest, does nayone know what the default HT and NB voltages are?

I've had heat probs on the NB, so would like to lower if it's feasible.

Thanks everyone for your help, I'm going to run a prime95 test overnight to check it's stable. Might push for 3.2 / 3.4 but seems like allot of effort for not a massive gain.

Cheers again everyone who's replied.

decto · 1 Nov 2008 at 14:44

I think the default voltages are the lowest ones. e.g 1.2V.

The HT voltage is the FSB termination voltage and doesn't seem to make any difference to temperatures however many quads require a boost in this when overclocked. With a Q6600 you should be fine to bump this up as high as 1.5v but with the newer 45nm chips some have been damaged at >1.4v but they are designed to run at a much lower voltage to start with.

1.3v on the northbrigde is quite a low bump, I've had mine as high as 1.5v without issue but I do have a 2000 rpm 80mm fan pointing straight at it. You should have received a fan in the box and you don't need much airflow to drop the temps a long way. I use an 80mm as mine was a B-grade board so came as a bare board only.

If anything I'd look at your cooling ... you may be able to drop the NB down a litte but the HT should remain tweaked.

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decto · 1 Nov 2008 at 14:54

HiltonSteve said:
My Q6600 vid is 1.325 (one of the bad ones)

Vcore - 1.45
NB - 1.5
SB - 1.5
HT - 1.5

That NB voltage looks high for 1423 FSB. I only needed to push my northbridge to 1.4V for 1600FSB with 4dimm of DDR800

You may be able to tweak it down a notch along with the HT6

My Q6600 has a high ish VID at 1.2875 but will run stock at 1.2000V, 3Ghz @ 1.2625V and 3.6@ 1.400V so I wouldn't worry too much, vid isn't all it's cracked up to be.

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