Perfecting Q6600 overclock

[EllisCEC]

Hi all,

I spent a few hours the other night attempting my first overclock on my Q6600 mounted on a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P board with Arctic Cooler 7 fan. The computer is a hackintosh running OS X and I could get it to boot fine into OSX @ 3.6GHz but Prime95 would quickly result in workers stopping and the temps were getting a bit worring at ~75C. As a result I throttled back to 3.4GHz and lowered the voltages a bit. The computer appears to run fine, however Prime95 torture tests have had a worker stop after about an hour on the two tests I've ran - Small FFT and Large FFT. I'm guessing that the problem is due to the CPU rather than the RAM based on the Small FFT crashes, if anyone could help me by suggesting potential reasons then that'd be greatly appreciated. I'll attach the relevant BIOS settings below. Thanks in advance! ​

Regards,
Ellis

 

[EllisCEC]

MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T)
Robust Graphics Booster
CPU Clock Ratio --------->>> 8
CPU Frequency --------->>> 3.4Ghz

Clock Chip Control
CPU Host Clock Control --------->>> Enabled
CPU Host Frequency --------->>> 425
PCI Express Frequency --------->>> 100
C.I.A.2 --------->>> Disabled

Advanced Clock Control
CPU Clock Drive --------->>> 800mV
PCI Express Clock Drive --------->>> 900mV
CPU Clock Skew --------->>> 0ps
MCH Clock Skew --------->>> 0ps

DRAM Performance Control
Perforamance Enhance --------->>> Standard
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P) --------->>> Auto
(G)MCH Frequency Latch --------->>> 333
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) --------->>> 2.40B
Memory Frequency (Mhz) --------->>> 850
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) --------->>> Manual

Standard timing Control
CAS Latency Time --------->>> 5
tRCD --------->>> 5
tRP --------->>> 5
tRAS --------->>> 15

Advanced Timing Control
tRRD --------->>> 4
tWTR --------->>> 4
tWR --------->>> 13
tRFC --------->>> 68
tRTP --------->>> 4
Command Rate(CMD) --------->>> Auto

Channel A Timing Settings
Static tRead Value 8
tRD Phase0 Adjustment 0
tRD Phase1 Adjustment 0
tRD Phase2 Adjustment 0
tRD Phase3 Adjustment 0
Trd2rd(Different Rank) 8
Twr2wr(Different Rank) 8
Twr2rd(Different Rank) 7
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank) 9
DIMM1 Clock Skew Contr. Auto
DIMM2 Clock Skew Contr. Auto
DDR Write Training Auto

Channel A Driving Settings
Driving Strength Prof. Auto
Data Driving Pl-Up Lvl. Auto
Cmd Driving Pl-Up Lvl. Auto
Ctrl Driving Pl-Up Lvl. Auto
Clk Driving Pl-Up Lvl. Auto
Data Driving Pl-Dn Lvl. Auto
Cmd Driving Pl-Dn Lvl. Auto
Ctrl Driving Pl-Dn Lvl. Auto
Clk Driving Pl-Dn Lvl. Auto

Channel B Timing Settings
Static tRead Value 8
tRD Phase0 Adjustment Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment 0
tRD Phase2 Adjustment 0
tRD Phase3 Adjustment 0
Trd2rd(Different Rank) 8
Twr2wr(Different Rank) 8
Twr2rd(Different Rank) 7
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank) 9
DIMM1 Clock Skew Contr. Auto
DIMM2 Clock Skew Contr. Auto
DDR Write Training Auto

Channel B Driving Settings
Driving Strength Prof. Auto
Data Driving Pl-Up Lvl. Auto
Cmd Driving Pl-Up Lvl. Auto
Ctrl Driving Pl-Up Lvl. Auto
Clk Driving Pl-Up Lvl. Auto
Data Driving Pl-Dn Lvl. Auto
Cmd Driving Pl-Dn Lvl. Auto
Ctrl Driving Pl-Dn Lvl. Auto
Clk Driving Pl-Dn Lvl. Auto

Mother Board Voltage Control
CPU
Load-Line Calibration --------->>> Disabled
CPU Vcore --------->>> 1.37500V
CPU Termination --------->>> 1.100V
CPU PLL --------->>> 1.500V
CPU Reference --------->>> 1.?V

MCH/ICH
MCH Core --------->>> 1.300V
MCH Reference --------->>> 0.903V
MCH/DRAM Reference --------->>> 0.900V
ICH I/O --------->>> 1.500V
ICH Core --------->>> 1.100V

DRAM
DRAM Voltage --------->>> 2.000V
DRAM Termination --------->>> Normal
Channel A Reference --------->>> Normal
Channel B Reference --------->>> Normal

Standard CMOS Features
Optimized Defaults
Halt On --------->>> All, But Keyboard

Advanced BIOS Features
Optimized Defaults
Hard Disk Boot Priority
Quick Boot --------->>> Disabled
HDD S.M.A.R.T. Capability --------->>> Disabled
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) --------->>> Disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor 2(TM2) --------->>> Disabled
CPU EIST Function --------->>> Disabled
Virtualization Technology --------->>> Disabled
Delay for HDD (Secs)
Full Screen LOGO Show --------->>> Disabled
Backup BIOS Image to HDD --------->>> Enabled
Init Display First --------->>> PEG

Integrated Peripherals
Optimized Defaults
ICH SATA Control Mode --------->>> AHCI
Green LAN --------->>> Enabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode --------->>> AHCI
USB Keyboard Function --------->>> Disabled
USB Mouse Function --------->>> Disabled

Power Management Setup
Optimized Defaults
ACPI Suspend Type --------->>> S3(STR)
PME Event Wake Up --------->>> Disabled
Power On by Ring --------->>> Disabled
HPET Mode --------->>> 64-bit

PC Health Status
Optimized Defaults
CPU Warning Temperature --------->>> 80C
CPU FAN Fail Warning --------->>> Disabled
SYSTEM FAN2 Fail Warning --------->>> Disabled
POWER FAN Fail Warning --------->>> Disabled
SYSTEM FAN1 Fail Warning --------->>> Disabled
CPU Smart FAN Control --------->>> Disabled

 

[grambo]

What RAM do you have? If it's DDR2-800, you are pushing it a bit, maybe give it more voltage?

You could also try 9x multiplier with a lower bus speed, I'd try that first. You can also try more vcore, I run around 1.42v 24/7 on my Q6700 for the last 3+ years without any problems, although I have a better cooler on the CPU than yours.

 

[Wildace]

heh i just found out like 2 days ago my ram overclocked better than i thought. its at 912mhz and i didnt even bother seeing how much higher i could take them they are 800mhz sticks and no voltage increase and i always just ran htem ram at 800mhz rgurdless of my cpu overclock.

i had some bad overclock experiences with some early corsair ddr 400 sticks that wouldnt even overclock 6 mhz so i never bothered overclocking memory again lol

 

[mannyman]

This may be a noob question but what do you do on a mac that needs a 3.4 q6600? Like grambo said i would try changing the volts up on the proc and ram.

 

[EllisCEC]

Hi,
thanks for the responses. The RAM I use is 2x2GB G.Skill 8500CL5D, rated at 1066Mhz. BIOS initally set it to 1.800V but I have since upped that to 2.1V as per the manufacturers recommendations.

I will try as you suggested and knock the multiplier up at a lower bus speed, hopefully that might do the trick. VCore is a bit lower than what I started at, I had it all the way up to 1.45V @ 3.6GHz but then just dropped it down a bit to see how much that would reduce temp.

The computer is an audio recording and video editing workstation, with video rendering absolutely eating up the CPU. I will see how this overclock improves performance but if it the difference is slight I will drop it back down. OSX seems a lot lighter than Win 7 in the resource department and for general use the computer absolutely flies along

 

[mannyman]

Hi,
thanks for the responses. The RAM I use is 2x2GB G.Skill 8500CL5D, rated at 1066Mhz. BIOS initally set it to 1.800V but I have since upped that to 2.1V as per the manufacturers recommendations.

I will try as you suggested and knock the multiplier up at a lower bus speed, hopefully that might do the trick. VCore is a bit lower than what I started at, I had it all the way up to 1.45V @ 3.6GHz but then just dropped it down a bit to see how much that would reduce temp.

The computer is an audio recording and video editing workstation, with video rendering absolutely eating up the CPU. I will see how this overclock improves performance but if it the difference is slight I will drop it back down. OSX seems a lot lighter than Win 7 in the resource department and for general use the computer absolutely flies along

Yeah well its probably eating up all your ram, You should get some more of that because all editing loves high amounts of ram.

 

[EllisCEC]

Strangely RAM doesn't seem to be taxed very hard, at least according to any kind of activity monitor I've tried. It seems to peak between 1-2 GB use

 

[mannyman]

Strangely RAM doesn't seem to be taxed very hard, at least according to any kind of activity monitor I've tried. It seems to peak between 1-2 GB use

That seems very light, I guess i don't know anything about OSX, Anyways good luck on the OC.

 

[EllisCEC]

It's not just an OSX observation. I throw around a lot of OSes on that machine from Windows through to obscure linux distros and have found for heavy use the weak point is always the processor over the RAM. OSX idles at around 200-400MB fully configured for me. Windows 7 at around 1,200-1,400MB.

 

[EllisCEC]

On a side note, the OC will have to wait for a few days. I was cleaning off old thermal paste from the CPU today and like a total idiot I managed to spill some white spirit on the mobo. I'm going to give it til the weekend to dry out and just hope that everything will be ok!