Can't get my system to budge.

[GZS]

First and foremost, specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
4 Gigs (2 x 2) A-Data 240 pin DDR2 PC2 5300
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Corsair CMPSU-620HX ATX12v v2.2 and EPS12v 2.91


If the rest matters?
Vista Home premium 64 bit
Lite-on 20x DVD burner
EVGA 9600GT
2x 500 gig WD SATA HD's

I have Arctic Silver 5 on both the video card and CPU.

Now, a screen shot from HWMon
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/prodeg/temps2.jpg


In the screen shot I have the CPU "undervolted" because.... well if I can't overclock it, why create more heat? It runs stable at 1.1ish vcore.


Now, what I have tried thus far:

In the bios, I have changed the fsb to 333 and ran a 1:1 ratio with the ram to keep it asynchronous. (Using 1.25 and even 1.35 vcore) That did not work. I left the aforementioned the same and bumped the ram voltage to (EEK!) 2.18.

I tried a combination of the above, from the lowest possible, to the above mentioned. I've increased the FSB 1 mhz and it won't go past post. I can't get this thing to budge.


My thoughts thus far: It's the ram. I've read a hundred people get good OC's on the ram. I know I cheaped out on it because I never had the intention to overclock this machine, but.... I can't even get 1 mhz with that much voltage... am I messing up somewhere?


Edit: CPU-Z screen shots.
http://img.photobucket.com/alb...v66/prodeg/cpuzcpu.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/alb...odeg/cpuzmainboard.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/alb.../prodeg/cpuzmemory.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/alb...v66/prodeg/cpuzspd.jpg

 

[v8envy]

You forgot to lock the PCIe bus is my guess. That, and EIST and SpeedStep are on.

There's no reason to fry your ram with a bazillion volts. 5300 ram is rated to run at 333 mhz. At factory rated speed and 9x multiplier you'd be at 3 ghz on the quad -- plenty of room. My 667 mhz ram reports itself as capable of 800 mhz, FWIW.

To test, lock your PCIe bus to 100 mhz, set cpu multiplier to 6x and ratio to 1:1 and fire up at 333 mhz. You should be able to test just fine.

In fact, read greysky's sticky at the top of this forum. It's a step by step on how to isolate the component which is limiting your OC.

Alternatively, sell me your CPU cheap. =)

 

[Drsignguy]

The screenshot is telling me that you had it booted and running. Just so you know, running undervolted doesent mean your going to be stable. Have you tested this? I would put everything to auto and then boot again to see if all goes well. Then from there, run tests to find out stability on cpu and memory. Prime95 or OCCT are good tests to use.

 

[GZS]

Originally posted by: v8envy
You forgot to lock the PCIe bus is my guess. That, and EIST and SpeedStep are on.

There's no reason to fry your ram with a bazillion volts. 5300 ram is rated to run at 333 mhz. At factory rated speed and 9x multiplier you'd be at 3 ghz on the quad -- plenty of room. My 667 mhz ram reports itself as capable of 800 mhz, FWIW.

To test, lock your PCIe bus to 100 mhz, set cpu multiplier to 6x and ratio to 1:1 and fire up at 333 mhz. You should be able to test just fine.

In fact, read greysky's sticky at the top of this forum. It's a step by step on how to isolate the component which is limiting your OC.

Alternatively, sell me your CPU cheap. =)

Ar. I forgot to mention. I did that as well (set the PCIe bus to 100 mhz)

Setting the multiplier to 6x and a 1:1 would be 2.0ghz, would it not?

 

[GZS]

Originally posted by: Drsignguy
The screenshot is telling me that you had it booted and running. Just so you know, running undervolted doesent mean your going to be stable. Have you tested this? I would put everything to auto and then boot again to see if all goes well. Then from there, run tests to find out stability on cpu and memory. Prime95 or OCCT are good tests to use.

Ran 64 bit Prime95 for a couple of hours and have it running as we speak on 1.1 volts. It is doing fine thus far.

 

[GZS]

Okay, I'm on my laptop now so I can write everything that I have enabled/disabled in bios.

Starting with Advanced Bios features:
HDD S.M.A.R.T. Capability Disabled
Limit CPUID Max to 3 Disabled
No-Execute Memory Protect Enabled
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) Disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor 2 (TM2) Disabled
CPU EIST Function Disabled
Virtualization Technologoy Enabled
Full Screen LOGO Show Disabled
Init Display First PCI

MB Intelligent Tweaker:

Robust Graphics Booster Auto
CPU Clock Ratio 9x
CPU Frequency 2.40GHz (266x9) [I have set this from anywhere to 266 to 400.]
CPU Host Clock Control (See above. Stock is obviously 266)
PCI Express Frequency 100
C.I.A.2 Disabled
Performance Enhance Standard
System Memory Multiplier Auto (sets to 2.5 auto, I change it to 2 [which is really the 1:1 ratio] when I try to get it to overclock at all.

System Voltage Control [Auto] (I have changed it to manual and added a few tenths of a volt here and there to try to figure it out... but I'll list the rest for arguments sake)
DDR2 Overvoltage Control Normal
PCI-E OverVoltage Control Normal
FSB Overvoltage Control Normal
(G)MCH OverVoltage Control Normal
CPU Voltage Control 1.25000V (At this moment, have had it at 1.11 regularly and will change it back as soon as I post this.)
Normal CPU Vcore 1.325000V



Anything else that would matter, I can't think of.

 

[GZS]

Well.... I just tried to underclock my ram and nothing but and it won't go past post. It has to be the ram. Looks like I'll be getting some more.

 

[myocardia]

Put your Performance Enhance to Turbo, and your Memory Multiplier to 2.0, along with raising your vcore a few notches above it's VID (what the motherboard gives it when it when vcore is set to Auto). For some reason, some Gigabyte boards or BIOS's don't like Performance Enhance set to Standard-- mine doesn't like it one bit.

 

[GZS]

Originally posted by: myocardia
Put your Performance Enhance to Turbo, and your Memory Multiplier to 2.0, along with raising your vcore a few notches above it's VID (what the motherboard gives it when it when vcore is set to Auto). For some reason, some Gigabyte boards or BIOS's don't like Performance Enhance set to Standard-- mine doesn't like it one bit.

No dice. I even tried "Extreme". Bumped it all the way up to 1.35 vcore. Still won't go past post.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: GZS
No dice. I even tried "Extreme". Bumped it all the way up to 1.35 vcore. Still won't go past post.

Did you also raise the vcore? If so, that was the only things I could think of. Wait, do you have any USB drives of any type plugged in? If so, they need to be either unplugged or turned off during the boot process, if overclocking.

 

[GZS]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: GZS
No dice. I even tried "Extreme". Bumped it all the way up to 1.35 vcore. Still won't go past post.

Did you also raise the vcore? If so, that was the only things I could think of. Wait, do you have any USB drives of any type plugged in? If so, they need to be either unplugged or turned off during the boot process, if overclocking.

I do! Let us hope this is it.

Edit: I LOVE YOU! It worked. How could a damn USB hard drive jack my shit up?

 

[myocardia]

That's great, man. Make sure to let us know how high you're able to get it to run stable. With mine, 3.3 Ghz is like taking candy from a baby, but it isn't stable @ 3.4 no matter how much voltage I give it. Good luck.

 

[GZS]

It is sitting at 3.0 now, running OCCT at 1.22 vcore. It's getting about as hot as I want it to get (Peaks at about 57c). I might bump it up a tad, but until I get more fans for my case it seems to be right about where I'll leave it for the temperatures.

 

[GZS]

http://img.photobucket.com/alb...8-04-11-10h31-CPU1.png
http://img.photobucket.com/alb...8-04-11-10h31-CPU2.png
http://img.photobucket.com/alb...8-04-11-10h31-CPU3.png
http://img.photobucket.com/alb...8-04-11-10h31-CPU4.png
http://img.photobucket.com/alb...-04-11-10h31-VCore.png

Vdroop got a bit worse with the OC, everything else looks good.

Edit: Priority was on High so it looks a bit worse.

 

[GZS]

I took it up to 3.2 (712 on my ram which I know shouldn't take that much.) Gave my ram a .2v increase and took my bios vcore up to 1.40. That gave me about a 1.36 in Hwmonitor and CPU-Z. It got to 99% or so (About 45 minutes) in OCCT and then crashed. It spiked to about 65 degrees which is a bit too hot for my taste. I'll get some more case fans, I only have one, and try again later. Maybe I'll pick up some non-shitty ram too.

And, I lowered the voltage from above to 1.325 in bios (1.27 in windows) and it got me back to a .02 vdroop and is running stable now.

 

[GZS]

I'm thinking of getting 250mm and 120mm fans. Cut the majority of the side panel open for the 250 (blowing in) and cut the top for the 120 (sucking out) then I have an 80 in the front sucking in, a 120 in the back blowing out and those two. I think that'd drop me quite a few degrees. Yes?

 

[myocardia]

You honestly shouldn't need anywhere near that many fans. I've only got one 120mm intake fan, one 120mm exhaust fan, plus an 80mm intake fan for my video card, and I max out at 59C on my hottest core, with Small FFT's. That's also with 1.325v in BIOS. Of course, I've got a better heatsink than you, with an adjustable high-flow fan. Here's my heatsink.

 

[GZS]

I don't know. I read all good things about this heatsink (the AC I have). It seems to be doing its job pretty well, but now two people have told me it is vastly inferior to other models. I assumed that I just didn't have good enough circulation.