OC help Q6600

[pclov3r]

I'm kind-of new to ocing but I know basics

I'm trying to get my Q600 to 3 GHz stable but seem to be having a hard time.

With my FSB at 333 and the multiplier at 9 windows will only boot if I set the cpu to 1.4v and fails on the 4th core on prime 95 within 2 minutes

Speed step an C1E is off and vdrop is on

I also set the dram to 800 and the north bridge to 1.4

My system is:

CPU: Q6600 G0
RAM: 4x 2 GB G.Skill DDR2-800
Mobo: Asus P5Q-E
PSU: Corsair TX750W
Vid card: GTX 275 9800GT PhysX
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B

Thanks

 

[BillParrish]

RAM: 4x 2 GB G.Skill DDR2-800

some quick thoughts:

pull two sticks and see what happens, likely your issue will go away and it will confirm it is the memory load causing the problem. You can then zero in on bios settings that affect the Northbridge to memory section of the system and memory settings.

make sure Vdimm (memory voltage) is 2.0v maybe even 2.1v depending on your memory, check the manuf specs, GSkill likes the high end of the recommended range. If manuf says just 1.8V give it 1.9.
1.4 for the Northbridge is a bit high start off around 1.325



You are likely going to have to loosen the timings/subtimings and play with skew and delay if you have those options available.

 

[Riccochet]

Curious, what are your temps at idle and load?

 

[pclov3r]

My idle temps on the cores are about 35ish

My ram has Heatspreader on each one of the chips

The box of the ram says 1.8-1.9 V

I did try to oc it with two sticks of ram before in the past with the same result

 

[skindogg]

have you tried dropping to 8x and putting the FSB at 350? Did you add .1 to your NB voltage? I had to do that on mine as well with the FSB over 333. It will probably need 3rd party cooling too, or at least a small fan pointing at it.

 

[pclov3r]

have you tried dropping to 8x and putting the FSB at 350? Did you add .1 to your NB voltage? I had to do that on mine as well with the FSB over 333. It will probably need 3rd party cooling too, or at least a small fan pointing at it.

I'll try that and see if it works at 2.8 GHZ

My northbridge has a good heatsink on it.

 

[subflava]

Got my Q6600 at 3.2 at about 1.31V. Have it under a TRUE though and the load temps get to about 50C. Guess you either just got a dud or it's your temps.

 

[pclov3r]

Got my Q6600 at 3.2 at about 1.31V. Have it under a TRUE though and the load temps get to about 50C. Guess you either just got a dud or it's your temps.

I'm starting to think i was just unlucky and got a bad chip

I've got it at 2.8 with 1.35v

I don't like running 1.4v as my temps reach about 52-55c with 1.4v under max load

 

[Zepher]

I am running the Asus P5Q Pro with my Q6600.
I sold my Q9400 and 9800GT to pay for my Q6600 and GTX 260 (ended up not costing me anything) and have been running my Q6600 at 3.02Ghz since. All I did was put the FSB to 333 and it booted up fine and runs relatively cool under my Arctic 7 Freezer Pro.
I do have 8GB of DDR2 1066 Kingston and G.Skill ram (2x2GB each).

A friend of mine just bought a used Q6600 and a DFI Lanparty board and we couldn't get his to run at 3Ghz either. All we tried was the FSB and it hard locked and had to clear the CMOS to get it to boot back up. Really strange as the Asus boards will reset with a failed overclock.

 

[skindogg]

Yeah you could at least test it at 1.4v to see if you can hit 3.2ghz, but yeah it's sounding like you just got a not-so-good OC'er.

EDIT: Hmm after reading this: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=47089 and this: http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=428
I should not be OC'ing over 1.4. oopsy!

 

[AMDXP]

Try loosening your ram timings and bumping the volts to 2.0

I can hit 3.2 at 8*400 with stock volts 1.225 and 3.6 at 1.375.......but then again maybe I just got a lucky chip.

So seeing a bad Q6600 ocer.. is strange to me.