How to overclock a Q6600 with cheap memory?

[Gerr]

I have a Q6600 CPU (G0 stepping) with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro HSF on an Asus P5K-E mobo, but have 4GB of SmartData memory that really wasn't designed to be overclocked. How can I overclock my CPU to 3.0 or even 3.2 without pushing my memory that far? I presume Q6600's are multiplier locked and I can only OC by raising the FSB?

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Gerr
I have a Q6600 CPU (G0 stepping) with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro HSF on an Asus P5K-E mobo, but have 4GB of SmartData memory that really wasn't designed to be overclocked. How can I overclock my CPU to 3.0 or even 3.2 without pushing my memory that far? I presume Q6600's are multiplier locked and I can only OC by raising the FSB?

Even at a linked FSB of 1:1 @400MHz with DDR2 800 (PC6400) with a Q6600's stock multiplier of 9x would yield a clock speed of 3.6GHz. If you have DDR2 800 or better, no matter how cheap it was, you wouldn't need to OC your RAM at all. Worst case you could actually run the FSB faster than your RAM if your board allows for asynchronous FSB and RAM speeds. Typically though, RAM speeds are run faster than the FSB since 400+ MHz on the FSB is still largely a crapshoot with current chipsets while DDR2 800+ have been readily available for some time.

 

[Gerr]

CoreTemp reports that my CPU on a cheap ECS mobo is running 6x400 for the 2400 speed, or is it reporting it incorrectly or am I reading it wrong? I am getting the Asus mobo and AC HSF for Xmas, need to know what to do to overclock it.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Gerr
CoreTemp reports that my CPU on a cheap ECS mobo is running 6x400 for the 2400 speed, or is it reporting it incorrectly or am I reading it wrong? I am getting the Asus mobo and AC HSF for Xmas, need to know what to do to overclock it.

That's odd.... Maybe your BIOS somehow set the RAM speed to default then dropped your multiplier to hit the 2.4GHz but it should be 9 x 266MHz = 2.4GHz for a Q6600. Well, if its correct, then at least you know your FSB/RAM can handle 400MHz, at which point you'd only need to install the new cooler and see if your CPU can handle 3.6GHz.

Realistically though, I'd shoot for somewhere around 3.0-3.2GHz first with @350MHz FSB (with a G0 that's very reasonable), then go up from there. Could also do 400MHz FSB and drop the multiplier to 8x which would also give you 3.2GHz but a bit more performance with the faster FSB.

 

[Gerr]

I'll post a pic of my CoreTemp when I get home and let you decide whats going on.

Right now, I have the Q6600 on a cheap ECS mobo (from the Fry's $199 Q6600 Black Friday deal), and 2GB of OCZ Plantium Rev2 DDR2-800 running at 667, which is the max speed of memory on this ECS mobo. I just purchased 4GB of SmartData memory on a special sale from eWiz, but have not installed it yet. Waiting to get a new mobo and HSF before I try to OC as I don't trust ECS mobos for OC'ing.

CoreTemp is reporting fairly low temps at the moment, around 30*C idle on all 4 cores. Will have to stress test it some to get load temps. Will post a pic of that as well.

After doing some research, the AC Freezer 7 Pro is the best bang for the buck, only under preforming the $50+ coolers by a small amount, but costing less than half. Also going with the ASUS P5K-E as it has the best OC'ing ability with the features I want at a price I am willing to pay.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Do you have speedstep enabled? That drops your multiplier to 6x when your system is idle. But it seems to be running at stock speed...

 

[Gerr]

I don't know, but will look into it.

 

[Quiksilver]

Turn off EIST (Speed Step) and the multiplier will return to 9x.

 

[Gerr]

It was Speed Step causing the multiplier to lower to 6x, Core Temp just misread it as 6x400 where CPU-z says it's 9x266, which I presume is correct.

I stress tested my Q6600 with Prime95 v25.5 using the max heat setting. With a 70*F room, after an hour, I was at 52*C full load with stock Intel HSF! I think this means that once I get a new OC friendly mobo and the AC Freezer 7 Pro, I should easilly be able to hit 3.0, maybe even 3.2. Can't OC now as my crappy ECS mobo isn't OC friendly.

I presume those are good temps with a stock cooler? I have an Antec P160 case with 2x120mm fans set to low, so I have a good OC case.

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: Gerr
It was Speed Step causing the multiplier to lower to 6x, Core Temp just misread it as 6x400 where CPU-z says it's 6x266, which I presume is correct.

:< It should read 9x 266 which is stock. If your motherboard has C1E you will have to turn that off too I would imagine.