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overclocking Q6600 quad...
- Thread starter JoeCooper
- Start date
brief guide:
get your hands on memtest86+, prime95 v25.4, orthos, everest, cpu-z, coretemp?
run memtest *before you start*, if you run from windows open as many instances as you need to fill your ram, let them run to 100% to confirm system stability
you may need to bump ram (vDimm) volts in bios, 2.0v-2.1v depending on your memory. most boards seem to set 1.8v default.
up your fsb in the bios - I think its 266 by default. its recommended that you bump by small increments, but 10 at a time should be good until about 3.0GHz.
this is pushed by your multiplier (9 by default), so 300*9=2.7GHz.
after each increment, boot to windows and give yourself 10 mins or so of prime 95. set it to run small ffts first, not blend. And remember to set "Round Off Checking" on the Advanced menu, or it'll just ignore errors.
if you get any errors, go into bios, and boost your vCore (cpu volts), one step up, and retry.
This should see you safely to 2.8-3.0GHz - if you want higher than that you'll have to read up a little more, but its up to yourselves.
When you're satisfied with what you have - leave prime95 smallffts running overnight to get at least 8 hours of testing. If any errors are found, you can either bump vcore and try again, or reduce fsb. Some people disagree with the 8 hour test, so again its up to yourselves. I think its well worth it.
As a final step, run prime95 blend test, again for 8 hours - this tests cpu, ram and other bits.
Q6600 G0's with an after market cooler and a good p35 board can do 3.0-3.2 quite easily, and more if you tweak finer settings, even more on watercooling.
best of luck
oh yeh, keep everest running in the background to monitor temps on cpu and core, try to stay below 70.
get your hands on memtest86+, prime95 v25.4, orthos, everest, cpu-z, coretemp?
run memtest *before you start*, if you run from windows open as many instances as you need to fill your ram, let them run to 100% to confirm system stability
you may need to bump ram (vDimm) volts in bios, 2.0v-2.1v depending on your memory. most boards seem to set 1.8v default.
up your fsb in the bios - I think its 266 by default. its recommended that you bump by small increments, but 10 at a time should be good until about 3.0GHz.
this is pushed by your multiplier (9 by default), so 300*9=2.7GHz.
after each increment, boot to windows and give yourself 10 mins or so of prime 95. set it to run small ffts first, not blend. And remember to set "Round Off Checking" on the Advanced menu, or it'll just ignore errors.
if you get any errors, go into bios, and boost your vCore (cpu volts), one step up, and retry.
This should see you safely to 2.8-3.0GHz - if you want higher than that you'll have to read up a little more, but its up to yourselves.
When you're satisfied with what you have - leave prime95 smallffts running overnight to get at least 8 hours of testing. If any errors are found, you can either bump vcore and try again, or reduce fsb. Some people disagree with the 8 hour test, so again its up to yourselves. I think its well worth it.
As a final step, run prime95 blend test, again for 8 hours - this tests cpu, ram and other bits.
Q6600 G0's with an after market cooler and a good p35 board can do 3.0-3.2 quite easily, and more if you tweak finer settings, even more on watercooling.
best of luck
oh yeh, keep everest running in the background to monitor temps on cpu and core, try to stay below 70.
what kind of changes are you making mate? I'm hoping you ran memtest first for a sanity check (maybe after boosting vdimm)? Did you go in 10mhz increments, or get all greedy and go for 3GHz straight off?
Slow and easy is best, buddy, plus only change one item at a time, then you can tell what change may have caused an outage.
also, and this is a long shot, maybe you are stable at 3.0, but speedstep is winding you down to 2.4? what does everest say your multiplier is at?
Slow and easy is best, buddy, plus only change one item at a time, then you can tell what change may have caused an outage.
also, and this is a long shot, maybe you are stable at 3.0, but speedstep is winding you down to 2.4? what does everest say your multiplier is at?
its ok now, ive 'carefully' overclocked it from 2.4 to 2.925 (FSB upto 1250ish..) mem clock at 820. idle temp is 30 deg, and when running performancetest it goes to 39... would you say this is stable? i hear someone put it upto 4.0 and it ran fine
performance temps at 39c sound very impressive. what cooler are you using?
if you mean 4.0GHz, you'll definitely be looking at some jedi watercooling, btw.
as for stable: kick off a prime small-fft overnight and hope for the best. if it doesn't work out don't worry, you can get into some fine tuning afterwards for the rest.
glad to hear its working out for you, btw.
Soldato
- Joined
- 2 Dec 2006
- Posts
- 8,204
I read another way of doing it, both a good methods but appear to be opposites.
On a corsair guide thing they said to get the clock speed as high as you can on as higher volts you are prepared to put through it. Run tests like MK said then down the voltage gradualy till you get it as low as you can go for that speed.
Id expect a Go on decent air cooling to be able to instantly go up to 3.2ghz and be stable.
I beleive in the guide i saw somewhere they put 1.5 volts into it and gradualy worked it down till they got it as low as it would go and be stable.
On a corsair guide thing they said to get the clock speed as high as you can on as higher volts you are prepared to put through it. Run tests like MK said then down the voltage gradualy till you get it as low as you can go for that speed.
Id expect a Go on decent air cooling to be able to instantly go up to 3.2ghz and be stable.
I beleive in the guide i saw somewhere they put 1.5 volts into it and gradualy worked it down till they got it as low as it would go and be stable.
Marse: usually its a rounding-error. you can't mess your quad, it'll throttle down regardless of your settings - provided you haven't hit 10v vCore 
[edit] I should say, that it would be hard to bypass the safety settings on the cpu unless you really, really, want to... and even then!
[/edit]
If it does stop, either drop fsb, or bump vCore - but remember this is only a beginners guide based on the request of the op.
if you're pushing too hard, post your specs/volts: there'll be plenty of people here willing to help. best of luck, mate.
[edit] I should say, that it would be hard to bypass the safety settings on the cpu unless you really, really, want to... and even then!
[/edit]
If it does stop, either drop fsb, or bump vCore - but remember this is only a beginners guide based on the request of the op.
if you're pushing too hard, post your specs/volts: there'll be plenty of people here willing to help. best of luck, mate
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hmm... i just have the retail CPU fan that came with it... and a 22cm fan right above that, and a 12cm right to the back of the case where it is... oh and another fan on the other side... 3 at the front 
. although only using the big one, and the one at the back, and still full load temp about 39-40, idle at 30-32
. although only using the big one, and the one at the back, and still full load temp about 39-40, idle at 30-32