Why won't my Q6600 do 3.2GHz?

just Scott · 20 Mar 2010 at 11:58

Made a thread the other day but didn't get much attention. My new Q6600 simply won't do 3.2GHz (trying 356*9). The highest vcore I've tried is 1.525 in the BIOS, which is extremely high, but even at that voltage it doesn't get past POST. It gets to the motherboard screen were you can choose to enter setup, boot options, etc, but just before it displays my hard drives and optical drives, it reboots and resets the overclock.

3GHz is fully stable at 1.425v in the BIOS. I tried 400*7 (2.8GHz) and it was stable. So it's not my RAM or my motherboard that's failing, it has to be the Q6600. (mobo is Gigabyte S3 P965 and RAM is 4x1GB PC6400, CPU cooler is Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro)

Do I just have a really bad overclocker?

Mr Krugga · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:14

Was RAM not a limiting factor here?

just Scott · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:17

Mr Krugga said:
What max FSB does your mobo do?

Not sure. I reckon about 420-450 FSB if I really pushed it. But I bought this Q6600 so I wouldn't have to push the mobo, with its 9x multiplier.

I'm under the impression that lower FSB + high CPU multiplier is more stable than high FSB and low multiplier. Is that not correct?

chipps101 · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:17

i'm doing 3.3 (9x368) on my G0 stepping with vcore at 1.4525, my vid is 1.3125.
my motherboard is an ip35 pro i think maybe you have just gotten a bad clocker

as you said 400x7 was ok have you tried 400x8 for 3.2 ?

just Scott · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:19

chipps101 said:
as you said 400x7 was ok have you tried 400x8 for 3.2 ?

Yeah I did and it was the same, rebooted at the same place and reset the overclock.

chipps101 · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:23

whats your stepping and your vid ?

just Scott · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:24

chipps101 said:
whats your stepping and your vid ?

G0 and 1.3250v

Temps reach about 59c after 8 hours of Prime at this overclock (333*9, 1.425v in BIOS or 1.392v according to CPU-Z)

chipps101 · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:29

i've never used a p965 chipset so can't comment on that but most G0's should do at least 3.3 from what i have read

are the temps fine with the arctic freezer ?

just Scott · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:31

chipps101 said:
i've never used a p965 chipset so can't comment on that but most G0's should do at least 3.3 from what i have read
are the temps fine with the arctic freezer ?

If 59c after 8 hours of Prime is fine for 3GHz then yes. But I dunno if those temps are high or not for a quad core.

chipps101 · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:33

thats about the same as i get at 3.3 so that should be ok, have you tried with only 2 of your memory dimm's in ? sometimes having 4 can hamper an overclock.

just Scott · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:36

chipps101 said:
thats about the same as i get at 3.3 so that should be ok, have you tried with only 2 of your memory dimm's in ? sometimes having 4 can hamper an overclock.

I did try that, but it was the same. Only tried taking the PNY set out though, didn't try leaving that in and taking out the GeIL set.

Thanks for your help btw.

mattyfez · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:38

Mine seems happier on a x8 multi, and relatively higher FSB for some reason, it doesnt like going past 3ghz on x9.

just Scott · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:39

mattyfez said:
Mine seems happier on a x8 multi, and relatively higher FSB for some reason, it doesnt like going past 3ghz on x9.

Hmm. I'll have another go with 8x multi.

Cheers

chipps101 · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:39

no worries, when i upgraded from 2gb to 4gb the guy at ocuk advised me that it was better to have 2x2gb rather than adding another 2x1gb of the same ram i had as it would be more stable. apart from that the only thing i can think of is that your p965 may be holding you back

maybe if someone is running one of these on a p965 board with it over 3ghz they could comment.

mattyfez · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:42

how many dims do you have, if 4 then you may need to up the NB voltage.

just Scott · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:44

chipps101 said:
no worries, when i upgraded from 2gb to 4gb the guy at ocuk advised me that it was better to have 2x2gb rather than adding another 2x1gb of the same ram i had as it would be more stable. apart from that the only thing i can think of is that your p965 may be holding you back
maybe if someone is running one of these on a p965 board with it over 3ghz they could comment.

Yeah, I've read before than 2x2GB is more stable than 1x4GB, but in my case I don't think I'm stressing my RAM or mobo enough for it to be a problem.

I'm running Prime now at 380*8, same volts as before, just to see if it will stay stable at the higher FSB. Then I'll slowly increase it to 400 FSB and see what happens.

mattyfez said:
how many dims do you have, if 4 then you may need to up the NB voltage.

4 DIMMs. NB voltage is on +0.1v. I don't know what the stock is so I can't tell you what the actual voltage is, just +0.1 more than stock on this mobo lol. FSB is at +0.2v.

edit: Prime failed

Katoom · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:46

My quad wouldn't go over 3.2 with my P35c-dsr what ever i tried but will do 3.6 with my DFI X48.

chipps101 · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:52

my NB voltage is 1.37 so it's .12 above my stock so maybe upping yours slightly may help
my cpu VTT is 1.27
ICH is 1.15
ICHIO is 1.55
i think they are the only voltages i changed for my overclock apart from vcore and i can get to 390x9 on those for benchmarking.

just Scott · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:57

I'm doing 390*8 now. 1.45v in CPU-Z. I put all the voltages on +0.2v except PCI-E which I left on +0.1v. Not sure if increasing the PCI-E voltage will have any affect on a CPU overclock.

Wouldn't boot at all at 400*8, not matter what settings I used. Wouldn't even get to POST.

chipps101 · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:58

i'm out of ideas

sorry