Hi everyone,
Just finished building a new system, but I'm having some trouble getting more performance out of it. I guess I should mention that I am far from an expert on overclocking, though I have done a lot of reading on the topic and have a fairly good understanding of the theory.
So first of all, here are my specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6
CPU: Intel Q6600
Memory: Crucial DDR2-800 (BL2KIT12864AA804)
The problem that I'm running into is that I can't seem to increase the FSB at all beyond the default 266. I haven't tried it at 1 MHz increments, of course, but I think the lowest value I've tried so far is 280 or something around that. Doesn't work at all, the motherboard resets values to default and reboots after a failed first attempt.
I know about setting proper voltages, but the thing is this... I actually lowered the CPU multiplier to 6 and memory frequency to 667, so both were running way below their rated speeds. The system still didn't boot. Basically I was trying to raise FSB independently from the CPU and memory. Once I had it running at 333 MHz, then I would raise the CPU and memory frequencies to desired levels. I realize that's a bit backwards, but I resorted to this method after the first few attempts failed.
One thing that might be worth mentioning is that in BIOS I have several multipliers for memory in format 2.00A, 2.00B, 3.20A, 3.20B, 4.00A, etc. I understand how the multiplier works (I think), but I don't get these letters. The help on the right side of the screen basically has the following chart:
X.XXA -> 266
X.XXB -> 333
X.XXC -> 200
X.XXD -> 400
I think that's it, doing this from memory right now. So the implication is that if I set FSB to 333 I should use one of the B settings. Ok, but why would that make a difference, and what setting do I use if I set FSB to something between 266 and 333? There is nothing about it in the manual, I couldn't find anything via google either. At any rate, for these tests I set the multiplier to either 2.00A or 2.00B, depending on where FSB is and both result in 667 MHz frequency for memory.
With CPU, like I said, I take the multiplier down to 6 while increasing FSB. The system fails to boot regardless. I've tried raising voltages on memory to the rated 2.2V and on CPU to 1.3V. These didn't help one bit. However, with memory at 2.2V I was able to run it at 1066 MHz 5-5-5-18-1T timings, while FSB stayed at the stock 266.
I'm rather confused by this whole thing, because unless I'm mistaken, reducing the CPU and memory multipliers to lowest values should effectively take those two components out of the picture, no? So that means something else is preventing the FSB from running faster. Another two voltage options I have is the FSB and (G)MCH (northbridge) over-voltage. I've tried raising both by 0.1V, and that didn't help. The problem is that I have no idea what values are safe for these two things, so I was a bit hesitant on really messing with them.
My primary interest in this whole affair is actually the memory. CPU running faster is great, but memory is currently having a greater impact on the system's performance (for instance, it's the only non-5.9 in vista's performance rating at 5.6). Right now I'm running memtest86 for 24 hours to make sure that it performs fine on stock settings. What I don't get though is that memtest shows its speed at 4081MB/s, which seems a bit wrong. Should it not be around 6400 MB/s?
At any rate, what do you guys suggest? First of all, can anyone explain to me the letters on memory multipliers? Second, am I wrong in assuming that lowering multipliers for CPU and memory should allow me to raise FSB to something like 333 MHz without either of those two things interfering? Third, what are the save over-voltage values for FSB and northbridge, do you think that these are what's causing the problem? Finally, what settings would you recommend for getting the most out of memory (and let's limit CPU to 3GHz max, though I?d be just as happy with 2.66 or even stock... for now
.
Would greatly appreciate any advice you can give.
Just finished building a new system, but I'm having some trouble getting more performance out of it. I guess I should mention that I am far from an expert on overclocking, though I have done a lot of reading on the topic and have a fairly good understanding of the theory.
So first of all, here are my specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6
CPU: Intel Q6600
Memory: Crucial DDR2-800 (BL2KIT12864AA804)
The problem that I'm running into is that I can't seem to increase the FSB at all beyond the default 266. I haven't tried it at 1 MHz increments, of course, but I think the lowest value I've tried so far is 280 or something around that. Doesn't work at all, the motherboard resets values to default and reboots after a failed first attempt.
I know about setting proper voltages, but the thing is this... I actually lowered the CPU multiplier to 6 and memory frequency to 667, so both were running way below their rated speeds. The system still didn't boot. Basically I was trying to raise FSB independently from the CPU and memory. Once I had it running at 333 MHz, then I would raise the CPU and memory frequencies to desired levels. I realize that's a bit backwards, but I resorted to this method after the first few attempts failed.
One thing that might be worth mentioning is that in BIOS I have several multipliers for memory in format 2.00A, 2.00B, 3.20A, 3.20B, 4.00A, etc. I understand how the multiplier works (I think), but I don't get these letters. The help on the right side of the screen basically has the following chart:
X.XXA -> 266
X.XXB -> 333
X.XXC -> 200
X.XXD -> 400
I think that's it, doing this from memory right now. So the implication is that if I set FSB to 333 I should use one of the B settings. Ok, but why would that make a difference, and what setting do I use if I set FSB to something between 266 and 333? There is nothing about it in the manual, I couldn't find anything via google either. At any rate, for these tests I set the multiplier to either 2.00A or 2.00B, depending on where FSB is and both result in 667 MHz frequency for memory.
With CPU, like I said, I take the multiplier down to 6 while increasing FSB. The system fails to boot regardless. I've tried raising voltages on memory to the rated 2.2V and on CPU to 1.3V. These didn't help one bit. However, with memory at 2.2V I was able to run it at 1066 MHz 5-5-5-18-1T timings, while FSB stayed at the stock 266.
I'm rather confused by this whole thing, because unless I'm mistaken, reducing the CPU and memory multipliers to lowest values should effectively take those two components out of the picture, no? So that means something else is preventing the FSB from running faster. Another two voltage options I have is the FSB and (G)MCH (northbridge) over-voltage. I've tried raising both by 0.1V, and that didn't help. The problem is that I have no idea what values are safe for these two things, so I was a bit hesitant on really messing with them.
My primary interest in this whole affair is actually the memory. CPU running faster is great, but memory is currently having a greater impact on the system's performance (for instance, it's the only non-5.9 in vista's performance rating at 5.6). Right now I'm running memtest86 for 24 hours to make sure that it performs fine on stock settings. What I don't get though is that memtest shows its speed at 4081MB/s, which seems a bit wrong. Should it not be around 6400 MB/s?
At any rate, what do you guys suggest? First of all, can anyone explain to me the letters on memory multipliers? Second, am I wrong in assuming that lowering multipliers for CPU and memory should allow me to raise FSB to something like 333 MHz without either of those two things interfering? Third, what are the save over-voltage values for FSB and northbridge, do you think that these are what's causing the problem? Finally, what settings would you recommend for getting the most out of memory (and let's limit CPU to 3GHz max, though I?d be just as happy with 2.66 or even stock... for now
.Would greatly appreciate any advice you can give.
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