Q6600 OC on XFX 680i LT SLI

[jerreece]

I think I may have finally got a successful OC on my new system. Prime 95 has been running over an hour (which is the longest I've seen so far). I had the PC suddenly reboot on me a couple times as I tried to get my voltage settings right for the vcore.

Here's a screenshot of where I'm at right now.

My memory is probably not set optimally. It's DDR2 PC6400 (800Mhz) but I'm running it right now at 732Mhz effectively. EPP on the memory normally lets it run 4-4-4-12 @ 2.1v. Right now it's running 5-5-5-17.

High temperature so far off Core Temp 0.97 is 66c on core 0 & 1. Course that's running the CPU @ 100% load. So even gaming I probably won't get all 4 cores to 100% most of the time. Anyone think 65c is dangerous? So far this is the only stable point I've found. I've tried 3Ghz and 3.2Ghz before and couldn't get them stable. Have heard these 680i boards have FSB holes and kind of suck for OC'ing quads.

Any comments, tips, etc are appreciated!

 

[Lupiron]

Thats pretty good, given the 680i's hatred for quad core processors.

Yes, it has FSB holes up the a$$ and usually doesnt clock mush over 2.85, so you are one of the lucky ones!

As far as your memory goes, just manually set it for 4-4-4-12. You may be able to squeeze a 3 out somewhere as well. 4-4-3-12. You'll have to make sure that board likes running the ram fast!

But thats easy, it'll either post, or no post, lol!

Good Job!!

--Lupi

 

[jsc]

I have an eVGA 680i motherboard. I did not see any signs of FSB holes on my way to 3.6 GHz with an E6600. On the other hand, I jumped from 2.4 GHz to 3.0 to 3.3 GHz before I sarted working upward in 50 MHz steps. Each step was tested for stability with a 24 hour Orthos run (more convenient than Prime95 for a C2D processor).

Late last year, while home (US) on vacation, I bought a G0 Q6600 at Fry's. They tossed in a free low-spec motherboard. My intention was to use that with the E6600 to replace Box #3.

I installed the Q6600 in the eVGA board and at 3.0 GHz, I started running into strange stability problems. (Yes, I tried the latest BIOS.) I started checking around, and found a lot of comments that 680i motherboards do not seem to like C2Q's.

I went downtown (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) and bought a Gigabyte EP35-DS3P. That and the Q6600 are happily running at 3.6 GHz in an Antec 900 case with the case fans set to Slow. Core temps under load are about 65 C. Strangely enough, the only difference that running the case fans faster makes is an increase in noise level.

For OC'ing, I like the way the eVGA BIOS is set up. Too bad my board apparently doesn't work with a C2Q.

Haven't updated my signature yet - still testing.

 

[jerreece]

Thats pretty good, given the 680i's hatred for quad core processors.

Yes, it has FSB holes up the a$$ and usually doesnt clock mush over 2.85, so you are one of the lucky ones!

As far as your memory goes, just manually set it for 4-4-4-12. You may be able to squeeze a 3 out somewhere as well. 4-4-3-12. You'll have to make sure that board likes running the ram fast!

But thats easy, it'll either post, or no post, lol!

Good Job!!

--Lupi

I'm afraid to even enter the BIOS again. LOL Let alone tamper with my memory settings. I'm just afraid the stupid thing won't run like it is. I think I might have linked/sync'd the memory and FSB. That's why I'm not running at the full 800Mhz. If I change the memory timings will that have any direct affect on whether CPU causes a freeze/reboot? Or would that simply mean the memory wasn't doing it?

Realistically, the memory itself is capable of 4-4-4-12 @ 800Mhz @ 2.1v... so I should be able to do that regardless of FSB or CPU changes right?

LOL Or am I wrong?

 

[Lupiron]

The memory wont effect the CPU OC at all. But the over all OC may have problems. But you will know its limited to RAM. so just manually set 4-4-4-12 in the bios, at the specified voltage required. No problems.

--Lupi!

 

[Lupiron]

I am currently testing the highest VID you can get for a q6x00, a 1.3250. At 3.6 @ 1.448 VCore loaded, max core is 56c, lol!!

What the hell?

--Lupi!

 

[jerreece]

Wow that's awesome! Wish I had the cooling for that kind of thing. You using water?

I went into the BIOS and changed my mem settings. 4-4-4-12 2t. Also unsync'd FSB & memory. FSB is still 366 but Memory is at 800.

3dMark06 ran fine. I was just playing Assassin's Creed for 20-30 mins until my PC suddenly froze (I was just about to a 'View Point' in the game too..)

Would this freeze-up be a sign of a CPU related OC problem, or could it be due to my memory changes? Have yet to run Prime 95 after changing memory cause I want to play rather than sit and watch.

 

[jerreece]

I am currently testing the highest VID you can get for a q6x00, a 1.3250. At 3.6 @ 1.448 VCore loaded, max core is 56c, lol!!

What the hell?

--Lupi!

Oh yeah, I think my Q6600 has a VID of 1.3250 also. I've got my 680i vcore at 1.475 for this OC to run. Course vdroop alters the actual, but that's what it is manually set to in order for it to run stable.

I just redid the thermal paste between my CPU and heatsink night before last. When I first ran Prime 95 for that hour+ I had a max of 66c I think. But I'm noticing it's running more like 63c now. Don't think I'm going to push any higher OC as I don't really have much room for extra cooling ability.

 

[jerreece]

Hmm, well Assassin's Creed froze up the PC again after about 10 minutes. So I guess my memory setting changes might have made the OC a little bit unstable. Guess I'm gonna have to loosen them more.

 

[jerreece]

Well turd. I put my memory settings back to "Optimal" and "Sync Mode". This put them back at the 5-5-5-17 733Mhz I had tested with Prime 95. Assassin's Creed still froze on me after about 10 minutes.

Guess I'll try to up my vcore a notch and see if that helps. That'll put me at 1.48125 manually set (before vdroop). From what I've seen others post that's a pretty high vcore considering I'm only @ 3.3Ghz

Anyone have any other suggestions if this doesn't work?

 

[Lupiron]

Try shifting your FSB a few points in one direction. Have you disabled speed step, and all the spread spectrum junk in the Bios? You may also wanna try locating any weird named things in the Bios that effects Ram directly. Clock twister, static read control, etc. These all change your rams Timings.

I am not sure the names in your Bios though, they all use different ones!


--Lupi

 

[jerreece]

Well after putting vcore @ 1.48125 Assassin's Creed ran longer, but again froze. Weird though, since Prime 95 ran for over an hour without a problem.

Anyhow, Core Temp showed my highest core was 56c when the PC froze, so there's not a heat related issue.

I guess I'm wondering if I should play with the vcore at all or not, I bumped it to 1.48750 when I rebooted. Granted I don't want it higher than it has to be.

All the Speed Step and Speed Spectrum stuff is off. I even turned off CE1 or C1E whichever it is. The only thing Enabled is the "Execute Disable Bit" feature.

Changing the memory settings/timings from 5-5-5-17 to 4-4-4-12 and 733Mhz to 800Mhz doesn't seem to have affect, as both times it freezes up about 10 mins into the game.

 

[Lupiron]

Its really not weird. Prime 95 tests only the Cores! Now when you game, you are using EVERYTHING. CPU, GPU, RAM, etc.

That power drain could be just enough to bomb you out, or freeze.

try changing your FSB up 2 or down 2 points.

--Lupi

 

[jerreece]

Alright. So realistically, I probably should put my vcore back to where I had it before. To reduce heat, and rule out the FSB issue itself.

 

[jerreece]

lol I'm so mad. Apparently Assassin's Creed froze on me last during an Auto-Save and now the game wants me to start a new game. Must have corrupted my saved game file.

 

[Lupiron]

Noooo! Look for the file first, and try and just copy it, then delete the original, then try and load from the copy!

--Lupi!

 

[jerreece]

I couldn't find any saved game file at all. Looking in the game directories, and in the Documents folder under my user. No idea where it saves to. Had to start over....

Anyhow, I up'd the FSB a couple points. Went from an even 3.3Ghz to 3.322Ghz. Assassin's Creed ran for 45 minutes this time before it froze.

Wish this crap was easier (OC'ing that is). It would be nice if it would just run smoothly (like it does) without suddenly freezing. Again, Core Temp's log shows my high core temp was 56c. So not a CPU overheat thing.

If only I didn't have a 680i...

 

[Lupiron]

Yeah, its a slow process, at least it ran longer!

--Lupi!

 

[jsc]

Here's the guide I used to OC my eVGA 680i motherboard:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/747/747606p2.html

Stress testing: I use Orthos to stress test the E6600 and Prime95 to test the Q6600. I test for 24 hours.

About memory timings:
I was running the E6600 at 3.3GHz (367 Mhz FSB freq) with an AC Freezer 7 Pro HSF. I worked the memory timings down from the default 5-5-5-15-2T to a pretty aggressive 3-3-3-6-1T. Orthos failed at 18 hours. 3-3-3-7-1T ran for 48 hours before I terminated the test. Memory I/O went up 7% in benchmarks, but I saw no improvement in real programs or game frame rates.

Changed the HSF to a TR Ultra 120 Ext. Got to 3.6 GHz with the E6600. At 3.7 GHz, I ran into stability problems . Whenever I moved the mouse even a little, the pointer would erratically jump around on the screen and open the right-click context menu.

I wouldn't worry too much about memory timings. Use 5's-15 or even 6's-18 until you get the CPU-motherboard OC sorted out.

I got the Q6600 up to 3.3 GHz with a TR Ultra 120 Ext. Prime95 ran fine but after the system was running for about 5 minutes, I ran into the same stability problem I had with the E6600 at 3.7 GHz. This was with the system breadboarded on my work table, so case airflow was not a factor.

Normally, I would suspect the mouse, but the other two computers plugged into the KVM switch had no problems. To eliminate possible problems with the switch, I plugged the mouse directly into the PC. Still had problems.

I was able to reach 3.0 GHz with the 680i without problems, but anything much higher was a NOGO. Pity. Except for that and the fact that the MCP tends to run really hot when OC'd aggressively, I really like the 680i.

 

[jerreece]

So the longest I've run Prime 95 is an hour, after that I shut it off simply because I want to play. Also, I'm concerned about running the CPU at 100% for 8, 12, 24 hours. Thirty minutes at 100% (at 3.32Ghz) runs me up to 66c. Am I really safe letting it run at those temps for 8+ hours?

I played Battlefield 2142 lastnight online for like an hour and a half without a problem. Though I was only getting about 45min on Assassin's Creed before the whole system froze. No video tearing or anyting, just perfect crisp gameplay and suddenly froze. Have to hit the "Reset" button to reboot. No blue screen or anything.

Playing with my Memory timings didn't change this, as running 4's-12 or 5's-17 froze after the same amounts of time. So I'm hesitant to think it was memory related. *shrugs*

Lupi had suggested I nudge the FSB up or down a couple points to see if it helped stability. Assassin's Creed was freezing after 10-15 min. I nudged the FSB up 3-4 points and then it ran for 45 minutes. I nudged it up like 2 more points and then played Battlefield 2142 for an hour and a half without any problem.

 

[Lupiron]

Temps are safe. 65c is a SAFE place to max out. Just remember, you'll never see those temps daily! Try just playing a gaming session and record your temps after an hour or more. Or do whatever it is you do thats the most demanding on yiour comp, and check the temps. Get a feel for your daily temps, not testing temps.

But yeah, its safe for hours at even higher speeds and temps.

Dont feel bad. My Computer likes to randomly re boot during Halo 1 if its on anything but stock, lol! And I happen to like Halo 1 more than the rest!

As far as weird things happening! REMEMBER this: You have a higher OC than 90% of 680/650i users!

So thats something.

--Lupi!

 

[jerreece]

LOL Well I'm glad to know I'm one of the lucky 680i owners at least.

Realistically, an OC from 2.4Ghz to 3.32Ghz is 138% if I do my math right. So that's a gain of 38% over stock OC. So I suppose that isn't to bad.

After playing Assassin's Creed for 45 minutes before it froze I rebooted and looked at the temp log in Core Temp. High Core temp at the last recording (at time of freeze) was 56c. So realistically, that's my temp while playing. Which is pretty decent really.

My only concern was running at 100% @ 65-66c for 8 hours. LOL

Still though, Assassin's Creed never froze on me at stock speeds, and it happens to be my favorite for the time being.