Q9650 and OCing

[Zayla74]

Hey everyone. I recently decided to upgrade my E8400 because i do ALOT of vide encoding, mostly he-def content, so i thought the Q9650 would benefit me for this situation more than my E8400 (even tho its a sweet chip).

I ordered one and should be here this week and Ive seen so many threads im a bit confused. So if my question sounds totaly stupid please forgive. this will be the first quad I have ever owned. Hopefully the Q9650 will serve me well

I do want to OC it to 3.6, same as my E8400 is. My question is simple ..

Is there anything special I should need to do in the bios for the quad? That is aside from reseting everything to optimized default before upgrading the chip.
Ive seen many threads about about other adjustments that are needed when OCing a quad, and some people saying you need to enable all 4 cores?!?! Perhaps im misunderstanding but thought i should ask.

I was hoping going from 3.0 - 3.6 would be as simple as it is with the E8400.

Also, should I be planning on completly re-installing windows after the upgrade? i have always done so, but thought it would be worth asking.

 

[Zero82z]

Is there anything special I should need to do in the bios for the quad?

Nope. Should be a drop-in upgrade. Since you'll be resetting the BIOS beforehand, there should be no reason why not all of the cores would be enabled right away.

 

[Zayla74]

That what i was thinking as well, just some post i had read confused me a bit. Thank you for the reply.

 

[Deleted member 184142]

Nope. Should be a drop-in upgrade. Since you'll be resetting the BIOS beforehand, there should be no reason why not all of the cores would be enabled right away.

Indeed.

And 3.6 should be nothing for the Q9650 if you have a good cooler.

 

[Zayla74]

I have the Xigmatek HDT 1283... the only issue i have with it, is that i have to mount sideways ... so that it where it pulls air from bottom of of case and blows it up ..

Due to the NB heat sink on my Lanparty DKx48 it wont seat as it should

Hopefully that shouldnt be a problem .. or at least so far doesnt seem to be. Keeps my E8400 @ 3.7ghz under load 56-59C at full load for most part in a room that 70-75F ambient
its either that or cut out a small notch in the bottom of the cooler


Thank you all for answering my silly questions. I just wanted to be sure. Thanks again!

 

[UnclePauly09]

You may need slightly more voltage on the northbridge as more cores and cache adds more pressure to the northbridge to perform. Other than that it's basically the same as the E8400 overclocking wise.

 

[Impulse]

Yea, on the NB or the FSB/VTT.

 

[firas]

try to aim for more than 3.6 (4.0 minimum), if the CPU cooler is bottlenecking you get Q9550 and spend the rest on a better cooler, I achieved 3.6 with my Q9550 at stock vcore, I even had it running below stock vcore for the past 8 months, and all other values is nearly at stock

******Motherboard Voltage Control******
 
Load-Line Calibration...........................[ Enabled  ]
CPU Vcore         [ 1.25    ]...................[ 1.2250V  ]
CPU Termination   [ 1.20    ]...................[ 1.20     ]
CPU PLL           [ 1.50    ]...................[ 1.50     ]
CPU Reference     [ 0.760   ]...................[ Auto     ]
 
MCH Core          [ 1.100   ]...................[ 1.240   ]
MCH Reference     [ 0.760   ]...................[ 0.800   ]
MCH/DRAM Refernce [ 0.900   ]...................[ 0.960   ]
ICH I/O           [ 1.500   ]...................[ 1.500   ]
ICH Core          [ 1.100   ]...................[ 1.100   ]

DRAM Voltage      [1.8]...................[1.920] 
DRAM Termination  [0.9]...................[0.960]
Channel A Ref     [0.9]...................[0.960]
Channel B Ref     [0.9]...................[0.960]

*****************Advanced BIOS Features********* 


Limit CPUID Max to 3 ................. [disable] 
No-Execute memory Protect ............ [disable]
CPU Enhance Halt (CIE) ............... [disable] 
C2/C2E State Support ................. [disable] 
C4/C4E State Support ................. [disable] 
CPU Thermal Monitor................... [disable] 
CPU EIST Function..................... [disable]
Virtualization Technology ............ [disable]