High VID SLACR...doomed?

[Tetranode]

I just got a g0 revision q6600 in the mail from Newegg and the VID is 1.3250v...so I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to overclock this thing. I've been trying and I can't really do much with it to get it stable. I guess my question is how high is too high to put the voltage on one of these? I'd really like to get to 3.33 since that is where I was with my e6300 and it would be cool to at least stay at the same speed while doubling the cache and core count.

My system consists of a 965p ds3 rev 1.0 with the f13 bios, corsair 1.9v ram that ran at 475x2 on the e6300, and a scythe ninja with a silverstone fan.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[SolMiester]

What are you at now?......I have same VID and with that set manually are on 9 x 334. I haven't bothered to go higher....

 

[myocardia]

Welcome to anandtech. Yeah, the higher the VID, the less they overclock, it seems. But there are quite a few people around here with 1.325v VID's on their G0 Q6600's that have them running between 3.0 & 3.2 Ghz. If I remember correctly, the 965P chipsets don't like quads very much, compared to the P35's and P45's, at least as far as overclocking. Anyway, it's safe to give them up to 1.40v (in my opinion), though some people give them more. Does your BIOS give you the option to change CPU VTT?

 

[Tetranode]

If I do 9x334 it takes a lot of voltage to just hit Windows. I'm in Windows at 1.36 in cpuz. I'm trying to figure out how to get orthos on all 4 cores but it will only work on 2 so far.

I don't see VTT anywhere; don't think I have that setting. The only reason I got a q6600 was because I thought I could get some more use out of this motherboard, otherwise I would have gotten a yorkfield. If I can get to 3.2 at a reasonable voltage I'll be pretty happy.

My memory timings are 5-5-5-18 btw.

Edit: Prime95 errors out at 1.375 and 9x334. There must be something I'm missing here unless I just purchases the world's worst q6600.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Tetranode
Edit: Prime95 errors out at 1.375 and 9x334. There must be something I'm missing here unless I just purchases the world's worst q6600.

Originally posted by: myocardia
If I remember correctly, the 965P chipsets don't like quads very much, compared to the P35's and P45's, at least as far as overclocking.

Whether or not your CPU is crap will be hard to determine so long as you've got it on that 965.

I thought my QX6700 was a POS too until I moved off of my 680i Striker board to a nice X38 P5E board. Chipsets make all the difference in the world when trying to overclock your CPU by way of overclocking the FSB.

 

[Gillbot]

My old 1.325vid Q6600 ran 3.4GHz but I will tell you that it was a bear to get it stable there.

 

[Tetranode]

Oh, so it's the chipset, not the motherboard?

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Tetranode
Oh, so it's the chipset, not the motherboard?

It's both.

For example the 680i chipset itself is compatible with 45nm yorkfield quads, but the way the motherboards were made with the chipset caused such piss poor FSB signal quality that they wouldn't run a 45nm quad stable.

I do not know if the 965 chipset or mobo is the weakest link for overclocking FSB with quads, but it is a notoriously bad combination if high FSB overclocks are the goal.

Still doesn't tell you whether your G0 is any good for overclocking, but so long as you got it plugged into a 965 you should not be surprised at your OC'ing difficulty.

 

[Tetranode]

At what voltage would I want to stop and just get another motherboard?

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Tetranode
At what voltage would I want to stop and just get another motherboard?

Depends on your temps of course, but I wouldn't go north of 1.6V (Intel allows 1.5V for max VID) or north of 85C fully loaded.

If using air cooling then I doubt you'll get anywhere close to 1.6V while staying under 85C max.

 

[Tetranode]

Oh, I was concerned about going to 1.4V....I bet I could hit 3.2 then with some work.

 

[Idontcare]

Here is Intel's processor spec sheet for the SLACR Q6600 (aka G0):

http://processorfinder.intel.c...tails.aspx?sSpec=SLACR

Not the VID range goes to 1.5V. Going above this will cause more damage to your chip than staying below it.

All voltages cause chip damage, there is no such thing as a safe voltage, but less voltage always means more chip life.

The choice by Intel to stipulate that the max allowed is 1.5V is based on the desire for the chip to have an expectation of meeting a minimum lifespan that is the internal target. Well in excess of the lifespan you will likely operate the chip. So going above 1.5V by a notch is not expected to make a meaningful or practical reduction in lifespan.

The "stay below 1.4V" rule of thumb is for 45nm chips which have a max VID of 1.3625V (so 1.4V is just a notch or two above the max VID).

http://processorfinder.intel.c...tails.aspx?sSpec=SLB8W

But lifespan also depends on your temperatures in addition to operating voltage, so 1.6V might be OK at 60C but not OK at 80C whereas 1.5V is just fine at 80C but not OK at 100C, etc.

 

[Tetranode]

OK, thanks a lot for the information. I would realistically only expect to keep this cpu running for about a year, so I'm not concerned with decades here. One thing I'm wondering is if I should be raising the other voltages in BIOS. So far I haven't touched them.

As far as temps go, I should only be looking at Core Temp rather than the Gigabyte's utility, right?

 

[taltamir]

my Q6600 G0 SLACR is also 1.3250... while I had trouble getting above 3.3ghz, I was able to get 3.0ghz with an actual underclock (1.3125 bios setting, lower measured amount).

if you check my sig: Q6600 OC to 333fsbx9 for 3.0ghz, undervolted 1.26v idle /1.23v load (VID 1.325v, mobo setting 1.3125v)

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Tetranode
One thing I'm wondering is if I should be raising the other voltages in BIOS. So far I haven't touched them.

You probably need to raise your NB voltage, sometimes labeled FSB and other times MCH. I don't know much about the 965 generation of mobos as I skipped them entirely based in upgrading from s478 to LGA775.

But all mobos need their northbridge voltage bumped up if you want to get higher FSB out of it.

I recommend posting the question with your specific mobo details in the motherboard sub-forum here at anandtech, you'll get far more help than what I can provide.

Originally posted by: Tetranode
As far as temps go, I should only be looking at Core Temp rather than the Gigabyte's utility, right?

Exactly right.

 

[taltamir]

I found out on mine that raising other voltages was a mistake. I tracked my limitations to an overheating northbridge... rather then strap some cooling on it, I underclocked the ram (1:1 ratio while undervolthing) and lowered the CPU overclock to 3ghz and did some undervolting on it as well... (the undervolting was just to push it to its limits since my clock speed wouldn't go higher).
And the northbridge got a lot cooler.

 

[PepperBreath]

I never undervolted mine but I did overclock my Q6600 easily to 3.0ghz without increasing the voltage at all.

 

[Drsignguy]

Q6600 VID @ 1.325v OC @ 3.0 1.4v bios
Q6600 VID @ 1.262v OC @ 3.4 1.4375v bios


The first one is quite a bit harder to OC, the second, a breeze..

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: Drsignguy
Q6600 VID @ 1.325v OC @ 3.0 1.4v bios
Q6600 VID @ 1.262v OC @ 3.4 1.4375v bios

1.362?

 

[taltamir]

actually, considering he said the second one was a breeze to OC while the first one hard, i would say that it is probably right.

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: taltamir
actually, considering he said the second one was a breeze to OC while the first one hard, i would say that it is probably right.

I am right, The lower of the 2 was Oc on stock vid up to 3.1. After that just bumped the voltage a bit more to get to 3.2, a few more clicks and now sits at 3.4. It was way easier than my first Q6600 which still sits @ 3.0 for now.

And Jaredpace, my second Q6600 has a vid of 1.262. It just needed more voltage once past 3.2 to become stable.