Should i OC my CPU?

[redrage]

Hello, i built this computer about 3 months ago, was wondering if i could boost its performance a bit by Overclocking the CPU, when i first got it, i didn't get it enough time to break in and seal, and tried to OC it right off the bat from 333 mhz to 400 mhz. Well, that ended up frying my processor, thankfully i got it replaced. Here is what i'm currently running:

Intel Q9450 Stock
Xigmatech HDT-S1283 Heatsink+Fan with X bow retention bracket
Artic Silver Thermal Compound
ASUS Rampage Forumla Mother board
8 GB's of memory, OCZ Platinum 240 Pin DD2 1066mhz PC2 8500
Antec 900 Case
Visiontek 4870 vid card running currently at 780 mhz core, 1100 mhz DDR5 memory(only 40 degrees C to!)

I've ran core temp and my CPU is running at 39 degree core 1, 40 degrees core 2, 44 core 3, and 28 core 4. Although on the Core temp 1 is marked as 0, 2 is marked as 1 and so forth...


Can i OC it to around 3.2-3.4Ghz without seeing to much of a spike in temperature rise? Will i notice a difference on games that can only run 1 core? If so, what EXACTLY would i do to make it hit around 3.2-3.4Ghz, IE, how much do i change the voltages and what not, and how much can i expect the temp to increase as voltages increase?

 

[lucuis]

Go for it, but just take it slow. Make sure your temps don't get too high, 65c i think is the max recommended for full load on that processor.

More voltage will make the temps rise exponentially, hence the reason why i say take it slow.

No one can 'EXACTLY' predict what it'll take to make it go to 3.4ghz, every processor is different. The only way you can find out is through trial and error. Bump the fsb bit by bit, until you get instability, then bump the voltage up one notch at a time until it's stable again.

 

[resonance451]

Yeah, you don't overclock by just picking numbers. Bit by bit is always the way to go. With the Q9450 you could most likely get 3.2GHz easily without too much of a temperature rise, but the only way to tell is to crank it up bit by bit at Lucuis says.

 

[redrage]

Alright, so i went into bio's and overclocked it manually, I ran the FSB at 430 Mhz and did a multiplier of 8 to get 3.44Ghz(i had the voltages on auto tune), when i run core temp, it registers the 3.440 Mhz or 3.44 Ghz frequency as 430.02x8 and the temps are 40,42,44,34 currently, HOWEVER, in windows vista system it still says i'm still running the stock chip at 2.66 Ghz, does that never change? Or is vista like holding my processor back from being at the 3.44 Ghz it is in BIOS? I did notice a slight increase in temperature to all cores, but not a huge leap, maybe only a few degrees jump to the final core, it was idling around 28-30 now its hovering around 35, however all others are pretty close to the same.. How can i tell for sure the CPU is running at the intended 3.44 Ghz?

 

[lucuis]

Did you disable speedstep? it'll drop the multiplier down to 6 when idle.

 

[redrage]

Nope, will do that now.

 

[redrage]

Alright, i found speedstep last night before i OC'd now i can't find it. It was in Chipset if i recall, but now i don't see if there, anyone know what happened? How can i get to it?

 

[anartik]

One small suggestion... do not use the auto voltage settings on the Rampage as they tend to overvolt. Manually set all your voltages even if they are only running default.

Try CPUZ for actual cpu speed... whatever you are running is identifying the CPU as 2.66 which is correct. You just need to see the actual clockspeed of that CPU. When you boot you should see a 2.66 CPU identified and then the actual clockspeed unless you have quickboot enabled in BIOS and the ASUS splash screen. I forget the exact options but I have them all turned off in BIOS.

If you still see a 2.66 speed in vista then its probably speedstep interfering.

 

[redrage]

I've never changed voltages, what's a good ratio of FSB increase to voltage increase?