HOWTO: Overclock C2D Quads and C2D Duals - A Guide v1.0

Speedswitch XP allows this on mobile chips; it doesn't work with desktop chips. My laptop for examples idles at like 200 MHz with this software. It'll go fullspeed on demand.
 
Speedswitch XP allows this on mobile chips; it doesn't work with desktop chips. My laptop for examples idles at like 200 MHz with this software. It'll go fullspeed on demand.

Yup , i have used that before on a laptop as well. :D

wish it worked with desktops. :(

I still hope someday they will include the ability to configure the steps in bios.
 
Thanks for your guide. I'm not a huge OC'er, but your guide helped me to soundly get to 3.0 on my Q6750. Of course, now I'm thinking 3.2. :cool:


Very nice, Thanks.
 
I set my memory clock to LINKEd and my memory ratio to SYNC and when I moved the QSD to 1333 MHz (Q6600 on eVGA NF-68 SLI), it dropped my DDR speed to 533 MHz so I chose UNLINKED and set 1333MHz and 800MHz manually.... normal?
 
Fantastic guide man just what I needed. I have one question though as I am very new at OCing. You mentioned that it ran for an hour without an error or crashing yet the screenshot that is shown has an error on the 2nd thread.

I was running mine and would get an error on one and the other would just keep on truckin'. Should I just ignore the error and wait till they both fail or once one fails try a different voltage?
 
Once you get a stable overclock with a minimal vcore, you can try adding more aggressive memory timings back (like 4-4-4-12) and also try enabling those power savings options as well as lowering your other voltages. It’s best to do this one-at-a-time so you can understand the minimum for each one.

Ok. So once I know that my system is stabled, I will make my memory timings 4-4-4-12 and enable power savings options.

My question is, do I have to run Prime95 again to stress test with these new settings?
 
Ok. So once I know that my system is stabled, I will make my memory timings 4-4-4-12 and enable power savings options.

My question is, do I have to run Prime95 again to stress test with these new settings?

Yeah... you do. Might be easier to write down all the power savings settings and the mem timings that are stable (or if your BIOS supports saving a profile do that). Then you can go ahead and enable the PS options and tweak your mem settings and stress test w/ prime95 v25.x... just know that you may have to go back and tweak the settings one-at-a-time if it's unstable.
 
Any chance of addressing my question? Is the screen shot showing a failed test or a passed test? I see 3 cores that passed and one that failed.
 
Fantastic guide man just what I needed. I have one question though as I am very new at OCing. You mentioned that it ran for an hour without an error or crashing yet the screenshot that is shown has an error on the 2nd thread.

I was running mine and would get an error on one and the other would just keep on truckin'. Should I just ignore the error and wait till they both fail or once one fails try a different voltage?

No, if one fails, that's an indication of instability. One error is bad!

Sorry I didn't see your post for some reason, or else I would've answered more quickly.
 
Cool, thanks for the reply. I'm currently working with E6850 G0 and it's not stable at any voltage. Am I doing something wrong?
 
Cool, thanks for the reply. I'm currently working with E6850 G0 and it's not stable at any voltage. Am I doing something wrong?

What multi and FSB? What are your mem settings (and vcore for the mem) and as well your other voltages such as NB, SB, etc. The instability may be caused by another voltage.
 
will start oc'n here soon, it looks like speedfan 4.33 has fixed the temp difference so you don't have to add the 15 to each core? just want to make sure if anyone else has proof of this, I almost wanna dl 4.32 and add 15 to each core just to be on the safe side before I oc. Very nice writeup. Mike
 
Not sure if this has been mentioned or not, but the thread title should read "C2 Quads and C2 Duos" (I'd probably use "Core 2 Duos and Core 2 Quads", or just "Core 2 processors"). The "D" in "C2D" stands for "Duo".

Fantastic guide, though. Good job -- and thanks. I'll surely be referencing this next week.
 
one question for q6600, what should be the absolute max temp for each of the cores? and is there an accurate program for just the cpu, and not all cores? Right now at 3.0ghz @ 1.2875 I'm idling 34,32,30,34. Max it got up to was 50 while 3dmark06. I plan to prime95 test everything overnight tonight or tomorrow so let me know. If you think i should raise vcore a lil let me know. I haven't done anything with timing except 1:1 ratio. When i did 5-5-5-15 timings, I tried to oc the graphics, and ati said that with the memory overclocked I wouldn't get as higher of an oc for graphics. Just wondering if I should run it at 4-4-4-12 and see what happens? Mike
 
one question for q6600, what should be the absolute max temp for each of the cores? and is there an accurate program for just the cpu, and not all cores? Right now at 3.0ghz @ 1.2875 I'm idling 34,32,30,34. Max it got up to was 50 while 3dmark06. I plan to prime95 test everything overnight tonight or tomorrow so let me know. If you think i should raise vcore a lil let me know. I haven't done anything with timing except 1:1 ratio. When i did 5-5-5-15 timings, I tried to oc the graphics, and ati said that with the memory overclocked I wouldn't get as higher of an oc for graphics. Just wondering if I should run it at 4-4-4-12 and see what happens? Mike

Intel says 62 °C as I recall. Use coretemp 0.95.4 to measure the true core temps / core. I would start off @ 5-5-5-15 to be sure your processor is stable... if I can do it @ your vcore for 6+ h of p95, you're probably fine. From there I would recommend that you find the min. voltage it can use for 6+ h. THEN go about tweaking mem timings.
 
well running 3.060ghz at 1.2875 stable, tried 3.4 and it didn't get past windows loading screen. Guessing I have to increase vcore. I tried 3.150 and got an error within 5 minutes, so now down to 3.060ghz. I have memory set to auto, and 1:1 ratio. I might put timings back to 5-5-5-15, run prime95 to see if its stable, then try 4-4-4-12? Is this correct? use prime95 to test memory also? thanks, Mike.

I ran prime 95 overnight, no errors, temps stayed under 55, 45, 55, 45. Now that I've run my new water cooling setup, temps are slightly decreasing. Ran prime 95 for 3 hrs today at 3.060 and highest temps were 52, 43, 52, 43. Using core temp 0.95.4.

I would like to get my memory situated, then start to work on my 8800. I'm debating if I should buy a new monitor, or just be happy with 1280x768 on my 26" lcd and buy a XFX 8800 Ultra?

My main goal is to hit 3.6 - 4.0 on this water setup.


Thanks, Mike
 
Nice tip on the newer Prime95. For some reason on the official page it only has v24?
 
BTW is Orthos out of style now? I liked how it gave you a visual indication that it was running and a live clock.
 
BTW is Orthos out of style now? I liked how it gave you a visual indication that it was running and a live clock.

Orthos does a fine job, it's just a pain to start two instances of it AND set the CPU affinity in taskmanger. Half the time one of them will crash as the affinity mask is applied. P95 makes it much easier.
 
can anyone tell me if there is an issue with core temp beta when it is running on a gigabyte GA P35C DS3R motherboard?

it is reporting high temps and the NTUNE software that came with it is reporting about 15C lower. With this Q6600 running stock it would peak at 70C in 1 pass of prime 95 running on all cores ( about 3 min), ntune would be at 55C.
I have a 8800GTX that is also running 86C when it comes out of 3D mark 2001 measured with the Nvidea monitor that came with it.
I have this in a full tower case with 2) 120mm fans. 2)80mm fans in the windowed side panel and a dual fan 650W power supply. it already sounds like a wind tunnel in here and is warming up the room. The only thing that looks even remotely out of place is the 12V is showing 12.3 which would normally seem great.
I pulled the cpu cooler and put AS5 under it and the temps did not change.
TIA for any ideas
9 ER
PS: it is a SLACR core quad
 
Dunno about your specific board, but coretemp w/ quads is accurate. Speedfan is known to be -15 °C for each core. I also dunno about your other software. I'd say download speedfan and see if coretemp is hotter, if it is, I think that's pretty strong evidence that it's correct.

Also, why not post your question in the coretemp forums?
 
Orthos does a fine job, it's just a pain to start two instances of it AND set the CPU affinity in taskmanger. Half the time one of them will crash as the affinity mask is applied. P95 makes it much easier.

What about with just Dual Cores? For those its identical right?
 
Yeah, dualcore chips don't need anything special with orthos; just run it and it'll do both cores automatically. It doesn't support quad core whereas p95 does.
 
coretemp[/url] forums?

I guess because it came up out of my attempts to find out about overclockin this quad :)
this thing seems strange to me.
running stock it was running at 70C with prime 95 on all cores and giving errors in less than 3 min , not sure what the errors were as all it said was "hardware failure"
I am now running it at 300 mem but had to bump the cpu to 1.3375v to get stable in prime, and the temps actually dropped a couple of degrees and now it gives no errors in prime and I have run it for 30 min at a time so far. If it continues to hold, I will bump it to 320 later today and see what happens.
 
I'd like to contribute that I have found instances where an increased FSB does improve performance despite the same CPU speed.

the recent x264 benchmark
HL2 Lost Coast
FEAR

The testing done to compare 3ghz and various speeds did NOT force any significant memory access. In fact I would suspect that most of the tests done were more than capable of running in the L2 Cache of the quad core tested.
 
Cool, let us know.

Well I put a Big typhoon on it and now have it running nice at 333 / 3.0 . I had to bump the Vcore to 1.3475 to get it stable , temps are now 63C max running prime.
Thanks for the work you did on this thread, it was a lot of help in planning and testing my Quad.
Looks like the vdroop on this board is why it needs 1.3475v to be stable, because when it is running prime it is down to ~ 1 .27
 
Thanks for the work you did on this thread, it was a lot of help in planning and testing my Quad.
Looks like the vdroop on this board is why it needs 1.3475v to be stable, because when it is running prime it is down to ~ 1 .27

You're welcome -- glad you found it useful. Why not vdroop mod the board?
 
I have been looking for information about my problem and found this thread really inspirering and this is why I request a little help with my system.

System specs:
Motherboard: Abit IP35 Pro
Processor: Intel C2Q Q6600 G0
Cooling: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme w. Yate Loon - D12SL-12
RAM: 4 x 1GB Corsair Dominator PC8500
PSU: Corsair VX550W
GFX: eVGA 8800GTS SC
Case: Antec P182

The IHS and HS have not been lapped (yet). Also, the heatpipe mod has yet to be done.

Currently C1E and EIST have been disabled in the BIOS. The bus speed is set at 334mhz, vcore at 1.2875, vdimm at 2.1 and the RAM timings are 5-5-5-15 2T.

All this information is also depicted below in the screenshot.

corrent_clock.jpg


Running P95 for almost 8 hours proved the system to be stable at the current settings. The PWM temperature monitor reported around 70c and coretemp showed the CPU's cores worked within 59-61c during the P95 torture test. At idle, coretemp usually reports temperatures around 38-44c. Currently, I have no way of measuring the room temperature, so this is as precise as it gets for now.

Judging by the PWM temperature I need the heatpipe mod if I want to take this further with long-term stability. And this is the core of my problem. I have been testing different OC settings but this is the only one I have been able to make stable for any significant period of time and I know this system could be a lot faster.

Bus Speed 334Mhz x 9:
3GHz: vcore 1.2875, vdimm 2.1, 5-5-5-15 2T, ratio 1:1.5 = Works flawlessly.
3GHz: vcore 1.2875, vdimm 2.1, 4-4-4-12 2T, ratio 1:1.5 = Doesn't finish booting.

Bus Speed 356Mhz x 9:
3,2GHz: Vcore 1.3775, vdimm 2.1, 5-5-5-12 2T, ratio 1:1.25 = Boots up but is so unstable that it can't finish Super Pi Mod 1M.
3,2GHz: Vcore 1.3775, vdimm 2.1, 5-5-5-12 2T, ratio 1:1.5 = Doesn't finish booting.

Bus Speed 375MHz x 8:
3GHz: vcore 1.3775, vdimm 2.1, 5-5-5-12 2T, ratio 1:1.5 = Doesn't finish booting.
3GHz: vcore 1.3775, vdimm 2.1, 5-5-5-12 2T, ratio 1:1.25 = Doesn't finish booting.

Before I settle on a specific OC (probably 3GHz) I would really like to know what the limits of my system is. 3Ghz is not a limit that I'm satisfied with and I'm probably doing something wrong. Any and all suggestions are welcome!
 
ratio 1:1.5 = Doesn't finish booting.

Can I ask you why are you trying those ratios? First find the stable FSB and THEN play with the memories...try using 1:1 ratio with those FSBs... and put all the memory configs to auto first.
 
I just posted a new thread about fifteen minutes ago (http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1230452), but thought it might be better suited here. In a big nutshell, I have a P5K-VM motherboard, which has a max RAM voltage setting of 2.1v. The memory I have is Crucial DDR2 800 mhz CAS 4.0 4-4-4-12, but those specs are designed for 2.2v.

I've got an e6750 with a zalman CNPS9500 cooler, and it's overclocked very cool to 3.6ghz (450 mhz frontside bus) with the memory timings @ 5-5-5-15, but after that it's no good. It'll post and boot but crash/reboot with any significant load. Basically, I think my RAM is undervolted at the speed I have it running at.

If I replace my RAM for new RAM with the same rated specs @ 2.1v (as opposed to the 2.2v for the ram I currently have), could this potentially help my overclock go further?
 
Can I ask you why are you trying those ratios? First find the stable FSB and THEN play with the memories...try using 1:1 ratio with those FSBs... and put all the memory configs to auto first.

Actually ratio 1:1.5 is the standard configuration I only tried the other ratios because the RAM are rated as capable of running 1066Mhz. Also, since they are performance RAM I expect them to go a bit higher, say 1115Mhz or something similar.

I will try going with a 1:1 ratio and see if it behaves any differently. Thanks for your advice!
 
Thanks Graysky for the excellent info! I clocked my old system with help from another forum but needed your help for my q6600Go..

I had a question about timings... I'm clocked to 3.0 /9x333/1.37v I suppose I'm happy with this but my idle temps rock at around 26 - 31deg with speed fan adjusted +15 per core and I may jump a bit more.. Is it ok to leave my mem (gskill 2x2g ddr2-800) at 5-5-5-15 timings or should I lower them? Or am I ok for now? I assume if I bump the multiplier then I should drop my volts and tweak timings then?? If I keep it this way should i drop my volts anyways or is it ok to leave them be?

thanks much, your guide was simply outstanding!
theopolis

ps... I'm air cooling w/ultra extreme w/sflex and 2 120mm fans!
 
Is it ok to leave my mem (gskill 2x2g ddr2-800) at 5-5-5-15 timings or should I lower them? I assume if I bump the multiplier then I should drop my volts and tweak timings then?? If I keep it this way should i drop my volts anyways or is it ok to leave them be?

thanks much, your guide was simply outstanding!
theopolis

ps... I'm air cooling w/ultra extreme w/sflex and 2 120mm fans!

You can try 4-4-4-12 or 4-4-4-10 without changing anything else and see if it boots. If it does, try the prime95 blend test for 6-8 hours. If no errors, you're probably good.

When you say drop your volts, are you talking about your RAM volts or CPU volts? Also, what are you load temps @ 1.37 v?
 
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