Overclocking my P5N72-T & Q9450

[rymanvw]

Hey guys, last week decided I need to get a new desktop. I have been surviving on my laptop for the last 2 years now and I havnt built a PC for myself in about 5 years (but I built around 20 for the company I work for but always lower level cheap AMD chips).. So I was on newegg for about a while and finally configured the system that I want. I finished it and installed vista ultimate 64-bit, then I tried to overclock it but this mobo will not overclock. I read other people who have OCed to 3.6 but that was with a q6600. Anyone else who has some insight for me with this board please help.
My PC specs are
MoBo: ASUS P5N72-T Premium
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 1066 PC2 8500
PSU: OCZ EvoStream 720W ATX12V and EPS12V
GPU: EVGA GeForce 9600 GT 512MB PCI Express 2.0 SLI
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

When I overclock this thing for some reason the core speed always goes down. My core speed goes to 2ghz according to Core Temp & CPU-Z. Thanks in advance

 

[shadowthor]

read sticky. its probably speedstep enabled or cle.

 

[zipz0p]

Yeah, put a load on it, THEN look at the CPU speed

Speedstep (EIST) will lower the multiplier (effectively lowering the CPU frequency) and voltage to the CPU to save power when not under load. So, you can either disable EIST and look again, or just put load on the CPU with something like Prime95 (you should run Prime95 for several - typically about 8 - hours to test stability of your setup), and then look at the speed again. Also, read the stickies. There is a thread about speedstep and also one about how to overclock your CPU. I think both will be useful to you.

 

[Lupiron]

Other people, Ha! And I am now at 3.74 Ghz with a Q6700 I had, instead of my low VID Q6600 at 3.6 Ghz! Thank you very much!

Anyways, if you need more specific help, I have the board right here and all that.

Both the other two posters are right. Enhanced Intel Speed Step, normal speed step and C1E can all modify the power and frequency of your chip. It's fairly simple to turn them off in the CPU options area of the bios.

Speaking of which, I hope you updated the Bios on that thing, hehe! Wow, was it hell. The newer ones are only minor hell to overclock on.

So 1st off, check your Bios version, and if its an initial release bios, DL the newest one Via Asus.

Second, after you hit the bios and disable speed steps, and C1E, run that Core Temp again and look at the VID! List that here, please!

Thanks alot!

--Lupi