Safe for my QX9650? 4.0Ghz?

MBrown

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2001
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I got a used QX9650 for my Gigabyte p35-ds3l. This mobo has some extreme vdroop. I set my vcore in the bios to 1.425v and cpu-z says at idle its 1.36v and at load it drops to as low as 1.26v. Is that safe enough? My temps are 29-31 at idle. I'm at 3.83 Ghz (333.11.5) I can't seem to get it stable at 4.0Ghz no matter what I do. So are the voltages and temps safe, and what can I do to get to 4.0Ghz. I've tried 333x12 and 400x10 and both fail.
 

Castiel

Golden Member
Dec 31, 2010
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That board has 4 phase power and only a 4 pin which is why you have to set it so high.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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thats one nasty vdroop.

You need a better board with load line calibration, if you want the best and easiest results.

That board wont cut it with a vdroop that big.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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So is 1.36 safe or should I try and lower it?

thats not your problem.

The problem is under load, your voltage dips -.2vcore.
Thats a lot of vdroop, and thats why your system is failing.

For you to get 1.35vcore constant even under load on your board, you would probably need to get 1.6 in bios, and well, thats a good way to kill your chip.

This is why were recomending u get a better board with load line calibration, so you can dial in 1.375 and it stays @ 1.375 under both load and idle.
 

MBrown

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2001
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thats not your problem.

The problem is under load, your voltage dips -.2vcore.
Thats a lot of vdroop, and thats why your system is failing.

For you to get 1.35vcore constant even under load on your board, you would probably need to get 1.6 in bios, and well, thats a good way to kill your chip.

This is why were recomending u get a better board with load line calibration, so you can dial in 1.375 and it stays @ 1.375 under both load and idle.

I see. Well I guess 3.83 is good enough coming from a q6600 @ 3.0GHz. I don't want to dump more money on this old socket. I'm not going to do a complete upgrade until at least bulldozer. Thanks for the input guys. I might post again if I have anymore questions.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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yeah.. your board dates back to a period where we did pencil mods on the resistor to lessen that Vdroop.

It was only after vendors heard us crying and crying, that they finally implimented LLC onto the newer boards.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,587
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I've got a nice DFI X48 LP LT T2R board, NIB, that I could sell you. It's the twin of the one I used to OC my Q6600 to 3.6, at a low vcore (LLC ON). That's if you wanted to upgrade your mobo, and stick with this platform.
Edit: If you're in NH, you could even drive down here and test out your chip in person.
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
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I got a used QX9650 for my Gigabyte p35-ds3l. This mobo has some extreme vdroop. I set my vcore in the bios to 1.425v and cpu-z says at idle its 1.36v and at load it drops to as low as 1.26v. Is that safe enough? My temps are 29-31 at idle. I'm at 3.83 Ghz (333.11.5) I can't seem to get it stable at 4.0Ghz no matter what I do. So are the voltages and temps safe, and what can I do to get to 4.0Ghz. I've tried 333x12 and 400x10 and both fail.

I owned 5, well technically 6, of these DS3L boards.

Of my initial 5 ds3l's, one had a vdroop of ~0.2V like yours. It was a clear outlier, the other 4 mobo's held the vdroop to <0.1V.

I RMA'ed it to gigabyte just to find out if it was a fubar'ed mobo or if that was in the spec, they said the board has some bad caps (or was it bad vrms? can't remember exactly) on it and that was why the vdroop was so excessive. Sent me a new ds3l as a replacement and the vdroop was <0.1V on it (around 0.05 to 0.06V if memory serves).

Your vdroop seems atypical of a normally functioning ds3l.