Overclocking Q6600 with IP35 Pro...Noob Advice Needed!

alex350r · 19 May 2008 at 09:00

Hi,

Ive just got the following kit from OC UK:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz

Abit IP35 Pro

OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz SLI-Ready Edition Low Latency Dual Channel DDR2

Tuniq Tower

It's all set up and I want to start overclocking, I tried to raise the FSB slightly to get an overclock to 2.7ghz but it was unstable and vista was all over the place, can anyone recommend some settings to start off with?

Temperatures are relatively low, ive got a coolermaster 830 stacker case and the cpu is usually around the 30 mark on full load.

Cheers

Alex

alex350r · 19 May 2008 at 09:46

Thanks for your replies guys, I will have a go later when I finish work.

Is there an option to disable that 'speedstep' rubbish in the bios as well? because at the moment windows seems to control the processor speed.

Cheers,

Alex

alex350r · 19 May 2008 at 13:35

thanks Greebo, very clear and concise :-)

I will try this later, having read your reply and read around it seems like my RAM voltage is probably too low.

I will check on the ocz site for the recommended voltage.

Cheers for your help!

Alex

alex350r · 19 May 2008 at 13:38

thanks Cob, will do :-)

alex350r · 19 May 2008 at 17:38

Greebo said:
I only need 1.4v to run mine at 8 x 425 (3.4Ghz) (EDIT: just to clarify before anybody says my sig says different, 1.4v in bios = 1.3v in load after vdrop and vdroop )

Of course it depends a lot on the VID of the chip to start with.

As far as the op goes, as well as reading the guide as linked above, switch off the speedstep stuff etc and do the following:

Change the ram voltage from auto to whatever your ram should be (2.1v in my case) as the ABit pro sets it to 1.8v as default. I beleive it should be at least 2.1v if not 2.2v for your memory but check your documentation.

My system wasn't even stable at any overclock until I did this.

Set the ram timings from auto to 4-4-4-15 1T - don't worry about the other timings yet, just leave them on auto.

Change the vcore voltage from auto to 1.35v (the q6600 are all rated at this voltage and although a lot run at 3ghz leaving it on auto, some chips don't)

Change the fsb speed to 333Mhz and change the memory speed to match the memory back down to 400 (800Mhz dual).

It should boot up fine and stable.

After that you may want to try dropping the vcore voltage and see how little your cpu needs for that speed or alternatively keep trying to go higher.

That's a good starting point.

I am confused at which RAM timings to change, there are all sorts in the bios could someone post the names for each one?

Cheers

Alex

alex350r · 19 May 2008 at 22:50

Right guys, ive got my Q6600 now set to 9x with 333 FSB, Ram Voltage at 2.1 and timings at 4 4 4 15. This is running at 3.0Ghz and stable, where shall i go from here if I want to try and OC some more??

Cheers,

Alex

alex350r · 20 May 2008 at 08:07

alex350r said:
Right guys, ive got my Q6600 now set to 9x with 333 FSB, Ram Voltage at 2.1 and timings at 4 4 4 15. This is running at 3.0Ghz and stable, where shall i go from here if I want to try and OC some more??

Cheers,

Alex

What does the 15 at the end of my RAM timings mean? Ive seen a lot of people in this post using 12. I want to try and push my Q6600 to 3.6 if possible.