Possible to overclock Q6600 easily?

[haydox]

I ordered my computer last night and as ive read in most places that its easy to OC the Q6600 i thought i would give it a go when it comes. I also read the guide thats stickied to this forum, however it was too detailed for me...i got confused! (Still a brilliant guide!)

Basically im getting a Q6600 (SLACR 95W edition), 4GB 800mhz RAM (4x1GB), an Asus P5E X36 mobo, twin Radeon 3870 XTs.

On the motherboard review site i found they said (about the Core 2 Extreme QX6850):
"To achieve maximum results it is enough to simply raise the processor Vcore, Vmem and chipset North Bridge voltage" and that their max FSB frequency was 460MHz.

I know that they were using a far better CPU than i bought (and could afford!), but will it still be that simple when/if i try it? From the guide i understood that by raising the FSB speed that is multiplied by the multiplier (duh!) and that gives a single core speed (so the Q6600 is 9x266 as standard). Now if it is still as simple as they say, and all i need to do is raise three voltages, by how much should i raise them and what gains should i look for so ensure the system is stable on the stock fan (the case will have a 36cm fan on the side too)?

Finally, if all my previous questions are answered 'yes', will i need to do, what was called in the guide, 'stress testing' which totally confused me, and will i need to alter either of the bridges on the mobo or the RAM (as if i do i tihnk my head may explode whilst trying it!).

Thanks in advance

Rich

Edit: Oh, the review site was http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-p5e_8.html#sect0

 

[haydox]

Nobody had any experience with this processor and overclocking it?

 

[Hatman]

Of coarse.


You raise them when you need too, thats it really. Put em all high, get to a speed you like then start to lower them one bny one and stress your system inbetween with 3dmark and orthos/prime95.

Eventually youll find it wont eb stable then you up that certain voltage to the last stable one.

And simply repeat with all of them.

Thats he way I do it anyway

 

[bob8701]

try small step first, and push for the limit,
q6600 is a good chip. 3.2GHZ is not difficult
4*1gb is not easy set up for OC
power supply is really import for oc
heatsink and case will help lot about temp
please read more before oc
xbit lab tests this cpu on open stand not inside case

 

[cnumartyr]

I did 3.6 on mine with 4 GB of RAM.

 

[haydox]

Ive got a 680W Hiper PSU and a XClio Case with 12cm front and back fans and a 36cm side fan.

Ill try and raise those voltages a little then, and use the programs stated in the faq to see what gains im getting. To be honest im still not too sure about stress testing and it sounds like it will still confuse me!

So i just raise the three voltages stated? I dont need to increase the FSB speed at all? (i thought that's what made it run faster).

 

[cnumartyr]

Ive got a 680W Hiper PSU and a XClio Case with 12cm front and back fans and a 36cm side fan.

Ill try and raise those voltages a little then, and use the programs stated in the faq to see what gains im getting. To be honest im still not too sure about stress testing and it sounds like it will still confuse me!

So i just raise the three voltages stated? I dont need to increase the FSB speed at all? (i thought that's what made it run faster).

Yea, raise the FSB. You only raise the Voltages if there is a problem.

Read the OCing guide at the top of this forum.

 

[ganpachi]

the G0 OCs really easy. Alls I did was set the FSB to 378, and BAM I had a 3.4gHz monster under the hood.

So to answer your question, yes, it overclocks easily, though it sounds like you might be trying to squeeze more out of it than falls under the normal subheading of "easy".

 

[haydox]

Ganpachi, so you bumped the FSB from 266 to 378 with no voltage increase? Did you just leave them on Auto?!

If it really is that easy ill set mine to about 333 as that will give a 3ghz core, not sure if my cooling will allow any more safely (2x 12cm fans and a 36cm with stock cooler on the cpu).

 

[goodie]

try 333x9 with 1.225 vcore then run prime, if error then raise to 1.250 if stable then maybe knock it down a notch if not raise until prime stable, i got mine to 3.0ghz using 1.225v

 

[haydox]

Goodie, thanks so much!

If all i need to do is raise the FSB and vcore then im pretty certain even i can manage that!

 

[goodie]

check this out, basically the same board
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=168119

 

[haydox]

Ah, thanks.

Sadly i doubt i could get mine to 400x9 as they got theirs so ill try using your vcore of 1.225 with a fsb of 333.

Two questions though, will the fact that i have a different motherboard to you make much of a difference? And what is a Q6600 G0? (The one i got was a Q6600 SLCR 95W edition).

Oh also, did you change any other settings other than vcore, were the rest left on 'auto' or their default settings? The profiles you can view on that site just list all the settings for that motherboard and dont specify what was changed.

 

[goodie]

"Q6600 SLCR 95W edition" that is the G0 version (95W) the old B3 was 125W i think?
the P5E is more or less the same board as the maximus, i believe they even used the same PCB

 

[haydox]

Ah ok, cool! Makes sense now, ide just never heard it called a G0!

I take it then you left all the other settings on Auto or at their default values and simply upped the FSB and vcore? If you had to change others please say as there is a very high chance i wont realise i need to alter others and mess it up big time!

Edit: Yeah, the mobos do use the same pcb, on the review i linked for mine they have a close up picture of the name in the middle of the mobo and you can see where they peeled the sticker up the name Maximus Formula!

 

[goodie]

set pci-e to 100 otherwise when you raise the FSB it will overclock your graphics card aswell,
instead of using auto on north bridge, south bridge i set them to the minimum,
i cant remember the rest of my settings as im at work,
ill have a look when i get home

 

[haydox]

Ok thanks. So in theory i could leave them on auto? As stress testing seems confusing to me! I also checked out prime95 and for the latest version i need to email some guy off the forums...I presume it was prime95 you used to figure out the minimum NB and SB voltages?

Edit: I appear to have found a version of Prime95 v25.5a from here, http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Home-Education/Prime95.shtml

 

[goodie]

Edit: I appear to have found a version of Prime95 v25.5a from here, http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Home-Education/Prime95.shtml

thats the one, prime is easy, just run small ftt's then run blend, dont forget to tick round off checking.
as regards the minimum NB & SB voltages, just try & change them in the bios & the lowest available setting will be the one

 

[haydox]

Ok, thanks. From reading that tutorial again it seems i just keep the pci-e speed at 100, the memory speed for the graphics cards at 33.33 and the RAM speed at twice the FSB speed (666 with the 333fsb im going for).

Then i just up the FSB and vcore (ill try a little above your value as you have a far better cooler!). If that all works i can take the NB and SB voltages off auto and test them with prime.

Simple!

 

[goodie]

whats 33.33 graphics memory speed?
i wouldnt leave the NB/SB on auto, maximus tends to overvolt, i assume P5E will be the same
my settings:-
CPU vcore 1.300v
NB 1.29v,
SB 1.050v
SB 1.5v voltage = 1.50v,
FSBT 1.30v,
CPU PLL 1.50v,
PCI-E 100,
FSB strap auto,
CPU spread spectrum disabled
PCIE spread spectrum disabled
C1E Suppport : Disabled
CPU TM Function : Disabled
Vanderpool Technology : Disabled
Execute Disable Bit : Disabled
Max CPUID Value Limit : Disabled

try 333x9 with those settings
if your not 100% sure, then do some more reading!!!

 

[haydox]

Not sure what that graphics speed thing meant myself...it was in the FAQ at the top of this section!

As our mobos are so alike i presume all my settings will be called the same/similar to yours.

Final question, are those all on the same bios page? (this will be my first overclock so i just wanna make sure i know where everything is!

Also, in your previous post, are both the ftts and blend from prime? I know ftts are but didnt see 'blend' anywhere!

When i do do mine i might make my voltages a little higher as i dont want to risk breaking anything, then if that temp program (core temp maybe) says they are too high ill try drop em a bit.

Edit: The 33.33 speed was this (quote from FAQ) "PCI Clock Synchronization - Use 33.33 MHz here. Again, if you leave the setting on auto, the PCI clock will creep up proportionally with your FSB which can damage cards you may have there aren't designed to run at higher frequencies."

 

[cnumartyr]

I would guess 33.33 is PCI Speed.

PCI = 33 MHz.
AGP = 66 MHz.
PCIe = 100 MHz.

 

[goodie]

Not sure what that graphics speed thing meant myself...it was in the FAQ at the top of this section!

As our mobos are so alike i presume all my settings will be called the same/similar to yours.

Final question, are those all on the same bios page? (this will be my first overclock so i just wanna make sure i know where everything is!

Also, in your previous post, are both the ftts and blend from prime? I know ftts are but didnt see 'blend' anywhere!

When i do do mine i might make my voltages a little higher as i dont want to risk breaking anything, then if that temp program (core temp maybe) says they are too high ill try drop em a bit.

high voltages is a killer, its safer to use lower voltages, worst that can happen BSOD then up them slightly
all except the following should be under advanced tweaker
C1E Suppport : Disabled
CPU TM Function : Disabled
Vanderpool Technology : Disabled
Execute Disable Bit : Disabled
Max CPUID Value Limit : Disabled
these should be under CPU configuration (or something like that)

 

[haydox]

Ok, thanks. I may try and up the voltage a tiny bit as all chips are different and if they were on auto they would be higher than you got them too anyway.

Also, i may try having PECI and CPU TM enabled as that FAQ says the first gives more accurate temperature reports and the second stops you wrecking your chip by throttle management. Ill also try enabling C1E once i know its stable as that can sometimes help power consumption. Oh and apparently XP needs Execute Disable Bit enabled for some virus protection.

Oh, and what is BSOD?

If any of what i just said is a killer mistake please say! Also, i presume i dont need to alter my RAM timings or speed or anything like that? From reading that FAQ it doesnt look like i need to, its only mentioned as a possibility i think. The stuff i bought is 800mhz DDR2 5-5-5-12 (1.8-2.1V)

 

[goodie]

BSOD blue screen of death (windows shuts down with an error), i got a few when running prime when my voltages werent high enough,
id leave your ram settings on auto