First real time at OC'ing Q6600

R

runnin17

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 27, 2007
Messages
1,312
Hey guys,

A few quick questions about my Q6600 OC'ing results. Here is the basic make up of my system.

Asus P5Q-E
Q6600
G. Skill DDR2-800 2x2gb
Thermalright Ultima-90 heatsink
Thermaltake Armor+ case
6x 120mm Yate Loon medium speed fans and the 240mm Thermaltake window fan

OK, so now that that is out of the way. My CPU's VID is 1.3250, yeah I know I was bummed when I found this out. I was able to get up to 2.8GHz stable at 1.3000v. However, I had to bump up the voltage to 1.3750 just to get to 3.0GHz. Right now I am running 3.2GHz stable at 1.4000v (I tried 3.2 @ 1.3750, but prime95 was not stable). I also tried 3.4 @ 1.4v, but I got a lot of random restarts.

I will run more power through the CPU later when I have time, but my main question is about my idle and load temps. All these temps are with the side window on my case.

On idle my core temps read 45C, 38C, 38C, 40C (I will be lapping my Ultima-90 and my CPU in a couple of weeks and hopefully the temps will drop and even out). These idle temps seem kind of high for a Q6600 though.

Also, under load (Prime95) after about 20 minutes the temps are 69C, 62C, 62C, 63C. The 69C worries me, but I figure once I lap my CPU and heatsink my temps should drop down at least 5C.

Anyway, since I am currently at 1.4v on my CPU and I would like to try and get at least my OC to 3.8GHz, do you think the 0.1v that I have to work with until I reach the dreaded 1.5v limit will allow me to hit 3.8Ghz?

Thanks guys and I love this forum!

P.S. I will post screenshots later, not at my main rig right now.
 
I am a little doubtful of you hitting 3.8 with air on that chip, considering the VID and already higher temps. The idle temps you list are what I get @ 3.6ghz on this chip, 1.275 vid and 1.44v VCore in BIOS. I wish you the best of luck but it seems you are approaching your plateau a lot faster than I did with my chip. This chip was doing 3ghz @ stock volts prime95 stable. You may very well have one of those weird chips that needs a little more juice to get going and then stays stable for a few hundred more mhz. GL! :)

Edit: As far as those temps go, q6600's run pretty hot so for purposes of stress testing, don't sweat getting close to the 80C mark. You'll never see those temps in regular computing but I've had mine that high for upwards of 12 hours during stress testing with no problems.
 
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That's good to know about the temps. I guess we will see if my chip has the balls to go to 3.8.
 
I'd be happy with 3.4/3.6 at most... Not like you'll really notice the difference beyond that... Still fun to push it just to see what it can do though! (provided you have the time to mess around with it and really stress test it)
 
I wouldn't like that high of temps on the one core either. Lapping the heatsink and processor, if done properly, should bring the load temp difference on the different cores to no more than 2-3c.

My Q6600 has a 1.2625 vid.... 3.8 on air for mine is out of the question I am pretty sure. Of course I don't like the 62c max temps either... Before this chip, 60c was my absolute max.

For your setup, I really don't think that heatsink is going to be able to handle much more power going through that chip of yours.
 
My go had a vid 1.325 also but 3.8 was no sweat for it. Just took alot of voltage after 3.4 actually 1.55 to be exact but ran stable as it could on air with tuniq 120.
 
Well there might be hope for my CPU yet. I just set the voltage to 1.375v and it is stable at 3.2GHz. However, it won't even post if I bump it up to 3.4GHz @ 1.4v. It may just need that extra amount of juice to get the thing going.

I might be picking up a Xigmatech S138, but it is going to be a pain to take out my motherboard. Oh well, that's the price of being [H] :D:D

What do you gusy think of the Xigmatech S138??? I still want to lap my CPU, but with the Xigmatech and the direct-touch heatpipes, I am not sure if you can lap those.
 
I just switched to the Xigmatech 1283 and it lowered temps over the Zerotherm NV120 (which is a massive bastard) by 2-4C across the board. Quieter too. Get the bolt-through kit if you pick one up.

As for lapping the cpu, that has nothing to do with the heat sink so go for it. The heatsink itself can be lapped if you don't take a lot off, there has been a post on here about it I believe. Instead of lapping, a good thermal paste application can help almost just as much. By this I mean filling the little grooves between the heatpipes with a tiny bead of paste in addition to the thin strip you put down horizontally across the processor.
 
Is the Xigmatek cooler actually smaller than the NV120? I purchased the NV120 because I could get it locally and shipping tends to be a bitch to Puerto Rico... I actually wanted the Ultima 90 originally, mostly because it was smaller, but performance between the Xigmatek and the NV120 seemed comparable across the few reviews I could find (that had reviewed both).
 
@ Impulse:

Well if I end up buying the Xigmatech and you still want an Ultima-90, I will be needing to sell mine (probably). It really is a very good heatsink, I just won't have much use for it since my other PC is an HTPC with a desktop case and the Ultima-90 wouldn't fit it that case.
 
I got the same cooler.. its a nice little unit.

I had the same large (5-6*C) difference in core temps wiht my 6600 but lapping didn't help any. Some of the chips are just like that I guess.

I get 55-58*c @ 3.2 but only a 1.30v.
 
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