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Crazy high voltage needed to OC E6600?

D

Dark12

[H]ard|Gawd
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Joined
Dec 13, 2003
Messages
1,918
Hey all.
I just got an E6600 and I have been trying to overclock it.
After fiddling with it for quite some time I have found that I need to set the vcore to 1.520 volts to get it over 3.2ghz.
I tried lowering the multiplier by 1x and it ran fine so I know it the CPU that is the problem.
I can run stable at 3.0ghz with just 1.410v. It seems like there is a very sudden barrier much earlier than I expected...
Idle temps are ~41 degrees. I'll post load temps once i get the balls to put some strain on here.
I was really hoping to go 3.5+ with this. Any suggestions?
 
To be honest I forgot the actual name, but its a decently sized aluminum tower with 3 copper heat pipes.
 
Yea this kinda sucks.
Stable right now full load with 1.480v at 3.1ghz. 344mhz fsb.
uGuru says 58 degrees and coretemp says 53 degrees.
 
A friend of mine got a E6300 shortly after the C2D launch and had to run similar voltages to get those speeds. He settled for 3.0 GHz for 24/7 use.
 
How old is the setup?
Have you replaced the thermal paste with anything decent?
Is the heatsink/fan clean?
Have you got good case airflow?
What gfx card and PSU are you running?

Something worth trying:
I have problems clocking my PC when certain USB devices are plugged in.
Try a PS2 keyboard and mouse and remove any other USB devices.
My Guitar Hero III guitar and a USB memory stick cause me problems.
 
I just bought the CPU from a [H] member. I am using AS5. Everything is clean. Running with side panel off. PSU is a 'Rocket Fish' 700w with pretty good rails. Video card is 8800gts.
I am mostly concerned about how much voltage this thing needs.
Core temp reports VID of 1.3500v, seems a bit high?
The stepping of the CPU is SL9ZL.
 
My Rig:

MSI P6N SLI Platinum(650i)
E6600(CPU-Z reports stepping as 6 and revision as B2)
Zalmann CNPS9500
2x2GB G.Skill 5-5-5-15 DDR2 800
Sapphire Radeon 1GB 4870
Mushkin 650W PSU

I can't seem to find the box for my CPU, but looking at Newegg I bought it 6/6/07.

Right now it's running at 3.0GHz with no vCore adjustment. I never ran a stress test for 8 hours, but my computer gets restarted maybe once every week. Just looked at my temps and I'm seeing 28*C bouncing between 10-25% usage and I've never had it over 48*C(with Orthos.)

At one time I couldn't get this CPU stable past 2.8GHz, but then realized I had C1E enabled as it's a hidden option in my BIOS. After I disabled that, I immediately cranked it to 3.0 and haven't had an issue. I would check to be sure anything like Speedstep, EIST, C1E, whatever are turned off.
 
Thanks for the suggestion.
Yea that was one of the first things I checked. It's all off. :-(
 
Start off from scratch by resetting the CMOS, just in case something is corrupt or has been set wrong.

Can you find your max load temp as this is holding up the diagnosis?
Please use Realtemp, not any other temp measuring program as there is too much variance and we are familiar with the results from Realtemp.
 
Ok.
In the BIOS vcore is set to 1.520v but it only gets 1.490v.
At 344x9.0 with prime95 running for 10 minutes my max load temp was 60 degrees measured with Realtemp. Idles at 31 degrees.
 
So, randomly, this processor only needs 1.450-1.460v to stay completely stable at 3.15ghz.
Still will not break 3.5 though. >.<
Suggestions?
 
Have you tried bumping up the NB and FSB voltages? Doing that to my Q6600 setup allowed me to lower the vCore a bit while remaining stable.
 
i used 1.5625 v on my EVGA 750i FTW on water to get this stable at 3687.9 ghz.(water results i have in front of me) yeah it was a lot of voltage. fsb 1847 multi was 8X. fsb v 1.4 mem 2.1 used mushkin 1066 ram unlinked @ 800mhz. i think was only able to get it stable at like 3.4-3.5 on air with a lapped TRUE cuz of heat issues. i have the air resutls them written down somewhere i just dont remember. i have some screen shot on my other HD which is getting put in a new system so wont have that info for another few weeks. also post all your voltages??????
 
If Hydrobudz suggestion doesnt work, you need better cooling and maybe higher voltage too (or maybe a better clocking CPU?).
Things that will help improve the cooling:

Supply the CPU with colder air or improve case air flow.
Use a good thermal paste applied correctly.
Clamp the heatsink on tighter, a thin coin/metal plate under the pressure point will do this. Read up on it first!
(^This can really help)
Use a better CPU fan.
Use a better heatsink.

Edit:
Thanks for the reminder of "Clamp the heatsink on tighter, a thin coin/metal plate under the pressure point will do this."
I've been meaning to do this for ages.
I'll post results of before/after load temps so you can see if its worthwhile.
I'm off to clean the heatsink...
(Running overclocked E8400 with TRUE120)
 
Last edited:
With a .5mm steel plate between the heatsink and its clamp, load temps dropped from 62C to 61C (10 mins running Orthos).
I am running a silent 120mm fan so am probably not taking best advantage of the mod.
Still, 1C drop is nice for a free upgrade :)
 
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