Q9550 EO on Water....is 4Ghz possible?

[killtacular]

Hello all,

It's been a while!

I just wanted to know how far I can go with a Q9550 EO if I was to overclock it? I know on Air I can hit around 3.4-3.6GHz. But, can I hit that magic 4Ghz on water? How many people have done this? Is it easy?

Cheers,

x

 

[mexpedip]

To make a long answer short, probably. It entirely depends on the chip you get. I run my Q9550 @ 3.5ghz on air without changing the vcore. My e8400 (supposedly the best for OC) can only reqach 3.6 with a lot of work and some luck.

My advice, go slow, raise the frequency in small increments and then run prime95 to check for stability. Watch the temps and stop OC'ing when you are near the vcore limit or when temps reach 60C at full load. Yes, I know 60C is still relatively low but 1) I am conservative and 2) the performance difference between 3.6ghz and 4ghz is only noticeable to synthetic benchmarks. At some point the cpu frequency becomes more bragging rights then anyhting else.

 

[killtacular]

To make a long answer short, probably. It entirely depends on the chip you get. I run my Q9550 @ 3.5ghz on air without changing the vcore. My e8400 (supposedly the best for OC) can only reqach 3.6 with a lot of work and some luck.

My advice, go slow, raise the frequency in small increments and then run prime95 to check for stability. Watch the temps and stop OC'ing when you are near the vcore limit or when temps reach 60C at full load. Yes, I know 60C is still relatively low but 1) I am conservative and 2) the performance difference between 3.6ghz and 4ghz is only noticeable to synthetic benchmarks. At some point the cpu frequency becomes more bragging rights then anyhting else.

Hey dude,

I know it has been a while but I just want to say thank you for taking the time to reply to me.

In the end, I purchased the Q9650 which I am hoping will get me a nice round 4Ghz using its nine multiplyer!

I will take the advice you mentioned above when overclocking this chip!

Here's hoping!

H

 

[richardscott]

if you are useing water and u get a good q9650 4.5ghz is well within reach. 4ghz easy

 

[blackpanther26]

can I tell you 4GHz is cool but not the best. some older games with my computer Ex. JKA will crash on me with no BSOD just the picture gets messed up. I want to try to get 4.2GHz to bench this system and run it at 4GHz.

 

[richardscott]

black panther that sujests a stabilty porblem.

 

[calinkula]

if you are useing water and u get a good q9650 4.5ghz is well within reach. 4ghz easy

It'll take more than just a good CPU, make sure your RAM and mobo are up for the task as well.

 

[richardscott]

i was only comenting on the chips, lets face it if he stuck a q9650 in a bad mobo hed be lucky to get 3.1ghz

 

[blackpanther26]

well it dose not BSOD on my it just shows Squars and then crashes. No BSOD nothing.

 

[richardscott]

run ait tool on th echeck for artifacts that will see if ure gfx card is the problem

 

[PhantomGhost]

Over 4Ghz should be very easy with a 9650, especially on water. I run my 9550 at 4Ghz on air, load temps right under 60 unless my room is hot. Gonna get watercooling very soon just to keep it cooler, but yeah, hitting 4Ghz was easy. But they are right, its not just the CPU, ram plays a big role in your overclock.