Overclocking Q6600: Motherboard recommendations?

[blckgrffn]

Freaking sucks having spare parts laying around, especially when it's almost useable! :'(

Yes. I am a power supply away from getting my e5400/GTS 250 rig back up and running. For what? I have no idea.

*keeps watching for good PSU deal...*

 

[GoStumpy]

hah! Definitely a popular feeling around here for us computer hoarders...

I'm wondering why selling the MoBo is suggested? You mean to abandon the LGA775, right?

Spare parts I have that are still useable:

Antec 300 Case
MSI P45-NEO3FR Mobo
Samsung DVD Burner
8GB Corsair XMS3 Memory (DDR3)
XFX GeForce GTX 240 1GB GPU
Delta PSU (spare)

Such a shame selling computer parts is nearly impossible in Canada

 

[blckgrffn]

hah! Definitely a popular feeling around here for us computer hoarders...

I'm wondering why selling the MoBo is suggested? You mean to abandon the LGA775, right?

Spare parts I have that are still useable:

Antec 300 Case
MSI P45-NEO3FR Mobo
Samsung DVD Burner
8GB Corsair XMS3 Memory (DDR3)
XFX GeForce GTX 240 1GB GPU
Delta PSU (spare)

Such a shame selling computer parts is nearly impossible in Canada

Yeah, that's what I am saying... you should be able to find something that already gives you the performance you want (before OC'ing) for ~$80. You bought that mobo for $50, surely someone else will want it too?

Craigslist, eh?

 

[GoStumpy]

Yeah I suppose I can list it tonight and see what happens!

Just realized it's really hard to get advice on building a computer that most people are upgrading FROM! :thumbsdown:

I do have DDR3 ram, so that pushes me to getting a newer platform...

I gotta sell my current mini computer before I can think about building anything that costs >$100 total... Hoping to get $500 for it, which is selling at a loss

 

[blckgrffn]

Don't you think your main rig could use a nice i5-2400 plus or the like? I'd think you could score a H61/67 board pretty cheap for your 2100...

Then you could thank you BiL for being a dick

 

[GoStumpy]

lol!

That's a slippery slope...

I get an 2500k, a mobo.... Well now my GPU is inadequate... Well now 1680x1050 is seeming a bit lame... now I think I may be taxing my CX430 a bit too much...


All of a sudden I've built myself a new computer, lol

 

[blckgrffn]

Isn't that the way it supposed to work???

:awe:

In all seriousness, I would think that something like this:

http://www.ncix.ca/products/?sku=57016&vpn=ADX455WFGMBOX&manufacture=AMD

and a decent motherboard could be had for pretty close to what you were looking to pay for that Q8xxx and the motherboard you have, and it should beat it handily.

A g620 or similar from Intel would be a pretty nice and efficient choice as well. I see you are basically selling one of those right now, then

 

[GoStumpy]

Just like everyone else on this board, I ask for advice, get advice, agree with said advice, and then go and do the opposite of what the advice said to do!


Bought the Q8200 today, bundled with 4GB of DDR2 ram for $100, and a Athlon 64 x2 4000+ for $20.

So for $120, I can now build both computers, and decide whether I want to sell the coworker my G530 or the Q8200 rig

I love building, hahaha.

Gonna overclock this Q8200 as far as it'll go before I do anything, that's for sure! With DDR2-400 Ram, is basically every mhz past 400 a gift? I'll be using Corsair XMS2 ram, maybe not the highest quality, but not crap... What is a reasonable number to think? Straight 400mhz would be 2.8ghz, stock is 2.33ghz. Possibly 410? 420?

I'd be OK with 2.8ghz, just wondering, I havent overclocked since the Duron/Thunderbird days!

-crap- Just realized I gave away my spare PSU a month or so ago... now I gotta keep an eye out for a really good deal on a PSU!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Gonna overclock this Q8200 as far as it'll go before I do anything, that's for sure! With DDR2-400 Ram, is basically every mhz past 400 a gift? I'll be using Corsair XMS2 ram, maybe not the highest quality, but not crap... What is a reasonable number to think? Straight 400mhz would be 2.8ghz, stock is 2.33ghz. Possibly 410? 420?

I'd be OK with 2.8ghz, just wondering, I havent overclocked since the Duron/Thunderbird days!

I overclocked my friend's Q8200 on an EP45-UD3R. With Gskill DDR2-800 RAM, it overclocked to 450 FSB pretty easy. (Bumped the RAM from 1.8v to 2.0v, I think.)

A 400FSB overclock should be trival to do.

 

[DigDog]

i saw gigabyte's 965p_ds3 for $3 on ebay a few days ago. revision 3. max FSB = 500~ish (more than your cpu can handle).

btw i'm on a rev.1 myself, E6600 @ 3.2, 1.375. yes 400fsb is trivial for one of these boards.

i think asus makes great products but their rma in the UK is horrible.

 

[GoStumpy]

Is it normal for one core to be 5C hotter than the others?

(Max after 10 minutes of prime95
Core0=52C
Core1=50C
Core2=56C
Core3=51C


GPU didn't break 56C during Furmark as well

 

[GoStumpy]

Well, unless I'm missing something obvious, overclocking definitely is out of the question

Tried everything, FSB voltage, Core voltage, DRAM voltage, raising DRAM timings, if I set FSB to 400 or anything near it, instant and endless reboots... I set it to 350 FSB (2.5ghz ish) from 333 and it started to load windows before it rebooted...

I'm thinking not to bother?

 

[MustangSVT]

Is it normal for one core to be 5C hotter than the others?

(Max after 10 minutes of prime95
Core0=52C
Core1=50C
Core2=56C
Core3=51C


GPU didn't break 56C during Furmark as well

Ya, dont worry about that. Too bad you got q8200, it is one of harder cpu's to oc due to low multi. I have one at 3.2ghz and it was difficult to make it stable.

 

[GoStumpy]

If you don't mind me asking, what exactly IS 'difficult' when it comes to overclocking? They're just settings, afterall

 

[MustangSVT]

If you don't mind me asking, what exactly IS 'difficult' when it comes to overclocking? They're just settings, afterall

Perhaps not difficult but more tricky and time consuming.

Getting the stable speed with all the different variables make it difficult.
I had to play with voltages for nbrige and sbridge to make it stable with high fsb.

 

[GoStumpy]

I suppose when I get an evening free from BF3 I can try tweaking a bit more...

I suppose just setting them too high is just as unstable as too low?

I thought I set everything pretty high for stability to no avail... Seems like it crashes with ANY FSB changes

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you bumped voltages up, just to try out the 400FSB overclock, then you might have overheated the northbridge, and it might have been crashing because of that.

Try resetting CMOS settings to STOCK, and then try setting 400FSB, and RAM ratio of 2.0 (gigabyte boards), or 1:1 (other boards). Also, you might have to manually set your ram timings to 5-5-5-18.

 

[GoStumpy]

Will try that out tonight, thanks

In the meantime, I've noticed that every computer I work with has a Q6600 running at stock... I want to offer them a CPU trade, LOL! :whiste:

 

[gramboh]

Not sure if it was a problem with P45, but some 965 and P35 had issues with FSB "holes" around certain numbers. Try 401, 399 etc.

Also:
- Take side panel of case off and have a floor fan blowing air in to eliminate heat as an issue (for now)
- Back off RAM timings and bump voltage to 2.2V (if your sticks can handle it)

 

[GoStumpy]

Case is full of fans (2 front intake, 1 side intake, 1 rear exhaust, 1 top exhaust) so heat isn't the issue...

Ram is Corsair XMS2, I'm thinking that's high enough quality to handle 2.1 or 2.2v?

 

[GoStumpy]

Trying a few things,

FSB: 399 (400 no work?)
FSB/Dram Ratio 1:1

Voltage options:
CPU Voltage: 1.3050v a reasonable number?
DRAM Voltage: 2.2v ok?
MCH Voltage: ??
VTT FSB Voltage: ??
ICH Voltage: ??

What should those be at, you figure?

Leaving them auto, it just constantly reboots Shows the POST screen for 3ish seconds the first time, then just cycles on & off

-edit-

Managed to boot with 350mhz bus! woohooooo!!!!! My first successful overclock on this baby

What should I start adjusting to inch this higher?

 

[gramboh]

Don't use auto voltages, especially on older boards, I would manually set them all.

Not sure on Vcore, my 65nm Quad runs at 1.45V in BIOS, and has for over 4 years now with no power savings features, not sure what the 45nm are supposed to run at.

2.2V is fine on good quality ram like Corsair XMS2. I run 2.25V on crappier OCZ and it's held up over the years. I'd bump FSB voltage up and increment the FSB in 10MHz jumps and see where it goes.

 

[GoStumpy]

Opinions on what to set the voltages at?

CPU Voltage: 1.35v ish
DRAM Voltage: 2.0-2.2v
MCH Voltage: 1.3-1.35v is recommended
VTT FSB Voltage: 1.3, apparently just a tad under the CPU Voltage is optimal...
ICH Voltage: 1.3v

That's what I've figured out from googling different people's experiences...

Bleh, tried these, with 365mhz FSB, got half way into windows and restarted endlessly.. Really annoying having to remove the CMOS battery every time!! I even tried upping the RAM timings... Not sure what else to try

 

[GoStumpy]

Well one test I did was set the VTT FSB Voltage to 1.3 and everything else stock (including FSB) and it froze on me...

Same thing happened when I upped the MCH Voltage.

VCore is fine up to 1.41v and temps are good.

I think the motherboard is the issue if it just hard reboots, not freezes? That's the boggling part to me, not that it freezes or BSOD's, but it just shuts off and restarts...

 

[GoStumpy]

BREAKTHROUGH!

Motherboard has jumpers (haven't played with jumpers in 10+ years!) that are set to default FSB.... I thought BIOS overruled that, nuh uh! I removed them (setting it to 400FSB) and it booted into windows no problem! Running Prime95 right now with no errors, vcore at 1.4v.

Screenshot:

-edit-

Managed to hit the magical 3.0ghz number, however it froze in windows and wouldn't boot again at that speed... Running Prime95 at 2.94ghz, 1.38vcore right now and so far so good!