Q6600 Overclocking

pcdude · 10 Oct 2008 at 09:47

Hey guys,
Ive just bought an atric cooling freezer 7 pro and strapped it to my q6600, i am having problems overclocking my system here is my spec

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L
Q6600 energy efficient G0 stepping
2 x 1GB Geil DDR2 800mhz (black dragon)
ati radeon x1950 pro
ect

on my board when i want to overclock my cpu i just use the + and - keys very simple when i am turning up the core it also overclock my ram ok, but my board supports 1066 ram max. when my cpu gets to around 3/3.2ghz my ram exceeds this at about 1068/1075 ish i cant exactly remember so i changed my ram to manual bringing the speed back down as i was unasure is such a high increase would cause the ram any damage as this is my first overclock?

and also is my cpu failing on prime95 after 4mins!! because of the ram to cup ratios?

thanks in advance
Richard C

!TIMMY! · 10 Oct 2008 at 11:32

Are you using a software program to overclock or doing it in the bios?

Pneumonic · 10 Oct 2008 at 11:39

I would imagine you need to up the vcore on the CPU if you havent done already.. just keep upping it a notch until it passes prime95 for 30mins or so..

You will need to set a RAM divider as you up the FSB to keep the RAM below its max frequency... going over this wont damage the RAM will just make it unstable

Mikoyan · 10 Oct 2008 at 11:44

if you have 1066 memory what frequency should you keep the memory at for benchmarks?

RaV · 10 Oct 2008 at 16:39

I have more or less the same set up as you.
Maybe aim for 3.2Ghz. The easiest way of this is with a multiplier of 8 and a FSB of 400. This way your ram is running at its designed specs and you can bring the timings down to what they should be.

If prime is failing after a few minutes increase the core voltage until is lasts 10minutes or so. then test it for longer.

pcdude · 10 Oct 2008 at 17:41

thanks for your replys, im going to give them a try later tonight. im judt very new to overclocking so i need to learn all the tricks

MooMoo444 · 10 Oct 2008 at 21:33

Pneumonic said:
You will need to set a RAM divider as you up the FSB to keep the RAM below its max frequency... going over this wont damage the RAM will just make it unstable

So if I was to test my RAM at high mhz, without adding voltage, I wouldn't be risking damaging it? Highest I've ever gone with this is around 940, but always wondered if it would do 1000.

If it's completely safe to try maybe I will

acccc · 10 Oct 2008 at 22:15

MooMoo444 said:
So if I was to test my RAM at high mhz, without adding voltage, I wouldn't be risking damaging it? Highest I've ever gone with this is around 940, but always wondered if it would do 1000.

If it's completely safe to try maybe I will

just curious whats your fsb vtt, nb/sb added vcore for your 3.6ghz? whats the temps? ive got msi 750i as well and usually keep mine at 3.0ghz with around 34c idle but im kinda thinking to up it soon.....

Pneumonic · 10 Oct 2008 at 22:24

MooMoo444 said:
So if I was to test my RAM at high mhz, without adding voltage, I wouldn't be risking damaging it? Highest I've ever gone with this is around 940, but always wondered if it would do 1000.

If it's completely safe to try maybe I will

you should be fine if you keep it at its correct voltages.. your system will just not POST or you will get Re-Starts, BSOD's etc..

MooMoo444 · 11 Oct 2008 at 11:04

Alright thanks Pneumonic I'll have a play this weekend see what it tops out at

acccc said:
just curious whats your fsb vtt, nb/sb added vcore for your 3.6ghz? whats the temps? ive got msi 750i as well and usually keep mine at 3.0ghz with around 34c idle but im kinda thinking to up it soon.....

Obviously will be different for you slightly, but I have for 3.6;

1.6v in BIOS, 1.53v actual.(lots of vdroop on this board for you too?) I guess I got a dodgy clocker with a VID of 1.3. It does 3.4ghz on 1.43ish volts, but 200mhz needs .1! lol

RAM 400mhz 1:1
x9 multi

VTT 1.4
NB 1.51
SB 1.56
RAM 2.1

Idle temps with speedstep enabled are around 26-30C, load peaks at around 65C with an AC7 pro. Case fans on high though, a bit noisy but temps are nice and controlled. Also I only use 3.6 for demanding things like Crysis etc,

Don't use that solid anymore though, saving on the elecy bill. I'm sitting at 3ghz for now

RaV · 11 Oct 2008 at 12:00

MooMoo444 said:
. Also I only use 3.6 for demanding things like Crysis etc,

Don't use that solid anymore though, saving on the elecy bill. I'm sitting at 3ghz for now

For some reason mine crashed and booted up at 2.2Ghz, cause my multiplier was set to 8, so i benched crysis. i then put it up to 3.2Ghz and there was less than 2fps difference between that extra 1Ghz. might be a bit different for you since your SLI'ing though.
- but thats just crysis

MooMoo444 · 11 Oct 2008 at 12:25

RaV said:
For some reason mine crashed and booted up at 2.2Ghz, cause my multiplier was set to 8, so i benched crysis. i then put it up to 3.2Ghz and there was less than 2fps difference between that extra 1Ghz. might be a bit different for you since your SLI'ing though.
- but thats just crysis

Well yeah, because I'm using SLI I've always thought my cpu would be the bottleneck. It does feel a lot faster at 3.6 than 3.0 though, unless its just a placebo.

acccc · 15 Oct 2008 at 00:56

MooMoo444 said:
Alright thanks Pneumonic I'll have a play this weekend see what it tops out at

Obviously will be different for you slightly, but I have for 3.6;

1.6v in BIOS, 1.53v actual.(lots of vdroop on this board for you too?) I guess I got a dodgy clocker with a VID of 1.3. It does 3.4ghz on 1.43ish volts, but 200mhz needs .1! lol

RAM 400mhz 1:1
x9 multi

VTT 1.4
NB 1.51
SB 1.56
RAM 2.1

Idle temps with speedstep enabled are around 26-30C, load peaks at around 65C with an AC7 pro. Case fans on high though, a bit noisy but temps are nice and controlled. Also I only use 3.6 for demanding things like Crysis etc,

Don't use that solid anymore though, saving on the elecy bill. I'm sitting at 3ghz for now

Had a mess around today, created another profile in the bios (one for 3ghz the other for 3.6ghz) my q6600 is also one of the bad batched 1.3250.

I've noticed your SB and VTT are quite high, you should try lowering as ive got my nb at default 1.50, VTT at 1.30 and NB af 1.51 all rock solid. But yea your right the mobo does have lots of vdroop, did you calculate your total vcore by adding the voltage amount to your vid as ive noticed the msi has an odd way of setting vcore.

And at 3ghz all i add is 0.0125v to the cpu, 1.225 on VTT and 1.32 on NB rock solid, i love the mobo very reliable and excellent build quality.