Can't overclock Q6600 beyond 3ghz

[goldcrow]

I've been running my Q6600 @ 3ghz for a few months already and it is rock stable tested already even with temps at around 37-40 idle and 60-65c 100% load temp. This may be cos of high ambient temps, I'm living in a tropical country.

Now, I want to go beyond 3ghz but any adjustments with the voltages still couldn't get it to 3.2ghz. I got the g0 but with a really high vid of 1.325v. I'm running it right now at 333x9 1.325v (1.305v with cpu-z), ram at 1.90v, NB and SB at 1.10v.

I tried adjusting core voltage to 1.35v even up to 1.4v but 3.2ghz is still unstable. I also tried upping NB volts to 1.26v but no dice. My ram's stock volt is at 1.8v and since im not oc'ing it, I shouldn't play with the ram voltages anyway right?

Help me out guys, I want at least 3.2ghz but I can't figure out the right settings for it. Maybe a new cooler such as the Xigmatek S1283?

 

[TurtleCrusher]

4850+Q6600 Oc'd, might be a little stressful on you PSU. It might be suffcient, but that's my only guess. Your voltages seem normal for a 65nm chip to be overclocked with.

 

[error8]

Your NB , SB voltage seems too low. To keep my current oc stable with 8 gb of ram ( all the motherboard slots occupied ) I need 1.4 V on the NB and this is with a dual core. Your quad puts more stress on the NB and you need higher voltage to keep that stable.

 

[zenguy]

What is your memory multiplier set to?
You may want to set it to 1:1 while trying to OC.

If you don't do this, you may actually be OCing your memory much higher than expected and that could be limiting you.

 

[error8]

He said he is not ocing his ram, so it's probably 1:1.

 

[yh125d]

That PSU is more than fine, it's not being stressed.


But your NB voltage is very low. I think 1.1 is actually less than stock for the P5Q. I know it's not really enough to make a big difference over stock anyways. Bump it up to 1.24-1.3 and see what you get

 

[goldcrow]

I'm back guys, thanks for the replies. Tried raising NB voltages to 1.30v and even sb to 1.20v while upping core voltage to 1.35v. This is with 400x8 running ram at 1:1. Booted to Windows loading screen but restarted after choosing a profile. Me thinks this chip requires tons of volts just to break the 3ghz barrier.

 

[CptCrunch]

I too have a Q6600 G0 at 1.325 and I could nto get it above 3.0GHz without major volts, and even then it wasn't 100% stable. Unfortunately, it seems like you got a bad chip. On the flip side, a friend of mine got a Q6600 G0 1.265 chip and his went to 3.4GHz on air with a .25 jump in volts. Luck of the draw....

 

[Duvie]

The restart could be a sign of power issue...IE power supply....It could also be a system failure. In Winxp you have to turn the automatic restart off in system manager so you can see you may actually be getting a BSOD

 

[error8]

Bump the NB to 1.4 V.

 

[Duvie]

In my opinion that is a bit high.....I didn't need my NB that high until I hit fsbs above 400fsb.....

Do you have a VTT adjustment option? or Vfsb?

double check ram speed at 333 is running 667mhz and not 1000.....

 

[goldcrow]

I've been reading some other posts and it said I shouldn't get my NB up to 1.4v without active cooling. And to answer your question Duvie, I do have a VTT adjustment option, and my ram is running currently 400 with fsb at 333. I'm assuming the ram's still running at stock so I guess that isn't the problem. I'm not yet ready to give up yet on this chip.

 

[Duvie]

What is the VTT set at?b

really a Q6600 for most ppl does 3ghz at stock volts with no adjustments to VTT or NB...333fsb did not require a NB boost of more then .05v on my quad on many of the boards I have had it on....I think with 400fsb i was like .1v....445fsb on my E8400 i was like .15v. no active cooling on this one, but the copper heatsink and heatpipes seem to do very well...


If the power supply was flaky at 3.2ghz I would suspect at 3ghz with prime95 tested 4 cores it would fail....

have you tried anything between 3ghz and 3.2ghz? It is nice to see that as it could give us more signs of this being a limitation of some component.

 

[dwell]

I have a Q6600 G0 that won't even do 3.0 without 1.4v (BIOS). CPU-Z says it's 1.28 thanks to vdroop which I may address with a pencil mod, but for the life of me I don't see why 3.0 (333 * 9) needs such a high voltage. Tried all combinations of nbcore, VTT, PLL, etc and nothing matters unless the vcore is bumped.

Memory is 1:1 and solid in memtest so I have ruled that out. It's always core two that flops in Prime95.

Bum chip or is there anything else I can try?

OC log spreadsheet

 

[mrmeff]

I have my G0 Q6600 running at 3.4GHz stable.

FSB = 380 (9x)
CPU voltage = 1.35V
CPU PLL voltage = 1.5V
NB voltage = 1.25V

FSB:Memory @ 5:6
DRAM voltage = 2.00V

 

[Painman]

Originally posted by: goldcrow
I've been reading some other posts and it said I shouldn't get my NB up to 1.4v without active cooling. And to answer your question Duvie, I do have a VTT adjustment option, and my ram is running currently 400 with fsb at 333. I'm assuming the ram's still running at stock so I guess that isn't the problem. I'm not yet ready to give up yet on this chip.

Don't assume

On a P5Q when you up the FSB to 400, and you want to keep the RAM running at 1:1 DDR2-800 speed, you have to specifically select that speed. If you leave the RAM speed on Auto, the board will still try to run the RAM at something higher than 1:1 and that could cause all kinds of instability. At least that's what my P5Q Pro tries to do.

Not sure whether you're already specifically selecting 1:1 or not, but I wanted to point this out and make sure.

 

[dwell]

Well, installed a new Zalman cooler and did the pencil mod and was able to cut the vcore down to at least 1.35 (1.336 actual). So far, so good. Will let it run overnight then take the vcore down some more if it's stable.

Looks like I got a 1.3250 VID G0 Talk about bum luck, so this chip probably won't go past 3.2 without serious voltage. I am happy with 3.0 if I can keep it cool and get the vcore down even more.

Hardest OC I have ever had. I've had pretty good luck going all the way back to the Celeron 300a. Looks like this chip is my first problem child.

 

[goldcrow]

Ram is running at 801mhz so its at the stock specifications. Btw, I also tried getting the chip to 3.1ghz (345x9) but its still unstable with the same settings as I have with 3ghz (333x9). I tried 1.4v just for 3.2ghz and it was able to boot up but prime95 made it restart in just around 15 minutes of testing.

 

[Duvie]

using small FFT testing in prime? It uses less memory....better to isolate cpu errors at this point

Have you ran memtest on the ram regardless?

Reason I ask is for prime95 to restart from an error means overheating cpu or the restart is masked by the fact you had a BSOD which is usually more memory or timing related....I have had oc's when I will get hardware or rounding errors in less then 1 min. That is extremely flaky but it didn't reboot the system. You have other issues and I dont think it is the cpu . That is my opinion.

It is either
1) power issues (mobo or PSU)
2) ram (defective)

 

[F1shF4t]

Seems the 1.325 VID G0's are awful overclockers. I mean even my old B3 stepping has a VID of 1.3125.
A friend of mine got a G0 with VID of 1.325 early in 2007 and that needed 1.375 vcore to be stable at 3ghz. In comparison even my B3 does that at 1.325v.

Originally posted by: goldcrow
Ram is running at 801mhz so its at the stock specifications. Btw, I also tried getting the chip to 3.1ghz (345x9) but its still unstable with the same settings as I have with 3ghz (333x9). I tried 1.4v just for 3.2ghz and it was able to boot up but prime95 made it restart in just around 15 minutes of testing.

With 1:1 ratio and 333fsb ram should be 666mhz not 800. Did you make sure that it was not going above 800 when you tried for higher than 3ghz? Cause ram instability could do it.

Try 350 fsb with 1.4vcore and 1:1 ratio. Ram should be at 700mhz. You should not really need to up the NB voltage much. I'm running 450 fsb with stock NB voltage, or 1.2v can't remember. Also make sure the FSB strap is at 333. My P5Q deluxe would not boot at any other strap.

 

[goldcrow]

Sorry, to clarify I tried running ram at 1:1 with 400fsb to test 3.2ghz which failed. I will try running 350fsb with ram at 1:1 without any voltage changes to see if ram could be causing the problem.

Duvie, I do run prime95 small ffts to test my overclock beyond 3ghz and I noticed in the middle of the day with no ac, temps can reach 65c but doesn't touch the 70 mark. After a few minutes of testing, either a core fails or the system just restarts.

 

[dwell]

goldcrow: run memtest86 first to see if it passes. let it run a few passes too.

Looks like I am in the same boat as you with a 1.3250 VID Q6600. I am doing 3.0Ghz at 1.3v vcore. Might try to push it to 3.2Ghz today but not if I have to crank the vcore much higher.

 

[Drsignguy]

Of my 2 Q6600 chips, both have different Vids. 1.325v and 1.262v. In my sig, (op 4) is 1.325v and I have it at 1.4825v in bios to get it to 3.1Ghz stable. Ram is set to 1:1. I got it to 3.2Ghz but it required a bit over 1.5v to reach that so, I dropped it down to a much more comfortable 3.1Ghz and cooler temps! You will have to bump the voltage up to around 1.45+v reach over 3.0 with your chip. Nb was raised +1v.
I use Intel's burn test to see if stable at 20 mins. Then if all seems ok, I use prime for 8-12 hours for some longevity for stability and temps.