Q6600 on the way - advice

tom91x91 · 14 Feb 2011 at 12:51

Just picked up a Q6600 on the MM as my e6400 is struggling in a few games so a quad should give me a bit more life before a full system upgrade later in the year.

Its a q6600 G0 low VID which i hear is ment to be very good for overclocking? Firstly when replacing a CPU should i reset all my bios settings? After that how should i go about overclocking it and whats a reasonable target?

Secondly i currently have an old Artic Freezer 7 (the older model) which is ok for my e6400, im not sure how that would be with a quad though, plus i have no thermal paste so im thinking about just ordering a new cooler (have about 20-25 spare for that), so any suggestions? Thinking maybe a Rev 2 of the AC7 or one of these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-039-AR I want to be able to do a quick install without having to take everything out the case.

Last quick question, my PSU is only 520w but its a corsair which i think are ment to be pretty robust, will that handle the extra 2 cores with a hefty overclock on it too?

Thanks

gazzer_21 · 14 Feb 2011 at 13:16

PSU might be border line for high over clock , depends on drives and stuff as well.
coolers you are looking at won't handle max over clocks I would have though but should see you some where around 3.2 though. I would buy some TIM cleaner and some MX 4 and reuse current cooler as you won't get that much more cooling out of the Rev 2 at least.
Board should pick up the new chip and go to default settings if you clear CMOS when you install it.

BeeP · 14 Feb 2011 at 13:17

The BIOS should set automatically to the new chip. Really almost any Q6600 is capable of 3.0, most being capable of more but as ever every chip is different so it might be even less.
Freezer 7 is ok up to about 3.0, I used one for my Q6600 at 3.0 but much above that & it really got a bit toasty, to get to 3.6 or over you need a pretty beefy cooler (I used a TRUE till I went watercooled)
The cooler you linked looks like a bolt through one, meaning you need to remove the mobo unless you case has a hole in the back for getting to the back of the CPU. I would say there are better coolers for about the same cash as that but I don't really know nowadays, possibly the cooler master 212 (I think thats what it is called). For now I would get some paste & try the freezer 7, see what you can get with that & if it's not enough then buy another HSF.

A 520w PSU should be fine, I ran mine at 3.2 with a 450W PSU, granted I only had a 4850 then.

tom91x91 · 14 Feb 2011 at 13:22

Thanks for the replys, I guess a 3.2 overclock is a reasonable target and i'll order some cleaner and thermal paste and try this one out again. If not then ill splash a bit of cash on a more expensive cooler.

With my PSU, i seem to recall the corsair 520w's running stupidly powerful systems with ease, so hopefully that should be fine (Have seen peoples specs in sigs with 520w corsairs running dual 8800's back two-three years ago).

edit: maybe one of these then if i want to push for a higher oc http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-072-AK&tool=3 if it fits in my case.

pastymuncher · 14 Feb 2011 at 13:24

Your psu is more than enough. I doubt if your rig will pull more than 300w at the wall.

j.col · 14 Feb 2011 at 19:26

hi tom your psu is more than capable.
i have a corsair hx520 with a HD3870x2 and it runs fine,

as for coolers, there are many different opinions.
the hsf beep was trying to say is the coolermaster hype 212 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-029-CM for £20
or a Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B CPU Cooler is excellent, and considered one of the best, and there is one in the MM iirc.

or have a look here for a comparison http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2562&page=5 the hyper 212 isn't far from the top.

i have a q6600 b3 at 3.3Ghz with top temp of 70.c under IBT or prime and i used a Tunig Tower 120 for cooling
with your mobo, you should get some nice speeds

C64 · 14 Feb 2011 at 20:41

j.col said:
hi tom your psu is more than capable.
i have a corsair hx520 with a HD3870x2 and it runs fine,

as for coolers, there are many different opinions.
the hsf beep was trying to say is the coolermaster hype 212 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-029-CM for £20
or a Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B CPU Cooler is excellent, and considered one of the best, and there is one in the MM iirc.

or have a look here for a comparison http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2562&page=5 the hyper 212 isn't far from the top.

i have a q6600 b3 at 3.3Ghz with top temp of 70.c under IBT or prime and i used a Tunig Tower 120 for cooling
with your mobo, you should get some nice speeds

any proof of that 70c IBT ? I think you must have run IBt incorrectly or something

To OP i'd buy a second hand TRUE from the members market or similar Prolimatech Megahalems going quite cheap in there too.

setter · 14 Feb 2011 at 20:45

My old q6600 at 3.8ghz topped out at 68c under prime95 small fft, lapped cpu and TRUE black, never got the chance to try it with IBT/LinX, but i suspect it would have been at the very least 5-6c higher with those apps compared to p95.

chipps101 · 14 Feb 2011 at 20:57

my old q6600 G0 @ 3.3 topped out at around 60c in ibt under a tuniq tower 120 when i had the fan up full. even at 3.5 it wouldn't break 65c.

j.col · 14 Feb 2011 at 21:08

C64 said:
any proof of that 70c IBT ? I think you must have run IBt incorrectly or something

To OP i'd buy a second hand TRUE from the members market or similar Prolimatech Megahalems going quite cheap in there too.

not yet, but i can run it later.
is it too high?
i ran it with 4 threads, custom ram with all available ram used

chipps101 · 14 Feb 2011 at 21:13

he is trying to say it is too low a temp.

j.col · 14 Feb 2011 at 21:15

yeah i figured that. i will run it later

WingZero30 · 14 Feb 2011 at 21:40

j.col said:
not yet, but i can run it later.
is it too high?
i ran it with 4 threads, custom ram with all available ram used

Temps seem fine for [email protected].

However I would choose 'free' memory as available memory will also make use of cache memory which must be storing data for other applications aswell. Windows may free up some physical memory from the cached memory during testing but not totally and i think the rest will be the virtual memory as a compensation.

Available = Free + (Cached - Modified)

So best to use 'free' physical memory to remove the cache memory from the equation. Although it shouldn't make much difference but best to be on safe side.

What Gflops value did you get for [email protected]?

chipps101 · 14 Feb 2011 at 21:43

i always just pick maximum on ibt.

and i also find that prime95 and ibt give practically the same temps on my machine :confused:

BeeP · 14 Feb 2011 at 21:44

I only suggested the cm cooler as he said he only had about 25 to spend, I never looked in the mm but sure a TRUE or mega would be superb to have.

I think my TRUE had me under 70 at 3.6 in push pull with an antec 900, that was with a tjmax of 100, I've since been told it should be 90...... dunno but my temps seem very low now even with water.

WingZero30 · 14 Feb 2011 at 21:48

chipps101 said:
i always just pick maximum on ibt.

maximum stress level = available memory.

available memory = free + (cached - modified)

both the free and cached values can vary greatly. So for same amount of available memory assuming that modified memory stays around 10MB although that can vary aswell:

available = free + (cached - modified)

3000MB = 1000MB + (2010MB-10MB) not recommended

3000MB = 2500MB + (510 - 10MB) more useful as more free physical memory available

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=18449267#post18449267

post 71

edit: what GFlops values did you get? For [email protected] I get 43-45GFlops and my temps reach 70C on hottest cores.

setter · 14 Feb 2011 at 21:48

+1 for the secondhand TRUE or prolimatech megahelims, ive used both and found them to be excellent coolers.

chipps101 · 14 Feb 2011 at 21:48

i didn't even know you could change the tjmax ? i've always thought it was meant to be 100 ?

setter · 14 Feb 2011 at 21:51

I remember some saying the tj max was 90, others stated 100. Did intel ever release a statement/article stating which was correct?

C64 · 14 Feb 2011 at 22:01

I only asked as I have a tuniq tower 120 and q6600 GO and there's just no way I could get under 70c IBT load at 3.4ghz 1.38 volts or more.So I am thinking my mounting or paste spread is going badly wrong.
Maybe you you are running at very low voltage ?

A proper IBt load is normally +10-15c over prime from what I have seen.

100 tjmax is correct as far as I know.