Q6600 just wont overclock at all

[Hatman]

Right, I just dont get why it wont so im going to post, this is btw my first time with Intel.

It just cannot get it to overclock, whether I put vcore to 1.4v, FSB vcore to 1.3v and only up the CPU speed to 2700 it just wont get into windows.

I'm seriously out of ideas, I thought I knew all the things that should be turned off but I guess I might not.

Can someone list them for me please or any other suggestions, I use award bios on a XFX 680i LT. It is by no means a low end board.

Thanks.

 

[ryanthesav]

Well, what I would try is going back to AMD! TRAITOR!!!

 

[Hatman]

Sorry I'm rooting for them but they do keep mucking up.

But seriously, it wont hardly budge, 2730ghz seems to be the highest thing I an do either upping vcore or keeping it low.

Tomorrow when I have a bit more time ill go through every option available there, I must have missed something.

 

[Annisman]

2.7 isn't horrible although certainly dissapointing...... What Cooling do you have ? Does your case have proper air flow?

 

[Scotteq]

The Q6600 has a locked multiplier, no?? Your post doesn't mention any changes to the FSB, but with a locked multiplier that's where your speed is going to come from. There's a forum sticky on Dual/Quad cores that goes into the detailia.

Edit to add link: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overclock-quads-duals-guide

 

[Hatman]

My case is a CM Stacker 830 with a Freezer Pro 7 and 7x 120mm fans, it has more then enough cooling im afraid.

Scotteq the multi I kept at 9 and I upped the multi.

 

[Scotteq]

Scotteq the multi I kept at 9 and I upped the multi.

?Que?

So did you change the FSB or not? Or maybe it's some kind of Zen Computing thing where you change by not changing... <grin> Anyways:


{plagiarized from the Overclocking threat I linked earlier}

Example: The Q6600 runs at a factory setting of 2.40 GHz. That's the product of a 9x multiplier and a 266 MHz FSB (quad pumped it's 1066 MHz but we're not quad pumping these numbers). So CPU Speed = 9 x 266 which is 2,394 MHz or 2.40 GHz.

The multiplier for a Q6600 is locked - You can't change it from 9. {An Unlocked multiplier is what we pay the big bucks for if we buy an "Extreme" edition processor} Since you can't change the cpu's multiplier, to make your CPU run faster you need to bump up the speed of your Front Side Bus instead. So for a 3Ghz target, which your Q should be able to do, you'll need to set the FSB to run a 333 hz. (3.0/9 = .333) Setting the FSB to 311 would get you 2.8GHZ (2.8/9 = 311).

MAKE SURE THE PCI BUS STAYS AT 100MHZ - Some Mobo/BIOS combinations will feed this faster as you bump the FSB speed. This is *not* something you want to do to your expen$$$$ive GPU.

Read the link I gave earlier thoroughly, and PLEASE ramp up slowly.

 

[Hatman]

I meant I upped the FSB, and I know all of that stuff its all in check.

I honestly doubt you could find an answer to my problem its not a simple solution I'm afraid.

Well, I hope it is but it wont be..


What im thinking is because im using Vista 64 as in a 64bit operating system its kinda messing around with overclocking the CPU, can someone confirm for me that there is some kind of connection that using 64bit Vista affects overclocking?

Thanks.

 

[Hatman]

Dw, found a BIOS update I didnt have, works fine now, 3.2ghz glory!

 

[cd14]

Q6600 isn't downward locked. Check your ram timings and speed. Keep them close to default. That way you know they work while you overclock them CPU.

 

[Hatman]

Did all that.

In fact I did everything exactly right as I had thought, one problem though, needed a BIOS update.

Now its working fine at 400x8 to make 3.2ghz for every core. Memory is at 800mhz, 5-5-5-15-2T, will be overclocking that in a moment.

Volts are CPU 1.32v, FSB 1.3v, Chipset 1.3v, Memory 1.8v.

On idle the temperature is 35degrees for the CPU.

All worked fine it seems

 

[Hatman]

Well now it doesnt work fine, and im extremly pissed off.


If an EXPERT not some guy who comes on here sometimes can read thru this and try to help me, that would be great, I really have been on this for days now and it wont stay 100% stable for more then 20min.

 

[Mugz]

What make motherboard do you have?

And if you discover you've got one that isn't overclock-friendly, you might want to consider doing a pin mod ('land' mod, maybe?) to achieve decent results.

 

[Hatman]

XFX.

 

[cd14]

Did all that.

In fact I did everything exactly right as I had thought, one problem though, needed a BIOS update.

Now its working fine at 400x8 to make 3.2ghz for every core. Memory is at 800mhz, 5-5-5-15-2T, will be overclocking that in a moment.

Volts are CPU 1.32v, FSB 1.3v, Chipset 1.3v, Memory 1.8v.

On idle the temperature is 35degrees for the CPU.

All worked fine it seems

Inch up the vcore a bit. What is it failing? For reference, I needed 1.4375v for my Q6600 (b3) to hit 3.33 ghz stable. It get's really hot at this stage. > 72c.

 

[Hatman]

Ive gone back to XP for the time being. Too many games problems with vista.

At 3.2ghz and 1.32vcore it only gets to about 50degrees load so I got a load of headroom still, I just need to move it up a bit more I will when I have more time.

Couldnt install XP on my raided drives *tear*.