a pencil mod question...

okay, I have an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe with a Q6600 (B3) and used to have to crank up the voltage to get 3.00GHz to run stable, which obviously affected my temps to a point where I was becoming concerned (mid to high 50s at idle), I then decided to do a pencil mod to decrease the vdroop which was absolutely horrendous on this board (almost a full 0.1v at times), it didn't help at all, so i said fugh it and started looking into a better cooler/cooling system, one day I was just browsing around teh interwebs when I saw a picture of a pencil mod on my motherboard to decrease the vdroop, to my surprise it was totally different than the one I tried, I hadn't read the thread thoroughly enough and had preformed a pencil mod for the memory voltage <face palm>...

I have now done the correct pencil mod and am now running at the same frequency (3.00GHz) but at 1.3v (which oddly enough turned yellow in my bios screen, whereas too high would turn purple and then red, anything under 1.325v turns it yellow) instead of 1.475v (bios settings, once in windows it was running at 1.425v before the mod, pretty bad vdroop at idle and below 1.4v at load), my question is this, my voltage at idle is anywhere from 1.312v - 1.344v, is pumping more voltage than is set in the bios "always" bad...? or is that just when you have it set high...? at load it's between 1.296v - 1.328v, should I be worried or is it set low enough that it really won't negatively affect anything...? my temps are now down in the low 40s at idle and they get in the high 70s during IBT, so I'm really happy, but should I be...? or is there a problem wuth the voltage...?

I think if you are running Orthos and what not fine for a few hours and it works fine, it should be fine. Isn't the Pencil mod really dangerous for the motherboard since stray graphite is indeed conductive.?

Jenga said:

I think if you are running Orthos and what not fine for a few hours and it works fine, it should be fine. Isn't the Pencil mod really dangerous for the motherboard since stray graphite is indeed conductive.?

Click to expand...

I did my best not to stray...

as long as its under 1.5v you should be perfectly fine with what ever voltage its showing.. the only way to actually know what the voltage is going to the cpu is with a multimeter.. but cpu-z is about the closest numbers you will get without one. its not going to hurt anything if the voltage is higher then what the bios says.. the numbers the bios uses for the settings are just reference numbers anyways and usually never mean thats the exact voltage.. your temps seem perfectly fine.. btw you might want to check what your voltage is at on your ram by checking speedfan.. doesnt mean its accurate but its pretty close.. it will show up at the bottom of the speedfan window with all the other voltages..

thanks...

I just completed my first pencil mod. For those of you who haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. The hardest part was finding a #2B pencil (Office Max). It's a quick, cheap way to juice your overclock a bit more, or lower your voltage and keep the same speed.

I dont, its a very very poor alternative to doing the job correctly by soldering in the additional resistor. Basic soldering iron kit less than $15 + 1 hour of practice following any of the many guides on the internet = doing the job correctly. Learn a new skill that will be useful your whole life if you mess around with computers or anything else that has wires in it.

Beezer, glad it worked for you. Do not think my post is an attack on you. My dislike of "pencil mods" is well documented. Its not the mod, it is the way it is done and I never miss an opportunity to suggest/recommend the mod be done in a more professional manner. Soldering is really very cheap and easy to learn and the idea of ... well nevermind. Said my bit. Carry on.

And no offense taking. I didn't realize soldering was a viable option, so that's something else I'll have to look into.