Q6600 w/ 680i LT Voltage Questions

live49

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May 29, 2008
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Hi guys. I've been running a Q6600 G0 @ 2.4 ghz stock for around 4 months now. The cooling is a stock core2quad intel air HS/fan.

Specs:

Q6600 in mobo xfx 680i LT
2 gigs OCZ gold XTC rev2 ram stock @ 800 mhz, 1.8v, 5-5-5-15 timing
500 gig Seagate SATAII
evga 8800gt

My problem is with the temperatures. Over the past 2 weeks, my computer has shut down completely 3 times while playing Call of Duty 4. My settings are all maxed (except for the depth of field/specular map/anti aliasing etc.) and I play @ 1440x900 resolution. After the computer shut down, I felt the heatsink, and it was so hot I couldn't even hold my hand to it. I ignored the problem like a retard, until it happened again yesterday. I then downloaded core temp, to find my cores are idling at 60 degrees and hitting 80+ on load.

Now I thought about dust/thermal paste etc. My room is very dusty. I removed the fan, cleaned out all the dust (there wasn't much on it to begin with) and the thermal paste looked fine, but I scraped it all off, washed both the cpu and heatsink with alcohol and re-applied thermalpaste.

After that, my computer idled at around 45-50, but still hit 70+ during load. It also takes a very long time to return to idle temps after the load (bad circulation? It's a pretty old case, lots of wires all over the place, would it make that much of an impact?).

Finally, i've decided the problem MAY be with cpu voltage.
I've never tampered with the cpu or memory voltages. OCZ reports my ram should be at 1.8v, so i left it there. However, coretemp reports that my VID is @ 1.3000v!! Now why would my cpu voltage be set that high by default?! I thought that voltage was supposed to be used for overclocking, and there's NO way i can even begin to imagine overclocking this cpu with a 680i LT.

LAST QUESTION:

What should i set my CPU VOLTAGE at to ensure stability and much lower temperatures? Is 1.3 too high? Should I get a new fan? A new case? Is stock intel air cooling enough for a 680i/Q6600 combo while playing intense games such as crysis and call of duty on full?

Thanks in advance!
 

Andrius

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Aug 9, 2004
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Hi and welcome to the forum!

I have a Q6600 G0 stepping too. I have a P35 chipset so some things may differ. My VID is also 1.3V (that's normal) for a Q6600 (just third or second worst I think). I've lowered my VCore/CPU Voltage all the way to 1.075V at stock 2.4GHz and it remained stable.

You already have coretemp.
Use Prime95 25.6 for load testing http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4363

Enable "Advanced -> Round Off Checking" before anything.
Run "Options -> Torture Test" and observe the temperatures (stop the test if they rise above 75°C).

I recommend you start at 1.05V and work your way up in small steps (0.1V) until your system boots into Windows. After that reduce the steps to a minimum until it runs Prime95 stable for at least 8 hours (I advise 24 hours).

Aftermarket cooling is highly advisable.
I have load temperatures of 55°C at 3.3GHz with a TRUE+SFF21F.

Good luck.