Q9450 OC Guidance

[jdogg707]

I currently have a Q6600 (G0) @ 3.2GHz w/1.26V running on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 rev 2.1, G.Skill DDR2-1000 and TRUE. I just got in on the Microcenter Q9450 deal and should receive it today. My question is two fold actually.

1. Does anyone have any experiecing overclocking this chip on the Gigabyte board? What are my FSB limitations looking like? What kind of voltage increases should I make? I'm not very familiar with running a high FSB, so I am looking for a little help.

2. Should I consider a newer motherboard to run the new chip on? I would feel pretty good if I could get the chip to 3.4GHz, anything higher would just be gravy.

Here are my full system specs for reference:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
TRUE HS w/Noctura NF-P12 Fan
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.1 Motherboard
G.Skill DDR2-1000 5-5-5-15 RAM (4 x 2GB)
eVGA 8800GTS 512 Video Card
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional
LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray Burner/HD-DVD ROM
Western Digital 150GB Raptor
Highpoint RocketRAID 2320 8 Port SATA II PCIe Controller
5 x 750GB Samsung SpinPoint F1 Hard Drives
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU
Antec P180 w/4 x Noctura NF-P12 Fans

Any help or guidance is greatly appreciated!

 

[bryanW1995]

I'm at 3.4 with my 9450 on an ip35e with a zalman 9700. you should get 3.6+ easily.

edit: whoops, missed the 8bg ram. 3.4 would be really good with that. make sure to set trfc to 60. not sure if you can do it in the bios on a ds4, but you can always do it with memset.

 

[Shortass]

That should be pretty monsterous. Now if you replace that old raptor with a 300gb VelociRaptor... I will rob you.

...where do you live?

 

[bryanW1995]

...

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Here are my full system specs for reference:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
TRUE HS w/Noctura NF-P12 Fan
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.1 Motherboard
G.Skill DDR2-1000 5-5-5-15 RAM (4 x 2GB)
eVGA 8800GTS 512 Video Card
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional
LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray Burner/HD-DVD ROM
Western Digital 150GB Raptor
Highpoint RocketRAID 2320 8 Port SATA II PCIe Controller
5 x 750GB Samsung SpinPoint F1 Hard Drives
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU
Antec P180 w/4 x Noctura NF-P12 Fans

Any help or guidance is greatly appreciated!

The FULL Specs aren't necessary, just info on your cpu, mobo, memory, and cooling ...maybe PSU, are the important ones.

The mobo is fine and that cpu is already fast enough as it is.

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN

Here are my full system specs for reference:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
TRUE HS w/Noctura NF-P12 Fan
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.1 Motherboard
G.Skill DDR2-1000 5-5-5-15 RAM (4 x 2GB)
eVGA 8800GTS 512 Video Card
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional
LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray Burner/HD-DVD ROM
Western Digital 150GB Raptor
Highpoint RocketRAID 2320 8 Port SATA II PCIe Controller
5 x 750GB Samsung SpinPoint F1 Hard Drives
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU
Antec P180 w/4 x Noctura NF-P12 Fans

Any help or guidance is greatly appreciated!

The FULL Specs aren't necessary, just info on your cpu, mobo, memory, and cooling ...maybe PSU, are the important ones.

The mobo is fine and that cpu is already fast enough as it is.

I wasn't sure whether having 6 hard drives along with everything else would limit my overclock, hence the reason I put my full specs in. I figured it was all relative.

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
I'm at 3.4 with my 9450 on an ip35e with a zalman 9700. you should get 3.6+ easily.

edit: whoops, missed the 8bg ram. 3.4 would be really good with that. make sure to set trfc to 60. not sure if you can do it in the bios on a ds4, but you can always do it with memset.

I'm kind of iffy on whether I keep the 8GB. If I can hit 3.4 without it, but can't get there with it, I'll probably will just stay with 4GB.

Originally posted by: Shortass
That should be pretty monsterous. Now if you replace that old raptor with a 300gb VelociRaptor... I will rob you.

...where do you live?

haha, once the 300GB raptors become available I'm all over one. Less heat and power, but faster, count me in.

Trying to create an all-in-one system for gaming and HD video editing has been trying thus far....

 

[jdogg707]

I received my chip yesterday and started overclocking. CoreTemp sees my VID as 1.1375V but for some reason my motherboard won't let me set it to anything lower than 1.25V. At 1.25V I can easily hit 3.2GHz with everything else at stock. I am having some trouble hitting 3.4GHz which is my goal. I get 1 core failing at everything up to 1.306V (1.28V according to CPU-Z). Should I start looking at adjusting my NB voltage?

 

[LOUISSSSS]

dunno about Ocing, but why did u upgrade from a Q6600 to a 9450? theres not much difference and the real-world performance feel is even less =\

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
dunno about Ocing, but why did u upgrade from a Q6600 to a 9450? theres not much difference and the real-world performance feel is even less =\

It was motivated by trying to decrease power consumption a bit, but in reality, had more to do with the good deal that Micro center had.

Plus, I like playing with new toys...

 

[bryanW1995]

use real temp, it will display the correct vid. I know that my abit mobos won't allow me to use less vcore than vid, so your vid is probably 1.25. As a comparison, my x3350 has a vid of 1.20 and my q9450 has 1.225. they're both about .11 v lower vid according to coretemp, so...my mobo and realtemp agree on vid, coretemp is WAY too low, so I'm going with abit/realtemp on this one.

By the way, I read an article the other day that had a post from the coretemp creater. He doesn't even have a c2d cpu. Unclewebb, otoh, owns a 45nm cpu RIGHT NOW and used it extensively when developing realtemp.


try upping your vtt to 1.30 or so (+.1 on a ds4 I think) and try going to 1.35-1.40 on the nb (+.1-+.15). that should get you good to 3.5+.

also, read graysky's updated overclocking guide, he has some great info in there on how to get your operating voltages as low as possible.