Q6600 SLACR overclocking

[suklee]

Been a while since I gave any love to my PC (went all Apple and stopped playing games), but BF3 is bringing me baaaack. Apparently my SLACR Q6600 is a good overclocker? I have it running on 3.0GHz now but am using the stock retail heatsink/fan, I suppose it's worth it to ditch it and get a better one? If so what's a decent cooler that won't break the bank?

Other components:

• 4 sticks of 2GB A-DATA DDR2 800GHz RAM
• Corsair VX550W
• GA-EP35-DS3L rev 1.0, F6 BIOS
• 9800GTX+, but probably upgrading this for BF3

Thanks!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, most go a bit higher, should be able to get 3.3-3.4 out of it, or if you have a good clocker, 3.6.

 

[nsdjoe]

I could never get mine above 3.2 at 1.4v and I wasn't willing to go any higher. YMMV

 

[tweakboy]

Is your CPU B3 stepping or GO stepping ?

You wan't help OCing it ?

How much of a OC do you want with the current HSF ?

You should be able to hit 3.0Ghz without even touching CPU voltage but put raising the PLL voltage for maximum stability. No need to touch NB voltage.

However if you wan't to go above 3.0Ghz then you need to UP the CPU voltage and possibly a high NB voltage for stability.

To OC you can change the multiplier and also the FSB. BUT make sure your memory frequency is at 800Mhz or lower, go by SPD.

For 3.4Ghz I would say you need about 1.39v without drop. gl Don't forget your calculator! gg and gl

 

[suklee]

In CPU-Z it says

Stepping B
Revision G0

Do I have a G0 stepping?

On my box, it says 1.35V max..

 

[VirtualLarry]

On my box, it says 1.35V max..

That's not your VID. Open CoreTemp, and it displays your VID.

 

[suklee]

CoreTemp says 1.3V

 

[suklee]

I got the processor up to 3.13GHz - it's been completely stable in BF3. I'm wondering if I have the right BIOS settings. Can any of you quickly look thru these screenshots to see if anything can be improved or turned on/off?

Thanks!

 

[boochi]

Is your CPU B3 stepping or GO stepping ?

SLACR is and can only be a G0 stepping. SL9UM was the B3. You should know this man.

 

[boochi]

Drop the multiplier in the bios to 7 and see if you can get your FSB up to 400mhz. If you can, I would recommend shooting for a 400x8 overclock giving you 3.2ghz and then running your memory at a 1:1 ratio at its rated speed. FWIW the Q6600 at stock speed is more than enough cpu to run BF3. You need to pop a new video card in that puppy.

 

[suklee]

Thanks Boochi, will give it a try. So you're saying I should drop the CPU multiplier down to 7X, then up CPU host frequency to 400? Do I need to change System memory multiplier to 1.00 to test for stability? And btw what would be a good stability testing program - someone recommended LinX to me.

Also (noob question) isn't my memory running at 870 MHz currently or is it doing something else...

And yes I dropped a 560 Ti in there and BF3 is glooorrious Quite happy that with a video card upgrade my 3 year old rig can handle BF3...

 

[Shmee]

check the OC stability test sticky. linx, prime95 large FFT, and HCI memtest.

also, 870 should be fine, but your memory doesn't have to be at a 1:1 ratio, though depending on the board, some ratios are preferred over others.