Overclocking Q6600 on XFX 750i SLI

[zabih107]

Hello Everyone,

I know this has been looked into before, but I really need to get a stable 3.6-3.7 GHz overclock on my Q6600, SINCE I GOT A NEW COOLER, Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus.

First of all, Here are my specs:
CPU: Q6600 stepping B Revision G0
Motherboard: XFX 750i SLI Extreme Edition
Ram: Kingston 4GB (2X2 GB) DDR2 RAM timings: 5-5-5-18-23 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
HDD: 3200 GB 72000 rpm
Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Plus
GPU: XFX GTX 260 Core 216
PSU: OCZ ModXtreme 700 Pro (700 Watt)

I have already set the jumper to overclock mode. I also upadated Bios to latest version (1.41).

Here is some screen shots of the bios:

Main Bios Page:

Some General Settings:

AND NOW THESE ARE THE IMPORTANT PICS:


Cell Menu: (Main Overclocking Menu)

Ram Timmings:

Voltages and CPU Settings:

Now I want someone who is professional overclocker, who will go all the way to end with me and help me figure out a stable overclock around 3.4 GHz-3.7GHz.


Some one who will show me what to do step by step and trouble shoot along the way with me .

Thank you very much comunity.

 

[jsc]

This should be your first stop.
Core2 Overclocking Guide
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/259899-11-core-overclocking-guide

Next stop should be a guide for your particular motherboard. Google is your friend.

Go through the guides. Then take your core voltage off Auto and set your memory voltage to factory recommended values. Change the memory clock (or whatever your BIOS calls it) from AUTO to twice the FSB. Starting off, what you want is an FSB of 266 MHz and a memory clock of 533 MHz. That seems low, but when you start increasing the FSB freq, it will climb very quickly. At a CPU core speed of 3.33 Ghz, your memory freq (your BIOS may call it a clock) should be at 667 GHz.

Here is a potential confusion factor. At stock freqs, your BIOS may refer to the CPU's FSB freq of 266 MHz or the FSB clock of 1066 MHz. One FSB cycle generates 4 FSB clocks.

Download CPU-Z to check your FSB:RAM ratio. It should be a 1:1 ratio. Do not worry about overclocking your RAM. OC'ing RAM adds little to the performance of a Core2 system.

Don't exceed core voltage of 1.50 volts or load temps of 70 C.

 

[zabih107]

K so far this is what i tested:

Cpu voltage : 0.15000V ( this adds to the 1.304V stock Frequency which makes it a
total of 1.45V, Cpu-Z says so. )
Ram Voltage: 2.1V

VTT FSB Voltage: 1.4V

NB Voltage: 1.4V
SB voltage: 1.56

with these setting i increased FSB to 1600 (4 X 400) and left Ram speed 800 Mhz. This gives an overclock of 3.6 GHz (400 X 9) , but when i save and it restarts but doesnt boot and nothing shows on monitor for 15 secs then it says overclock failed and i have to reset the Cmos back.

 

[zabih107]

By the way the guide u provided me to read, i have already read it twice plus im not that newbie to overclocking. I can get stable overclock of 2.8 GHz (400 X 7) but thats not enough, i want at least 3.4 Ghz or 3.6 GHz. So lets jump right into overclocking and changing voltages etc etc....

 

[jsc]

What does CPUZ tell you your FSB:RAM ratio is? If it is more than 1:1 (second number larger) at a 400 MHz FSB freq, that is part of your problem.

Try increasing your RAM voltage to 2.2 volts (but no more). Try relaxing the timing to something like 6-6-6-20. Now, to remove the RAM from the equation as much as possible, run it at half speed - a 2:1 ratio.

You should be able to run at 3.0 GHz with the stock cooler and little or no core voltage increase. With a 212+, 3.3 - 3.4 GHz is a reasonable goal.

Your settings for 3.0 GHz should be FSB freq 333 MHz (FSB clock at 1333 MHz) and memory clock at 667 MHz (forget overclocking the RAM). Your settings for 3.3 GHz should be FSB freq 367 MHz (FSB clock at 1468 MHz) and memory clock at 733 MHz.

Work your way up from 3.0 GHz.

As long as load temps stay under about 70 C, you can increase the CPU voltage to 1.5 volts.

At this point, if your system still doesn't boot at 3.6 GHz, it means that the CPU probably won't run that fast.

Now, remember, once you have your system running at whatever speed you finally get it up to, you need to stress test it. You need to load the CPU cores to 100%, check for stability, and check for the maximum temperatures.

I use Prime95. 10 minutes of Prime95 will drive the CPU temperatures to their max values. 8 to 12 hours of Prime95 is considered by most to be enough to check for stability. I, however, am not "most". There's a few of us here who believe in 24 hour test runs.

 

[zabih107]

thanx for the reply jsc. now i got it running stable at 3.0 GHz with 9X multiplier, didnt touch the ram settings at all (just increased voltage to 2.1V). Also i increased cpu vcore to 1.4V and a abit of fsb and nb voltages. i ran prime 95 for 25 mins and it passed with no errors. Max temp it hit was 48 degree celius. gona play around more with it and try what u told me , and hopefully have some good results.

 

[zabih107]

like u said " work your way up from 3.0 GHz".

 

[zabih107]

k tried alot but still can get it stable at 3.2 GHz (9X multiplier). raised cpu volatage to 1.45 V, FSB V to 1.4, NB V to 1.4 V, Ram V to 2.2 V, and sb left it default. i doono what ratio it would be running if i have 3.2 GHz but I am gona try loosening the timming of the ram abit. 6-6-6-20 probably. Meanwhile if you have any more suggestion then spit it out.

 

[jsc]

That's pretty much it without being there and laying the eyeballs on the project.

Consensus among the overclockers here is that the P35/P45 Intel chipsets are easier to overclock than the nVidia 600i/700i chipsets. Having owned both, I tend to agree.

 

[zabih107]

hi , back again after a while,

I was trying loosening the ram timings but there are so much options in there as u can see in the screen shot. i dONT know which one of those to change to loosen my ram timings abit. Plz help with this. thnx.