Q6600 overclocking progress

TIMUH!

TIMUH!

TIMUH!

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Joined
19 Nov 2003
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371
So, I start frying my nice new chip on my nice new rig today. Will use this thread for my triumphs, failures, tears and tantrums throughout the day but mainly to post progress and ask for help!

So.
Q6600 G0, TRUE heatsink (lapped)
4 x 1gb Corsair DDR2 6400 (5-5-5-15)
Abit 35pro BIOS 14

Using Orthos, Core temp and CPU-z

So I ran small FFT's on orthos to just get a starting picture and after 30mins under load Core #0 & #1 are at 42c and core #2 & #3 are at 28c. quite a difference. Could this be the heatsink although I've checked it and it seems to be sat fine. Or the CPU itself not being flat?

Next will be the first step to hopefully 3.2 - 3.4 clock, back soon
 
Well the thermalright 120 ue is lapped so that is nice and flat. I may have to lap the chip as well. see how we go.

Currently small fft stress testing 300 x 9 on stock volts (2.7) nice and slow, will be upping the FSB in steps of 10 to start with.

(Also I sacrificed a chicken (Kentucky fried, couldn't find a real one) this morning to the OC gods, everyone does that right?)
 
Ok, so at the early stages I'm not going to stress test for hours and hours, I will more as I approach the clock I'm after.

300 x 9 = 2.7
Cores #0 43c, #1 38c, #2 37c, #3 42c
30 minutes of Small FFT's stress cpu
ram currently on 1:1.20 (720) so well within limits

Onwards......
 
ok, progress and questions

320 x 9 (2880.5mhz) 1:1.20 (DDR2 768) on the RAM
Still using stock volts on everything.
30 mins stable on Small FFT's test

Core #0 46
Core #1 46
Core #2 32
Core #3 32

Something not right there at all I'm thinking, 14c difference is not good. May have to reseat the TRUE, certainly not lapping the chip yet. Also the two hot core lose 10c+ instantly when I stop the test.

Also CPUID Hardware Monitor is reporting these same temps as Core Temp is.

CPU-z is showing the CPU core voltage to be 1.290/1.3 although this is set at 1.3250 in the BIOS?

Is it normal to not need to up any volts at this stage?

Do I need to sacrifice another chicken?
 
Thanks V3g3tto

One more clock and I think I'll reseat the heatsink. At idle Cores #0 & 1 sit at 33c and cores #2 & 3 sit at 28c. Looks like that issue is just exacerbated when load hits.
 
ok, 333 x 9 (2997mhz) for a nice 3ghz milestone. DDR2 @ 1:1.20 792
Still stock volts on everything and the cores are the same temps as the last clock
30 mins SMall FFT's test

Have to say its been a long time since I clocked a PC my old build being the trusty Athlon XP mobile 2500 chip on the NF7-s board which is still going strong but getting a little tired these days.

So far so good I think, 600mhz clock with no real drama at all seems pretty good to me.

Next job is to reseat the heatsink and hopefully fix the cores issues and then press on to hopefully 3.4ghz clock.

Back soon.
 
Banny said:
every one does it different I suppose, I would start at a speed that seems to be an average for these chips which is 3.5ghz with some nice volts, and work down from there if it crash's, if its stable then lower the voltage, till it locks up. then increase volts until you find the sweet spot.
Surely quicker than working up little by little.
Click to expand...

Your probably correct my friend but I haven't OC'd in years and I'm happy to take it slow and easy! Besides which 3.4ghz on air will do me fine!
 
ok, progress time.

Reseated the heatsink and also did the funky 'coin mod' on the TRUE that I got from another forum we all use. You place a coin under the TRUE bracket to maximise the contact pressure of the 4 screws.

Didn't help that much to be honest, still have the gap between the pairs of cores but it is less, I put that down to the better contact. Looks like I'll be lapping the IHS at some point.

(As a quick aside I got an Iiyama E2201-W prolite 22" LCD with my new rig and oh boy is it yummy to look at!)

On topic:
Hit my first wall at 350 x 9, ram still at 1:1.20 (840)

would post and get to the windows login screen and then no further.

After some volt fiddling
CPU core 1.3650 in BIOS showing 1.320 in CPU-z
DDR2 up to 2.0v
CPU VTT 1.23
MCH 1.29

Small FFT's test running now, load temps are:
Core #0 47c
Core #1 43C
Core #2 40c
Core #3 46c

Maybe the reseating helped more than I thought, 6-7 degree difference between the cores now. Interesting that the hot cores haven't actually got any hotter!
 
V3g3tto said:
You need to up the vcore. If i had your chips i'd be at 3.8ghz now no sweat with the specs you got...3.4ghz with 1.3v?! Mine needs more than that STOCK!

Bump vcore to 1.4v for a laugh and up FSB to 400x9, if it don't work your doing it wrong lol.
Click to expand...

lol, now I feel like a such a pussy.
 
V|per said:
Sounds like you are only running 1 instance of orthos? orthos only stresses 2 cores, and the other 2 will be idle. Bring up your task manager to see that all 4 cores are under 100% load.

Fix this by running 2 lots of orthos, or downloading the latest prime 95 (which stresses all 4 cores)
Click to expand...

Hi there, didn't know about that but I can't find a link that will download the new version.
 
Thanks guys, the home site wouldn't let me download for some reason, got it from elsewhere however.

Ok, update time.

running 360 x 9 1:1 ratio on the ram although I did put the timings to 5-5-5-15 from 5-5-5-18, didn't like 1:1.20 at the slightly tighter timings.

CPU core 1.3850 in BIOS (;) V3g) 1.340 in CPU-z
Other volts the same.

Run Small FFT's and Blend for 30 mins each no problems.

Load temps:
Core #0 47
Core #1 44
Core #2 42
Core #3 46
 
Stopped using Orthos in favour of the new version of Prime 95.

Left all the settings as previously

Load Temps:

Core #0 51
Core #1 48
Core #2 48
Core #3 51

Looks like this is a better stress tester. The other good news I forgot about is that as this is a new build I should see a drop in temps when the Artic Silver 5 has had time to bed in.

Also I've reached my first milestone of 3.2ghz as the clock is 3240 currently. Very happy bunny so far, I remember clocking being more complicated than this for some reason!
 
Temps all dropped a degree after small adjustments on my case fans!

Time to sort the kids out, more later

Oh, 45mins torture test stable at the 360 x 9 clock, need to get the ram back to 1:1.20 due to the strap thing being better!
 
ok, back again and on we go.

Hit my second wall when I tried to go for the 378 x 9 multi and got no joy so enough of being rash. Although it does appear that the memory does not like that 1:1.20 ram divider for some reason, tried all sorts but then have gone back to the last clock and set the divider back to 1:1.

370 x 9 (3330.5) 1:1 Ram (740)

CPU Core 1.4050 in the BIOS, 1.33 in CPU-z
DDR2 2.0
CPU VTT 1.23
MCH 1.29

Load Temps:
Core #0 55
Core #1 51
Core #2 55
Core #3 51

Oh yeah, the PWM is 70c at this clock (under load, 50c idle), not sure if thats too high?

Prime stable for over an hour

I can almost taste the 378 I was hoping for!
 
I think were there.

378 x 9 (3402.5) Ram 1:1 (756)

CPU Core 1.4350v BIOS, 1.370v CPU-z ???
DDR2 2.1v
CPU VTT 1.27v
MCH 1.33v

Memory 5-5-5-15

Idle temps:
Core #0 36
Core #1 31
Core #2 36
Core #3 31
PWM 45

Load temps
Core #0 56
Core #1 54
Core #2 56
Core #3 54
PWM 72

Prime stable for over an hour so far.

Interesting that I've had to go from 1.4050 to 1.4350 to go from 370 to 378. I think there must be a limiting factor somewhere but I'm not sure what. None of my case fans are above 50% speed as I wanted to make the clock how I run the PC and not 'the max'.

However I've got the 1ghz overclock I wanted so am happy with that for sure. I'll lap the IHS at some point and see what difference that makes to the temps.

Thanks to all who posted so far I appreciate the help. Will leave prime running till I crash.

The real question is do I sacrifice another chicken and try for 3.6ghz.........
 
Hey all

Been away for easter but having had a think in a couple of weeks I'm going to lap the IHS and push on to 400 x 9. (However this time no animals will suffer to secure the overclock).

I have been a little concerned at the 1.43v I've had to use but I noticed today that the VID on my chip is 1.325 which is a little high to start with.

Next up is putting the Accelero S1, Zalman ramsinks and a spare fan I have on the BFG 8800gt to squeeze a little extra out of that.

Thanks again for all the help and words of encouragement.
 
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