OVERCLOCKING Q6600 WITH ASUS P5QL-E

[manmango]

It is way overdue that I should be overclocking my CPU as it is holding my system back but dont want to use overclocking tools, I want to do this properly. I know small amounts about clocking and am confident in BIOS usage and general tinkering/tuning. The only problem is knowing how to work out voltages etc for OCing my CPU, I dont want to be doing anything that could dmg my hardware so am being very cautious and seeking advice first.

My Rig:
MB: Asus P5QL-E
CPU: Q6600 @2.4ghz
Ram: DDR2 Dominator 6GB @1333mhz
GPU: Palit 460GTX 1024mb
PSU: 700W
Case: Antec 300
OS: Vlite Win7

Cooling:
Exhaust at rear+top: 12cm and 14cm
Exhaust side over PCI ports: 12cm
Intake Front: 2x12cm
CPU: Arctic freezer 7 pro
Ram: 3 fan Dominator cooler

 

[sportsfanboy]

First thing you need to know is the thermal limits and safe zones to run the chip. If it's a GO stepping max CPU temp is around 72c and max core temperature is around 100c, the B3 is around 62c and 90-ish for the cores. Obviously you shouldn't run max temperatures so try to keep the cpu under 60c and the cores under 70c or around 70c on the GO stepping and 50-55 CPU and around 60-65c for the B3 for 24/operation. Second is voltage, max voltage for the 65nm core2's is 1.5.

Little things like lock the pcie bus to 100, and don't forget to set proper ram timing,frequency and voltage. You might also want to turn off speed step until stable.

 

[stingstang]

You're overclocking one of the world's favorite CPUs right there. I've seen anywhere from 2.9-3.7 Ghz from it.

Go to your BIOS screen, the command prompt of which will appear just as you turn your computer on. There should be a tab where you can look at all the numbers of voltages and speeds of your motherboard, RAM, and CPU. Try these settings.
FSB-420(up to 470)
vcore voltage-1.4(up to 1.5)
CPU multiplier-(I don't know what it goes up to, but)7.5-8.5

Before saving those settings, check to see what speed your RAM will run at. There should be an option to toggle the speeds available. Try getting that number close to 1333, or lower.

Hope that works out for you. Make sure to monitor your temperatures while testing stability. (I use PCwizard 2008)

 

[sportsfanboy]

Max multi is 9 on the Q6600, some people like to drop it to 8 when overclocking in order to use more favorable FSB to ram ratios.

 

[manmango]

I bought the go stepping specifically for the overclocking when i built my rig a while ago. Currently already have my ram clocked to 1333mhz from its 1066mhz stock speed. Thanks for the advice both of you, I now have some numbers to start from and have a play around.

 

[jonpaul37]

Start here, it is a GREAT guide...

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

 

[sportsfanboy]

Make sure to test out your ram so not to corrupt data. I recommend running memtest as a boot disk for a couple runs.

 

[manmango]

Just had a crack (now im home from work) Took a look through that guide and have clued myself up a bit more although i couldnt even find the option for the muliplier although i doubt this is an issue as it is on x9 by default and I am attempting to do 9X333

I Set all additional options as specified in the guide as enabled or disabled.
Put PCI frequency to 100mHz
Put ram back to stock speed of 1066Mhz 5-5-5-15 2.1v
Changed CPU FSB to 333 but when i rebooted I got a blank screen and had to turn off and on and pressed del when it booted back up to get my screen to life. I then get a screen telling me the overclocking has failed and F1 to run setup F2 to load defaults. Once entering the setup the Ram frequency has altered itself sometimes higher sometimes lower. When changing CPU back to defaults it boots ok. Now I am stuck but am running them memory tests now.

 

[Snipergod87]

When you increase the FSB your RAM frequency will automatically increase, try dropping it to below 1066. You may also need to give the CPU a little more voltage.

When I start OC'ing I drop the memory divider as low as it can go within the RAM's SPD specs and increase the CPU speed from there, once I find the maximum CPU frequency i start increasing the memory multiplier until it becomes unstable and then back down a little bit, or adjust the timings.

 

[manmango]

Ok managed to get system stable after a few blank screens and not booting and then a few bluescreens once getting into windows. Anyway here is some screenshots of whats going on, I am still concerned about the temps and would like to clock higher but for now will work on this until it is super stable.

CPU-Z

I ran Prime95 on a blend test and this is what I got:

Note that it is still cooling down to idle temps it doesn't run 50+ idle

Having not done this before I was not sure if the core temps where meant to spike so high while stress testing with Prim95 as I think the recommended max for a q6600 is 72 degress celsius I let it run for a short while then stopped. Also note that I have had to revert to stock cpu cooler as the 7 pros pins are all mashed up so needs some work done.

Any advice to further on what I have managed to do so far?

 

[sportsfanboy]

81c is a bit high, the 72c your referring to is cpu temp max not core temp as shown in your picture. Try to increase the speed of the cpu/case fans flow if possible.

 

[manmango]

Thanks very much for the advice, I will try to swap the plastic pins from my fresh unused (until yesterday) stock cooler with my arctic freezer 7 pro and see how much of an improvement on temps I get (which should be substatial looking at the performance of the stock cooler compared to some other high performance ones). I might just purchase a new cooler all together although buget would probably only permit up to £30 or so and there are so many!!!

To clarify when talking about trying to minimize temps is the voltage direct effect on these? Lower = cooler, higher = hotter. So tweak my CPU voltage down bit by bit until I bluescreen?

Also last question (for now) When I am stress testing 100% load is it an accurate reading when the temps spike and stop climbing, or do they need to be left at these temps of 70-80+ as I am worried that puching 80+ on the cores might dmg my hardware.

 

[manmango]

Just to add I have coped the below from the manufacturers site when looking for timings and voltages to confirm them. Would having the below setup with different size modules requiring different voltages cause me any problems either with performance, stability or heat?

TWIN2X2048-8500C5D DDR2-1066 (Dominator-8500C5*SLI) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T (2.2)

TWIN2X4096-8500C5D DDR2-1066 (Dominator-8500C5*4GB*SLI) 4GB Kit (2 x 2GB) 5-5-5-15-2T (2.1)

 

[jonpaul37]

OK, on my old setup i had similar specs, they are listed below:

Q6600
ASUS P5Q Pro
G.Skill DDR2-800MHz RAM

Basically my settings were as follows:

PCI-E = 100
FSB = 400
Multi = 9
Ratio = 1:1 (400 for RAM, 400 for FSB)
vcore = 1.41
RAM = 400 (800)
RAM voltage = 2.0 (stock was 1.9)
RAM timings = 4-4-4-12

Now, while stress testing using a xigmatek s1283 HDT cooler, my temps would peak at around 79c but that would only last about 20 seconds and they usually stayed around 59c while stress testing. Idle was at about 32c.

When playing games with the above settings, I never went above 65c.

Hope this helps...

 

[sportsfanboy]

Yes higher voltage =more heat and lower=cooler. I wouldn't drop it too much, try to drop the voltage one setting at a time and test for a short while. Then repeat the process until you get an error in prime95 small fft. Then raise the voltage one setting and run the test for a longer period of time, two hours or more if your temps are under control. Make sure "round off checking" is enabled in prime95 options.

 

[manmango]

Swapped the pins on my CPU coolers, following temps are with same OC values but using the arctic freezer 7 pro and peaking at 59 degress with Prime95 test I would sat im now stable!

Time to OC my GPU! Thanks for the help, ill be back if my machine blows up or something when I try to clock higher.

 

[sportsfanboy]

LOL ok good luck

 

[manmango]

Best answer selected by manmango.