e6600 not running at 2.4ghz; is this normal?

[Haberdasher]

I finished putting together my new system yesterday and got everything up to date and it is running great. However, I installed cpu-z and was a little shocked to see the processor not running at 2.4ghz. This is my first experience with a dual core processor so I'm not sure if this is normal or not. CPU-Z indicates the processor is running at about 1.6ghz. I haven't touched anything in the BIOS to cause this. I did notice the Vcore voltage was fluctuating so in an attempt to get it more stable I manually set it at 2.225v and that did the trick for that, but no change in the core speed. Is this normal behavior for a dual core system?

Thanks for the help

System Specs:
e6600 CPU
Asus P5W DH mobo
Crucial memory set to 5-5-5-15
X1950
550w PSU

 

[Lyngvi]

I think it's in energy saving mode.

 

[chungdokwan]

yeah Lyngvi is right this is speedstep throttling down to save power, it does that if the CPU isn't doing much but it will speed back up under load.

You can disable it in BIOS but I wouldn't bother.

 

[nvalhalla]

The 6X multiplier gives it away. Just to put your mind at ease, load up some Prime95 or something and check again. You'll see the proper speed. Also, return your voltage to auto.

 

[Haberdasher]

Yup, it was the SpeedStep, though I had to turn it off in BIOS and in Windows XP. For future reference, setting the power settings to "Always On" from the control panel power options kills XP's SpeedStep control. Thanks for the help

 

[Corasik]

Always On, works most of the time, but if you put the system in standby instead of 'off', when it resumes it may go back to the bios default for speetstep, until the next time you reboot.

So if you use Sleep/Hibernate modes instead of simple 'Off' then its best to disable speedstep in both XP and Bios.

Personally I just leave speedstep enabled, doesnt seem to cause any problems, and as half the case fans+cpu fan are temperature controlled, speedstep makes the PC alot quieter when its idling.