Intel P45 Chipset Overclocking & My Experience

[Gillbot]

I've heard through the rumor mill that the P45 chipset was a PIA to OC with, coming from P35 I found that hard to believe but alas, I took the plunge into P45 anyway and grabbed a MSI P45 Neo3-FR. If you care to see my initial progress and build info, it's cataloged here: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2208946&enterthread=y

Using my (now) trusty E8500, I had no problems with the P45 and pushing the FSB north of 500 to get a prime stable OC of 4.25GHz with 1.41v core and only minor tweaks to VTT and NB volts. Everything else was left untouched. Top FSB into windows (not tested prime stable) so far was 545fsb but being I run a set of Buffalo Firestix which are micron D9, I refuse to push the ram voltage past 2.1v so I think my ram crapped out before the mobo. Since I have no other ram, i'll never know what the true top limit is as i'm not willing to sacrifice my firestix for an all out FSB run.

I began to think all those P45 naysayers were full of bunk and the P45 was as easy to OC as the P35 chipset. Well, that brings me to today when I finally got the chance to properly mount my Q9450 and give it a run in the P45. All I can say is this thing is a PICKY sob with a quad in the socket!!! Nudge ANY voltage one bin up or down and it'll post fine but refuses to load windows. I've had it into windows at 3.7GHz but it will only prime for about 30 mins. Sadly, I got too tired of messing with the voltages to keep trying so I backed all voltages AUTO except Vcore at 1.2 and set the fsb to 400 just to get into windows and type this up. When they say overclocking the P45 is a blind art, BELIEVE IT!

With 1.35V core, Dram on 1.9v, MCH on auto, VTT on 1.3V and ICH on auto it'll run and prime fine for about 30 minutes. Touch any of those voltages one notch in either direction and it no longer loads windows at all. I've tried randomly running voltages up and down in an attempt to gain further stability but my efforts are futile. I'm gonna let her run at 3.2 for the time being and allow my frustrations to subside before I try to tweak further. It looks as though my prime stable 3.6GHz quad chip still manages to elude my grasp! :frown:

 

[Quiksilver]

I'm wondering if it is so picky because there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of mosfets around the cpu socket, looks like only 4 unless i'm missing something. IIRC that caused some problems on some 680i gigabyte boards...

 

[Sylvanas]

Yeah, Id try a little 40mm fan or something on the Mosfets and then try again. There is obviously something up since you know the board and chipse are more than capable of higher FSB's / voltage so one must see what has changed in the installation. On first glance, all that would have changed is a much more heavily loaded power circuit which is why the fan on the mosfet is a good idea. So are you saying that ANY voltage above stock causes instability? Even an increase in Dram Volts? It could be a flow on affect, you can;t post a higher Dram voltage because it needs a high Vmch to get stable in the first place due to added load (do a Prime95 with just those two settings increased) which requires a higher Vcore to post at a certain FSB (could it be an FSB 'hole' like before?).

 

[Gillbot]

I can tweak dram volts until i'm blue in the face, it has little to no effect. I can somewhat change vcore as well but changes in MCH, VTT and ICH are VERY hit and miss. Usually if you get into windows and can run prime for a short period of time, one more notch in voltage gets you stability. Not here, one notch up or down from previous setting in any of MCH, VTT or ICH will no longer allow the system to boot into windows at all. I just have REALLY bad luck with quads I guess.

I also have an 80MM fan blowing across my ram, NB and MOSFET sinks. I know the board can hit FSB's, I am not so sure it can hit FSB's with a QUAD. I know OC'ing duals and Quads are worlds apart but i've never seen anything so picky on voltages as this quad.

 

[Markfw]

I thought my E8400 was toast, until I got a new bios from ASUS, and changed the setting per N7 (mostly NB clock to 333).

At least the P5Q was a POS compared to my Gigabyte DS3R... So I sort of agree.

 

[Gillbot]

Heh, many were trying to talk me into trying the P5Q. I was thinking about grabbing one, maybe I should wait on that.

 

[Krogoth255]

Ahem, it is well-known that quad-cores rarely overclock as well as their dual-core counterparts. I suspect OP's CPU just cannot simply handle 3.7Ghz without issues.

If anything P45 should be more tolerant to higher FSB speeds and voltage boosts then P35. It is all thanks to its smaller fab process.

 

[Big Lar]

Originally posted by: Krogoth255
Ahem, it is well-known that quad-cores rarely overclock as well as their dual-core counterparts. I suspect OP's CPU just cannot simply handle 3.7Ghz without issues.

If anything P45 should be more tolerant to higher FSB speeds and voltage boosts then P35. It is all thanks to its smaller fab process.

He has a cherry picked chip there I believe. IMHO, its all about GTL's and NB voltage with the quads, IF they are going to OC well.

Larry

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: Big Lar

Originally posted by: Krogoth255
Ahem, it is well-known that quad-cores rarely overclock as well as their dual-core counterparts. I suspect OP's CPU just cannot simply handle 3.7Ghz without issues.

If anything P45 should be more tolerant to higher FSB speeds and voltage boosts then P35. It is all thanks to its smaller fab process.

He has a cherry picked chip there I believe. IMHO, its all about GTL's and NB voltage with the quads, IF they are going to OC well.

Larry

Yeah, I'm a n00b when it comes to quad OC'ing. I know this chip will RUN, I just need to dial it in. Hell, it nearly booted windows @ 500fsb x 8 multi with only a vcore bump to 1.4v.

 

[n7]

Right now, the best P45 boards to buy are the P5Qs.

Not sure i'd recommend MSI to anyone these days...they haven't been all that awesome for a long time.

Gigabytes are okay, but i want to pull my hair out every time i see their bioses...so unnecessarily convoluted.

P5Qs are easy to set up if you're a n00b & want a basic OC.

But if you start really tweaking, they have all the advanced options you need & more for getting that uber overclock.*

*GTL tweaking, etc. may be necessary

 

[Gillbot]

I picked the MSI because I prefer them, ask Aigo about my mobo luck. It is far less than stellar. "Junk" seems to treat me well and "top tier" treats me like a red headed step child.

The MSI was a gut purchase to run a C2D since my P35 Neo2-FR treated me so well, I thought i'd try it out. This C2Q was a suprise so i'm trying to make it work, I'm not buying yet another mobo just to have another quad let me down.

 

[nyker96]

I think you only had a single experience with one board, not sure you can generalize to all P45s thus far. There are also people on this forum who had some lousy experiences with P45s as well as P35s. I think right now, there are reports on both good and bad experiences with this chipset. Even site reviews is bit split from what I can see. So I think what's happening is, P45s needs a bit more time to mature to P35 level. Like BIOS tweaks etc before any conclusions could be drawn on this chipset as a whole.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Krogoth255
Ahem, it is well-known that quad-cores rarely overclock as well as their dual-core counterparts..

not when the loaner is from my cherry picked source.

:X

Gillbot is just a noob!
A good friend of mine, but a noobbbbbbbbbb~!

Gill, just be happy with wolfie. LOL...

 

[Gillbot]

I'll be happy with wolfie when he listens to me, otherwise he gets TORCHERED by my n00bness!

Originally posted by: nyker96
I think you only had a single experience with one board, not sure you can generalize to all P45s thus far.

I'm basing my "generalization" on what i've been reading from end users across all the sites I visit, plus intertwining my own experience based on other peoples' findings.

Generalization, Yes but not wholly based on one board.

 

[Homer Simpson]

just gonna add my 2 cents that p45 and quads arent all bad. got a gigabyte ep45-ds3r and q9450. clocked at 3.2 using stock everything except dram. my 1.8v rated dimms needed 1.9v for some reason even though the ram is running at 800mhz (and its ddr2-800). vdroop on this board is almost non-existant too. im happy.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Homer Simpson
just gonna add my 2 cents that p45 and quads arent all bad. got a gigabyte ep45-ds3r and q9450. clocked at 3.2 using stock everything except dram. my 1.8v rated dimms needed 1.9v for some reason even though the ram is running at 800mhz (and its ddr2-800). vdroop on this board is almost non-existant too. im happy.

Gillbot + Yorkfield or Kentsfield = Problem


I dont believe in people being jynx honestly. But after a 1 hour phone conversation with a high end chip + high end board = still not working.

ROFL... i seriously left it to his luck. I know he's having problems with GTL, however i dont know how to fix them. :

 

[ZX81]

I have mine tested and running 3.6 24/7 stable (Q9450)

I see others up to 3.8 on air, but needs more extreme settings / lots of tinkering

Follow the leads in this thread and it should be relatively easy for you (was quite long for me as I am new to overclocking)

Good luck!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...d.php?t=182602&page=36

 

[Gillbot]

My Q9450 runs 3.2GHz all stock settings easily but who can be happy with that? Especially considering I can get into windows at over 3.8GHz but I can't get it prime stable and it'll nearly load windows at 4.0GHz.

 

[n7]

Send me aigomorla's chip & i bet i'll have have it @ 3.6 GHz P95 stable without even touching GTLs

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: n7
Send me aigomorla's chip & i bet i'll have have it @ 3.6 GHz P95 stable without even touching GTLs

I could probably send this CPU to George Bush and he could get it stable at 3.6, :laugh:

 

[runawayprisoner]

Originally posted by: ZX81
I have mine tested and running 3.6 24/7 stable (Q9450)

I see others up to 3.8 on air, but needs more extreme settings / lots of tinkering

Follow the leads in this thread and it should be relatively easy for you (was quite long for me as I am new to overclocking)

Good luck!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...d.php?t=182602&page=36

Nope, 4GHz stable is possible.

And if any of you are feeling that Q9450 is too hard to clock, get a ASUS P5E-VM HDMI board.

Don't ask me why. I have no idea. It just clocks Q9450's really well. Beyond 475MHz (x8 multiplier) is childplay with that board. Over 500MHz requires a bit of modding, though...