OC my q6600

[clubf00t]

I'm kind of new to overclocking and whatnot and I'm just curious to see how much performance i could get out of my Q6600 with stock cooling. I did a little tinkering in the BIOS but nothing really major, I just don't want it too crazy with it in case I F'd something up. so my question is can you please look at my CPUID diagnostic report and let me know what else I could do to get the most performance out of my processor? i saved the report as an HTML and uploaded it to my student design host site..heres the report-http://jwsessions.herobo.com/diagnostics.html
please get back to me with some thoughts...thanks

 

[Computerrock1]

Well, if you have a decent cooler, you could tweak your fsb, and Oc it pretty high.

 

[bactrian]

I'm kind of new to overclocking and whatnot and I'm just curious to see how much performance i could get out of my Q6600 with stock cooling. I did a little tinkering in the BIOS but nothing really major, I just don't want it too crazy with it in case I F'd something up. so my question is can you please look at my CPUID diagnostic report and let me know what else I could do to get the most performance out of my processor? i saved the report as an HTML and uploaded it to my student design host site..heres the report-http://jwsessions.herobo.com/diagnostics.html
please get back to me with some thoughts...thanks

Your VID is better than mine so you might be able to get higher clocks with less vCore.
I think it would be safe to get to at least 3 Ghz with your stock cooler if you have installed it correctly.
Download CoreTemp to monitor temperatures. Don't let your temps get higher than about 62 degrees, specially if you want to run the PC 24/7.
Download Prime95 to stress your CPU after overclocking. Use the Torture Test (Blend test), which stresses both Ram and CPU.
Set your CPU/Ram ratio to 1:1 in BIOS.
Look up your Ram on the vendor's website and search for their recommended voltage (mine is 1.8 volt) and set that in BIOS.
Disable C1E / Speedstep in BIOS.
With my VID, I got a very stable overclock at 1.3 volt to 3.0 Ghz. You might need less core voltage because of your much better VID!

There are people here who are much more experienced than I am, and they will surely improve on my basic advice.

 

[Computerrock1]

Y 1:1? Make it 1:2...

 

[fulle]

^Running 1:1 or "sync mode" is more stable. I do that initially, and once I find the processor's max stable OC, work on getting more out of the RAM. I think that bac's advise is fine.

 

[fulle]

Oh, and to add my 2cents on the stock OC... I'm currently working on getting a Q6700 past 2.93GHz, and it's being a diva about it. I've heard similar stories from folks who give slight OCs to servers, that around 2.9GHz the Q6600/Q6700 hits a wall that will require tinkering and extra Vcore to OC higher. And, adding Vcore the chip will cause it to run warmer...

So, for this project I'd expect around a 2.9GHz OC (a nice little 20% boost), before a better cooler is required. But, it's luck of the draw.

 

[clubf00t]

so i set my CPU/Ram ratio to 1:1 in BIOS and that's it? that's the only thing i have to change? what is the PCI-e bus? originally it was 100MHz but i changed it to 110..is that good/bad?

 

[fulle]

Hi Club,
No, there are a lot of other things to change, actually.... You should reference Graysky's OC guide. It was written from the perspective of someone OCing for a Q6600, so it's going to be pretty darn helpful for you =)

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/259899-29-core-overclocking-guide

Basically, what I do is I start off by finding my RAM's general limits. I'll run a few simple tests, like setting my RAM to a divider that results in around a 900MHz speed, and run Orthos or something to attempt to make it screw up... if my DDR800 is halfway decent, it's usually fine.

Next I turn off all my CPU's power save features. Like SpeedStep, and C1E.
- To make sure that they're not a possible cause of stability issues while I'm setting things up.

I prefer to set a low multiplier, with a high FSB speed to achieve my speed targets. Unless you have beastly cooling, you'll usually reach temp limits before you max out your RAM's capabilities.
For example, I just set a Q6700 to a stable OC by using these settings:

- All powersave options OFF
- "sync mode" (basically a 1:1 ratio)
- RAM timings and voltage changed to manufacture specifications (I think I needed 1.9V, timings set to 4-4-4-12)
- FSB set to 400 (which will run my RAM at 800MHz in sync mode)
- CPU's muli set to x8
(400x8 = 3200MHz)
- CPU Vcore set to 1.4 for initial test

Once this posted, and seemed stable, I started dropping my Vcore down in small notches, until I found the lowest I could go without becoming unstable. Unfortunately for me, that was at 1.375V (a little high). Luckily I have a beastly cooler.

- When it comes to CPU voltage, a lot of people find that enabling LLC on their mobos helps with Vdroop/Vdrop, allowing them to run stable at a lower Vcore. So, in the phase of tweaking your Vcore, definately try that out...




*Disclaimer: I am NOT a very experienced overclocker. I'd helped a friend OC his Q6600, and my gaming box has a Q6700 now.... but floating around the site here, there are people who are pretty amazing with this stuff. I'm just a nooby =)

 

[fulle]

Oh, for the PCIe BUS, definitely set that to 100!

Gray's guide says:
"PCI Express Frequency – Set this to 100 MHz. If you don’t, I believe the PCIe bus speed will increase proportionally with your FSB which is something you DON’T want to do to your expensive video board. "

 

[clubf00t]

ok i changed the PCIe BUS back to 100 MHz, i set the CPU/RAM ratio to "SYNC MODE" and changed the CPU voltage to 1.30 but i cant get my core speed past 2.69. at first i thought well myb it didn't have enough power to start up after i changed the settings so i juiced it up to 1.35 volts and still could get it to start up, so i said fuk it and changed the voltage back to 1.30 and left it at a core speed of 2.68. here's the new CPU-Z report http://jwsessions.herobo.com/diagnostics.html so any advice? also in my CPU-Z report it shows my core temp is 60c while my NVIDIA System Monitor says all 4 cores idle at 41-43c so what temp. do i go by?

 

[fulle]

Interesting.
Core Speed 2681.4 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 9.0 x 297.9 MHz

Did you try my suggestion of lowing the multiplier to x8?

 

[fulle]

Oh, and for the core temp, use RealTemp
http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/

 

[clubf00t]

i tried to lower my multiplier but its locked at x9, my core temp is 57c on 40% load, is that good/bad?

 

[fulle]

I'm not sure why I'm the only person responding.... lol

For temps, I use something to load the CPU to 100% on all 4 cores, and run it for a sufficiently long time to make sure that's where the load temp levels off... and I go off of that number.

So, for example, you could download a Free trial of Everest, and run a stability test. Or use one of many programs that do prime tests, like Prime95, or Orthos Prime... something like that.

 

[clubf00t]

i downloaded RealTemp 3.40 and LoadTester 1.0 and tested 100% load for about 1 1/2 hours and my maximum temp was 62c. i also ran Pime95 stress test to test system stability and its not stable, it keeps throwing "Fatal error: rounding was .5, expected these than .4" out of 3 out of 4 workers in prime95. how do i get it to test right?

 

[andrern2000]

Hey everybody, I also OC my q6600 so I think this is the suitable thread to post.

So, I changed my setting from 266*9 to 400*6.
-I disabled all powersavings (C1E Speedstep),
-changed PCI Bus to 100,
-Performance Enhance to "Standard
-Memory multiplier to 2.0 (now the DDR reads as 800, I'm using PC-6400)
-voltage (here it comes):
a. Manual
b. I have Default VID: 1.28750.
c. CPU overvoltage: 1.29375
d. All others overvoltage is set to "Normal".

When Windows 7 64-bit loading screen, when there are four dots flying to merge into a Windows logo, the computer freezes right after the four dots begins to move.

Anything got in minds? I think it's because inadequate voltages?

Please note that I can't find any "Sync Mode" capability in Bios. Mine is GA-P35-S3L, Bios ver. F4.

 

[aberchonbie]

Different mobo's call the same thing different names.. he was just referring to running 400 fsb in sync with his ddr2-800 ram.. with the 1:1 divider or whatever..

I actually have a q6600 too and can tell you some of my experiences.. i have it currently at 2.997Ghz (333 fsb x9).. i let the voltage go on auto but i think my VID was at 1.25 or something like that.. When I run 400 fsb, my chip does not like the x9 multiplier so i'm thinking i have to give it a lot of juice.. However, i can run at 400 fsb x 8 for 3.20Ghz.. that's probably what's listed in my signature if it is at 3.2.. (these settings had all functionality enabled such as speedstep, etc)

i'm tried extremely hard to hit 3.6 but that just seemed impossible..

can someone more experienced help me and this gang? (i've got a x48 nb..) what chipsets are you guys running?

 

[jsc]

Hmmm. Time for some adult leadership here.

I have a G0 Q6600 in a G'byte GA-EP45-UD3L motherboard with 4 GB of Crucial Ballistix running at 3.6 GHz (400 MHz X 9). VID is 1.2625 volts (about average) boosted to 1.425 volts drooping to 1.42 volts. Load temps are 61 - 66 C with a Xig Dark Knight in an Antec 900 case, fans on Low. System is 24 hour Prime95 stable in both small and large fft's.

Comments:

bactrian:
Your recommendations are pretty good. A Q6600 is pretty easy to overclock. Most will run at 3.0 GHz with very little tweaking - set FSB:RAM ratio to 1:1 however your motherboard does it, boost FSB freq to 333 MHz, and increase cor
voltage a little if you need to.

Computerrock1:
You have the FSB:RAM ratio backward. I think you mean 2:1 which means running the memory at half speed. Not a bad idea. It removes the RAM from the overclocking equation.

fulle:
Yes. running at 1:1 is more stable. OTOH, running faster increases performance little if any. For overclocking a Q6700, see my comments for bactrian.

If you have a Gigabyte motherboard, this is also very good:
Shadow's Gigabyte motherboard OC guide:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-245679_11_0.html
It's for an EP35-DS3L but all the Gigabyte Core2 BIOS's are similar.

I set Loadline Cal to whatever works. I have three OC'd Core2 systems. I enabled LLC on two. I turn off SpeedStep until I have a stable overclock, then I turn it back on.

PCIe bus has it's own independent clock. It won't increase with the FSB frequency.

clubf00t:
Leave the PCIe bus alone. It can cause all sorts of strange problems - including data corruption on the hard drives.
Like fulle, I use RealTemp and Prime95 to test for stability. The small fft's test runs in the CPU cache, so it presents little problem for the memory. If it fails, it's a sign that there's something wrong with your CPU settings. The large fft's and blend tests shuffle data to and from the memory. If either of these fail, look at your memory settings. You can try to increase your RAM voltage (don't exceed 2.2 volts), relax your memory timings, or run your RAM slower than your FSB freq.

andrern:
Settings from 266*9 to 400*6. No. The processor core is still running at the same speed. But you have no idea what everything else is doing. Best thing to do is what all the guides say: set CPU multiplier to max and FSB freq to stock, then increase the FSB freq.

aberchonbie:
The problem with Auto voltage settings is that they tend to run the voltage higher than necessary. As with all overclocking, YMMV. Not all Q6600's can reach 3.6 GHz with stability. I had my Q6600 initially in a G'byte P35 board, then a G'byte P45 board.

If you notice, you had a total of more that 370 people look at this thread, and most decided to stay away. And after following all this, you know why the regulars here tell everyone, "One problem, one thread."

 

[andrern2000]

You Jsc, your explanation makes me want to scream "This. Is. SparTAA!"

 

[jsc]

Well, thanks - I think.