Inexperienced overclocker help gurus

sr87dot62

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My specs

before my system was
q6600 @ (333x9) 1.45vcore
asus p5n-e sli
Zalman 9700 HSF
OCZ 6400 Titanium (5-5-5-15 1t) 2.0
Geforce 260 215
Antec 900
500W generic power

This was running pretty rock solid except for occasional system hangs during gaming (I am guessing it was vdroop) I didn't pencil mod it. But because I wanted to acheive a higher overclock, I upgraded to this--->

q6600 @ (400x8) 1.5vcore
asus p5k-e
Zalman 9700 HSF
OCZ 6400 Titanium (4-4-4-15 2t) 2.0v
Geforce 260 215
Antec 900
500W generic power

My problem
-my 2nd core failed while running prime 95 at 7 minutes
-CPUID reads my PCIE link width at 1x but supports 16x, so I set my pcie at 110 (is this okay??)
-when I play GTA4, the computer reboots itself in 1 minute in to the game


My thoughts
-not the power
-video card PCIE is kinda fishy
-but at the same time, it failed prime95... so must be a CPU problem as well
-maybe I should loosen my timing?


What is my problem? Preferably, I want to hit 3.6. I can boot with 3.6 but it will crash during stress test and gaming.


 
Solution
Typically people get better/more stable overclocks by not messing with the PCI express clock. I suspect that there is a setting that is not correct. Are you certain you're using the right PCI express slot?

I believe you might have more problems with your power than you think. For a gaming rig, especially one that you are attempting to overclock, the power supply is not the place to skimp or save money. Get a quality unit you can trust.

Also I have a feeling that the FSB is causing instability, but it seems like you were having problems before. Although I have game crashes occasionally for no explanation, other than I am overclocking.
I would set the machine to normal settings and conduct some testing. Try prime 95, but also run some...
Typically people get better/more stable overclocks by not messing with the PCI express clock. I suspect that there is a setting that is not correct. Are you certain you're using the right PCI express slot?

I believe you might have more problems with your power than you think. For a gaming rig, especially one that you are attempting to overclock, the power supply is not the place to skimp or save money. Get a quality unit you can trust.

Also I have a feeling that the FSB is causing instability, but it seems like you were having problems before. Although I have game crashes occasionally for no explanation, other than I am overclocking.
I would set the machine to normal settings and conduct some testing. Try prime 95, but also run some gaming tests. You may have some stability issues unrelated to overclocking.
 
Solution
maybe i'm wrong in this instance likely I haven't started overclocking my q6600
but your voltage seems really really high. what are you cooling this with ?

I agree with buzznut unlink the PCIE from the FSB it will not help you in any way.
And yes invest in a better power supply for overclocking.
 

sr87dot62

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thanks for all the input. I am fiddling around with some more settings. I don't think my cooling can get me to 3.6, tjunction hits beyond 81C. So I decided to set my CPU at 3.44 (378x9) 1.5vcore(if i lower the vcore, it gives me BSOD in 2minutes). I tried different combinations and it seems that heat is the main issue. I guess my AS5+zalman 9700 isn't good enuf to keep the low temp despite my Antec 900s decent air flow. I didn't have time to run extensive tests but I ran PRIME 95 for 15 minutes and it was good. (ofcourse I should run more extensive tests) But from all the posts I've read around the internet, everyone is hitting 3.6 on air cooling with this board. To those of you out there, who did hit 3.6 with q6600+ p5k-e combo, please let me know your bios setting and version. I am running 1305 bios.

side note
Dram 2.3v (5-5-5-18) relaxed it even further from EPP 4-4-4-15
-OCZ Titanium 6400

PCI-E continues to baffle me, why won't it recognize it as 16x? I set it little bit lower at 107 now from 110. If I keep it at original 100, it gives me some crap ass performance.

The original setup was
1. e6400@ 3.2 (400x8) gave me 40FPS in GTA4
2. q6600@ 3.0 (333x9) gave me 40FPS in GTA4 (CPU upgrade)
3. q6600@ 3.6 (400x9) gave me 20FPS in GTA4 (mobo upgrade from p5n-e ---> p5k-e)
(i realized that after looking at CPU-Z that my pci-e was set to x1 so thus the low FPS)
So I upped the PCI-E to 110 which boosted my performance but suffered severe stability.

I think the problems are as follows
1. the overclock isn't stable (not sure whether it's the ram or the heat yet)
2. PCI-E I should put it back to default but have it recognize as 16x

I have a good feeling that PSU isnt the problem. It has to be the heat caused by overvolting.
 

sr87dot62

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I just had to share this. I am stable at 3.0 (333x9) but my fps in GTA4 is amazing!!! Its giving me 50fps on all high settings. How can there be a difference of 4-5fps just because of a mobo change??? This is phenomenal.

On a side note, I realized that asus had a PCI-E 1x bug, so I started everything from scratch again. I aslo realized that I don't need anymore FPS in GTA4. 50fps at max is good enuf for me =).