Overclocking Question

[Mal Cullen]

Hi Guys

This query came from a thread I had in the General Hardware forum but I think it is more appropriate over here as it now involves Overclocking.. hope I have it right..
I bought a premade and I thought Overclocked system from OCUK 2 years ago.. details below

OS Vista 64 HP (will change this to Win7 in due course)
GPU 8800GT 512MB
CPU Intel Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
RAM 4 Gigs DDR2 (4x1G) 6400C4
HD Seagate 500Gig
Case Antec 900

In the previous thread I was looking for advice to improve my machine's gaming performance.. and the conversation came around to whether or not my CPU was already Overclocked..
I ran CPU-Z but had speedstep on.. it showed me
Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 4 (max 4)
Number of threads 4 (max 4)
Name Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Codename Kentsfield
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Package (platform ID) Socket 775 LGA (0x4)
CPUID 6.F.B
Extended CPUID 6.F
Core Stepping G0
Technology 65 nm
Core Speed 1631.9 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 6.0 x 272.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 1087.9 MHz
Stock frequency 2400 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2 x 4096 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
FID range 6.0x - 9.0x
Max VID 1.275 V

Then I ran it with Prime95 also running and I got this..
Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 4 (max 4)
Number of threads 4 (max 4)
Name Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Codename Kentsfield
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Package (platform ID) Socket 775 LGA (0x4)
CPUID 6.F.B
Extended CPUID 6.F
Core Stepping G0
Technology 65 nm
Core Speed 2448.0 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 9.0 x 272.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 1088.0 MHz
Stock frequency 2400 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T, VT-x
L1 Data cache 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2 x 4096 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
FID range 6.0x - 9.0x
Max VID 1.275 V

I now have 2 questions.. am I OC'ed ?? as I understand 2.4GHz is just the stock speed but another poster told me that 272 is not my stock FSB.. am really a bit confused about it. When I bought the machine I understood it was OC'ed but never went deeper into it than that..

In the process of running Prime95 and IntelBurn I noticed that both would not run for very long (1-2 minutes) on my machine. This was all done late last night and I am not sure I was running them correctly.. I got the following results

----------------------------
IntelBurnTest v2.4
Created by AgentGOD
----------------------------

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Clock Speed: 2.45 GHz
Active Physical Cores: 4
Total System Memory: 4093 MB

Stress Level: Standard (1024 MB)
Testing started on 16/02/2010 21:23:39
Time (s) Speed (GFlops) Result
[21:24:18] 28.035 31.8844 9.048905e+010
[21:24:56] 28.126 31.7815 8.756764e+010
Testing ended on 16/02/2010 21:24:56
Test Result: Failure.
----------------------------

Prime 95

Fatal Error Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file
Torture Test ran 3 minutes - 1 errors, 0 warnings
Worker stopped


Could anyone take a look for me if they get a chance? I hope I have explained everything correctly if not and more info would be helpful then just let me know.

If the machine is unstable then that is weird as I never have problems with it even when it is under pressure playing Crysis etc games.. Machine just runs along with no problems.. Now most of what it does is very light on the CPU & GPU... normal browsing, Excel, Photos, Media & Games (CS:S, TF2, Crysis, Guild Wars, HL2 variations) so I guess nothing too stressful for a Q6600?

Really sorry for such a long rambling post but I tried to include everything. My reason for concern is I want to overclock the CPU to 3.0 GHz to support a new 5870 GPU but obviously if I am already crashing Prime95 & Intelburn then I have concerns..

Any help thoughts really appreciated

Rgds

MC

 

[UKDTweak]

It does not look like you are properly overclocked, just -50 mhz... the Multi and FSB should be 9x266 were as yours is set to 9x272 giving you 2448mhz instead of 2400mhz, so very little....

First thing is to turn off speedstep in the BIOS, and then you can start looking at the CPU, Multi and FSB settngs in order to get the most from the system... What motherboard do you have?

 

[eddyc]

Not sure about warranties etc but might it be better to talk this through with OCUK support?

 

[Mal Cullen]

Thanks Guys... I'll be back on desktop later this evening and check it from there properly... Machine is 2 years old so doubt OCUK have any obligations left warrenty wise..
Back Later...

 

[eddyc]

But I think they do offer out of warranty support...

Never been in the same situation but might be worth giving them a call.

 

[ran_out]

Doesn't look like it is overclocked, but is not running at normal stock settings. May be worth checking in the bios to see if there are any O.C. profiles set up,

 

[Mal Cullen]

Can't really see any other profiles other than to change the FSB slightly...
Am still slightly concerned about Intelburn & Prime95 only running for a minute or two...

Board is an Abit IP35 (Intel P35+ICH9/R)