Overclocking Q6600

[attacus]

I started noticing some lag in my gameplay with some of the newest games an deduced that it must be my CPU clock.

I have tried changing the FSB in the BIOS and with ASUS software, but everytime I try I come up with "overclocking failed! Press F1 to enter setup". Memory speed is set to 1200MHZ, but even when I lower this I get failures.

Even small overclocks like FSB to 267 and CPU ratio to 9 are unsuccessful. The online guides for voltage have not helped either. Here are the results:
FSB RAM Volt passes BIOS passes logon
300 1202 auto fail
277 1110 1.35 success fail
277 1110 auto success fail
300 1202 1.4 fail
277 924 1.4 fail
277 1110 1.4 fail
267 Auto Auto fail
300 (software) fail

While on this topic, my computer won't start normally unless I press reset after pressing power. Noone's found a solution yet. When I reset CMOS, the computer starts normally but boots into express gate, which I don't want. When I disable this, the problem starts again. Everything is plugged in properly.

 

[nnorton44]

What cooler and temps

 

[attacus]

What cooler and temps

Unknown temps and Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo. However, with the successful bios overclocks the temps never went above 40 C.

On a second note, how do you view all the threads you've created/wrote in?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

you probably need to increase the voltage on your northbridge and/or HT link voltage. Make sure your BIOS is up to date, download the latest one from asus website

 

[jsc]

What memory?

 

[attacus]

What memory?

Voltage was at 2.3 when I tried it. It's at 2.1 now with 20 tRFC.
Clock is 1200MHz now. I've put up the individual speeds the RAM was at during overclocking.

 

[jsc]

What memory? And motherboard?

Not voltage, but brand and model.

I suspect thst you are either inadvertently or deliberately trying to overlock your memory and that is stopping your overclock.

With even a halfway decent cooler, you should be able to reach 3.3 GHz easily if your memory is good enough.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

What memory? And motherboard?

Not voltage, but brand and model.

I suspect thst you are either inadvertently or deliberately trying to overlock your memory and that is stopping your overclock.

With even a halfway decent cooler, you should be able to reach 3.3 GHz easily if your memory is good enough.

I agree with the memory thing. Its probably causing the problem. Set the memory to 800mhz (assuming its 800mhz ddr2) which is pretty standard. You start overclocking multiple things, like FSB, CPU, RAM, then you could have problems with one or more of these things. Just focus on the CPU and FSB and drop the ram right down till you get things stable. Do small FSB increases till it becomes unstable and look for the cause of instability, you may need to add more Vcore volts or more NB volts or reduce heat.....

 

[attacus]

What memory? And motherboard?

Not voltage, but brand and model.

I suspect thst you are either inadvertently or deliberately trying to overlock your memory and that is stopping your overclock.

With even a halfway decent cooler, you should be able to reach 3.3 GHz easily if your memory is good enough.

Asus P5Q SE2. OCZ Reaper 4x1GB 1066MHz. Other sources seemed to agree that the ram was to blame so I did 4 things and the overclock started working:
FSB at 333
CPU at 1.37500V, ratio at auto (9)
Memory at auto (667) (2.3V) - now it's at 1066 (2.1V)
Enabled Speedstep Tech

CPU is at 3GHz at 37 C

Should I change ratio to 6 and FSB to 500? I've heard that it lets the CPU use lower voltages at lower clocks and only speed up when it's under heavy load.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Should I change ratio to 6 and FSB to 500? I've heard that it lets the CPU use lower voltages at lower clocks and only speed up when it's under heavy load.

i doubt you will get the motherboard to post with fsb at 500mhz, thats insanely high FSB and wont help in any way. just leave it as is. you could overclock the cpu more if its not getting too hot under load.

 

[jsc]

Should I change ratio to 6 and FSB to 500? I've heard that it lets the CPU use lower voltages at lower clocks and only speed up when it's under heavy load.

No. The best way to overclock Core2 systems requires running the internal multiplier at max. The biggest reason is that it minimizes the chances for instability in the memory. Besides, overclocking RAM will get you little, if any, additional performance.

Overclocking RAM:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251715-29-ratio-myth

With that in mind, take your memory settings off Auto and do whatever you need to set your memory clock to 667 MHz. At 333 MHz FSB, that will give you an FSB:RAM ratio of 1:1. Memory running in sync with the FSB is a Good Thing.

Now you should be able to push your CPU speed up to at least 3.33 GHz (367 MHz X 9). Your mem clock should be at 733 MHz.

I can reach 3.6 GHz (400 MHz X 9) at 1.425 volts (24 hour Prime95 stable) with a TRUE in an Antec 900 case.

 

[attacus]

No. The best way to overclock Core2 systems requires running the internal multiplier at max. The biggest reason is that it minimizes the chances for instability in the memory. Besides, overclocking RAM will get you little, if any, additional performance.

Overclocking RAM:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251715-29-ratio-myth

With that in mind, take your memory settings off Auto and do whatever you need to set your memory clock to 667 MHz. At 333 MHz FSB, that will give you an FSB:RAM ratio of 1:1. Memory running in sync with the FSB is a Good Thing.

Now you should be able to push your CPU speed up to at least 3.33 GHz (367 MHz X 9). Your mem clock should be at 733 MHz.

I can reach 3.6 GHz (400 MHz X 9) at 1.425 volts (24 hour Prime95 stable) with a TRUE in an Antec 900 case.

OK what CPU voltage should I use?

 

[jsc]

Unless you have a good case and CPU cooler, you will reach thermal limits before you reach voltage limits.

1.50 volts; 70 C load temps.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

OK what CPU voltage should I use?

whatever it needs to ecome stable and keep cool........ its trial and error, not all cpu's/motherboards need the same voltage. As I found recently after years of previously overclocking without guides, i started reading too many guides to OC my q6600 which resulted in a bad OC for me. Started from scratch using my own method of trial and error and finally got the results I wanted. One tip i would have is to lower your cpu multiplier to find your maximum stable FSB without overclocking the cpu. That way you can rule out/fix any FSB instability before you start overclocking.