9550 E0 @ 4Ghz overclocking...

Deadtrees

Platinum Member
Dec 31, 2002
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Past 2 years, I've setup 3 Q6600 G0 @ 3.2ghz machines (full memory banks.) Mine that ran on Gigabyte motherboard(P35C-DS3R), it was not so hard. I just had to go through several voltage settings to find the sweet spot: no headaches. However, on my friends Asus motherboards(P5Q pro and P4KC,) things were a lot more difficult. I had to try all those various settings motherboard offer (a lot more than the Gigabyte one.) On top of that, when overclocking fails, P5Q Pro wouldn't even POST. I either had to reset and wait at least 10 minutes hoping it would post or reset the BIOS manually. On the other hand, P4KC would go back to default settings when it fails to recover from sleep mode: Major headaches.

Anway, the point is that overclocking, though I've been doing it for a decade, was not smooth... as always. That's until I met this 9550 E0 CPU with Gigabyte EX58-UD3R-SLI board.
My goal was 4Ghz and upon looking at all those settings the board offers, I thought it could be a major headache. Just to try how far I can go, I tried 4Ghz with 1.4V vcore. Works great. I tried 1.35 vcore. Works great. I tried 1.32 something vcore, fails running Intelburn. Lowered a notch and this thing just works! The whole thing didn't even take 5 minute (excluding Intelburn test time) and it's just stable. I didn't even have to touch any other settings! Just a vcore and RAM voltage! Because it was such a easy overclock, it feels werid...like I haven't acheived anything.

So, here's the question. Is 9550 E0 @ 4Ghz supposed to be this easy? I know it varies greatly but given how crazy easy it was, I wonder.

EDIT: It's Intel Q9550 CPU I'm talking about :)
EDIT2: It's Gigabyte EP45-UD3P ATX LGA775 board, not EX58-UD3R-SLI.
 

error8

Diamond Member
Nov 28, 2007
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What is the 9550 E0 chip? Is it the q9550? If it is, it doesn't work in a x58 mobo. I don't understand what is this setup of yours. Maybe I'm missing something here.
 

TidusZ

Golden Member
Nov 13, 2007
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Welcome to gigabyte motherboards. They're pretty much top of the game these days imo. I've overclocked 2 q9550's one got to 4.25 1.392v stable and windows stable up to just under 4.4, other was stable at just over 3.8 1.36v. 4 is good, above average. From my reading, I'd say 3.8 is about average.
 

ghost recon88

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2005
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Originally posted by: Deadtrees
That's until I met this 9550 E0 CPU with Gigabyte EX58-UD3R-SLI board.

What motherboard are you really running? Because you are not running an LGA775 on an LGA1366 motherboard :laugh:

And no, 4GHz should be fairly easy on a Q9550 E0.
 

Golgatha

Lifer
Jul 18, 2003
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Originally posted by: ghost recon88
Originally posted by: Deadtrees
That's until I met this 9550 E0 CPU with Gigabyte EX58-UD3R-SLI board.

What motherboard are you really running? Because you are not running an LGA775 on an LGA1366 motherboard :laugh:

And no, 4GHz should be fairly easy on a Q9550 E0.

4Ghz on a non-compatible socket is something to be proud of fella!
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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Originally posted by: Golgatha
Originally posted by: ghost recon88
Originally posted by: Deadtrees
That's until I met this 9550 E0 CPU with Gigabyte EX58-UD3R-SLI board.

What motherboard are you really running? Because you are not running an LGA775 on an LGA1366 motherboard :laugh:

And no, 4GHz should be fairly easy on a Q9550 E0.

4Ghz on a non-compatible socket is something to be proud of fella!

amen to that.

definitely something to be proud about.

LOL..
 

Deadtrees

Platinum Member
Dec 31, 2002
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Damn, sorry about that.
The CPU is Intel Q9550 E0
The motherboard is Gigabyte EP45-UD3P ATX LGA775.

Gigabyte EX58-UD3R-SLI is a mainboard I was thinking about for another guy's i7 setup.
 
Apr 20, 2008
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I am kicking myself for not picking up a UD3R, but i'm not sure if i would feel comfortable pushing my quad any further..
 

Deadtrees

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Dec 31, 2002
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Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
What type of vCore do you need to reach 4Ghz?

1.325 in BIOS.
CPU-Z reports 1.25.

EDIT: RAM is 2 set of "G.SKILL F2-6400CL4D-4GBPK PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-12"
Temp. is around 34c idle.
 
Nov 26, 2005
15,086
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Originally posted by: Deadtrees
Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
What type of vCore do you need to reach 4Ghz?

1.325 in BIOS.
CPU-Z reports 1.25.

EDIT: RAM is 2 set of "G.SKILL F2-6400CL4D-4GBPK PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-12"
Temp. is around 34c idle.

Those Q9550's always have done better with the vcore than my early Q9650 E0 - I'm at 1.425v bios - nice chip man! :)