Cant OC Q6600 3Ghz Water cooled (Pics Inside)

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chris.tkd

n00b
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Messages
17
Hi Everyone,

Im having a problem overclocking my Q6600 SLACR on water, its the only thing in the loop, temps are high teens/low twentys on idle. I can get windows to boot correctly although prime 95 dosnt last 10 mins without the whole program crashing.

Specs
Q6600 SLACR
P5K Vanilla (Latest bios 1201)
4GB Corsair XMS2 (although only have xp x86 installed) 800Mhz
Coolermaster 620W PSU
Powercolor 2900XT
2 HDDs & DVD writer connected to PSU

Ive set the ram to the correct timings and voltage 4 4 4 12 2.1V and changed all the settings that i understand. Ive tryed going up to 1.4V but even that dosnt make 3ghz stable so im thinking it might be something other than the voltage.

My goal is to get to 3.6ghz because thatll mean the ram is running at full speed, but i cant even get it stable at 3ghz at the minute :(

Anyone have any ideas on what to try? Could it be something to do with my unused ram on an x86 os?

Here are some pics of my BIOS

Advanced CPU settings
adv.jpg


Top of Overclocking menu
top.jpg


Bottom of overclocking menu
bottom.jpg


Northbridge menu
nb.jpg


Onboard devices menu
ob.jpg


Usb menu
usb.jpg
 
Try flipping the settings (besides CPU voltage) in the lower half of the overclocking menu from auto to the lowest value. One of the auto settings my be flaking out on you. Also, any reason your FSB is 330 and not 333?
 
What's the VID of the chip? Have you tried increasing vcore at all? 1.25v seems kind of low, unless that's what your VID is.

You can also try giving the NB a bump in voltage as well.
 
My Corsair will run 4, 4, 4, 12. But 5, 5, 5, 18 is much more stable. Also have to have it at 2.15v. Try bringing the NB voltage up a tad. The only thing I run auto at 3.6 ghz is CPU-NB GTL. Also enable Vanderpool Tech. It brings the full force of the quad to the table with certain programs and software. Drop the cpu multi down and memtest the ram.

Keep playing with it. Im sure more is there than 3.0 ghz.
 
thanks for the replys, the fsb was set to 330 cos i just tryed lowering it a tiny bit to see if that helped.

The vid is 1.2500V. I tryed upto 1.4V to see if it was stable and it wasnt.

Im gonna try the above suggestions now, ill let youse know what happens.
 
1.4V? keep moving the voltage up, Try 1.45V and see what happends, also just to make sure ram is not causing this, keep the ram under a ratio that keeps it under its rated speeds to remove the posibility of ram causing instability issues.

3.6ghz for some Q6600 may require up to 1.5V so just mess with the volts til you see whats ibt stable.
 
I have a Gigabyte board, but am running my Q6600 at 3.6 on air. I don't know what auto does on your board for load-line calibration, but on my board with it on it can hit 3.6 at 1.375 volts. With it off it takes 1.45. You may also want to set your CPU PLL Voltage to 1.5 if it is not. Mine on auto wanted to set it at 1.75, which was entirely unnecessary.
 
chris.tkd said:
thanks for the replys, the fsb was set to 330 cos i just tryed lowering it a tiny bit to see if that helped.

The vid is 1.2500V. I tryed upto 1.4V to see if it was stable and it wasnt.

Im gonna try the above suggestions now, ill let youse know what happens.
Click to expand...

1.2500v is a rock star VID. You should be able to do 3.0Ghz well below stock voltage.
 
Don't increase the voltage to 1.45 as someone previously suggested. You shouldn't need more than 1.3v to run at 3.0-3.2ghz. Try 9 X 340 and 5-5-5-18 ram timings....and just use stock voltage on the ram.

As someone suggested...manually set your cpu pll voltage, nb voltage, etc. as sometimes the board
by default raises it to high. pll voltage should be around 1.5, nb voltage around 1.3v....fsb termination voltage...around 1.2 I think.
 
Not everyone chip is guaranteed to overclock like your personal experiences. He said his overclock was not stable at 1.4, Then try 1.45, its a drastic voltage bump and if its not stable for 3.0ghz then something else is wrong. Im confused if he was saying 1.4v to 3.6ghz since he said it was his goal.
 
make sure your ram ration is 1:1 or else your rams will be running way above the ddr 800 rates
 
looks like ive managed to get a stable overclock at 3.0ghz. Although the cpu voltage is at 1.35V. I also managed to get a stable 3.2 although that was 1.4875V and i thought it was a bit too much voltage for 200mhz. Im gonna try 2 get it stable at lower voltages, maybe by adjusting the GTL Voltage ratios?
 
Since you're having trouble, even though you've got an SLACR cpu, what's your batch number? Q6600's with batch numbers in the 800's are notorious for not being able to OC beyond 3-3.2GHz no matter the voltages given to them.

Also, I'm running an X38 chipset Asus mb with my Q6600.....my NB voltage is 1.5V....and was necessary to give it that much voltage to get stability at 3.6-3.8GHz (while cpu voltage is 1.35V). Something that P/X35 chipsets need on NB to get stability.....bump your NB voltage up and add it to your WC'ing loop with something simple like a DD MPC-Universal chipset block or Swiftech MCW-30 chipset block.....
 
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