Help me with my Q9550 and EP45-DS3L plz

[Ammocan]

My stuff:
GA-EP45-DS3L board
Q9550 cpu
G.Skill 4gb 2x2GB DDR2 1066 PC2 8500
Sunbeam Core Contact Cooler (what a beast to install) No room. :0
EVGA GTX 260 superclocked.

Memory is left stock settings.

I have read the sticy on overclocking but I still consider myself a big noob at superclocking. My past OC E6600 was simple, up the bus speed and with just a little over stock VCORE, I had 3.2 ghz. I was happy.

On this board and chip, I can't even go from 333 bus speed to 350 and get into 64 bit vista. BSOD.

I have booted up stock and tried the Easytune 6 program. I tried 340 and it appeared to work but within 10 seconds of running prime95 v25.6 I get errors. Anything larger then 342 at stock and it BSOD's.

I have no clue on what the max voltages can be besides the VCORE and I know max is 1.3625.

I tried 1.35 with bus speed of 350 and won't boot.

So... I'm stuck.

Please post some suggestions and I'll give them a try after work tomorrow.

Thanks.

 

[RussianSensation]

*Flash the board with the latest bios first*

1. Load optimized Defaults
2. Press Cntrl+F1 in the BIOS so you can get into Intelligent Overclocking settings.
3. Set all overclocking settings to Manual.
4. Fix PCIe to 100
5. Disable all power saving features such as 'C1' and 'EIST', Max CPU ID = 3, etc.
6. Set Ram: CPU FSB ratio to 1:1 (2.0 on Gigabyte boards)
7. Relax ram timings to 5-5-5-15 (set all other parameters to Auto) and up the voltage to 2.1-2.2V to isolate ram as the limiting component.
8. Up the northbridge 1.5V (+0.2V)
9. Up the cpu voltage to 1.40V
10. Set board timings to Normal (from Turbo for example)
11. Set lowest cpu multiplier 6x.

Now we are going to try to find maximum FSB/Memory speed.

6x333mhz FSB = 2.0ghz
6x400mhz FSB = 2.4ghz (should boot without any problems)
6x450mhz FSB = 2.7ghz (should boot without any problems) - Ram still at DDR2 900 (or DDR2 7200)
6x472mhz FSB = 2.83ghz (should boot without any problems) - Ram and CPU both within specs.

Now we know that your board can do 472mhz FSB with your quad.

So you are free to find your top cpu speed. Increase multiplier to 8.5 and off you go.

8.5 x 333 = 2.83ghz - stock
8.5 x 350 = 2.98ghz - etc.

Do this until either the cpu craps out (too hot, or require voltage beyond 1.40V) or you reach 472 mhz FSB (probably not )

Once you find your maximum cpu speed, test it with Prime95 or Orthos. Use CoreTemp 0.99 for temperatures and CPU-Z 1.46 for voltages. Then you can lower the northbridge voltage to say 1.4V or whatever is required for the system to be stable. You can then tighter the timings on the ram and/or lower the voltage from 2.2V. You might be able to lower the cpu voltage even more (i.e. if you need 1.40V to run at 3.8ghz but only 1.35V to run at 3.7ghz, then maybe going for 3.7ghz is the way to go).

Finally, download MemSet and set Performance Level to 8 for optimal northbridge timings/latency.

*Also make sure your heatsink is seated properly*

 

[Drsignguy]

Hello Ammocan,

I have the DS3R version and I have the Q9450 chip so I think I come close to what you may need for comparisons.

To get to my current Oc of 3.4, I had to lock the FSB @ 100mhz, Manually set my timings for my ram @ specs, adjusted the ram voltage from 1.9v to 2.0v ( I have geil and I can go to 2.1v ). Set the MCH and ICH to +1v.

Here is where It got a bit tricky, my vid on my chip is 1.2500v so, because of the vdroop of this board, I had to set my voltage to 1.31250v and the cpu termination to 1.60v from defaults of 2.00v. If I raised the cpu termination any higher than 1.60, I crashed. By lowering this it has become much better. I did a lot of rebooting because of this little gizmo.

I set the robust graphics to fast not AUTO. <---This helped. Adjusted the ram to standard and made sure i was 1:1 ratio.

This is still work in progress but it has been running stable for almost 5 days now and by checking cpu-z, my voltages drop to 1.232v - 1.264v. Temps are around 52c -60c ( using realtemp and adjusted TJmax to 100c ) depending on room temps.

 

[Ammocan]

Appreciate your informative responses and I'll work on it tonight. Cross your fingers.

 

[Golgatha]

Ok, weird. I just posted about my success with this motherboard on my new Q9550.

I've got everything set to Auto, except for the PCIe locked at 100Mhz and memory bumped to 1.9V. All power saving features are disabled. Only difference is that I have 8GB (4x2GB) of A-DATA DDR2 800 memory instead of the G-Skill you have.

I suppose my power supply is probably different too (mine is PC Power & Cooling 610w Silencer). What power supply are you running all this on?

 

[Ammocan]

Originally posted by: Golgatha
Ok, weird. I just posted about my success with this motherboard on my new Q9550.

I've got everything set to Auto, except for the PCIe locked at 100Mhz and memory bumped to 1.9V. All power saving features are disabled. Only difference is that I have 8GB (4x2GB) of A-DATA DDR2 800 memory instead of the G-Skill you have.

I suppose my power supply is probably different too (mine is PC Power & Cooling 610w Silencer). What power supply are you running all this on?

COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro RS-750-ACAA-A1 750W Power Supply Retail

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Ammocan

Originally posted by: Golgatha
Ok, weird. I just posted about my success with this motherboard on my new Q9550.

I've got everything set to Auto, except for the PCIe locked at 100Mhz and memory bumped to 1.9V. All power saving features are disabled. Only difference is that I have 8GB (4x2GB) of A-DATA DDR2 800 memory instead of the G-Skill you have.

I suppose my power supply is probably different too (mine is PC Power & Cooling 610w Silencer). What power supply are you running all this on?

COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro RS-750-ACAA-A1 750W Power Supply Retail

Good brand and plenty of power. Just make sure your system and graphics card are on different 12V rails. Also, make sure to give that G-Skill memory 2.1V. Finally, your Vcore for the CPU is a little high at 1.35V (1.3V is the max I'd try, but I don't try for 450Mhz FSB or better overclocks). I'd suggest 1.3V or less Vcore at 400Mhz FSB speed (I can get 3.4Ghz at stock voltage of 1.26V) for 3.4Ghz, and work your way up from there if you desire to.

 

[GundamF91]

Don't use the AUTO setting for your daily use. At least move some of your settings to manual, such as vCore, PLL, VTT, NB, and Memory. With Q9550, you should have no problem getting 8.5x350=3.0Ghz. In fact, you should be able to hit 8.5x400=3.4Ghz at around vCore of 1.25-1.30v. I have Q9450, and can hit 3.6Ghz using 1.272v (actual vCore). So use manual adjustments and slowly go up and you should do OK. Also, make sure you set up your memory right at the stock speeds.

 

[Ammocan]

Thanks, you guys are great. I have set everything as you stated, no more auto etc and am now running 3.4ghz at stock voltages. Just had one prime error after 20 mins so I might need to up some voltage. I'm happy.

Thanks for the great help.

Off to superpi my system.

 

[GundamF91]

Congrats on that. What's your stock voltage? Use CoreTemp and it'll tell you what it is. Then you can move it up and down to get better. I think you should hit 3.6ghz no problem. The only issue is heat when it comes to speed like that.

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: GundamF91
Congrats on that. What's your stock voltage? Use CoreTemp and it'll tell you what it is. Then you can move it up and down to get better. I think you should hit 3.6ghz no problem. The only issue is heat when it comes to speed like that.

+1 on this :thumbsup:

Now that you have got to this point, it's all about fine tuning. I am going through this as we speak and the plus is, I am droppong my vcore down, reducing heat and still very stable. Good luck to you!

 

[Ammocan]

Hmm, my superpi score is slooooow. 30 seconds for 1M

My e6600 was faster at 3.2ghz then this is at 3.4ghz.

Core: 3442.6Mhz Rated FSB 1620Mhz
Memory is 405Mhz 1:1 5,5,5,15


Any ideas?