Q9300 Overclock

Stump1000

Member
May 3, 2007
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I have my Q9300 running at 2.91ghz right now. I would like to get it to 3 or more if I could. When I try setting the fsb to 1600 it locks up before windows loads. 1550 Seems to be pretty stable at stock voltage. I havent tried raising the vcore yet, as I really dont know what I'm doing so I figured I'd ask the guys that know. Is that the next step to making it stable at 1600 fsb?

Also, I have 8gb ddr2 800mhz centon ram and 1 piece is bad. No matter where i put it on the board, even if its by itself it will bluescreen right after post. I can run 6gb but if that piece is in the mix I'll get the bsod. It came from tiger, so can I just have it rma'd through them or do I have to contact Centon to get the rma? Thanks!
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
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you should be able to rma the bad stick to td. if you bought it as a kit they'll probably want the whole kit back, however :(.
 

GuitarDaddy

Lifer
Nov 9, 2004
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Is your ram speed linked or unlinked? What does the ram tab on CPUz show?

That board is notorious for undervolting the ram, check the spec'd voltage for the ram and check what its set at in bios.
 

Stump1000

Member
May 3, 2007
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Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Is your ram speed linked or unlinked? What does the ram tab on CPUz show?

That board is notorious for undervolting the ram, check the spec'd voltage for the ram and check what its set at in bios.

I have the ram speed set to linked. That one stick is the only one that doesnt work, so it has to be bad. I will check the voltage like you say though. I can put that one piece in and it won't work even by itself. Only get the BSOD
 

Stump1000

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May 3, 2007
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Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Is your ram speed linked or unlinked? What does the ram tab on CPUz show?

That board is notorious for undervolting the ram, check the spec'd voltage for the ram and check what its set at in bios.

I looked at the package and can't find where it says about a voltage. I'm going to dig around on Centons website.

http://i271.photobucket.com/al...ump1000/Untitled-2.jpg

I overclocked it to 1600fsb and upped the voltage but it was showing 2.5ghz in windows. Right now its set at 1550fsb and its showing 2.90ghz



 

GuitarDaddy

Lifer
Nov 9, 2004
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Originally posted by: Stump1000
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Is your ram speed linked or unlinked? What does the ram tab on CPUz show?

That board is notorious for undervolting the ram, check the spec'd voltage for the ram and check what its set at in bios.

I looked at the package and can't find where it says about a voltage. I'm going to dig around on Centons website.

http://i271.photobucket.com/al...ump1000/Untitled-2.jpg

I overclocked it to 1600fsb and upped the voltage but it was showing 2.5ghz in windows. Right now its set at 1550fsb and its showing 2.90ghz


Per that screenshot your ram is overclocked to DDR2-930, no doubt this is whats stoping your O/C, you need to drop the memory ratio to 1:1 which is probably the DDR533 setting in your bios. Or you need to run the memory unlinked and set it to DDR2-800
 

Stump1000

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May 3, 2007
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Okay, Thanks for the help GuitarDaddy.

I set it to unlinked and 800mhz. I then set my FSB back to 1600. When it booted it was at 3.0ghz but it stopped at the post screen. I reset it and when it posted it was back at 2.5ghz. About 1560fsb is as high as I've gotten without it doing that. Am I limited by the ram or do I have room for more O/C?
 
Nov 26, 2005
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I think you r limited by the ram, but i'm not sure. anyone else know? I also picked up a Q9300 and am hoping to hit 3.0
 

Foxery

Golden Member
Jan 24, 2008
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I've played around with my Q9300 a bit. First and foremost, you will need a 3rd party heatsink, as Intel's is downright AWFUL. A simple 3ghz put me over its thermal spec of 71C. (Use RealTemp)

Currently 3400 MHz, 1.36 volts, with a Xigmatek heatpipe cooler, ~55C under load. Mine absolutely refuses to boot at 3500, and I'm not willing to turn up voltages any higher, as Intel calls 1.36 the safe maximum.
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
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foxery, you're getting close to the fsb wall for a quad at 450 anyway. I've not been able to get stable over 455 :(
 

GuitarDaddy

Lifer
Nov 9, 2004
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Originally posted by: Stump1000
Okay, Thanks for the help GuitarDaddy.

I set it to unlinked and 800mhz. I then set my FSB back to 1600. When it booted it was at 3.0ghz but it stopped at the post screen. I reset it and when it posted it was back at 2.5ghz. About 1560fsb is as high as I've gotten without it doing that. Am I limited by the ram or do I have room for more O/C?

1. Turn off "Speed Step" by disabling C1E and EIST options in bios, thats whats causing your unexplained speed changes, it's dropping the CPU multi to 6x when the CPU is not loaded.

2. Set FSB to 401, not 400. On asus boards(with no manual strap settings) the strap for internal chipset timings automatically loosens when you go past 400. Booting at 401 is much easier than 400 or even 390.

3. Your reaching the point where you will have to bump the vcore to go higher, but you still have alot of O/C headroom

 
Nov 26, 2005
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With my Q9300, will DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)be adequate enough to hit 3.0Ghz without raising any electricity?

EDIT: Asus P5KC mb
 

Stump1000

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May 3, 2007
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Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
With my Q9300, will DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)be adequate enough to hit 3.0Ghz without raising any electricity?

EDIT: Asus P5KC mb

According to what these guys have said, and what I've gathered elsewhere is that you'll most likely have to bump the vcore to get 3ghz
 

GuitarDaddy

Lifer
Nov 9, 2004
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If I remember correctly, it was right around 3ghz when I had to start upping the vcore on my X3350(Q9450)
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
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most quads (q6600, x3350, q9450, q9300) you need to up vcore somewhere between 3.0 and 3.2 to continue increasing speed. if you chart stability you'll find a mostly linear relationship between vcore and fsb up to somewhere between 3.4 and 3.8 depending on the chip, your cooling, etc. After this linear relationship you will have to pump up the vcore through the roof to get any additional performance out of the cpu. unless you're on high-end water or better then you're better off leaving this area alone. Most oc'ers for everyday use try to find their max oc on this linear curve then back the oc down about 5% for 24/7 usage. I got lazy on my x3350 and went up to 3.64 completely stable, then never got anything higher prime stable. I figured that I COULD get crazy with mch/vcore/vtt etc and get 3.7 + stable since I was always able to boot easily into windows, but I didn't want to cause permanent damage to my components so I just "assumed" that I could get 3.7-3.75 stable and dialed it back to 3.6 for everyday use.
 

Foxery

Golden Member
Jan 24, 2008
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Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
With my Q9300, will DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)be adequate enough to hit 3.0Ghz without raising any electricity?

EDIT: Asus P5KC mb

These are 1333mhz FSB chips, so you are talking about stock speed RAM with no overclocking headroom. If you are the least bit serious about overclocking, you'll want DDR3-1600 or DDR2-800 to keep your RAM from being a limiting factor. (or higher)

Mine runs @908MHz with slightly looser timings than its specs call for @800.
 
Nov 26, 2005
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So, with that cpu and that memory, and motherboard (P5KC), how should i set things to reach 3.0Ghz ...sry for being noobish
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
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Originally posted by: Foxery
Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
With my Q9300, will DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)be adequate enough to hit 3.0Ghz without raising any electricity?

EDIT: Asus P5KC mb

These are 1333mhz FSB chips, so you are talking about stock speed RAM with no overclocking headroom. If you are the least bit serious about overclocking, you'll want DDR3-1600 or DDR2-800 to keep your RAM from being a limiting factor. (or higher)

Mine runs @908MHz with slightly looser timings than its specs call for @800.

do you multiply fsb by 3 for dd3 speed? if so, then you can run @ 1:1 @ 444 fsb with ddr3 1333 @ stock settings. I always assumed that it was like ddr2 and you just multiplied the fsb x 2...
 

Stump1000

Member
May 3, 2007
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Okay, Its still locking up on the post screen when I go to 3ghz. This is how its setup

EIST - Disabled
c1e - Disabled

Multiplier 7.5

FSB 1600 - At 1600 it freezes at post. At 1550 its fine.

Mem 800 I also tried 802 and 850.

Vcore - I've tried everything from 1.30 - 1.35

I'm afraid to try a higher vcore without you guys saying what I should do first. It locks up at post but when I reset it, its back to stock speeds. If I reboot again its back to 3.0ghz. The bios settings never change. I think its something like a fail safe so you can get back in the bios on reboot. Any ideas on how to make it stop freezing on the post screen? Thanks guys!
 

Stump1000

Member
May 3, 2007
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Apparently it just didnt like those numbers. I went to 1650fsb and set the vcore to 1.34 and now its fine. 3.09ghz :)