Q9550 OC Help

Dimitris

Dimitris

Dimitris

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28 Oct 2003
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281
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hello guys, Im having trouble with ocing this right now.

Main issue is I haven't been building pcs for a long time and I don't understand a lot of the bios items.

Right now, I am using a Q9550 , Maximus X38, 8G Corsair 8500

Can log in normally with fsb at 400, but right now, it seems that no matter what Vcore I use or etc it won't boot properly.

Any help in the bios section would be great. Was hoping to achieve between 3.6-4.0. Also, even though the Dram frequency is showing as DDr-1067, in cpuz, it is showing as 550. Whats wrong with the ram setting?

Cpu Ratio Setting : 8.5
FSB Frequency : 444
FSB Strap to NB : 333 ( I read that it has to be 1:1, but I don't seem to have this option... )
PCIE Frequency : 100

DRAM Frequency : DDR - 1067
DRAM Command Rate : Auto
Drramt Timing : Manual 5-5-5-15-3-62-6-3

DRAM Static Read Control : Auto (what does this do?)
Ai Clock Twister : Auto (what does this do?)
Transaction Booster : Auto (What does this do?)

CPU Voltage : 1.3 (what is safe region?)
CPU Pll Voltage : Auto (no idea what this is for, what should it be?)
North Bridge : 1.51 (what is safe?)
Dram Voltage : 2.16 (Ram shouldn't be the problem so far?)
FSB Termination Voltage : Auto(again, no idea, what is this for?)
South Bridge Voltage : (Auto, what can it be?)
Loadline Calibration : Auto (what should it be and what is it for?)
CPU GTL Referemce : Auto ( what should it be and what is it for?)
North Bridge GTL Reference : Auto(same as above)
DDR Channal A Ref Voltage : Auto (same as above)
DDR Channel B Ref Voltage : Auto (same as above)
DDr2 Controler Ref Voltage : Auto (same as above)
SB 1.5V Voltage : Auto(same as above)


CPU Spread Spectrum : Auto (should this be auto, enabled or disabled?)
PCIE Spread Spectrum : Same as above
 
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Go a little bit higher with vcore - safe is 1.36v
Set RAM voltage at 2.0v ;) tRFC timings set as 52 - rest it's ok.
Safe voltage for NB is 1.55v - I woldn't go higher than you have got now.
FSB push up 0.1 -0.2v higher.
CPU PLL 0.1-0.2v higher.
SB leave at Auto.
You have to try with GTL - Try set at 59/60/60 - but as i said you have to try.
 
Thanks for that,

What is Trfc rating?

As for GTL, I only have 2 available for selection.

I am currently running 446 and it will crash 1 core at prime 95. Tried upping the voltage, but all it did is increase heat and not done anything.

whats so annoying is it seems that it was completely stable at 3.6 with everything on auto. And also, my ram keeps running at 450 in cpuz???? Do i run it 1:1 or run it at what its supposed to be at 1066?

And what exactly is CPU PLL and FSB ?

I thought FSB was dicated by northbridge?

And what should i be strapping to northbridge? 333 or 400?
 
Better is set strap at 400.
If you have RAM at 450 Mhz that means it is 1:1 ;) if you will set 5:6 will be 1066 MHz
tRAS it is one of the timmings of RAM - now you have set at 62.
PLL it is like VTT - quite important if you OC Quad CPU.
GTL set then around 57-67 - both of them.
If it is stable at Auto you can leave it like that, but remember check all voltages, because it is quite dangerous to leave settings at auto on Asus Mobo ;)
 
mmm Vcore can be taken upto 1.4V (this is stated by Intel as being maximum)with good cooling i wouldn't go above that though, there has been some cases of this damaging the CPU though (whether it was this Voltage alone or a other voltages had been raised was never confirmed).
what frequency are you trying to achieve or are you just going for a safe boost?
 
whats so annoying is it seems that it was completely stable at 3.6 with everything on auto. And also, my ram keeps running at 450 in cpuz???? Do i run it 1:1 or run it at what its supposed to be at 1066?

RAM is DDR - it runs at say 450mhz but works on both the up AND down bits of the cycle, so its effectively running twice the speed. In this case it's running at 450mhz with an effective speed of twice that, 900mhz
 
no go with settings.

as above, things are working in auto. running prime 95 fine with things on auto and 1:1. otherwise, not working....

cpu is doing 3.65 with 1.23V.

Upped V to 1.33 and still crashing at 3.78. don't think I would need 0.1 vcore to just increase fsb by 10.

Also leads me to think that if everything is working on auto, then what seems to be the issue???

really doing my head in since I havne't installed anything so can't exactly go down a bit and do something else if my oc isn't working...

And by using anything other than a 1:1 dividier seems a lot less stable unless its one of the voltage things that are messing up. Really confused.
 
the Reference voltage that GTL thing, is important for quads from what I've found.

On my asus board I have options like 0.63x 0.61x etc for reference voltage

What this is (from what I understand) is a point at which your processor determines if something is on or off according to voltage. When you crank up the volts on your cpu, the extra electricity can screw this up, for example...

your CPU is at X volts, On to the CPU is 5 off is 6

When you add more voltage to the cpu, X becomes higher, but 5 and 6 do not change, so this can cause problems, as it won't know the difference between off/on in the chip (1 and 0)

You have to set this according to the VTT (fsb termination) setting on your motherboard I think. There are charts online that will tell you what setting you should run on your motherboard.

This is great too because it looks like your motherboard you can change it on a per core basis (maybe tweaking it will fix your core that's failing)

All in all.. I don't know exactly everything about it, but google cpu reference voltage or whatever your bios calls it GTL reference I believe. And you'll find more info. When I changed my board from auto to 0.63x my overclocks started working... before that I couldn't even get to 400fsb.

I am still stuck at 400fsb though... my auto settings only took me to like 373.
I'd really like to hit 3.6ghz stable but it is being a real pain... I can run 420fsb @ 1.36v (cpuz) but I have to take my multiplier down to 8 from 8.5... at least I know that the problem seems to be happening in my chip and not my other parts.
 
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