Q6600 Overclock Question

[goobee]

I'm ready to put together my new system, I need to know if I got this down correct.

The Core 2 Quad external clock rate is 2.4ghz

This is derived from a FSB of 266 x 9 multiplier (ie: 266 x 9 = 2.4ghz)

The Core 2 Quad's is advertised with a 1066 fsb which I assumed is based on 4 x 266 FSB = 1066.

If I'm understanding this correctly, minimally you would need DDR2-533 (PC4200) to run at stock speeds.

Higher speed ram such as DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 gives you the ablility to overclock the FSB to say 333 or higher, correct?

I bought DDR2-667 which should be good up to at least 333 FSB overclock, right?

I probably should have went with the faster ram so as to have better overhead room but this is what I have.

Thoughts, comments?

 

[stevty2889]

You are correct. 667mhz ram will get you to 333mhz FSB, 800mhz to 400mhz FSB. It should also be noted that quads require good cooling to overclock. They aren't as easy to keep cool as dual cores. With good air cooling(tuniq tower, ultra 120) you can get about 2.8-3ghz, you'll need water cooling to get much more than that. At 3.1ghz with a tripple rad setup, I get in the mid to upper 60's.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Some memory will go past their rated but it depends on the quality of what you bought. What IC is used etc. Maybe you can get 400Mhz out of it.

 

[goobee]

I'm not expecting too much extra out of the ram. I went with ram that was on Asus' qualified list, which in this case is Kingston PC5300 Valueram.

On the subject of cooling, I bought an aftermarket Coolermaster HSF. Hopefully it'll do a decent job. The damn thing is freaking big, I hope that translates into better cooling.

 

[Doctahg]

Don't be surprised if your cooler isn't up to stuff...I have had lots of heat issues with my QX6700...they are flat out hot. I just put my 6600 in because I removed my TR120Extreme which wasn't very cool..and am running the 6600 with the stock fan. The 6600 runs 15 to 20C ccoler than the 6700 with the exact same stock cooler..and my 6600 is running at 3200Mhz(around that). The QX 6700 with the stock was running 50ish idle and 70+ under load...and not a big load either at stock. I should have gotten a water setup..would be my first but I believe it's the only was to cool the quads, if you want to play with it at all.

 

[goobee]

Good thing I have a nice roomy case with decent air flow. I have a Chenbro SR105 extended-atx case.

In addition to the front 92mm and rear 120mm fans, I added a couple more. A 120mm on the side to draw fresh air in over the cpu and and 120mm blowhole on top to help the hot air exit the case.

Click Here!

 

[goobee]

Well, I got it running, not so good thus far. At stock speed, it rebooted itself out of Windows XP x64 while I was running a full load test on it (4 x Folding@Home). Checked temps, 35c in bios. Going to have to play with it some more.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: goobee
Well, I got it running, not so good thus far. At stock speed, it rebooted itself out of Windows XP x64 while I was running a full load test on it (4 x Folding@Home). Checked temps, 35c in bios. Going to have to play with it some more.

What are the rest of your system specs? I was getting reboots with folding@home even at stocks speeds at first in 64bit Vista, even though it was 100% Orthos stable. Only folding@home would make it reboot. I wish I could figure out exactly what it was that got rid of the problem. I'm not sure if it was enabling the memory remap function in my bios, or just the bios update itself(the option wasn't even available in the old bios) but it finaly stopped rebooting on me.

 

[goobee]

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Coolermaster Hyper TX HSF
4 x 1gbs DDR2-667 Kingston (Matched Pairs)
Asus P5B-Plus mobo
Geforce 7600GT PCIe vid card
WDl 80gbs SATA HD (boot drive)
Samsung 500gbs SATA HD (currently not connected)
Liteon SATA DVD writer
SB Audigy 2 Sound card
Antec Neo HE 500watt PS
Chenbro SR105 extend atx case

I have the remap feature turned on. Should I turn it off and lose the 1 gig?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: goobee
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Coolermaster Hyper TX HSF
4 x 1gbs DDR2-667 Kingston (Matched Pairs)
Asus P5B-Plus mobo
Geforce 7600GT PCIe vid card
WDl 80gbs SATA HD (boot drive)
Samsung 500gbs SATA HD (currently not connected)
Liteon SATA DVD writer
SB Audigy 2 Sound card
Antec Neo HE 500watt PS
Chenbro SR105 extend atx case

I have the remap feature turned on. Should I turn it off and lose the 1 gig?

I was acualy getting the errors with the re-map feature turned off instead of on, but wouldn't hurt to try that, or even taking out some of the ram. But at some point I got it working right with 4gig of ram, and re-mapping on. It's the top rig in my sig, I'm also using an Asus board. I was kinda suprised to see some one else have the same reboot issue with folding@home, it had me baffled for a while, and I wish I know what actualy fixed it.

EDIT: p.s. I also had automatic reboots disabled, and was getting no BSOD errors when the reboots were happening, is that what you are seeing as well?

 

[goobee]

How do you have your HD set up in the bios? I had to set it to compatible to get it to install Windows XP x64.

 

[goobee]

No BSOD, just spontaneous reboots. I upped the vcore and vdimm a few notches. Running another full load test.

 

[goobee]

Weird. I upped the FSB to 300 and have been running 4 instances of F@H for a few hours now. It seems stable.

PC Probe must be wrong, it shows the cpu temps as 29c at idle and 43c under load.

Ambient room temperature is 87f (what's that in celsius?)

 

[TekDemon]

what's your PSU? Spontaneous reboots could be a power issue...

 

[goobee]

Antec Neo HE 500watt PS

Full system specs a full posts up.

 

[goobee]

OK, I took the Asus P5B-Plus backa and got the Gigabyte P35-DS3R which officially support 1333 FSB. With no drives attached, I can do 333 @ stock vcore. As soon as I add one HD, I have to bump the vcore to 1.350 to. Adding a second HD, it won't boot at all even with vcore at 1.4.

So at this point, it seems to be a powersupply problem. What do you guys think?