how much voltage on q6600 overclock

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compwizpro

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I am overclocking a q6600 G0 stepping on an evga 750i motherboard with 4gb ocz sli ready memory pc6400 with a 650 watt power supply. I finally managed to get my q6600 to 3.6ghz while the linking to sync mode so my ram is at 800mhz and my fsb is 1600mhz. Currently I have the voltage set to 1.5v which I think is to high but cpu-z says close to 1.43 - 1.45.

My questions are
1) Is this voltage safe and/or can I raise it since when I run prime95 one of my cores fails within the first 5 minutes but everything else is fine after that.

I have my computer in a cold closet so the temps dont get higher than 52 degrees when under full load from prime95 torture test.

In the evga bios, anything higher displays as red so I am reluctant to go higher but I dont know if the voltage reading in cpu-z is the correct reading or not.

My target speed is 3.8ghz but if I need to stay at 3.6ghz I will be fine.
Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks
 
if you have a thread fail during prime, your overclock isn't stable. you need to address that problem before even thinking about 3.8ghz.
 
the reason I am posting is because i want to achieve a stable 3.6ghz overclock.

I am asking if my voltage is to high or if I should continue the raise>

Thanks
Michael Richter
 
52'c max load suggest to me that you have a bit more headroom for additional voltage, but 1.5v pumped into a 65nm quad spooks the hell out of me. since one of the cpu dies failed during stress testing, you might need to makes some adjustments to the cpu gtl.
 
your at the upper end of your voltage.. and id say the voltage reading in cpu-z is right.. i would look at other voltage changes like northbridge and what not.. you can go up to 1.5v with 65nm.. its 45nm that you want to stay away from 1.5v..
 
^This

1.5v is the max safe voltage for a 65nm chip. Anything higher is dangerous(very). My Q6600 has been running strong at 1.5v ~ 3.6Ghz for quite some time without issues.
 
what would be a safe northbridge voltage?
I am not familiar with northbridge voltage ranges so any input would be appreciated.

Thanks for the replys
 
I have my fsb voltage set to automatic in the bios but when I take a voltage reading it says its at 1.4v and displays in red. I dont know if fsb voltage is the same as chipset voltage but would 1.4 volts be to high? It seems to be running stable but it changes to red after 1.3v and thats what the board automatically set it to.

Thanks
 
Probably not what you want to hear, but if your looking for a stable 3.6 overclock, ditch the Nvidia board and get a P-35 or other Intel board.

I know it can be done on a Nvidia chipset, but you would probably get much more from an Intel board...
After months of struggling with my quads , I finally got a P-35 and it was as easy as pie..I have since moved to an X-48 and gotten an even better OC

if you don't run SLI, I honestly believe there is no reason to run a Nvidia board.
 
I just picked up a 750i board upgrading from my asus p5n-e 650i sli board since I got a poor overclock from that board. I am running a 8800 gts sli setup which I am starting to overclock so I want to stick with the nvidia board.
The primary reason I wanted to overclock was because I was originally at 2.4ghz and wanted to eliminate the cpu bottleneck in my sli setup. I will be fine at 3.6ghz as long as I can keep it stable and know that I am not frying anything on my board given the current settings.

I have my computer in a closet that is about -5 degrees F so I know that heat is not an issue. My cpu idles around 10 degreees C and under load it never goes higher than 45c during the prime95 maximum heat torture test.

Again as long as the voltages (1.5v vcore, 1.4v fsb) are fine and not ruining my board then I am satisifed.
 
CPUZ is reporting the right voltage, it is showing a lower voltage on vcore because of vdroop.
 
Does that meant he above voltages are fine?

Also, does anyone know about overclocking 8800gts?

Right now the idling temps are around 30c and loads dont go higher than 50c with fan speed set to 60%.

Thanks
 
I have my q6600 at 3.6 w/ 1.5v on h2o for quite some time, but wouldnt consider anything higher.
 
It should be fine and how do you have a closet with -5 degrees F?
Click to expand...

I have a closet in my room that has no ceiling and goes directly up into my attic and vents outside. Normally I have the door plastic wrapped to keep the cold out because its not insulated. I live in Wisconsin and the past week we had sub 0 temperatures so I just used cable extensions and ran the wires under the door.

It worked pretty well since my cpu would idle in the single digits and under full load go no higher than 51c when using wprime maximum heat tourture test.

I also used evga percision tool to get my two 8800gts to 685mhz core and 1000mhz memory while keeping gpu temps below 50c.

Anyone know anything about overclocking 8800s?

One other thing, I am thinking that I may need a new powersupply because the one I have may be hindering my overclock.

My current powersupply is an Ultra 650W with 32A on 12V rail. I know that is probably isnt enough for 2 8800gts in sli and an evga 750i (heard the evga boards are power hungry) let alone a q6600 overclock.

The PSU I was looking at was the corsair 650w with 52A on the 12V rail. I am hoping that this will cover both video cards, the main board and the q6600 overclock.

Also when I play games my computer would restart unexpecdily which I think is power supply related so I took an 8800 out for the time being.

Let me know what you think (sorry for long post)
 
Stupid question here, but dont you worry of condensation? Second question, are computer components supposed to work normally in a sub-zero temp? I was always under the impression that min temp is around 40F or so...

I am just curious...
Chris

compwizpro said:
I have a closet in my room that has no ceiling and goes directly up into my attic and vents outside. Normally I have the door plastic wrapped to keep the cold out because its not insulated. I live in Wisconsin and the past week we had sub 0 temperatures so I just used cable extensions and ran the wires under the door.

It worked pretty well since my cpu would idle in the single digits and under full load go no higher than 51c when using wprime maximum heat tourture test.

I also used evga percision tool to get my two 8800gts to 685mhz core and 1000mhz memory while keeping gpu temps below 50c.

Anyone know anything about overclocking 8800s?
Click to expand...
 
compwizpro said:
Also when I play games my computer would restart unexpecdily which I think is power supply related so I took an 8800 out for the time being.
Click to expand...

That could be from the unstable Q6600 overclock as well. You need to get prime stable first. A bigger PSU certainly wouldn't hurt.

If it's not prime stable, the CPU isnt stable and any crashes / problem could be associated with the overclock. Get the overclock stable then move on.
 
Stupid question here, but dont you worry of condensation? Second question, are computer components supposed to work normally in a sub-zero temp? I was always under the impression that min temp is around 40F or so...

I am just curious...
Chris
Click to expand...

When i put my computer in the closet, I had a fan blowing through it for about 10 minutes to evaporate any moisture that may have condensed. Also after about a couple minutes use, the parts do warm up a bit and all of the temperature sensors on the board and video cards are reading at least 10c.


Now when I run prime with overclock, all of the workers are working but when I went away for about an hour, I came back and the computer restarted and was on the black screen before it POSTed. I had to unplug it and turn it back on for it to go.

Correct me if I am wrong but usually when a computer does a hard reboot and just restarts its usually related to some overload trip on the powersupply restarting the system.

Heres something else that might help you. After the holidays I upgraded from an asus p5n-e sli 650i chipset to an evga 750i FTW board and from what I have read, the evga boards use the most power. With my sli setup on and the new board, I would get the "nvdia driver has sucessfully recovered from a serious error" message but when I turn off sli, I wouldnt get it.(all of this is without overclock) I have also read that those messages could be related to the cards not getting enough power. Could I have begun stressing the power supply a bit since I dont think this power supply is real high end? But now that I have the overclock I think that is drawing even more power and the system is just shutting off without a blue screen which leads me to believe that it might be power related and not as much as an overclock issue.

All in all, I think that my psu might not be providing clean power to the cpu and helping the overclock be more unstable than it already is while running prime95 maximum heat torture test.

Sorry for long post and thanks for all the help.
 
Seems like a lot of unanswered questions in this thread, first off what kind of cpu cooler are you using, second what are you gonna do when its summer time and you don't have a sub zero closet for this rig, and third what kind of PSU is the PSU you're concerned about? More power will definately help but anything short of a 780/790i is going to be a sub par clocker from Nvidia.

Personally I run 1.54 bios (1.48 droop) with water cooling to get to 3.8 ghz on my G0 q6600 in a IP35 Pro. If your seeing 54C in a room thats essentially sub zero you're probably not going to be able to keep that system where its at as soon as the weather warms up. The cold room is great for suicide benchmarking but its not very realistic for day to day use.
 
big mike said:
Seems like a lot of unanswered questions in this thread, first off what kind of cpu cooler are you using, second what are you gonna do when its summer time and you don't have a sub zero closet for this rig, and third what kind of PSU is the PSU you're concerned about? More power will definately help but anything short of a 780/790i is going to be a sub par clocker from Nvidia.

Personally I run 1.54 bios (1.48 droop) with water cooling to get to 3.8 ghz on my G0 q6600 in a IP35 Pro. If your seeing 54C in a room thats essentially sub zero you're probably not going to be able to keep that system where its at as soon as the weather warms up. The cold room is great for suicide benchmarking but its not very realistic for day to day use.
Click to expand...

This.

all good points.
 
My cooler is a Masscool 8WA741
http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150082
As far as my cold closet goes, I will not have this overclock set that high for day to day use. Like you said, I am just seeing how high I can go in the winter time. I usually have it at 3.15 in my room and that runs fine as far as temps go.

The PSU as mentioned before is an Ultra 650w w/ 32A on 12V rail. Now I dont think this is enough for my setup (check signature)

Let me know if you think the PSU is strong enough.

Thanks
 
650w should be plenty for a Q6600. It's the "Ultra" name that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
 
I don't know much about that cooler, but it looks like it's sufficient that you should see better temps than 52 when using outside air, unless that closet is closed up enough to warm up as the cpu warms up? The PSU might be suspect, I don't know about that particular one but some Ultras are pretty well made and some are pretty bad. If it was a name brand 650 I would say it's sufficient but being an Ultra it could well be borderline with SLI 8800GTS's. Your system load is probably easily over 500 watts when you crank things up, but I think that motherboard is really killing your overclock too, that heatsink is pretty good and I really would expect better clocks than what your seeing out of the CPU. What voltage does the chip do 3.15 at? Also have you tried lowering the multiplier to 8x and running up the FSB to see what kind of FSB the board is capable of?
 
compwizpro said:
I have a closet in my room that has no ceiling and goes directly up into my attic and vents outside. Normally I have the door plastic wrapped to keep the cold out because its not insulated. I live in Wisconsin and the past week we had sub 0 temperatures so I just used cable extensions and ran the wires under the door.
Click to expand...

At least someone else on here feels my pain, we've had an arctic front for like a week and a half.
 
I have a feeling that it is my PSU. Ever since I got my new board from my asus p5n-e sli, I have been encountering stability problems with my sli setup. Also this may be due to a failed sensor but when I use everest to check my 12v rail on my board it is displaying between 8v and 6v. I dont know if this is a bad sensor but if thats the case that is some serious drop on the 12v rail.
 
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