I would like to OC my Q6600.

[Krynj]

Firstly, sorry for posting another thread about overclocking a Q6600.

Secondly, though I'm not new to system building, I am relatively new to overclocking. I've just built an entirely new rig (upgraded from a p4 3ghz with 1gb RAM), and I've heard/read about the countless people that are overclocking their 6600s. Quite the performance gains seemed really intriguing. So, alas, I saved up for a bit, and then went to Microcenter last night and got some new gear.

Anyway, I've read some of the OCing for n00bs threads, but I was hoping that if I posted my specs, maybe somebody here could help me get started, rather than doing this all by myself.

CPU: Q6600 (which I assume as G0 stepping, as the box says SLACR at the end of product number).
Board: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L
RAM: 4gb G.Skill DDR2 800 CL5-5-5-15 (1.8-1.9v)
PSU: Xigmatek NRP 650watt.
Heatsink: OCZ Vendetta 2
Case: Antec 1200

Again, I figured it wouldn't hurt to make a thread to see if anybody else has used the same board, and perhaps could help me get started with this. Thanks in advance.

 

[Acanthus]

It looks like you made some good purchases on the gear

As for overclocking, the 1st thing to do is set all speed and voltage settings to manual in the bios. This prevents the motherboard from doing anything you dont specifically tell it to do. (gigabyte boards like to feed way way too much voltage)

With the Vendetta 2 you should have no problem bumping up to about 3.3GHz without deviating far from stock voltage.

Personally i would try 333x9 for 3ghz and work up from there. The biggest noobie mistake is overclocking the ram as well as the CPU by not changing the memory ratio, make sure you keep it under your stock 800mhz DDR (even if you got it to work faster, the performance gains on overclocking ram suck anyway).

I would try 333x9 with 1.4 for the cpu voltage, you shouldnt need to adjust any other voltages at this setting so its an easy tweak.

 

[Krynj]

Thanks very much.

Ok. Just changed some BIOS settings. Take a look at these pictures I snapped with my phone:

Here's what I got after doing what you suggested. Just changing the multiplier.
http://i23.photobucket.com/alb...uscakemix/IMG00616.jpg

And right here I was getting some messages saying: "System voltage not optimized!! Warning, CPU may be damaged, or reduce CPU life cycle when CPU is over Voltage"
http://i23.photobucket.com/alb...uscakemix/IMG00617.jpg

And can't really argue with this kind of simplicity, heh.
http://i23.photobucket.com/alb...uscakemix/IMG00618.jpg

Anyway, are those voltage messages just default messages that come up when you adjust them manually? Or was something going wrong?

 

[TaylorTech]

I think that's a standard message from Gigabyte basically warning the user their voltage is higher than normal.

 

[Acanthus]

The last one is just telling you in bad english what the menu you are hovering on does.

As for your setup, the voltage is perfectly safe, when you set it to anything other than the default manually it will give you that message. Its to cover gigabytes butt if you set it to like 1.7v or something and cook your cpu.

The settings you have are okay, except that you want to take "system memory multiplier" off of "auto" and change it to a setting that will get as close as possible but not over 800 for "memory frequency". There should be a setting that will give you 800 at 333MHz for the host frequency.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: FetusCakeMix
Thanks very much.

Ok. Just changed some BIOS settings. Take a look at these pictures I snapped with my phone:

Here's what I got after doing what you suggested. Just changing the multiplier.
http://i23.photobucket.com/alb...uscakemix/IMG00616.jpg

System Memory Multipler [Auto] => Set to 2.0 (this means 1:1 FSB:RAM ratio => i.e. 800FSB = DDR2 => 400 x 9 speeds). With this setting 333 x 9 will give you DDR2 667 which is what we want to start.

Right now your memory is already at 1000mhz....so what you need to do is remove memory as the limiting factor until you figure out top cpu speed. (Note: since your memory has already shown to do 1000mhz, we know it won't limit your cpu overclock )

Change from Turbo to Normal for now (you can tweak that later) until you reach optimal speeds.

And right here I was getting some messages saying: "System voltage not optimized!! Warning, CPU may be damaged, or reduce CPU life cycle when CPU is over Voltage"
http://i23.photobucket.com/alb...uscakemix/IMG00617.jpg

1.4000V at 3.0ghz is a lot. Mine boots into windows with 1.32 at 3.0ghz and 3.4ghz at 1.3875V. Try lowering it or bump up the FSB to 3.2ghz - 3.4ghz cpu speeds to see if it's stable.

Also check your CPU VID with CoreTemp.

 

[Krynj]

So if I wanted to go higher than 3ghz, would I have to up the voltage at all. What is a safe speed to take this chip to with the setup that I have?

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: FetusCakeMix
So if I wanted to go higher than 3ghz, would I have to up the voltage at all. What is a safe speed to take this chip to with the setup that I have?

You cant damage a chip by increasing its speed.

You can only damage it by increasing the voltage to unsafe levels, or through heat.

So the safe speed for the chip is "as fast as you can get it to go with safe heat and voltage".

Safe heat for a Q6600 in my humble opinion - 65C at full load
Safe voltage for a Q6600 in my humble opinion - 1.45v (yes, im pushing it on my setup)

To go higher than 3GHz you may need to add voltage, but what id do is as russiansensation said above, set the memory to the slowest speed possible to eliminate it as a factor in your cpu overclock.

Then step up in small increments from 300, say 10 or so at a time, and run a program like OCCT to test for stability and watch your temps.

So you can run OCCT at 310 if it passes go to 320 and run again.

When it fails, if your load temps when OCCT is running didnt exceed the safe mark (65C), then you can bump up the voltage a notch in the BIOS and run OCCT again.

When this process fails, youve reached the limit of your CPU/Motherboard/Cooling combo.

 

[Krynj]

Am I going to greatly reduce the life of the CPU by OCing it?

 

[firewolfsm]

Yes, from 20 years to 10, it doesn't really matter.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: FetusCakeMix
Am I going to greatly reduce the life of the CPU by OCing it?

Not by any measurable degree, as wifrewolfsm said.

By the time the CPU dies, itll be worth about $2, and thats if theyve developed a way to recycle the precious metals in it by then

 

[OSWiz]

I have same chip, Intel recommends: max VID = 1.5, max temp 71C. I've found no benefit memory bandwidth-wise nor max CPU speed in lowering the multiplier. North bridge and CPU voltage and CPU temp are your limiting factors. With great cooling you can easily get to 3.6 (9 x 400) or higher.

 

[GundamF91]

Stay below the official INTEL limit, which is 1.5 VID. and you should be fine.