Q6700 + iP35 Pro overclocking ...help needed

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prasvt

Gawd
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Dec 8, 2005
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Hey all...so I upgraded my e6420 to a Q6700 yesterday and I've been having problems getting the machine stable at speeds above 3.3ghz. Mostly b/c A) not sure what to set voltages at and B) b/c the PWM temps are pushing 75C under load (prime95). I thought about removing the heatpipe setup and replacing the thermal paste before the install but I guess I didn't realize the temperature differences involved with the quad cores.

So first off...should disassemble the whole damn system and fix up the mobo cooler? I've got some Tuniq TX-2 paste that i can use.

Second ... since the Q6700 has a 10x multi, I have more options for higher speeds (400x9, 500x7, 360x10, etc.). Which is the best way to go? higher fsb or higher multi? Or does it all end up the same in the end?

3rd...I know the vast majority of people have Q6600s so I'm basing alot of my OC baseline attempts on those. Am I right in assuming that a Vcore of at least 1.5V is needed to get stable at 3.5 or 3.6ghz?

On that topic, the Vdroop on this board muddles things up a bit more. For instance, at this moment my settings are as such in the BIOS:

330 x 10, ram using a divider to stay at 800mhz
Vcore 1.375
NB 1.41
SB 1.09
Vtt 1.31

Vcore in windows (cpu-z, everest) idle is 1.34V and under load, the Vcore drops to 1.29V. Everything else pretty much stays stable. The vid listed in cpu-z for this cpu is 1.275.

Idle temps are 34/35/33/37 for the cores, 49C PWM, 42C Mobo Temp. Since i switched cpus, the BIOS temps are all wrong, so these are from RealTemp and Everest. I'm not sure how much more cooling i can stuff into my Thermaltake Aguila case...I've got 2 120mm (1 in 1 out), a 92mm window fan, and the Tuniq Tower 120. I'm pretty sure the cpu temps will go lower once the paste has set in.

Sorry for all the questions thought I'd cover everything before I forget. Also, you guys with quads running at 3.4 or above, can you hook me up with your BIOS settings so I have some idea what region to be experimenting in?

I had a similar thread in the intel proc. forum, but this seems to be the right place to discuss these things. Anyway, all help would be appreciated! Thanks.
 
i cant offer too much info, but here it goes:
my evga 750i ftw reports INSANE nb temps... upwards of 82c. the heatsink is just warm though. maybe we have a similar problem?
i'd stick to higher multi and lower fsb. thats what makes the 6700 $50 more than the 6600... heh.
also 1.5 sounds a bit high, i've heard people running 3.6 at 1.5v.


fwiw:
my oc on my 6700 is 3.0 (300x10) 1.288v
 
Hmm...well my northbridge temps hit 65 or so under load. Maybe it's just the weather...maybe I need to take the mobo out and put better thermal paste on the heatsinks ... *sigh* not sure I have the patience today to take everything out...

Ultimately this computer's gonna be doing alot video encoding so it has to be stable. but you're right, I paid the extra 50 bucks for the Q6700 b/c I figured it would have a little more headroom. Maybe tomorrow I'll do it.

Thanks for your input...keep it coming guys.
 
65 isnt anything to worry about.
mine idles at 82 according to cpuid and everest.
i hope its wrong, this mobo has a huge heatsink.
 
Well...right now I'm running 360 x 10 w/ the ram set to 1:1 720mhz (for now anyway). Running the Prime95 blend test .. no problems for the last 20 minutes.

Vcore - 1.53v, 1.49 in Windows, 1.43 under load
NB - 1.40
Vtt - 1.38

Load temps for cores 1 - 4 are avging around 66C under load, ~42C idle
PWM temp according to Everest is pushing 89C under load, ~50C idle
MOBO temp is around 46C under load, ~38C idle

Just realized my 8800GTS fan wasnt set to 90% in rivatuner like I usually have it set. So the GPU temps are slowly crawling down from 70C to about 60C. That should help ambient temps.

That pwm temp is scary though. Which voltage is causing that to rise? Vcore? MCH?

No crash so far but I need to lower that pwm temp. suggestions?
......

mkay..3600 errored out. Anyway temps were a bit high. Testing at 3.4.

BIOS Vcore - 1.465, 1.42 in Windows, 1.38 under load
NB - 1.40
Vtt - 1.31
 
Okay well I ran prime95 all night at 3.4 and the machine is stable - and temps are about 10C lower than at 3.6. I might take everything out today and fix up the cooling on the mobo. Maybe even make a run over to Frys and pick up some small fans!
 
Im running the same board and cpu. I get more real world performance with my ram running at 1000 and my overclock turned too 3.33.
 
i was considering getting that board for a higher OC on my Q6700, but wasn't sure if it truly was my mobo being the limiting factor (though it most likely is)
 
Well at the moment I'm running my ram at its full 800mhz so I'm okay with that. The iP35 Pro is a pretty good board for overclocking - aside from the Vdroop. Even for that, I can pick up a resistor and do the mod to keep voltages more stable. I've been able to run the system at 3.6, but under load the nb/pwm temps are just too high. It doesn't help that the weather here in northern cal has suddenly become really hot (100F) lol.

I had an MSI P6N Sli-Fi and to get my e6420 up to 3.2 required a lot more voltage than this Abit board does. In fact the only reason I switched motherboards was b/c I wanted to dual boot OS X and Vista and the Abit was more compatible. But its components are better and it generally doesn't need alot of voltage to get up to the same speeds (at least w/ the e6420). It has better capacitors as well. My other machine has an Asus P5NE-SLI board and it's pretty much like the MSI board (both 650sli chipset). The only thing I liked about the MSI board was that you could unlink fsb / ram speeds and not worry about dividers.

Honestly if I hadn't bought PS3 in a few months back, I'd have already bought a watercooling system. Kind of got sidetracked from my usual computer tinkering for a few months. I'll probably do that soon, b/c San Ramon where I live tends to get really hot in the summer so air cooling (even w/ my Tuniq Tower) probably won't cut it most of the time.
 
Okay..well I replaced the 4 x 1gb of OCZ PC6400 with 2 x 2gb of Mushkin XP2-8500. Wow, definitely speeds things up a bit. I can barely get into the bios this thing is booting so quickly. Literally - it takes me a couple of tries to get into the BIOS. I'm using BIOS 17 beta 4 (this version is a little wonky btw, but 16 had screwed up temp sensors).

Anyway, so it's hot here in cali again so I probably won't be trying for high speeds unless I get full sized case (antec 1200 or thermaltake armor maybe?) and / or water cooling.

That OCZ phase change looks nice (aside from questionable build quality of early units).
 
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