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Getting a Q6600 stable at 3.2(400x8) specs listed

I

invazn

Junior Member
Hi guys, as this is my first post and i'm new to the forums, I would just like to offer my greetings to the gurus here 🙂 Hopefully i will be able to learn more from you guys and contribute to others in the future.

Ok problem here is as:

Current rig:
Q6600 G0 VID 1.3250
2x2GB Corsair Twin kit rated 2.1v 4-4-4-12-22
Asus P5Q PRO
Asus 650w PSU
HD 4870 @ 800/900
ThermalRight True Black 120 mounted with Scythe S-Flex Series

Current Voltages:

CPU ratio- 8.0
FSB- 400mhz
PCI freq- 100mhz
FSB strap to NB- 333
DRAM freq - DDR 801mhz
DRAM timing control- Auto at 5-5-5-18 cpuz (actual rated timings on rams are 4-4-4-12-22)
DRAM static read control- Disable
DRAM read training- Auto
MEM OC charger- Auto
Ai clock twister- Auto
AI transaction booster- Auto
CPU volt- 1.4315 V (in CPU-z it reads 1.416idle 1.424 load)
CPU PLL volt - 1.54
FSB termination voltage- 1.34
DRAM voltage- 2.1 V
NB voltage- 1.4 V
SB volt - 1.2v
PCIE sata volt- Auto
Load line calibration- enable
cpu spread spectum- disable
PCIE spread spectrum-disable
cpu clock skew - normal (previously was auto)
nb clock skew - normal (previously was auto)

Idle temps in real temp 38/35/32/32 in core temp +5 to all making it 43/40/37/37
Load remps in real temp prime95 small FFTs 56/55/53/53 in core temp +5 to all making it 61/60/58/58

At this settings, prime95 small FFTs ran stable for about 1h50mins b4 sudden rebooting of system. No BSOD nothing, just auto restart, anyone has any idea what might be the problem?

I've read in some forums that random restarts are most probably caused by stressed PSUs... However, I do believe that my Asus 650w is of good build and supplies enough power rite?

In HWMonitor, my 3.3V reads 3.30 and 12v reads 12.04 during prime95 stress test. Plus i have two 12cm 1900RPM fans, one 12cm 1600RPM and two 8cm 1600rpm fans running... Along with a power color 4870 as stated in my spec. 650w should be able to handle all these with no problems right?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
650w SHOULD be able to, yes. Assuming it isn't faulty.
Does the northbridge feel hot?

And is it stable at 399MHz FSB? or 398 etc.? If so, maybe you just found the optimal overclock.
61C in core is about as high as I would dare go personally.

Hope this helps, I'm no expert though
 
Welcome to the forums :beer:

What Peter said is more likely the case, quads don't typically like high fsb speeds, mine sure as hell didn't like going above 400. And you should also do what Ocguy said and give it just a little more voltage and see if that fixes the problem. If 395 or so is stable for you, then that would indicate that 400 is the limit that your board/chip want to go or it's a random hole that you might have to skip over.
 
Try using 9 multi and lower FSB. There should be almost no difference in performance and might be a lot more stable.
Your temps are fine, try testing it with linpack, that should heat up the chip 10+ C higher.

Whats the amperage of the 12V rail on that psu?
 
Ok guys thanks for the suggestions, rite now i'm going to reduce fsb by 1 mhz and see if it works. Are my NB voltages a tad high? My NB heatsink feels hot to the touch, but not scalding hot as I am still able to leave my finger there.

Transaction Booster has only 2 options, Auto and Manual, in which when i enable manual it asks me to enter a value while the other options are disabled. Is this what is meant by disabled?

Also the reason why I am trying to get a higher fsb is so that I can fully utilise my rams which are rated at 800Mhz...

EDIT: Sorry I don't quite know how to find out my amperage for my 12v rail.
I'm testing at 399x8 rite now... FSB at 1.32 and NB 1.38
Also, whenever i set transaction booster to manual with Performance level at 05 and the rest disabled. I can't POST.
 
As for the ram, you can just run at a different divider, depending on what your board offers.
For example, a 3:4 divider would have the cpu run based on the FSB and the RAM would work off the FSB + 33%, so a FSB of 300 with a 3:4 divider and 9x multi would have your Q6600 running at 2.7ghz and the ram running at 800mhz. Find the divider setting that you like the most/closest to each other (usually 5:6 or something).
 
Originally posted by: invazn
Ok guys thanks for the suggestions, rite now i'm going to reduce fsb by 1 mhz and see if it works. Are my NB voltages a tad high? My NB heatsink feels hot to the touch, but not scalding hot as I am still able to leave my finger there.

Transaction Booster has only 2 options, Auto and Manual, in which when i enable manual it asks me to enter a value while the other options are disabled. Is this what is meant by disabled?

Also the reason why I am trying to get a higher fsb is so that I can fully utilise my rams which are rated at 800Mhz...

EDIT: Sorry I don't quite know how to find out my amperage for my 12v rail.
I'm testing at 399x8 rite now... FSB at 1.32 and NB 1.38
Also, whenever i set transaction booster to manual with Performance level at 05 and the rest disabled. I can't POST.
Click to expand...

The amperage values should be on the psu label.
Also the performance difference between ram at 800mhz and 710mhz would be extremely small. Running a lower FSB would also reduce the stress on the chipset and allow to reduce the voltage.

Either way its up to you.

Other suggestion would be to set all the timings manually. I had a problem with using 4 ram sticks before I did that. I see that you are using two so it might not be an issue. Have you tried running memtest to test if ram in an issue?

 
Ok I'll do a check on the amperage in awhile. In the mean time I have tried 9x356 instead to hit 3.2... Rams running at 711, and i've also tightened the timings manually to 4-4-4-12(which is its rated timings)

I did run memtest at my old settings with rams @ 920 and FSB at 345 a week back... 7h no errors...
 
Ok at 9x356 I am able to run prime95 before it auto reboots. It is soooo frustrating because in the past when i used to OC with this board it doesn't usually reboot. What happens is it usually fails prime95 that's all, albeit within minutes.

However with these new settings i am able to last longer in prime95(2hours last run) but then it just suddenly reboots randomly... Can't really see where the problem is coming from... Just something weird though, on one of the reboots my GPU resetted BIOS, cuz froom the original setting of 800/900 it reverted back to stock clock of 780/925
 
Hows the southbridge temps?
A friend of mine had a mainboard which was unstable after a while cause the southbridge overheated. After we put a bigger heatsink he no longer had any issues.
The p5q pro has a small heatsink there so it would be worth checking.
 
Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake
Hows the southbridge temps?
A friend of mine had a mainboard which was unstable after a while cause the southbridge overheated. After we put a bigger heatsink he no longer had any issues.
The p5q pro has a small heatsink there so it would be worth checking.
Click to expand...

Ok i'll be checking that once i get home. In fact i just bought 2 coolermaster 90CFM/15dba fans and i'll be using them both for my true, then i'll be transferring the scythe to either the side panel(so that it will be blowing intake air onto the mobo) or i was thinking of mounting it at the space optical drive bays to suck air into my rig.

So the random restarts are most probably caused by overheating of certain components?
 
I'd start off noting your Vcore seems awfully high for 3.2GHz but your chip VID is also pretty high. What's your Common Performance Level set at for RAM settings? Try setting it higher, say 11 or 12 and see if that improves stability. Not sure what I have for various voltages, but most of those look OK. FSB Term voltage seems a bit low and NB voltage seems very high for only ~400MHz FSB.
 
try running the AI Clock Twister at light or lighter and set Transaction Booster (aka tRD) to 9 or 10. leave your FSB strap on auto, that way you arent limited to the 4 speeds associated with that particular strap. if left on auto, you can select from all of the available speeds from each strap level. its makes for less stuff to set in BIOS. you probably wont need 1.4v to NB with a 400 FSB, i bet you could get away with 1.37v, possibly 1.35v.
 
And what kind of tape do you suggest i use... I'm thinking something which can withstand high heat right? Any particular material?

EDIT: I just did a little research and apprantly the tape mod is mostly for people with branded rigs which come with sucky intel boards... So what i've did instead is flashed my bios with a modded on and hope for the best.. on prime95 now..
 
You don't need to do a tape mod for this mbrd.

Originally posted by: invazn
Ok guys thanks for the suggestions, rite now i'm going to reduce fsb by 1 mhz and see if it works. Are my NB voltages a tad high? My NB heatsink feels hot to the touch, but not scalding hot as I am still able to leave my finger there.

Transaction Booster has only 2 options, Auto and Manual, in which when i enable manual it asks me to enter a value while the other options are disabled. Is this what is meant by disabled?

Also the reason why I am trying to get a higher fsb is so that I can fully utilise my rams which are rated at 800Mhz...

EDIT: Sorry I don't quite know how to find out my amperage for my 12v rail.
I'm testing at 399x8 rite now... FSB at 1.32 and NB 1.38
Also, whenever i set transaction booster to manual with Performance level at 05 and the rest disabled. I can't POST.
Click to expand...
lol, not surprsing 😉, despite what's been said leave it on auto for now, when you've sorted out your stabilty problem then you can try lower settings.
On my my P5Q Pro at 372 MHz FSB I've so far been able to lower it from 10 down to 7.
Transaction Booster is another name for tRD btw.

As far as your PSU goes as long as it is not faulty it will be plenty powerful enough.
My rig has a Q6600 @3.35 GHz, 2 GB RAM, HD 4830, 2x HDDs, P5Q Pro with an Antec TPII 430, max power draw from the wall when all 4 cores & the GPU is loaded is 310w which is still well within the abilities of my PSU.
Oh btw don't trust bios/windows voltage readings, they are often inaccurate. If you really want to know what the voltages are you need to use a multi meter.

Regarding the P5Q voltages on the base & auto settings they tend to heavily & unnecessarily over volt, check out my thread regarding this.. I've used a DMM to measure various voltages.

I've no problems with SB temps, so seeing as you're running at a lower FSB I highly doubt that's the problem (assuming you have decent case cooling?).

Your NB maybe overheating because of the very high voltage setting you've chosen for it, seeing as you're down to 356 MHz (is that right?) try lowering it right down to 1.12v (that's what mine is on & I'm at 372 MHz FSB), setting it 1 above the min will actually give you the lowest voltage possible (despite what the bios says!, confirmed with DMM).

As has been said leave your FSB strap to auto.
Manually set your vDIMM voltage to 0.05v below it's rated voltage (the P5Q Pro, & probably the rest, over-volt the RAM by 0.05-0.1v), assuming your RAM isn't o/ced.

Your CPU vcore is rather high, did testing show you need that much or was it just a guess?😉, & same for FSB Term?
As for the 2 clock skews TBH I've no idea what they do 😱, but on my rig anyway I've left them on auto.
Your CPU temps were fine btw.

As for the modded bios, you may want to use it latter but unless it directly addresses a RAM compatibilty issue for you I suggest you leave it alone until you have sorted out the stabilty problem, rather than using to sort out an unstable overclock.

Hope this helps, & keep us posted.
 
Ok updated latest voltages as shown. Been running prime for 12 hours 5 mins no errors, however, at the 12 hour mark worker 1 sort of "hanged" at a particular test(not moving), but didn't show or detect any errors. The other 3 workers(especially worker 4 which was giving me alot of problems initially) worked fine. Might be a problem with prime95 i reckon?

Current Voltages:

CPU ratio- 8.0
FSB- 400mhz
PCI freq- 100mhz
FSB strap to NB- Auto
DRAM freq - DDR 801mhz
DRAM timing control- Manually set to 4-4-4-12
DRAM static read control- Disable
DRAM read training- Auto
MEM OC charger- Enabled
Ai clock twister- Auto
AI transaction booster- Manual(tRD set to 12, the rest disabled)
CPU volt- 1.438 V (in CPU-z it reads 1.416idle 1.438 load)
CPU GTL - Auto
CPU PLL volt - 1.6
FSB termination voltage- 1.34
DRAM voltage- 2.04 V
NB voltage- 1.28 V
SB volt - 1.2v
PCIE sata volt- Auto
Load line calibration- enable
cpu spread spectum- disable
PCIE spread spectrum-disable
cpu clock skew - 500ps (previously was auto)
nb clock skew - normal (previously was auto)

Overall temps increased by about 1-2C
 
No it won't be a problem with Prime95, it's solid, afraid it's your rig tripping up 😉.

Did you have to up the vcore to get it to pass in prime for longer?
Your vcore is getting a bit towards the high side that's all.

MEM OC charger- Enabled

I think you should turn that off (auto?) for now, you don't want to be adding more variables. I don't believe anyone here said to enable it?

Also did you try the suggestion of bumping up the FSB a little? (say 405 MHz FSB), incase you have a FSB hole.
 
Yes I had to get it up 1 more notch, otherwise it was always failing after 2-3 hours in prime95. But after the latest bump in vcore, it went 12 hours 5 mins.

Now disabling OC charger and running another 12 hours to see if problem would repeat itself. I reckon even if it does, i would say that 12 hours on 100% load b4 an error shows up is good enough for me.

I've passed both IBT(6 runs) and OCCT(2Hours), its always prime that gives me problems...

Regarding FSB, I tried lowering it to 399 instead but still it showed an error at 1.4317... That was what lead me to conclude that my chip might simply be a power hungry one...

However, I read on loads of forums that even 1.5v is ok for a 65nm right? As long as my temps are fine, can I keep my current settings(1.438) for a 24/7 system?

EDIT: By the way I also lowered my NB down to 1.24 despite having a 400Mhz FSB, I was afraid of it overheating and rebooting my system again.
 
Looks like you're just about there! fortunately you have a widely understood/widely used board. But yeah, your temps look good and I believe the maximum safe voltage on those chips is 1.5V. Of course after a certain point temps and cooling become an issue. But you're doing well.
 
Just as an input to this thread, I have 2 Q6600's and each have a different Vid. 1.262v and 1.325v. The Higher of the 2 is set at 3.1Ghz and the vcore is at 1.4750v and stable. I could get it to 3.2Ghz but the voltage getting there was over 1.5 and didn't want to do that. The lower Vid of the 2 is at 3.3Ghz. So, to sum it up, since you have a high Vid, I would suggest trying 3.1 Ghz and your voltages will stay below 1.5v and your temps are comfortable. Just a thought. 😉
 
Thanks for the comparison there with different VIDs, I do understand that my chip runs on pretty high vcore... However, what is bugging me is the random restarts which I do not understand. If there isn't enough voltage going to the cpu, wouldn't it just fail prime? At first we thought it was the NB heating up, but then rite now at 1.22, it stills reboots after 8 hours of prime(twice) so far... so now i am beginning to wonder if it is my rams... lowered the ram voltage to 2.04 rite now.... Also, i upped the FSB to 405 in case there was a FSB hole...
 
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