Q9550/GA-EP45-UD3R

Hey Guys,

I wanted to inquire with the professionals on the settings I have setup for my motherboard to make sure everything is tweaked to its max potential. As of right now, the the CPU is prime95 stable at 24 hours, but after so much research, I figured I would ask that you guys 'check my work', see if there is anything I could tweak or change that I might have missed, forgotten, or misread. Nothing too crazy, I hope. Let me give my specs first:

CPU: Intel Q9550 2.83ghz @ 4.00 ghz
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3R Rev. 1.1
RAM: 2X2GB Corsair XMS2 1066
Video Card: EVGA GTX 470 (overclocked also, but thats for another post)
Hard Drive: Western Digital 500gb 7200rpm, 32mb Cache
Power Supply: ATX Ultra 1000 Watt
Cooling: 4 x 120m Fans, Thermal Take Blue Orb
O.S. Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy SE
Monitor: Acer 1080P HD 24", Samsung 19"

There's probably more info then anyone needs there, but I figured I would tag along the whole setup just in case. I mainly use my Computer for for work during the day (I'm a 3D Artist for Video Games) and playing WoW with my wife for a couple of hours at night.
Alright then, onto the BIOS.

Thanks Again for any help:

MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.)

Robust Graphics Booster [Auto]
CPU Clock Ratio [8x]
Fine CPU Clock Ratio [+0.5]
CPU Frequency 4.00GHz (471x8.5)

***Clock Chip Control***

>>>Standard Clock Control
CPU Host Clock Control [Enabled]
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) [471]
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) [100]
C.I.A.2 [Disabled]

>>>Advanced Clock Control
> Advanced Clock Control [Press Enter]

> CPU Clock Drive [800mV]
> PCI Express Clock Drive [900mV]
> CPU Clock Skew [0ps]
> MCH Clock Skew [0ps]

***DRAM Performance Control***

Performance Enhance [Standard]
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.) [Disabled]
(G) MCH Frequency Latch [400Mhz]
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) [2.00D]
Memory Frequency (Mhz) 1066 942
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) [Manual]

>>>Standard Timing Control
CAS Latency Time 5 [5]
tRCD 7 [5]
tRP 7 [5]
tRAS 24 [15]

>>>Advanced Timing Control
Advanced Timing Control [Press Enter]

> tRRD 4 [Auto]
>tWTR 4 [Auto]
>tWR 8 [Auto]
>tRFC 68 [Auto]
>tRTP 4 [Auto]
>Command Rate (CMD) 0 [Auto]

>>>Channel A
> Channel A Timing Settings [Press Enter]
> Channel A Driving Settings [Press Enter]

>>>Channel B
> Channel B Timing Settings [Press Enter]
> Channel B Driving Settings [Press Enter]

***Motherboard Voltage Control***

Type Normal Current

>>> CPU
Load Line Calibration [Enabled]
CPU VCore 1.30000V [1.32500V]
CPU Termination 1.200V [1.320V]
CPU PLL 1.500V [1.590V]
CPU Reference 0.760V [0.861V]

>>>MCH/ICH
MCH Core 1.100V [1.320V]
MCH Reference 0.760V [0.876V]
MCH/DRAM Reference 0.900V [Auto]
ICH I/O 1.500V [Auto]
ICH Core 1.100V [Auto]

>>>DRAM
DRAM Voltage 1.800V [2.100V]
DRAM Termination 0.900V [Auto]
Channel A Reference 0.900V [Auto]
Channel B Reference 0.900V [Auto]

Advanced BIOS Settings

>Hard Disk Boot Priority [Press Enter]
Quick Boot [Disabled]
First Boot Device [Floppy]
Second Boot Device [Hard Disk]
Third Boot Device [CDROM]
Password Check [Setup]
HDD S.M.A.R.T. Capability [Enabled]
Limit CPUID Max. to 3 [Disabled]
No-Execute Memory Protect [Enabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) [Disabled]
C2/C2E State Support [Disabled]
x C4/C4E State Support Disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor 2 (TM2) [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function [Disabled]
Virtualization Technology [Enabled]
Delay for HDD (Secs) [0]
Full Screen Logo Show [Enabled]
Backup BIOS Image to HDD [Disabled]
Init Display First [PEG]

Integrated Peripherals

ICH SATA Control Mode [IDE]
SATA Port0-3 Native Mode [Disabled]
Azallia Codec [Auto]
Onboard H/W 1394 [Enabled]
Onboard H/W LAN [Enabled]
Green LAN [Disabled]
SMART LAN [Press Enter]
Onboard LAN Boot ROM [Disabled]
Onboard SATA/IDE Device [Enabled]
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode [IDE]
Onboard Serial Port 1 [3F8/IRQ4]
Onboard Parallel Port [378/IRQ7]
Parallel Port Mode [SPP]
USB 1.0 Controller [Enabled]
USB 2.0 Controller [Enabled]
USB Keyboard Function [Enabled]
USB Mouse Function [Enabled]
USB Storage Function [Enabled]

Power Management Setup

ACPI Suspend Type [S3(STR)]
Soft-Off by PWR-BTTN [Instant-Off]
PME Event Wake Up [Enabled]
Power On by Ring [Enabled]
Resume by Alarm [Disabled]
HPET Support [Enabled]
HPET Mode [64-Bit Mode]
AC Back Function [Sort-Off]

PC Health Status

Reset Case Open Status [Disabled]
CPU Warning Temperature [70C/158F]
CPU Fan Fail Warning [Enabled]
CPU Smart FAN Control [Disabled]

Alright, I have other information as well, such as what can be found under the separate RAM Channels, but for now I think this should do.

Any help would be appreciated, so if anything catches your eye, or if you see something you personally like to keep on/off, let me know.

I really thank you all for your time, and I hope you all had a happy and safe holiday.

A 24hrs stress run without errors that is absolutely stable enough and have nothing to worry about.

I'm not an expert on voltages but yours doesn't look bad. IIRC 4.0GHz is pretty good for a quad processor with air cooling. But you did leave one thing out- what were your temps while running prime95? That is the thing you need to watch.

Nothing wrong with your settings. You avoided all the usual mistakes. The only thing I would do is reenable EIST (SpeedStep).

I have a similar system in a UD3P, unfortunately with a C3 core and a relatively high VID. The best I could do was 3.6 GHz.
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Overclocking since 1978 - Z80 (TRS-80) from 1.77 MHz to 2.01 MHz