Q9550 and P5Q Pro Overclock

8ball2253

8ball2253

8ball2253

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9 Jun 2009
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29
Hi there everyone,

I have had this PC for about half a year now and i've always been putting off overclocking, simply because its something i've never wanted to mess with because i can burn out my hardware, and void warranties by doing so.

but now i've been putting it off too long and would like some help in overclocking it, a literal step by step guide (specific to my system, i know theres a beginners guide thread but i still am not confident in doing it yet).

my system specs are:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Stock
OCZ gold ddr2 pc2-8500 2 x 2gb stock
poworcolor ati radeon 4870 1gb stock
arctic freezer cooler pro

as you can see i do have a sufficient rig for most tasks but i would like to squeeze a bit more out of it. i'm looking for something around 3.2-3.4ghz mark, i don't want to get too greedy and reduce the life of my processor- if anybody things these speeds are too much or too little please feel free to comment.

im looking for an overall systemwide overclock, not just increasing the FSB for the processor- perhaps setting ram to 1066mhz too if thats possible (i heard something about keeping a mutliplier ratio between ram and FSB to keep the system stable, but im not clear on that) and i'd like to leave the gfx card stock.

many thanks!
 
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You don't really want to be overclocking RAM - a lot of RAM dies quickly if you push the DRAM voltage up - and you'd have to test the overclock stability for the RAM seperatly even on overclocks that don't touch the DRAM voltage.

Unfortunatly you won't get much above 3.4gig with the RAM at stock - tho that stuff should be good for around 900MHz which would get you to 3.825gig.

You should be able to get it to around 3.825gig with that cooler and without pushing the voltages too much - but once you go above that it quickly requires massive amounts of extra voltage and extra heat to get those last few MHz to 4+gig.

I can't give you a step by step guide but as a general rule of thumb try and keep vcore and fsb/vtt voltage below 1.4v and you should be good - aslong as the cooler keeps it under 60C normal load and under 70C on a 20 pass IBT run you shouldn't drop anything significant (i.e. it would be in single digit % earlier to mean failure) off the CPU life span.
 
Without touching voltages - depending on the VID you'd hit around 3.2gig - 3.4gig should be a doddle with hardly any adjustment. Things get a bit more fiddly once you hit 3.6gig.

Make sure your adjusting the RAM multiplier aswell so that it stays in spec.
 
i dont want to make it more complicated than it already is, seeing as though im a novice with overclocking.

i think i'll leave everything stock. i take it if im just increasing FSB speed to achieve 3.2-3.4ghz then i dont need to mess with anything else, including voltages and stuff. i'd like to keep voltages stock as i've heard that is what can damage the CPU
 
As you increase the FSB - the RAM speed will rise with it - which is where the RAM ratios come into play - you will need to learn how to adjust that so that the RAM is running within its rated settings - its usually fairly easy.
 
On the asus p45 boards such as the p5q's, whenever you raise the fsb a few mhz at a time, if you have a look in the ram frequency tab, theres a drop down list offering options of what speed you want to run the ram at, the speeds available will also depend on what FSB-NB strap your running, eg 266, 333, 400. 333 strap is generally regarded to be the most stable setting.
 
Stock is not the same as auto. Be warned, P5Q boards have a pretty loose idea of what required voltage is.

I think you should learn some more about this and do it properly, or not bother at all. Overclocking an socket 775 quad core is difficult, I wouldn't like to have started with it. The basics are set ram to correct voltage and to lowest speed, increase fsb until it isn't stable. Then increase vcore a bit, should now be stable. Repeat.

However above 3.5ish you discover that some combination of northbridge and fsb termination are required to keep it stable, and that sometimes these values have to go down as frequency increases as well as up other times. It's basically a really large amount of trial and error. Once you get past 3.8ish you get to play with glt reference voltages which is pretty much blind tweaking and hoping for the best.

You do not want a step by step guide to this. That won't work. Research it a lot more, then give it a try, and be prepared to spend time swearing at it because you don't know why it's crashing.
 
Voltage wise, a good starting point is to set the following voltages to +0.02 above auto.

CPU PLL
FSB TERMINATION (VTT)
NB.

Theese are known to seriously overvolt if left on auto or lowest manual setting. Theres also evidence of ram voltage overvolting between 0.06-0.08, i ran 2 different sets of ocz reaper rated at 2.1v, i actually ran them at 2.02 with no stability issues in a p5q deluxe.
 
well guys i've come back now with the overclock. managed to fry my q9550. just my luck aswell, i nearly reached 4ghz.





nah kidding guys haha, ive managed to stable it at 3.71 ghz;

pci clock 100mhz
FSB at 436mhz
multiplier auto
vcore stable, as of intel burn test at 20, standard stress, 1.1835 or something like that
RAM ive set to 1044mhz i think, my ram is rated at 1066 anyway, and all timings are auto and voltage is 2.1

every setting is auto in bios apart from those mentioned above

if you guys could just check these temperatures for me and comment on them (taking into account the summer, is it safe to leave it as it is)

overclockidle.png


overclockedload.png
 
Did I miss read your RAM speed? I thought it said pc2-6400 before... otherwise I'd have been a little more opptomisitic with my predictions.

IIRC the max burn temp is rated for 72C so aslong as your under that on IBT temps should never be a problem.
 
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