*** MSI P6N SLI Platinum OVERCLOCK 650i ***

[iluv2fly]

Thanks for the info!

I looked at your suggestions and then I decided to go for a new rig. I will let you know if there is a difference

 

[DjC]

I'm glad this thread is still alive. I just flashed my P6N with the latest firmware... after it was completed, I restarted the computer.... now its just a black screen.

Any suggestions?

 

[iluv2fly]

I swapped my E4300 for an E8500 with the same overclock settings in the bios. The diffrence in 3dmark06 was 2160 points

 

[WT]

Should have posted this a month ago, but I've updated my MSI rig to be my Vista 64 testbed system. Only a meager 4gb of RAM at this point, but planning on going to 8. I also wanted to shoot for 3.6 with my e6600. I managed to get to 3.45 stable, but again, I haven't pumped up any of the voltage numbers like I could. I'll take 100% stability over a monster overclock that acts flaky any day of the week.

With the addition of two 9600GSO cards, this rig pummels my main rig, scoring over 14k in 3dmark06, so until I retire my current 8800GTS card the testbed rig is faster than the main rig by a good bit. Over in the 'Motherboards' section there's a thread stared asking for a cheap SLI board so I recommended the P6N. I even found them for $46 at Geeks.com, but its some sort of bastardized OEM board that does NOT support SLI, as well as offering up a generic SB heatsink.

 

[Assimilator1]

Looks like this mbrd will never officially support the Yorkfield Q series ,anyone tried it anyway?

Not a problem for me as I've since upgraded to an Asus P5Q Pro (Intel P45), I gotta say overclocking the same Q6600 was much easier on the P5Q, & so far I've had it upto 3.4GHz whereas with the P6N I couldn't get it over 3GHz without maxing out chipset voltages.

[edit]Opps, delayed replie!!, somehow I lost the sub to this thread.

Originally posted by: Excal
well i wanna get to 3.6 need 1600Fsb with 9X mulitiplier i know this is possible well i think it is to run 100% stable at 3.6 you think upping my VTT say 0% to about 6% or 10% it might stablize?

How do you know you chip will do 3.6GHz?

Originally posted by: Puffnstuff
Have any of you guys who switched from an e6400 to a q6600 had any issues? I swapped yesterday and I've seen weird stuff even running at stock speeds. I've had real issues with playing source games and even crysis since installing the q6600.

Nope I didn't

toekneeb80
For the most part you can't just copy someone elses settings, even within the same model each CPU & mbrd may want different voltages etc.

DjC
Did you get it going again?

 

[WT]

I bought the Q6700 under the assumption that when I retire that chip from the eVGA 750 board, I can move it to the P6N, but it seems like nearly everyone that's changed from dual to quad on this board is less than impressed (with the overclock percentage, at least). I almost wish I would have passed on the 750i, since it isn't that much better than the MSI for the games that I play.

Being my first foray into the SLI world (my 7950gx2 doesn't count), I am both impressed and bummed. Impressed at the physical look of the entire lower part of the case being filled with big honkin' heatsinks on big honkin' video cards, but bummed that the SLI scaling isn't a bit better than what I would guess to be a 32-35% improvement. Either way, I'm keeping this MSI for quite some time.

 

[Assimilator1]

I never had any intention to use the SLI on my P6N , I only got the SLI version as the solid caps & better cooling on it gave a better chance for overclocking.

Re quads, yea I guess that same factor somehow accounts for the Yorkfields not being supported.:thumbsdown:

 

[ugzz]

So i re-vamped my system and so far, while this is totally an improvement im not as happy as i could be..

im running an e8500, but i cant seem to break 1500 in the bios, stock is 1333=3.16ghz. Currently im at 1500=3.56.
This is a crap OC, i had my 1.8 e4300 @ 3.25 after some tweaks as per my post back a page. 375fsb is not that much over 333, i know this can go Way higher, my load temps are only around ~41c

anyone else hit a wall around here with these new procs? i tried upping the vtt as per some recommends around the net, also tried crankin the HELL out of the voltage.. i went up as high as .1 and i took the vtt up to %12. still can't get anything to post beyond 1500. tried some small steps, like 1525, and some leaps such as 1600/1650/1700 and nothing will post..

is there something im missing? anyone else get over 1500 (375fsb) with the newer chips?
bios is 1.7, i read i should update before attempting the e8500.

 

[Assimilator1]

That load temp doesn't look right (too low), unless you've got water cooling?, where did you get that reading from?

Have you tried increasing the NBv?
Have you got the fan on the NB?

Btw don't forget that your E4300 was at the bottom end of clock speeds for that C2Ds so it had a lot of headroom, your E8500 is much further up so don't expect the same % o/c, having said that IIRC they often hit 4GHz or near.

I've not tried an E8xxx chip in the P6N but the E6420 I had was limited by the mbrd not being able to go over 400MHz (1600FSB), I only had to put CPU vcore up 1 step at that speed.

Keep us posted.

 

[ugzz]

oK, well ive been running orthos for the last 6.5 hours. and heres what i got.
Stable overnight @ 3.56. FSB 1500 (375). MAx temp is 46c under load.
only bios change is to bump the fsb and i have .250 on the cpu voltage, everything else is stock.
No watercooling, but i do have a thermalright hr 01, but it am NOT using it as a passive cooler, i have a high cfm 120mm strapped to it . it honestly runs cooler than my friends all in one watercooling system by 1-2c


anyway.. im still stuck, i havnt tried the NB, and while i dont have the fan i have the antec 900 case, so my airflow over it is great. ive boosted it before while oc and havnt had any trouble. i have some headroom and will fore sure take that recommend and try some settings.

i didnt go mht by mht, but ive narrowed the wall to between 1510 (377) and 1525 (381). nothing higher will work, even tried lowering the multiplier way down and trying settings such as 2000 (500) etc. its like absolutely nothing will post@ 1525 or up.

also found a thread on tomsHware where someone has a 7xxx chip and they run a 400 fsb n/p. and their cooler wasnt as good as mine. their temps were in the 70s. so it shouldnt be the chip, im thinkin its gotta be the bored somehow..

 

[Assimilator1]

Yea it's very likely the board , though you can't be 100% sure the chip hasn't reached its limits. It's fair to assume for now it's a mbrd FSB issue though.

Somewhere deep in this thread I mentioned that I couldn't go much over 300MHz FSB (ish) ,IIRC, without upping the North Bridge voltage, & other people have found the same.

To get even near to 400MHz FSB you must increase NBv & even with good case flow I still think you need the fan screwed directly onto the NB HS, you could just check how hot it's getting running Orthos (hand or Laser therm) to get some idea. I fitted the fan to mine, although I slowed it down to 4k RPM from its ridiculous 8k RPM def speed & it still cooled fine & was much quieter.

Start your FSB at 1510 (you can boot at that right?), knock the NBv up 1 step & then stabilty test it with Orthos, you'll probably find that knocking the NBv up 1 or 2 steps will allow you to hit a higher FSB too.
You may need a higher then default VTT too, but try out each seperatley. You may find once you've hit your sweet spot for FSB/NBv/VTT that you could lower CPU vcore, just test one a time though.

What mbrd was the guy from THG running?
What program are you using to measure CPU temps?

Btw what's mht?

 

[ugzz]

heh mht was my made up abbreviation for the singular of mhz.
yes.. "board".. second grade spelling is all coming back to me now lol.

well you nailed it, its the NB, and i do not have the fan. i never got it in the box. i called msi and bitched and they sent me one, but without the mount, so i couldn't use it anyway.

i have to CRUSH the NB to get anything. it took me 1.35 to get 1550 stable. and 1.4 to get 1575 stable. I *Really* don't want to go over 1.4 without a fan, and even still thats high. i also read that the recommended vcore max on these is way up at 1.46. im at 1.3 now and i thought that was high. as you said, i can most likely bring down the vcore now that i realize its the NB that was stopping me. I can get into vista with 1.5NB @ FSB1600 (400), but i didnt want to run it that high, i can post at 1.4NB, but vista only loads 1/2 way and stops.. ah well. guess im boned unless i figure something else out, or msi hits us with another bios release that makes things better.

the other guy with the 7xxx chip didnt post his board, not that i saw anyway

just for referance before i even read your reply, i actually did go 1 by 1 step with NBv, VTT, FSB. i was trying to avoid it as with the e4300 and my last two amd chips prior i just went in jumps. heh ive been OCing chips since the 100mhz barrior was broken way back when, so i guess i get cocky and don't try things out the long way at first.

*edit: i am pretty confused as to why the NB has to keep getting more voltage for such small increases though, i have not seen such behavior before

 

[deamer44]

would this be the same for my nforce 650i board?

 

[Assimilator1]

Your EVGA mbrd? maybe, I've no idea really. What have you tried? what's your problem?

ugzz
Sounds like you've been overclocking for longer than I have, my 1st o/c was a Pentium 200MMX @225 MHz. Of course overclocking was much more basic in those days with just vcore & FSB to mess about with .

Its seems the P6Ns limit is around 400 MHz with dual cores which is a fairly modest FSB, it's much worse with a quad core. I couldn't go over 333MHz without maxing out the VTT & NB voltage (that's a very poor FSB!), which I didn't want to do.
Hence I got an Asus Intel P45 chipset which flew to 372 MHz without any effort , currently the CPU cooling is the limiting factor. Though I have no idea what the chipset voltages are as they are set automatically & they're not reported in the bios in the P5Q :frown: (the only thing I don't like about it).

What a PITA they didn't send you the fan!, did you buy the mbrd new?
The guy from THG may well of had a mbrd with a different chipset or even just a different mbrd, can make all the difference.

Btw what program are you using to measure CPU temps?

Seeing as the def NB voltage is 1.25v I wouldn't be happy go over 1.4v either, even with a fan, I don't like increasing voltage on anything more than about 10% as a rough rule of thumb (especially as my CPU is 100% loaded 24/7).
Looking through my notes (too many variables to remember ) on o/cing the E6420 I had tried to go beyond 406MHz but gave up in the end, as even with 1.45 NBv (with fan), +4% VTT & + 0.05 vcore I still couldn't get it stable at 1675FSB (419 MHz, 3.35 GHz). Maybe I could of got it stable with more VTT voltage but I felt the increased heat & significantly increased power useage for another 5% CPU clock just wasn't worth it. Inccidently I set it to 1600FSB/400MHz in the end so I could have the RAM/FSB ratio at 1:1 without ramping up chipset/RAM voltages too much.

Talking of NB temps I did some measuring with my laser thermometer with & without a fan.
Without a fan at 1550 FSB, 1.275 NBv I was getting 55C which is already pretty warm!, IIRC that was measured whilst sat in the bios screen (couldn't get to windows at those settings without a fan), so it wasn't at full load. When I added a fan I was able to get to windows & then run a quick 8min Prime 95 test before I went to higher settings.
Inccidently the fan I added at 1st wasn't the MSI one, I suspended a 60mm AMD CPU fan over the NB HS using cable ties! , (it was much quieter than the MSI one at default speed).
Anyway, with that fan ,1625 FSB, NBv at 1.35 or 1.4v (not sure which), ATI tool loading the GPU & DPAD loading the 2nd core NB temp was ~43.7C.
Definitely fit a fan anyway, lower temps & it'll allow higher FSB speeds .

As you see I also had to ramp up NBv alot as I approached 1600 FSB, a limitation of the chipset or the mbrd I think.

..... woah that was a long post! :Q

 

[iluv2fly]

I agree with Assimilator1 post above. The NB needs good cooling to overclock well. That and to disable the hidden C1E Bios feature inside the CPU feature Menu increased my overclock a lot. If you haven't already, look at post #1 for helpful bios settings.

 

[ugzz]

assimilator, i was using the latest coretemp, as i found on other forums with some of the new chips it is accurate and with others it is not. I got lucky as my temps matched the general public that listed it was accurate. Apparently there is a tweak somewhere that if yours is inaccurate that fixed it as well, but i didnt have to worry about that.

iluv2fly, Totally agree. with my e4300 1.8 @ 3.25 i didnt actually HAVE to turn off the c1e and speedstep. As the voltage increase wasnt very hefty. But with these new chips i was getting nowhere fast until i disabled those settings.

I'm actually thinking about upgrading to a 700 series board, unless of course i can find someone else with a p6n and an e8500 that has broke 4ghz, and then found out HOW heh. Ive spent hours in the bios at this point and am just totally burned out with it. So i doubt ill be messing around with it much unless i find more good info.

*and my first OC was on a cyrix 150.. i think anyway, i remember hacking up a hsf and using hardware screws to mount a ridiculous delta black label to the thing.

----------------------------
MSI P6n Platinum
e8500 @ 3.6ghz
8GB geil 1066
Evga 8800 GTS OC
Thermalright HR 01
800w TruePower psu

 

[Assimilator1]

lol, I killed a Cyrix P166+ (120 MHz??) by overclocking it to just 13 Mhz or so! (60 to 66MHz FSB IIRC). Only chip I've ever killed by overclocking, & it would have to be my fathers!!!

Anyway, the one major thing that could be holding you back now is your northbridge over heating & becoming unstable. It makes a big difference to getting upto ~400MHz FSB fitting a fan. Just jury rig any old fan over it & see if you can hit your magic 4GHz .

Oh yeah & coretemp is good :thumbsup:, btw amazingly low temps you have .

 

[ugzz]

yeah, i love my cooler, i had no prob getting 3.25 on the e4300 which was pretty amazing at the time. i was one of the first 30 people to 3dmark a 1.8ghz chip at 3.25 (i think my entry was for 3.26 actually) and pple were amazed i did it on air too. But that was with the Big Typhoon cooler. I bagged that because the clips for flaky and weren't stable enough for my taste, i then moved to my current cooler. the Thermalright HR 01, its a fanless cooler, so its good enough to even OC (quite mildly) without a fan at all, but i put a relatively high cfm fan on it. So that really turns it into a monster. I did have to pull the board and install a bracket under the board to screw the thing into, but that was fine. Its really solid and not going anywhere.

As for deamer44's q... not really. I had a 650i evga at work a year or so back and it was fairly different. only listed the fsb standard number, not the x4 number like the msi's it also had some different settings and layout. So i would say its going to be different enough you should look for a good forum just for your board.

and as for any update, i did go back into the bios ONE more time.. i had no luck with anything. same old story, i could post at 400fsb with the 1.5NB, but not with anything less. it just pisses me off because i only had the NB at like 1.3 to get the e4300 up and stable. of course the stock fsb is totally low end, like 200 or something. So it makes sense there is a wall much higher, it just turns out its a NB wall.. - I also found another forum where people with other 650i mobos (Gigabyte ones) are hitting walls around 350-360fsb. Their fix is extra NB cooling and upping the NB, so there we go.. looks like the p6n isnt the only 650 that needs a good NB boost to go up around/over 400fsb.

Ive read a good chunk of this 20 page thread, but is there anyone else out there running a fsb around or over 400 with the p6n?

PCstats reviews the board a while back.. they got to 400FSB with 1.35 NB.
http://www.pcstats.com/article...?articleid=2099&page=5
but just like chips, not all board are the same and have identical potential..

 

[Assimilator1]

True enough, & yes I've seen reports by people here getting a little over 400MHz.

So have you tried a fan on the NB then??

 

[ugzz]

not yet, but ill hunt around, like i said i have the fan somewhere ,but they didnt send me the lil clip that holds it in place. if i can dig up that fan maybe i can make a fair clip for it.

 

[Assimilator1]

You don't have any old spare CPU fans you can use instead? (if you can't find the proper one).

 

[ugzz]

hehe, i do, but i havnt gone that far. i have an antec ninehundred case and pretty nice cabling considering 3 HDs and two optical. Id rather not have some ridiculously rigged fan sitting there as an eye sore. I already pulled the cooler off of my 8800 gts OC and strapped a 120 onto it and that looked like total garbage. i actually went back to the stock cooler and back to stock clocks because i was doing some LAN stuff. It wasnt worth such an eyesore, even thought i did have some astronomical clocks running stable .

Even thought my board is just a tad over a year old im still thinking of just swapping out with an evga that i know will hit 4Ghz. At first i looked at the p7n's and some other of the 150$ msis. but other forums online tell me the p7n and some others have the EXACT same problem.
im jacked that my 180$ proc only got me from 3.2-3.5, i mean, ooo 300 mhz bump .
At least if i can get to 4ghz it will be an 800mhz jump. Course then i get into performance vs cost, as the new board will run 160 + the 180 on the proc. So 800mhz for $340 is also not very good , course then i can sell the e4300 and the msi, so cost recovery will help some.
Im still just toying around with the idea, as i dont have 200$ to blow right now.. but well see. I did find an evga 650 board that has the fan and is running stock. im gonna jack the fan and see if it fits the evga and maybe ill mess with it more.. well see

 

[Assimilator1]

Arrrghh *bangs head against wall*

Just stick any old fan on it purely for testing purposes , see what your CPU o/cs like with the NB actively cooled. If you get a decent boost (you probably will) then buy a fan that fits properly, you'll save yourself a wad of cash too by buying the fan instead of a new mbrd .

 

[ugzz]

got a fan for it, off of a evga 680i, not a perfect fit but damn close..
ran at 1.5nb for 3 days. then the system went down. board was unresponsive, power would spin the fans in the case and spin up the HD, but no usb, no lan lights, no leds on board.. clear cmos button did nothing. pulled plug and battery (in case clear cmos button stopped working or something) and left it for 2 days. still nothing. day three of board being dead i ordered a replacement, evga 750i. ppl are hitting over 4ghz with the 84/8500s. day 5 of board being dead i was walking past it and i noticed the lan lights were on.. i was like WTF? hit power, and the system came back up.. WTF!?

anyway. im done screwing with it after a scare like that
im gonna image the drive and do a universal restore once i get my new board and then see what kinda oc i can get
also saving pennies for a gtx 260, my 8800 just isnt cutting it the way id like. all in all, its a good thing, its been over a year, time for an upgrade anyway hah

 

[Assimilator1]

Lol, shame to here your 650's dieing though , isn't 1.5v the max for the NB? If so I personally wouldn't of gone that high.Oh well!