A little help with a new Q9450 and overclocking

[dark2999]

So I picked up a Q9450 today and would like some help overclocking it. System specs are in my sig. I have done some playing around with this board, but only with a E7200, and don't know how different it is overclocking a quad. My Q9450 is C1 stepping, batch L816A589, and has a VID of 1.250v. Just to include this since I find it odd, might have to do with the stepping not being listed in the CPU list, but the CPU boots at 7x400 rather than 8x333. Thanks.

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: dark2999
and don't know how different it is overclocking a quad

Speaking from experience, OC'ing a quad is COMPLETELY different and IMHO much more frustrating that OC'ing a C2D chip.

 

[bryanW1995]

have you gone to the main bios screen? gillbot is correct that oc'ing quads is a challenge at times, but my q9450 and x3350 both are great overclockers. read graysky's guide and report back with your results:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2057083&enterthread=y

 

[LOUISSSSS]

it shouldn't be so diff than overclocking a C2D. should have same bios options depending on MB. manually set your vcore a few (2-3) notches above your VID and set your FSB to 400 ( 8 x 400 ) and you'll have yourself at 3.2ghz @ around stock vCore. test for stability and move from here.

manually set your ram timings and vRam

 

[dark2999]

stable settings for 8x400
CPU vcore 1.3
PLL 1.64
FSB 1.28
NB 1.55
SB auto
CPU/GTL Auto
NB/GTL Auto

When I tried 8x425 with those same settings and i think it BSOD, can't remember was doing about 20x at that time, but don't think it was stable, also does anyone know the clock gen info for setfsb for this board.

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
it shouldn't be so diff than overclocking a C2D. should have same bios options depending on MB. manually set your vcore a few (2-3) notches above your VID and set your FSB to 400 ( 8 x 400 ) and you'll have yourself at 3.2ghz @ around stock vCore. test for stability and move from here.

manually set your ram timings and vRam

one would think, but it's an entirely different animal with a quad. the voltage settings are much more picky and one tick up or down the wrong way leads you to a no post. C2D's are much more forgiving.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: Gillbot

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
it shouldn't be so diff than overclocking a C2D. should have same bios options depending on MB. manually set your vcore a few (2-3) notches above your VID and set your FSB to 400 ( 8 x 400 ) and you'll have yourself at 3.2ghz @ around stock vCore. test for stability and move from here.

manually set your ram timings and vRam

one would think, but it's an entirely different animal with a quad. the voltage settings are much more picky and one tick up or down the wrong way leads you to a no post. C2D's are much more forgiving.

Agree...with a Dual, you can get away with not dealing with NB voltages and VTT most of the time. If you are going to push boundaries on a quad, you have to learn the definition/function of those rather quickly.

 

[Goi]

Hi,

I haven't been able to get my Q9450 stable at 8x400=3.2GHz yet. I've gotten it stable at 390MHz with <1.2Vcore, but even at 1.2Vcore, Prime95 won't run. Sometimes it will product an error in a matter of minutes(like yesterday when I first tried it with 1.2V. Consistently it would be cores 1/2 that produces the error. Cores 3/4 are fine for at least 8 hours(overnight when I sleep).

I have speedfan, coretemp and realtemp all running and they all show different temps. I'm unsure which to trust, although I've been told to trust realtemp for 45nm chips, which is good since realtemp gives the lowest temps. Slightly <50C idle, and in the mid 60s when prime95ing. This is with a Tuniq Tower full speed in a Lian Li A7010B, but ambient room temps are usually 25-33C so it's hot around here.

Any help? Should I continue increasing Vcore, or start messing around with other voltages like NB/VTT? I'm not that ambitious, just wanna get to 3.2GHz and leave it there for now.

 

[Mwing]

1.2v after v-droop my q9450 (400x8) is stable (1.25v vid)

but if 1.2v in bios, then you should raise it a bit, your cpu is under-volting

 

[Goi]

The 1.2V I mentioned is in BIOS. I have a multimeter but I don't know where the Vcore test points are. cpu-z shows it as 1.232V.

How high can I go with this safely on air cooling?

 

[Drsignguy]

My Q9450 ( 1.250 Vid ) is set in bios at 1.28125v @ 3.4ghz and cpu-z reports 1.200v - 1.216v @ full load. So undervolting and being stable is good. BTW, I had to adjust my timing settings for my memory to get stable. The cpu wasn't a problem, it was my memory. As is, I am at 850Mhz and even if I was At 800Mhz, I still had to adjust All my memory timings. I found this out just the other day as I had a few crashes during F@H smp client. Cpu was stable with prime95 but as soon as I ran F@H, crash! So, adjusting the memory timings was the ticket.

 

[GundamF91]

Drsingguy, what's your memory settings? I'm also facing memory issues, even though my CPU is running just fine.

 

[Justintoxicated]

Hi I stumbled onto your thread while browsing the net for solutions to my problem. I don't post here often but I?m having a really hard time over clocking my Q9450 as well, I also have a C1 stepping.

I managed to get it up to 3400MHZ 12 hours prime stable, before I shut it off. I think it will go much longer in prime. I also can pass 60 iterations of Intel Burn Test 1.5.1. This is with 4GB of memory....

With 8GB things change. Although I am still prime stable, I can not pass More than 30 iterations of IntelBurnTest. I have been playing with Vtt Gtls for weeks now. I even bought special probes for the MB to measure their output. The C1's do not behave like earlier quads and do not like the same GTLs (I don't believe) My best luck has been setting 1/2 - 83% of Vtt and 0/3 to 83% and NB to 87%. However these are in now way definite. Since the old rule does not apply to my chip the correct GTL's may vary significantly, but with 3 values and many percentages per value it will be nearly impossible to identify the correct position of them. I merely got lucky getting my system this stable so far.

It seems crazy that I am stable with 4GB ram, but not 8GB. The memory passes all tests in memtest86+ V2.01 with these settings but I can't pass burn test. I have tried taking the Nb up to 1.6v which only seems to make the problem worse. Most people would consider my system stable because prime 95 passes fine, however I am able to pass more than 50 iterations of IntelBurnTest with default settings 2.66mhz.

I'm very frustrated and whish I knew what the next step was to getting my system stable with 8GB of memory. Perhaps I should sell 4Gb of memory and call it quits. The South bridge/CPU PLL does not seem to have any effect on my Overclock. How does setting this affect the CPU's behavior?

System is a follows.
DFI LT (flashed with UT bios 602) X48
Thermochill PA 120.3 2/ Fuzion V2
8800GTS also on water.
NB cooled by DD MCP brass top.
enermax 620 liberty PSU (getting new PSU soon TT 1200 watt)
8GB Kit G.Skill PC2 8800 (1100MHZ)

I'm currently running intelburntest with pretty much the same settings as I'm 4Gb stable with @ 3400 but at 3200MHZ instead. This CPU is very difficult to OC as there are far too many variables. I think I will sell it and buy a C2D instead...

Oh yea I almos forgot: Only Trust Real Temp. Also I' like to see some testing with IntelBurnTest vs prime95. When most people say their systems are stable they mean a few horus of prime95. Burn test will deliver 10-15C hotter temps than prime 95 and will stress the CPU more. I'm prime stable, but not burn test stable.....