overclocking qx6700

mofnet

mofnet

mofnet

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6 Jul 2005
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37
hi

i've recently upgraded to a qx6700 and have overclocked it from its stock 2.66 to 3.2 using the multiplier (from 10 to 12).. quite simple... I am using it for 3d rendering and wanted to see if i could get 1 quad core system to replace my 4 athlon 4400 x2 systems, and @ 3.2 it has done that which is quite impressive for the core architecture!

i was originally using an old zalman cns7700 for cpu cooling and under load (rendering with fprime3) it was hitting about 76 to 78 degrees (hottest core), the others tapered off 2 to 3 degrees... i needed to increase vcore to 1.35 to keep it stable for 24hours solid rendering.. i decided to upgrade the cooler to the noctua nh-u12f with dual 120mm fans.. after doing this i've knocked 20 odd degrees off the cpu temps... i can now run stable rendering using all cores indefinately with the stock voltage..

my question is this, it seems that regardless of how high i move the vcore (i haven't gone beyond 1.4v) i am unable to achieve a higher frequency than approx 3.2ghz (give or take a few mhz).. has anybody else experienced similar with overclocking? has my processor hit its theoretical ceiling as far as clock is concerned as it doesn't seem to be responding to vcore increases..?

spec:

intel qx6700 @ 3.2ghz
abit ab9 (bios 17)
4 gig corsair pc6400 ddr2 c5
vista 64bit
geforce 8600
coolermaster atc200 case (really vintage but very good).. 2 front 80mm fans running reduced speed, 1 rear 80mm exhaust fan running reduced speed, and 1 top 80mm fan exhausting at reduced speed..

psu corsair 500watt

both 120mm cpu fans using the reduced speed adapters supplied, the pc makes a very slight auditble noise when on, and thats from the gfx cards fan!

any help or people who have experienced similar welcome.

noise is an issue for me as i intend to build 3 or 4 of these machines for rendering.. i have an "airflow controlled" cupboard to put them in once i have the setup stable, which will reduce the temps a little further as the cupboard is fed air from below the floor boards in the house (very cold all year round) and exhausted out the ceiling.


cheers
ian
 
have you not left the multiplier at 10 and upped the fsb to try and clock it? or have you increased the multi to 12, then tried upping the fsb?
 
i did try moving the fsb up but i had no success, even very mild overclocking of the fsb caused instability.. i'm not to bothered by this as 3d rendering basically doesn't care how fast the memory is from my past benchmarking... when using radiosity on several bounces, the calculations within the cpu are very deep and allow memory accessing to keep pace with the calculations even on scene's 3 to 4 gig in size..

so i'm purely insterested in cpu core speed and how many cores i have (in this case 4).. i were just wondering if people have experienced hitting a theoretical "wall" at which point the cpu will not advance any further no matter what u do to it.. i have in the past (overclocking p3 celerons, p4's and the athlons) experienced a gradual decline in stablility, never such an adrupt halt at a certain frequency (in this case around 3.2). i'm wondering if its down to have 4 cores, i'm overclocking all 4 (obviously) so maybe 1 or 2 of them aren't quite as good as the other 2 and therefore the "wall" as it were is more adrupt..
 
mofnet, sorry mate, slightly off topic but.....

...i have just built a very similar rig for work, but put xp pro 64 bit on as Autodesk told me 3ds max wasn't vista 64-bit ready yet?! (not till october 07)
What rendering software do you use?
 
Just out of curiousity.. have you tried it with just 2 sticks of RAM? It could be something silly like that.

The optimal way to achieve 3.2Ghz would be an 8x multi which would give a FSB of 400. Perfect for the RAM and the entire system should run faster then by using the 12 multi. Have you upped NB voltage etc..?

Also have you disabled all the intel techs in the bios? EIST, Virtualisation etc..
 
k.jacko - i use newtek's lightwave 9 64bit edition and Worleys fPrime 3 which is also 64bit friendly, both work nicely on vista64 although not "officially".. lightwave does trigger vista to generate an error report when you close the program... an annoyance more than anything, but it is rock solid stable..

darg - i haven't switched anything off in the bios, eist etc.. i will try that.. i had read somewhere a long time ago that 4 sticks of ram can be more tricky to overclock than 2 sticks... something about signal reflections / stength etc.. i haven't persued this route as the speed of memory makes no difference to rendering speed at all.. (even extreme fsb overclocks have very small speed advantages on render times, so small its basically irrelevent).. however, i would like to get the ram going upwards as that would allow me to build more of these machines but use the substantially cheaper q6600 instead of the multiplier unlocked qx's..

i haven't played with any voltages other than the vcore. What are considered acceptable volts for each cpu / ram / nb using air cooling? (the case has a very good airflow going through it).

mof
 
k.Jacko said:
mofnet, sorry mate, slightly off topic but.....

...i have just built a very similar rig for work, but put xp pro 64 bit on as Autodesk told me 3ds max wasn't vista 64-bit ready yet?! (not till october 07)
What rendering software do you use?
Click to expand...

the 3dsmax 9 productivity booster pack relaesed in april i think it was makes max 9 vista compatible i belive
 
Tallone said:
the 3dsmax 9 productivity booster pack relaesed in april i think it was makes max 9 vista compatible i belive
Click to expand...

Hmm.....i'll look into it thanks. But i've spoken to Autodesk twice now (one last week) and they still say October 07 for 3ds max. VRay is compatible as of now though.
 
What divider are you on? If it's not 1:1 you'll have trouble getting the ram overclocked.
 
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