Originally posted by: 100Core
I understand that every CPU overclocks differently, and that there are no gaurantees on what speeds can be reached. But trying to get better numbers is the whole fun of this right? And 3.39 is a pretty modest OC for a Q9550 from what I can gather.
To answer your questions Elburro, When I go above 399FSB, it tries to boot, the power dies, it tries again, and the power dies a second time. It then automatically reverts to default settings and successfully posts on its third try.
The voltages are on auto at this point, I was planning on finding the minimum voltage needed after I successfully achieved a faster OC.
I found the option to unsync the RAM from the FSB, and sure enough it did allow me to hit a 430FSB and 3.66Ghz. Thank you akugami!
It seems stable at the moment, but should I be worried? Is it safe to oveclock my PC2-6400 ram to 430Mhz? Thats not that aggressive right? Could I go higher if I can get it stable or is this pretty risky?
Generally when trying to tweak it for the very last bit of juice, you want to manually set the voltages. That's why it's suggested you not use the auto voltage setting.
Unsyncing the RAM will allow you to use separate timings for the RAM and the FSB. This means if you use cheaper RAM (hopefully not cheap quality, just less expensive), you can still overclock your CPU to a higher degree without the RAM affecting your overclocks by any large degree. Keep in mind even though you may have RAM that in synthetic tests shows a 50% improvement, in the real world, it'll likely only give you a couple % performance increase. Using cheaper RAM is perfectly fine and even recommended.
Depending on what type of RAM you have you can probably clock it higher. You'd really have to see what type of RAM you have and what the default voltages your RAM runs at. Also keep in mind using lower RAM timings can also produce an increase in RAM performance even at the same speeds.
Make sure you use Core Temp or Real Temp to check the temperature of your CPU. Use Memtest86+ to test the stability of your RAM. Use Prime95 to test the stability of your overclock. It's best to leave Prime95 (32 bit and 64 bit as well as multi-threaded versions) running for 24 hours to consider it stable. If possible, keep your room as warm as possible, for instance simulate what your room temps will be in the summer. I've put a CPU in stress test in a room that hit 95'ish F and left it running for 24 hours with something like Prime95. Pretty much guaranteeing it won't fail under stress. Keep an eye on your CPU's temps during testing. Generally you don't want your CPU's going above about 65-70C.
An alternative to Prime95 is Intel Burn Test. This thing will really really heat up and stress your CPU. Running it around 50-100 times should give you a good indication of whether it's stable or not.
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