PLL Limits 45nm quad

[bhishma]

I've finally (and strangely) been able to get my Q9450 3.4ghz prime stable. Not sure what I did. Thought it was the PLL but i backed it down to normal and it's still fine.

I'd really like to get 3.6ghz prime stable: what are my limits for PLL? I had it on 1.7 earlier (didn't seem to help much but wasn't tweaking anything else). With my Asus p5Q-Delx the value only starts to turn yellow (BIOS cautioning) around 1.8~2.0V so I figure 1.7 should be fine. I've seen some people say be careful with PLL though and never specify exactly where the boundaries are. Thanks for any help.

 

[Idontcare]

Why are you monkeying around with your PLL voltage? Will your FSB not overclock too well if you leave it at stock? (I don't know, just asking...I don't play around with PLL but hitting 400MHz FSB on my ASUS WS P5E is no problem)

 

[bhishma]

I'm left to desperate measures. Until i started messing with PLL and the GTLs I couldn't for the life of me get 3.4 stable. Now, it appears I got 3.4 stable and want to try to up it to 3.6 where prime is failing on core 4 after 6 seconds.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

That does not sound like an easy task

 

[OCGuy]

Hmmm...what are your northbridge and FSB termination (VTT) at? And what Vcores have you tried?

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
Why are you monkeying around with your PLL voltage?

ROFL...

Hey OP, your trusting the motherboard company on PLL safe voltages for what? where does it turn yellow and where is it green?

Better question is what is it tuned for? a conroe? or wolfdale? or Kentsfield? or Yorkfield?



You see what i mean.

 

[bhishma]

Well it's a P45 (Asus P5Q-Deluxe) so I'm hoping they were a little mindful of the 45nm procs. All the other values "turn yellow" at values I'm very comfortable with so I just assumed... But we all know what happens you you assume.

This is getting to be very very annoying. I've got a bad CPU, i can tell that much. I've upped the core voltage to 1.4 Bios (~1.392V in OS) and I still can't get prime stability over 9 seconds.

I've resorted to messing with the GTLs with questionable success (haphazardly tweaking and I'm managing to make some progress).

My NB is at 1.4V and my VTT is at 1.34V . I've hear clear cut caution points for those two values just don't know where the PLL red zone starts.

Anyone think I should RMA this one? It won't even run stock clock (2.66) at ~1.24 Vcore, which is ridiculous...