Q6600 OC'ing

[PCJake]

Hey guys, I've been overclocking my Q6600 G0 with GA-EP35-DS3L Mobo, and I've hit a wall.

It's completely stable at 3.2GHz (400x8) with a RAM divider of 2.00 and Vcore at 1.41250. When I raise the fsb to 410, it will load windows and run Prime95 without a problem, but when I reboot the BIOS settings (except the 8 multiplier) automatically go back to default. Temps are fine, and I had raised Vcore to 1.4850 to try the 410 fsb.

I don't think it's the RAM because I've run that up to 950 MHz without problems, and I've heard of people getting 500 fsb on this motherboard. I've already got DDR2 overvolted by .2V, and both FSB and MCH are overvolted by .1V. What should I try next?

Thanks!

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: PCJake
What should I try next?

A 9x multiplier would be my next step. Besides that, with your board, about the only other thing you can do is to raise your RAM timings a bit. You are running your RAM 1:1, aren't you (the 2.0x multiplier in your BIOS is 1:1). Good luck.

 

[soccerballtux]

Yeah if you can get the 9x mult, I'd be happy with that. If I upgrade to a quad (if it's a q6600) 3.6 is what I'm going for-- that's nothing to sneeze at.

 

[myocardia]

Actually, I meant 9x367, which is faster than he's at now. If that's fine, then 9x375ish, and so on.

 

[PCJake]

OK, with a 9x multiplier I can get to 3.4GHz. A higher clock, but a lower fsb (378 vs. 400). With the lower fsb, however, I've been able to raise my ram divider to 2.40, so my ram can run a 907MHz instead of 800MHz. So which is preferable:

3.2GHz (400x8) with 2.00 divider (800MHz)

or

3.4GHz (378x9) with 2.40 divider (907 MHz)

 

[Drsignguy]

With each, you wont see much of a difference. I run mine at 378 X 9 with the 2.40 divider and my temps are no higher than 50c. Only reason I did do this is because I had room, and my temps are very much to my liking.

 

[james1701]

Originally posted by: Drsignguy
With each, you wont see much of a difference. I run mine at 378 X 9 with the 2.40 divider and my temps are no higher than 50c. Only reason I did do this is because I had room, and my temps are very much to my liking.

What voltage are you running?

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: james1701

Originally posted by: Drsignguy
With each, you wont see much of a difference. I run mine at 378 X 9 with the 2.40 divider and my temps are no higher than 50c. Only reason I did do this is because I had room, and my temps are very much to my liking.

What voltage are you running?

1.4375v, my sig has some info about it.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: PCJake
So which is preferable:

3.2GHz (400x8) with 2.00 divider (800MHz)

or

3.4GHz (378x9) with 2.40 divider (907 MHz)

Higher CPU clock trumps everything else, always. 3.4Ghz will be faster than 3.2Ghz, even with your RAM still @ 2.0x. With your RAM @ 2.4x, it will be faster still, although you'll never notice the difference between running your RAM @ 2.0x and 2.4x.

 

[n7]

Use 9x.

You are likely hitting some kind of strap wall that's holding you back.

 

[PCJake]

After more stress testing, I figured out that anything above a 2.00 divider isn't going to work for me.

So, at 378x9 it's stable, but anything above that it isn't, even with a VCore above 1.48v. What do you guys think is holding me back now?

Higher CPU clock trumps everything else, always. 3.4Ghz will be faster than 3.2Ghz, even with your RAM still @ 2.0x. With your RAM @ 2.4x, it will be faster still, although you'll never notice the difference between running your RAM @ 2.0x and 2.4x.

I know it will be faster for my 3d renders, but will I lose anything in games by lowering the fsb and ram speed?

 

[n7]

For higher RAM speed, make sure tRFC is loose.
Refresh to ACT Delay is what Gigabyte calls that.

I'd make sure it's 55+.
That should allow for slightly better RAM speeds.

I'd imagine if you have the 2x2 GB DDR2-800 5-5-5 PQ kit, it'll likely do DDR2-1000+

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: PCJake

After more stress testing, I figured out that anything above a 2.00 divider isn't going to work for me.

So, at 378x9 it's stable, but anything above that it isn't, even with a VCore above 1.48v. What do you guys think is holding me back now?

Higher CPU clock trumps everything else, always. 3.4Ghz will be faster than 3.2Ghz, even with your RAM still @ 2.0x. With your RAM @ 2.4x, it will be faster still, although you'll never notice the difference between running your RAM @ 2.0x and 2.4x.

I know it will be faster for my 3d renders, but will I lose anything in games by lowering the fsb and ram speed?

No, benchies show a very very minor (as in, 1%) performance improvement in running in sync with the Ram. Don't worry about it.

 

[gramboh]

Bus speed of 378 versus 400 (22MHz) is nothing compared to the performance gain of 200MHz on clock speed. I run 9x as well on my Q6700 since I can't get over 400FSB with 4 sticks of RAM (old P965 board not good at OC'ing compared to P35/45). I did a bit of benching (3DMark and Prime95 I believe) and running 3.3 (9x367) was faster than 3.2 (8x400). For me to get 3.4 stable I need 1.5V in bios which I am not comfortable with. temps get a bit high on intel stress test.