First overclock, new to forum...

[rocknroll_kb]

First of all, I'm new to this forum, as well as new to overclocking, so forgive me for being a noob. This is the first "successful" setup I've had... no BSOD's, no crashes, looking for some input as to whether the vCore and temps are safe, or any suggestions, tips, criticisms, or input at all.

My machine:

evga 680i LT
Intel Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz (355.8 x 9, 1423 FSB)
ZeroTherm thermal paste
4GB Corsair SMS2 PC6400 (in sync mode @ 712mhz)
2 x MSI 7950 GX2, hard SLI bridge (hopefully upgrading to a pair of 9xxx cards soon)
Antec TruePower 1000W PSU
2 x Barracuda 750GB HD's
Thermaltake blue orb CPU cooler
2 x 120mm fans
2 x 80 mm fans
Running XPsp2 (32), but am switching to Vista64 in a few days to utilize all my ram

Voltages, Temps:

vCore : 1.35 (Speedfan, OCCT, cpu-Z), 1.32 (Coretemp), 1.425 (Bios)
FSB: 1.4 (bios)
Max CPU Temp (running OCCT, TAT or Prime95): 66C
Core Temps (Idle): 45C, 42C, 42C, 46C
Core Temps (100% Load): 72C, 66C, 68C, 71C

Prime 95 Blend for 24 hours
Stable in Crysis, Vanguard, and Bioshock

Does this seem like a safe clock for everyday use? Core temps only stay at 68+ for shorts amounts of time when running OCCT, never exceed 67C on Prime95 or TAT. Also, I'm a bit worried that my voltage setting in the bios is so high (1.425, yet in CPU-Z, Speedfan, CoreTemp, etc, it shows it to be much lower (1.32-1.35). Is this normal, and which is more accurate?

 

[rocknroll_kb]

Forgot to mention Chip has G0 stepping...

 

[blackwidow_rsa]

Maybe lower your oc to 3.0ghz to lower your temps a bit. 70c is a bit high. Other than that the lower vcore is caused after vdroop or vdrop which happens if the cpu is loaded.

 

[jitpublisher]

Looks nice. Good job. However the temps you are running are pretty high. I would recommend either get better cooling, or back things down a notch.

 

[rocknroll_kb]

I think I may try lapping the heatsink to get a few degrees lower... never lapped a hs before, but am familiar with the concept as I'm a mechanic and often have to lap valves. I've got the chip set to throttle back at 71C (Intel says max temp is 72C). How often will the cpu reach 100% load while gaming? at 80% load using TAT, my temps never get over 60C. How can I monitor temps and load while playing crysis or bioshock? just run the game windowed?

Prime95 on small FFT's temps never get over 65C
Blend, never over 60C
Large FFT's never over 58C

Only on OCCT does it get to 70C. I really hate to sacrifice 200mhz because one program causes the cpu to run warm...

Also, got a BSOD this morning for PFN_LIST_CORRUPT. I understand that this is a memory related bsod, correct? I found a site that said this could be caused by running more than the recommended 2GB of RAM on a 32-bit system, but I've never had any issues before. Will run memtest tonight... Ram is actually UNDERclocked a bit, voltage and speeds on auto, 4 x 1GB dimms, running in sync mode with the fsb... maybe a bad dimm??

 

[shadowthor]

It could be a bad ram stick or the ram is not set at its rated voltage.

 

[pcgamer12]

72c is high

 

[Evilonigiri]

I think I may try lapping the heatsink to get a few degrees lower... never lapped a hs before, but am familiar with the concept as I'm a mechanic and often have to lap valves. I've got the chip set to throttle back at 71C (Intel says max temp is 72C). How often will the cpu reach 100% load while gaming? at 80% load using TAT, my temps never get over 60C. How can I monitor temps and load while playing crysis or bioshock? just run the game windowed?

Prime95 on small FFT's temps never get over 65C
Blend, never over 60C
Large FFT's never over 58C

Only on OCCT does it get to 70C. I really hate to sacrifice 200mhz because one program causes the cpu to run warm...

Also, got a BSOD this morning for PFN_LIST_CORRUPT. I understand that this is a memory related bsod, correct? I found a site that said this could be caused by running more than the recommended 2GB of RAM on a 32-bit system, but I've never had any issues before. Will run memtest tonight... Ram is actually UNDERclocked a bit, voltage and speeds on auto, 4 x 1GB dimms, running in sync mode with the fsb... maybe a bad dimm??

You did pass 24hours of Prime95 blend, right? That issue is probably due to the program, whatever you were running.

This is a G0 Q6600. According to Compu's guide, 70C would be the maximum safe temp. Since you achieve this temp through 100%, which no game would reach on all 4 cores, this is a perfectly fine OC. To monitor your temps, I suggest HWMonitor, leaving it on while you game. I doubt it'll go over 60C.

 

[jsc]

Temps seem high for only 3.2 GHz.

I run about 55 C at 3.3 GHz and 65 C at 3.6 GHz with all 4 cores loaded with Prime95 using a TRUE/S-Flex HSF combination.

 

[rocknroll_kb]

Yeah, they seem high to me as well... I'm a bit dissappointed with this chip, I think I may have just gotten a bad one. I've seen people at 3.3-3.4 on stock voltage and air running a full 15 degrees cooler than me. Seems to be stable though, haven't gotten another bsod... was playing vanguard with crysis minimized in the background when it occured so maybe that had something to do with it. All in all, it's rock solid compared to the P4 I had in this machine previously.

Might back it down to 3.0 or so and do some benchmarking to see what kind of performance hit it takes...

 

[rocknroll_kb]

Yeah, passed 24 hours on Prime95 blend and 8 hours each on large/small fft's

 

[rocknroll_kb]

Ok, @ 3.0 I lose almost 200 3Dmarks, 5 FPS in crysis, and 2-3 FPS in Vanguard. All this, and the max temp only came down by about 1 degree on one of the cores under load, idles at the same temp. At 2.8, the temps drop to about 67 under load, but I lose another 125 3Dmarks, 2 FPS in crysis, and 10(!!) FPS in Vanguard. Now I am back @ 3.2 ghz. The max temp I have seen running crysis on high settings is 57C. I tried Crysis while running vanguard minimized in the background, Webroot sweeping, and Prime95 stressing 2 of the cores. This put my loads at 100%, 45%, 100%, 62%. I played like this for about 3 hours, and the highest temp I saw was 60C. Temps stayed around 55-58 most of the time.

I think I'm gonna stay at 3.2 as I'll never get all four cores to 100% load in normal use.

One more question... Intell says this chip is good to ~71C... is that the highest of the four cores, an average of the cores, the temp of the casing (heatspreader), or what?

 

[Evilonigiri]

That would be the Tcase, which is different from core temp. Your Tcase temp would be the temp given by the sensor at the middle of the CPU, which should be around 10C lower than the core temp.

 

[lucuis]

Ok, @ 3.0 I lose almost 200 3Dmarks, 5 FPS in crysis, and 2-3 FPS in Vanguard. All this, and the max temp only came down by about 1 degree on one of the cores under load, idles at the same temp. At 2.8, the temps drop to about 67 under load, but I lose another 125 3Dmarks, 2 FPS in crysis, and 10(!!) FPS in Vanguard. Now I am back @ 3.2 ghz. The max temp I have seen running crysis on high settings is 57C. I tried Crysis while running vanguard minimized in the background, Webroot sweeping, and Prime95 stressing 2 of the cores. This put my loads at 100%, 45%, 100%, 62%. I played like this for about 3 hours, and the highest temp I saw was 60C. Temps stayed around 55-58 most of the time.

I think I'm gonna stay at 3.2 as I'll never get all four cores to 100% load in normal use.

One more question... Intell says this chip is good to ~71C... is that the highest of the four cores, an average of the cores, the temp of the casing (heatspreader), or what?

Dropping your OC without lowering the voltage will net you little to no temperature decrease.

You should be able to run 3.2ghz at about 1.28v fully loaded, so about 1.35v in the BIOS. Anyways if your worried about temperature, just lower your voltage bit by bit until things become unstable, then bump it back up till it is stable again.

For reference, i was able to do 3.45ghz at 1.4v in the Bios, 1.312v fully loaded. This was on a 680i chipset. However i was forced to lower the FSB due to my Northbridge temp becoming a concern. It was getting a tad hot and causing he occasional lockup.

I have since lowered my OC to 3.3ghz at 1.4v. I haven't spent the time to find the lowest stable voltage yet as i'm comfortable with my CPU temps. I still me drop it a vew notches just to lower it anyways

 

[rocknroll_kb]

Lol, I did the exact opposite... I picked the clock speed I wanted, then bumped the voltage up little by little until it was stable. I kept notes along the way, so when I decreased the FSB for benchmarking, I decreased the voltages accordingly.

 

[iluvgillgill]

you air cooler is the limit.how much did you pay for it.i expect it to be expensive.

and since you are not willing to decrease your vcore,then try increase your clock speed so you will gain extra speed without sacraficing core temperature.since vcore is what makes temps go up or down.but the Orb cooler is quite flashy though!lol

 

[rocknroll_kb]

Cooler's a Thermaltake BlueOrbII... paid about 40 bucks for it on tigerdirect.com. almost too big for my case though (that's a 120mm fan on it). Actually had to move the northbridge fan over about .25" and the PSU up about .5" for it to fit.

I would love to back the VCore down, but it becomes unstable at the next lowest setting. Also, if I bump the speed up by only 10 mhz, it becomes unstable without increasing vCore. any other tricks to lower temp without having to replace the cooler? I'm gonna lap it this weekend to see if it helps any, using ZeroTherm grease now, should I try artic silver or something else? If I can get my max temp under 65C (a 6C drop) I'll be satisfied... is this possible with lapping?

 

[iluvgillgill]

have you try increase NB and FSB voltages?those maybe your problem.

 

[rocknroll_kb]

Ok... lapped heatsink and cpu, dropped max core temp to 62C. also evened my temps across the chip from a difference in core temps of 6-7 degrees to 1-2 degrees. at 100% load for 3 hours, my temps are 62,61,61,60... with speedfans saying my cpu temp is 49C. gonna try tonight to get to 3.4 or so. what do you guys think about a northbridge cooler? i'm looking at one made by thermaltake to replace the heatsink and 40mm fan that came stock on my board.

 

[iluvgillgill]

the LT version of the 680i is pretty cheap and low rent.maybe get a watercooling block for the NB?lol

http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/product_chipset_cooler.html
http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/CategorySecond_Pic.asp?categoryname=Coolers&categorySecond=CAS4
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=7&lng=en

there are few choices.i recommend ThermalRight's though, they are like heavy duty coolers.