Q9650 Stock Volts

CaseyChaos · 28 May 2009 at 22:43

Just a quick question, I have recently bought one of these and would like to know what the average overclock can be achieved at stock volts.
Currently running happily at 3.4Ghz 378x9 straight out of the box, I just upped the FSB and it worked fine, the temps are looking good.
VID on the chip is 1.2875v, is this good?
Just would like some indication as to what I should aim for once I have a proper go at clocking it.
Cheers.

Greebo · 29 May 2009 at 00:10

A lot of q9650 reach 4ghz on stock volts or slightly more.

CaseyChaos · 29 May 2009 at 00:18

Still got a fair way to go before I hit my limit then lol, even if I can get to 3.8.

Biffa · 29 May 2009 at 00:19

3.6 is an easy spot to get to as its 400x9 and within ram speed for most ram.

I just switched my ram to 1066 so I'll be moving up from 3.6 tonight

CaseyChaos · 29 May 2009 at 00:24

I have 400mhz ram but with my old CPU I managed to run it at 417mhz, if I can get up to that I will have the 9650 at 3.75, I can always remove the 1:1 ratio if the mem fails past that point and the CPU still has room for improvement.

Biffa · 29 May 2009 at 00:33

Yup I just like to remove the RAM from the equation

CaseyChaos · 29 May 2009 at 01:33

Had a fiddle about. 3.87Ghz 430x9, can't get past it, my mem fails, rated 400mhz, running at 430mhz, board is a pain in the ass, will only run at 1:1 ratio. It's a shuttle so I don't expect much from them, 34degrees idle and 55degrees running prime95. 58% fan speed so I'm very happy with that.

Greebo · 29 May 2009 at 10:08

Slacken off your memory timings. I only have 400mhz ram and when finding the max of my cpu, I set the memory to 1:1 and 6-6-6-18. It removes it from the equation.

Once I got to 4Ghz, the limit of mobo, not cpu, I then started playing with the memory to tighten up the timings etc. In fact I am still playing with it and slower reducing the timings back down and checking for stability.

Two things to note. You mobo might not be capable of doing 430 fsb. My mobo maxes out at 444 and 440 for full stability but I have seen some mobos max out as low as 425mhz with the q9xxx.

Secondly once you go past 400 fsb you need to start playing with nb, fsb and cpu pll voltages to get stability with the board and ram running at a much higher speed. You may in some cases need to up the memory voltage to get full stability but slacken off the memory timings first.

In my case for 440fsb I needed to up the nb, fsb and cpu pll voltages a few notches.

DJ_Switch · 29 May 2009 at 13:06

I had a quick check for you last night to see how far it could go on stock volts, as close to the VID as possible.

I'd have to agree with Greedo in saying that 4ghz on stock volts is totally realistic. Got mine just under the VID last night although only by a fraction.

CaseyChaos · 29 May 2009 at 13:09

Yeah I was only having a quick play last night but it was late lol. It works fine at 430mhz, it's just anything like 435mhz, it posts and then just restarts, posts again and restarts etc...
I'll try fiddle with timings when I have a go next time.