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Adding more PPD - Q6600 OC issues :(

B

Brak710

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 27, 2008
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Hey guys, recently got a Q6600 (G0) for cheap (free!) and I popped it in my EVGA 680i SLI (Rev. A2). I wanted to get the most use out of it for folding so I figured this would be a great overclocker...

Well, I just can't go above 2.6Ghz without stability issues. This sucks.

I've played with everything, unlinked the RAM, ran the RAM at it's exact specs (800MHz, factory timings, etc...), upped the voltages pretty much across the board, updated BIOS... Just doesn't OC.

I'm not really that experienced with CPU overclocking, I've always been doing GPU stuff.

People keep saying this chip is a great OC'r, and I'd love the PPD, but I feel like I've got something defective here. Anyone have any experiences here? I need some help! I can provide any information you need about the hardware or BIOS. I'd really appreciate it!
 
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could be a crappy chip.

Your motherboard could also be damaged. I had a similar experience with an i7 860 and it turns out one of the vrms (under the heatsink) was toast.
 
Only other thing I should mention is that this CPU is probably an OEM from an HP desktop. Not sure if the chip quality is any different than retails.
 
No, that really won't make a difference....the only other item is what stepping is it? Some of the early 6600s were B3 stepping which wasn't so go for overclocking either....
 
Another vote for the 680i motherboard being the culprit. Those overclock crap with quads.
 
brycejones said:
No, that really won't make a difference....the only other item is what stepping is it? Some of the early 6600s were B3 stepping which wasn't so go for overclocking either....
Click to expand...

Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 4 (max 4)
Number of threads 4 (max 4)
Name Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Codename Kentsfield
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Package (platform ID) Socket 775 LGA (0x4)
CPUID 6.F.B
Extended CPUID 6.F
Core Stepping G0
Technology 65 nm
Core Speed 2600.9 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 9.0 x 289.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 1155.9 MHz
Stock frequency 2400 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T, VT-x
L1 Data cache 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2 x 4096 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
FID range 6.0x - 9.0x
Max VID 1.288 V
 
Syran said:
Very commonly sought after core stepping for the cpu for it's overclocking. Good chance to agree that its the motherboard.
Click to expand...

Assuming that the motherboard isn't defective, how should I go about overclocking on it tho? Unlink the RAM and raise the FSB more and more until it needs more volts?

2.6GHz is stable so far, but even if the Mobo sucks, shouldn't I be able to get at least like 2.8 or 2.9?
 
The only times I've seen a G0 not hit 3GHz it's been because of the motherboard. Most G0s hit 3.0 barely needing any voltage bump, if at all. You should just be able to raise the FSB to 333MHz, maybe give the CPU just a tiny bit more voltage, and it should POST and load Windows just fine. If it can't do that then the mobo is to blame.
 
Very late to the game, but I still run my Q6600 G0. It runs at 3.2 on stock volts and 3.6 with a little push.

I never did SLI back them because most of the boards (yes, especially yours) did NOT OC well. Dan_D can give you some advice on that MoBo as I believe he ran one for a while and am pretty sure he hated it.

 
Brak710 said:
Only other thing I should mention is that this CPU is probably an OEM from an HP desktop. Not sure if the chip quality is any different than retails.
Click to expand...

The OEM versions at least in my experience that have been pulls from oem systems like Dell HP etc, in fact generally have a lower VID, Giving them generally the higher ability to run faster with less Volts. And As far as running a 600 Series board to overclock a Q6600 it is a pain in the ass you are better off to run an intel chipset to overclock that quad..... Mine in my signiture is running on a 780i and it still was a pain. If I put the chip currently in my SIG Rig in my wife's P5Q Deluxe it will easily overclock an extra 2-300 MHZ over the 780i , all this by just changing the board and voltage a little bit.

Now to your question drop the multi down to 8 and ram the FSB up to 400 400*8=3200mhz this is very doable with stock volts on these chips, it has been I long time since I used on of these boards, if it wont do 3.2ghz on stock volts bump the volts just a little bit. should not have to mess with any other voltages to get this speed
 
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The 680i can be tricky but unless it's really broken or your free CPU has seen some major abuse 3.2 to 3.6 is very doable.

Here is a pretty complete set of instructions on setting the BIOS etc.

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardware/124416-q6600-overclocking-680i-how-56k-killer.html

Keep in mind you will need a very good cooler, I use the ThermalTake extreem 120 but there are others. The stock cooler won't make it for high over clocks. I could hold 55c running running VMware and dual clients. It will run the new SMP client with no issues at the same temp.

If you are running XP you will need to dowlload the full set of Nvidia drivers. If you are running Vista the drivers are built in.
 
Brak710 said:
Assuming that the motherboard isn't defective, how should I go about overclocking on it tho? Unlink the RAM and raise the FSB more and more until it needs more volts?

2.6GHz is stable so far, but even if the Mobo sucks, shouldn't I be able to get at least like 2.8 or 2.9?
Click to expand...


unlink the ram and set it as low as possible. ddr2 400 or ddr2 533 which ever is the lowest. it will remove it as a variable in the overclock. raise the cpu voltage to 1.35v or 1.4v then slowly increase the FSB 15-20mhz until it becomes unstable (stress test between each increase). once it becomes unstable you can either increase the cpu voltage or decrease the FSB til it becomes stable again.

and like everyone else said the 680i is a horrible overclocking board but you should still be able to get 3ghz out of it.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
unlink the ram and set it as low as possible. ddr2 400 or ddr2 533 which ever is the lowest. it will remove it as a variable in the overclock. raise the cpu voltage to 1.35v or 1.4v then slowly increase the FSB 15-20mhz until it becomes unstable (stress test between each increase). once it becomes unstable you can either increase the cpu voltage or decrease the FSB til it becomes stable again.

and like everyone else said the 680i is a horrible overclocking board but you should still be able to get 3ghz out of it.
Click to expand...

How much would you say I should increase the voltage by per attempt?
 
i think the max voltage on those chips is either 1.55 or 1.6v something like that so anything under that and your fine on increasing the voltage. biggest thing you have to worry about is temps. so as long as your good on temps then increase it to what you consider safe. i typically start with a voltage in the middle between stock and max voltage since it usually allows you to get a decent overclock at first then allows me to decide what i want to do after that. if i want to go higher or go lower with the voltage depending on the overclock.
 
Leave everything at auto.

Multiplier at 9

FSB at 1300 (CPU at 2.925 GHz)

What happens?

Also try FSB 1400 (CPU at 3.15 GHz)

What happens?

I have the EVGA 680i SLI Rev A2. and a pretty old BIOS (Will have to reboot to find version. I think but not sure P31. Date 07/11/2007 as per CPU-Z) that got be stable to 3.6 GHz on air.

dont worry if it does not work at lower settings. Try the ones I posted, they both work for me at everything auto except FSB.

PS: Dont use any of the NVIDIA OC utils. Use the BIOS settings.
 
Brak710 said:
I did both of those with Auto Memory and Unlinked Memory (Set to 800Mhz). Same results each time.
Click to expand...

Oops, forgot to mention that. Yes the mem was unlinked and set to 800.

Well, if you got it to boot at 1300, try upping the voltage by stages, and see where it leads?

I would NOT go past 1.5V. But it is up to you off course. ;)
 
SpeedyVV said:
Oops, forgot to mention that. Yes the mem was unlinked and set to 800.

Well, if you got it to boot at 1300, try upping the voltage by stages, and see where it leads?

I would NOT go past 1.5V. But it is up to you off course. ;)
Click to expand...

Will do. Should I just take "Current Voltage" in the BIOS as the starting point for the Core Volts?
 
Ok, I rebooted my system. I am running P30

ftp://ftp.evga.com/bios/NF68_P30.iso

I would start at 1.35 then 1.375, 1.4, 1.425, 1.45 up to 1.5.

If that does not work, you could try turning off SpeedStep

Also, P28 was reported by many owners as one of the best OCers for Quads.

ftp://ftp.evga.com/bios/NF68_P28.iso

Those are ISO images you can burn to a CD and flash you BIOS.

P33 is the latest one

ftp://ftp.evga.com/bios/NF68_P33.iso

PS: If you want a 680i OC Guide from NVIDIA send me a PM with your email.

It has a good strategy for OCing from scratch.
 
^^ speedvv is absolutely spot on

680i chipset has more holes than a compendium of golf courses, do as he says, do a few "680i fsb hole" searches on google and you'll find a happy medium.

I wouldn't look for much more than 3200mhz in that mobo, but if you can get a P35/45 mobo for cheapness I almost guarentee 3600mhz+ for 24/7 use providing you can use a good quality hsf.
 
SpeedyVV said:
Ok, I rebooted my system. I am running P30

ftp://ftp.evga.com/bios/NF68_P30.iso

I would start at 1.35 then 1.375, 1.4, 1.425, 1.45 up to 1.5.

If that does not work, you could try turning off SpeedStep

Also, P28 was reported by many owners as one of the best OCers for Quads.

ftp://ftp.evga.com/bios/NF68_P28.iso

Those are ISO images you can burn to a CD and flash you BIOS.

P33 is the latest one

ftp://ftp.evga.com/bios/NF68_P33.iso

PS: If you want a 680i OC Guide from NVIDIA send me a PM with your email.

It has a good strategy for OCing from scratch.
Click to expand...

Did speedstep on and off, but I tried all the voltages from 1.35v to 1.5v on each of the 1300FSB and 1400FSB.

As soon as the windows boot logo starts, it crashes. Can't even get 2.7GHz stable with the voltage changes. :(

I even tried dropping the multi and doing higher FSBs, no good. I was reading that running SLI cards can cause OC stability issues, is this true or total false info?
 
Brak710 said:
Did speedstep on and off, but I tried all the voltages from 1.35v to 1.5v on each of the 1300FSB and 1400FSB.

As soon as the windows boot logo starts, it crashes. Can't even get 2.7GHz stable with the voltage changes. :(

I even tried dropping the multi and doing higher FSBs, no good. I was reading that running SLI cards can cause OC stability issues, is this true or total false info?
Click to expand...

True enough but unusual.

Did you bump your North Bridge voltage to 1.4?

Oh, and what RAM are you using and what is it's rated voltage?

Oh, one more OH, what PSU are you using?
 
BillR said:
True enough but unusual.

Did you bump your North Bridge voltage to 1.4?

Oh, and what RAM are you using and what is it's rated voltage?
Click to expand...

Did not really play with the North Bridge much. Will do that soon.

Right now I have in some Samsung PC2-6400 (400MHz) sticks (x4, three 1GBs and one 2GB(!)) in. Rated for 1.80V Have tried running it at 1.9V, didn't seem to help but didn't hurt. Motherboard Auto sets it to 1.850V.

Call me retarded, but CPU-Z is saying that "(400MHz)." Is it my problem that the motherboard is Auto setting (and myself when manually doing it) the Memory to 800? I assume there is a x2 in there somewhere for dual channels to make the math right, but maybe I'm wrong... :confused:

EDIT: PSU is a Thermaltake W0131RU 850W.
 
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Brak710 said:
Did not really play with the North Bridge much. Will do that soon.

Right now I have in some Samsung PC2-6400 (400MHz) sticks (x4, three 1GBs and one 2GB(!)) in. Rated for 1.80V Have tried running it at 1.9V, didn't seem to help but didn't hurt. Motherboard Auto sets it to 1.850V.

Call me retarded, but CPU-Z is saying that "(400MHz)." Is it my problem that the motherboard is Auto setting (and myself when manually doing it) the Memory to 800? I assume there is a x2 in there somewhere to make the math right, but maybe I'm wrong... :confused:

EDIT: PSU is a Thermaltake W0131RU 850W.
Click to expand...

Well, that board was designed for DDR-800 and up. Manualy set it to 400 and see how that goes. Keep in mind that RAM may not have much head room so try to keep it as close to DDR-400 as possible.

The NB at 1.4 is needed for a good overclock on that board.

Looks like you have enough PSU

Another OH, go to two sticks of ram, having that 2 gig stick mixed in with 1 gig sticks isn't the best idea.
 
set your ram to 666mhz divider.

you can try removing the 2gb and 1x1gb sticks as this may be causing issues, worth a try.
 
One thing to note.

Intel started crippling the q6600 it seems when no one started upgrading, as we all just overclocked to get the performance.

In the later generations, ALOT of people started having issues hitting 3.0Ghz, where as earlier G0s would hit 3.2 with no vcore.

I have the 680i A1 and a early q6600, and easily went 3.2Ghz but was not stable enough to fod 24/7. I went to 2.925 and run 24/7.

However, my max oc has been 3.38Ghz... after that I have had up around 1.5V and no boot, then got lazy and left it at 2.925 for folding.

So it may just be your chip.
 
Patonb said:
One thing to note.

Intel started crippling the q6600 it seems when no one started upgrading, as we all just overclocked to get the performance.

In the later generations, ALOT of people started having issues hitting 3.0Ghz, where as earlier G0s would hit 3.2 with no vcore.

I have the 680i A1 and a early q6600, and easily went 3.2Ghz but was not stable enough to fod 24/7. I went to 2.925 and run 24/7.

However, my max oc has been 3.38Ghz... after that I have had up around 1.5V and no boot, then got lazy and left it at 2.925 for folding.

So it may just be your chip.
Click to expand...

Do you have any proof of this? I have never heard this, and I personally owned 4 q6600s from the crappy B3 to first G0 and very very late G0..The B3 did 3.2Ghz, and each G0 did at least 3.4-3.8Ghz...



 
Patonb said:
One thing to note.

Intel started crippling the q6600 it seems when no one started upgrading, as we all just overclocked to get the performance.

In the later generations, ALOT of people started having issues hitting 3.0Ghz, where as earlier G0s would hit 3.2 with no vcore.

I have the 680i A1 and a early q6600, and easily went 3.2Ghz but was not stable enough to fod 24/7. I went to 2.925 and run 24/7.

However, my max oc has been 3.38Ghz... after that I have had up around 1.5V and no boot, then got lazy and left it at 2.925 for folding.

So it may just be your chip.
Click to expand...


its not really that they started crippling them. its that they started running out of high quality binned Q6600's since a lot of them were also used as the Q6700. so you got stuck with the trash processors near the end which is what the Q6600 should of been from the beginning. its not that they were trying to really cripple them but its also what you get since intel's C2Q design kept them from being able to copy AMD and release a tri-core version with the low quality binned processors.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
its not really that they started crippling them. its that they started running out of high quality binned Q6600's since a lot of them were also used as the Q6700. so you got stuck with the trash processors near the end which is what the Q6600 should of been from the beginning. its not that they were trying to really cripple them but its also what you get since intel's C2Q design kept them from being able to copy AMD and release a tri-core version with the low quality binned processors.
Click to expand...

All that and no GO stepping;)
 
ccityinstaller said:
Do you have any proof of this? I have never heard this, and I personally owned 4 q6600s from the crappy B3 to first G0 and very very late G0..The B3 did 3.2Ghz, and each G0 did at least 3.4-3.8Ghz...
Click to expand...

See below

sirmonkey1985 said:
its not really that they started crippling them. its that they started running out of high quality binned Q6600's since a lot of them were also used as the Q6700. so you got stuck with the trash processors near the end which is what the Q6600 should of been from the beginning. its not that they were trying to really cripple them but its also what you get since intel's C2Q design kept them from being able to copy AMD and release a tri-core version with the low quality binned processors.
Click to expand...

Yha, I know it wasn't anything Intel did. intentionally.. But alot of people got screwed by this. Everyone was still specing q6600s and saddly the OCing went to below what we all were use to.
 
Patonb said:
See below



Yha, I know it wasn't anything Intel did. intentionally.. But alot of people got screwed by this. Everyone was still specing q6600s and saddly the OCing went to below what we all were use to.
Click to expand...


ya cant really say people got screwed by it. they bought exactly what they wanted, a Q6600. if it doesn't overclock then to bad they should of bought a q9450 or 9550. its just how it works. its the whole argument with people that bought x2 550's and couldn't unlock them and tried to cry foul on AMD when the ability to unlock them was never suppose to happen in the first place.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
ya cant really say people got screwed by it. they bought exactly what they wanted, a Q6600. if it doesn't overclock then to bad they should of bought a q9450 or 9550. its just how it works. its the whole argument with people that bought x2 550's and couldn't unlock them and tried to cry foul on AMD when the ability to unlock them was never suppose to happen in the first place.
Click to expand...

And then tried to return them as defective....Gotta love people lol.
 
BillR said:
And then tried to return them as defective....Gotta love people lol.
Click to expand...


yep. those threads were annoying on the AMD section. seriously just wanted to beg one of the mod's/admins to pull out the ban stick on some of those people.
 
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