Good Baseline To Start OC EP45UD3P & Q6600

[Dragon41673]

Hello,

Just have a quick question for anyone that may know. I've swapped out my motherboard, and I want to re-OC my Q6600 (G0 Stepping). I'm going from an Asus Striker Extreme, to the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P. Rest of specs are below...

I was originally at 3.2mhz stable on air, never really pushed it beyond that on the Asus.

Does anyone have a good baseline to start with to get near what I had, or any experience w/this combo on what not to do? I've only OC'd 3 rigs before, so I'm not a noob...but at the same time I'm not THAT experienced.

I know that I need to run Prime95 for testing, and to start off by bumping up little by little on the multiplier, but what I'm looking for is an overall BIOS setting that would be a good starting point. Also, like on my Asus board, I was always told to run the memory unlinked...I take it the same would be on this board as well?

I do realize everyone's setup will be slightly different then mine, but I would apprecaite any help, especially with anything to avoid on this board as it will be my first Gigabyte OC. The Asus setup I had was rock solid...so here's crossing my fingers on the same with this newer board.

Thanks to anyone that helps!
D

 

[superccs]

start by dumping the memory divider to the lowest setting, then up the FSB by 10-15 mhz until the pc no longer boots at stock voltage. Go to last good FSB speed and run a prime85 test for an hour or so. (prime95 is an app which loads the cores to 100%, available online free). If all cores run stable and don' crash during prime. You are really close to being done. Put your memory divider to a ratio that is within their rated speed range.

Alternatively you can go back to that FSB speed that wouldn't boot or load windows and up the voltage a little to see if you can get the CPU stable at that speed. This is where damaging your processor is possible so only increase the voltage 0.1-0.2V, and keep an eye on temps.

Thats the basic outline I use, comments and other suggestions may help as well.

Good Luck.

 

[Dragon41673]

I apologize, I guess I came off a little noobish then I really am, I've edited my post but definitely apprecaite the help superccs

 

[Sp12]

Same combo here

First off, get something more intense than Prime. I was prime stable for like 26 hours but then would Crash in game. I personally use Linx for 10 loops on max.

I advise against voltmods, but if you want to reach higher clocks it's necessary. Temperatures above 71 are too high for a G0 chip.

 

[zagood]

Start with the "Overclocking your C2D" sticky thread, there's some really good stuff in there even if you're familiar with the basics.

Q6600 can take a lot of voltage, can put out a lot of heat though too. Just keep an eye on temps even with the TRUE.

Find the max FSB speed...lower the multiplier to 6x and tweak the FSB until you max out, then increase the MCH voltages until you max out again.

My everyday OC is 3.4ghz (8x425) at 1.375v. 333 strap, 400mhz ram (2.00B I think), 4-4-4-15, 2.0v DDR, I'd have to check on MCH but I think it's just .1v above stock.

Some helpful links:

http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/415077-gigabyte-ep45-ud3-series-owners-guide.html

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=282506