Looking to overclock my Q6600

M

Monkeypillow

Gawd
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
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I've been running on stock for around a year, and I've decided it's time to get the most out of my CPU. I have no experience with water cooling, but it's definitely something I'm interested in. I'll probably be shooting for somewhere in between 3.0GHz and 3.6 GHz with good temps.

For now, this would probably be a CPU-only loop, but the ability to add a GPU to the loop later would be a plus. I don't really know how much a good WC setup goes for, so I don't much have a budget. If there's something really good to be had for around $150, that'd be great, but I can save up if the extra performance is there. I can always upgrade, so for right now I'm just looking to get started.

Recommendations on a good air or water setup are greatly appreciated.
 
I would wait for someone with a Q6600 to post but from what I have seen they do 3.4-6 on air pretty easy. So no reason to go WCed (unless you want to) a good cooler like the TRUE should get you there no problem and save you a bit of money.

What stepping/revision is your Q6600?
 
Monkeypillow said:
I've been running on stock for around a year, and I've decided it's time to get the most out of my CPU. I have no experience with water cooling, but it's definitely something I'm interested in. I'll probably be shooting for somewhere in between 3.0GHz and 3.6 GHz with good temps.

For now, this would probably be a CPU-only loop, but the ability to add a GPU to the loop later would be a plus. I don't really know how much a good WC setup goes for, so I don't much have a budget. If there's something really good to be had for around $150, that'd be great, but I can save up if the extra performance is there. I can always upgrade, so for right now I'm just looking to get started.

Recommendations on a good air or water setup are greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

If all you are shooting for is 3.0ghz, save yourself some time and money. 3.0ghz is pretty much attainable by making the necessary BIOS adjustments (Multiplier and FSB / RAM adjustments). 3.0ghz should be very attainable without increasing any voltage(s). 3.6ghz, on the other hand, is a little harder to come by.. A few key factors come into play at this speed:

1. Is your processor capable? Most of the time, yes, it should be. Does that mean YOUR specific Q6600 is capable? Not necessarily. Some processors are terrible for overclocking, plain and simple. A few things that people within the overclocking community look for are:

* The processor itself. Is it an ES (engineering sample)? Is it a retail / boxed processor? What stepping is your specific Q6600 (B3 or G0)? What is your VID on your Q6600 (my Q6600 has a VID of 1.2375v).

2. What kind of motherboard do you intend to use? Is your computer a self built setup or is it a retail one like the ones being offered by companies such as HP, Dell, Emachines, etc.. Some retail pre-bundled computers contain a "locked" bios (for better lack of terms).

3. Let's talk power.. Do you have a strong (and stable) power supply. Inefficient power supplies are the "roots of evil" more times than you think. Simply purchasing a cheap-o power supply will not cut it, in this day and age.

4. RAM. What kind of ram do you have? Is it "value type" ram or maybe something better, that better suits an overclockers needs.

5. INVEST in a good AIR COOLER. I just purchased a XIGMATEK S1284EE and I am EXTREMELY happy with it. I have it sitting on my Q6600, overclocked to 3.6ghz. Keep in mind, with the heat sink dissapating THAT much heat, you will need a case that offers better than average air flow. HEAT is an overclockers enemy. Know your enemy well, and you shall go far...

Just for the purposes of your thread, I encourage those who read it, not to "flame" the O/P (original poster). The question that you have asked, has been asked hundreds of times before.. It's a little open ended. I understand you are here to find answers and hopefully, you will get the answers you seek. Check out the thread on CPU OVERCLOCKING. It's VERY informative. If this is your first attempt at overclocking, I greatly encourage you to start with a higher end air cooling solution. Quadcore processors are a little less forgiving than their dual core processing cousins because of the heat output. So, a lower end thermal solution would not be a viable answer for your needs. GOOGLE is your friend. There are more than a handful of helpful people on this site who are willing to suggest their favorite thermal cpu cooling solution to you. But in the end, it's your choice.
 
officermartinez said:
If all you are shooting for is 3.0ghz, save yourself some time and money. 3.0ghz is pretty much attainable by making the necessary BIOS adjustments (Multiplier and FSB / RAM adjustments). 3.0ghz should be very attainable without increasing any voltage(s). 3.6ghz, on the other hand, is a little harder to come by.. A few key factors come into play at this speed:

1. Is your processor capable? Most of the time, yes, it should be. Does that mean YOUR specific Q6600 is capable? Not necessarily. Some processors are terrible for overclocking, plain and simple. A few things that people within the overclocking community look for are:

* The processor itself. Is it an ES (engineering sample)? Is it a retail / boxed processor? What stepping is your specific Q6600 (B3 or G0)? What is your VID on your Q6600 (my Q6600 has a VID of 1.2375v).

2. What kind of motherboard do you intend to use? Is your computer a self built setup or is it a retail one like the ones being offered by companies such as HP, Dell, Emachines, etc.. Some retail pre-bundled computers contain a "locked" bios (for better lack of terms).

3. Let's talk power.. Do you have a strong (and stable) power supply. Inefficient power supplies are the "roots of evil" more times than you think. Simply purchasing a cheap-o power supply will not cut it, in this day and age.

4. RAM. What kind of ram do you have? Is it "value type" ram or maybe something better, that better suits an overclockers needs.

5. INVEST in a good AIR COOLER. I just purchased a XIGMATEK S1284EE and I am EXTREMELY happy with it. I have it sitting on my Q6600, overclocked to 3.6ghz. Keep in mind, with the heat sink dissapating THAT much heat, you will need a case that offers better than average air flow. HEAT is an overclockers enemy. Know your enemy well, and you shall go far...

Just for the purposes of your thread, I encourage those who read it, not to "flame" the O/P (original poster). The question that you have asked, has been asked hundreds of times before.. It's a little open ended. I understand you are here to find answers and hopefully, you will get the answers you seek. Check out the thread on CPU OVERCLOCKING. It's VERY informative. If this is your first attempt at overclocking, I greatly encourage you to start with a higher end air cooling solution. Quadcore processors are a little less forgiving than their dual core processing cousins because of the heat output. So, a lower end thermal solution would not be a viable answer for your needs. GOOGLE is your friend. There are more than a handful of helpful people on this site who are willing to suggest their favorite thermal cpu cooling solution to you. But in the end, it's your choice.
Click to expand...

1. My Q6600 is a G0 revision, B stepping according to CPU-Z. I'm not quite sure how to check for the VID (nor am I certain what this is, exactly), but CPU-Z reports a core voltage of 1.216V.

2. I'm using a Gigabyte P35-DS3L.

3. My power supply was free (gift from friend, along with other components). It's a 650W Silverstone unit. The model number is SST-ST65ZF.

4. I'm currently using two mixed pairs for 4GB. One set was free (Crucial value RAM, 533MHz?, 5-5-5-15). The other set I purchased in 2006 (rated at 667MHz, 4-4-4-12 at 533, heatsink says "turbo"). I may purchase a 4GB pair of Corsair XMS2, though.

5. I'm not sure how good the airflow in my case is. It's an Antec P182, using the 3 120mm fans included with the case.
 
ddr2 is Dirt cheap

look around newegg

G.Skill is one of the cheapest and most effective
2X2GB of 800-1000mhz ram is easily attainable
 
Right now i have a G0 Q6600 chip (buttraping horrible 1.325 VID tho :( )sitting at 3.0ghz...

getting to this point wasn't hard...but finding out the root cause of my instability was...

make sure you get GOOD QUALITY MEMORY, GOOD QUALITY PSU, and GOOD QUALITY COOLING!!!

My Xigmatek HSF is very highly rated. with the stock fan it is more than capable of cooling a Q6600 to 3.0-3.6ghz - i switched the fan to a Delta 120x38mm and then to 2 of said deltas in a push/pull config. This proved most effective BUT these fans are high 40's dB EACH...yeah it's loud...

As for the memory...i have Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC8500 in a 4x1GB configuration. mine didn't seem to like to clock at all...or run at rated speeds til i figured out the problem...DFI Lanparty DK P35-T2RS SPD detection sucks balls...I had to use Memset at first and lookup several tutorials online to explain memory timings and abbreviations THEN go into my BIOS and make sure as many of them were properly Manually set as possible and the others were left to auto (the ones it could actually get close...not many)...after this the instability disappeared entirely...DO NOT OVERLOOK THIS AREA, DO NOT CHEAP OUT and DO NOT NEGLECT YOUR SETTINGS...it will come back to haunt you...

PSU - i use primarily Antec/FSP/PC P&C - everyone will have varying opinions on this. Best advice is to surf around the PSU forum here...you will find all the info you need...

Now that i have the root problems of my personal build ironed out i can concentrate on clocking this chip up...previously WITH ISSUES it would get to about 3.3-3.4ghz.....i'm hoping now that i seem to have rooted everything out that i can get back to that point or perhaps a bit higher...this board suffers from vdroop but not as bad as some others...being a 65nm chip gives us a little bit more leeaway with some voltages as opposed to the 45nm quads...i've been upto 1.5 vcore and 1.41vtt but try to keep it below 1.4 on both for 24/7 operation and temperature reasons...

i'll be clocking this chip up quite a bit further in the coming days...but getting to 3.0 was easy....slight bump in vcore to be safe, set 9x333, reboot...done...
 
Monkeypillow said:
1. My Q6600 is a G0 revision, B stepping according to CPU-Z. I'm not quite sure how to check for the VID (nor am I certain what this is, exactly), but CPU-Z reports a core voltage of 1.216V.

2. I'm using a Gigabyte P35-DS3L.

3. My power supply was free (gift from friend, along with other components). It's a 650W Silverstone unit. The model number is SST-ST65ZF.

4. I'm currently using two mixed pairs for 4GB. One set was free (Crucial value RAM, 533MHz?, 5-5-5-15). The other set I purchased in 2006 (rated at 667MHz, 4-4-4-12 at 533, heatsink says "turbo"). I may purchase a 4GB pair of Corsair XMS2, though.

5. I'm not sure how good the airflow in my case is. It's an Antec P182, using the 3 120mm fans included with the case.
Click to expand...

Great.. You've got a G0. In general, the G0 stepping is thought of as a better overclockable processor than its B3 stepping brother. If you have the little program CORE TEMP downloaded, it displays your VID. Generally, it is thought of in these terms: The lower the VID, the better the processor. This is just a generalization due to the amount of minimum voltage required to power your individual processor. The higher the VID, generally, it will take a little more voltage to power that individual processor. I just took a snap shot of my settings off of CORE TEMP and circled the related info on the screen shot below:

screenshotcoretemp.jpg



Your motherboard (P35-DS3L). It's a good "entry level" motherboard. Generally speaking, your board is fine (especially for your needs). It will help you achieve your goals. Not much else to say on this topic.

Your power supply (SST-ST65ZF). Again, it is a pretty solid power supply. I don't see any issues with it, as far as your needs are concerned. Just one less component to worry about.

OK.. Your ram. I see issues with your ram. This is the "weakest link" in your setup. May I suggest a low cost / good solution for your overclocking needs? The XMS2 Corsair ram is decent but you can purchase a really good set of HIGHLY overclock friendly DDR2 really cheap these days. Personally, I have had REALLLLLLY good results from my GSkill ram. It is 1066mhz ram, running 24/7 at 1080mhz. Check out this ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166 ..It's 4gb's. 1066mhz. Low cost. It has been VERY solid for me, so I can personally vouch for this ram. CAS latency is 5-5-5-15. $59 is a minimal investment for achieving your goals!!

Your case (P182). Your case is regarded as a solid performing enclosure within the overclocking community. It should serve you nicely. Not much else to say on this subject other than make sure you have decent 120mm fans. Some peeps are not happy with the stock 120mm fans. But, that is neither a pro or a con.
 
I just did this myself. I was running a Q6600 G0 that wouldn't go much past stock on my old Intel 975x board. I bought a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P from Newegg for about $100 and got 8 GB of PC6400 for another $100. Booted it up and set it to 8x400 and I am running it at 3.2 without any effort whatsoever. Running 28 degrees C. (idle) with a ZALMAN CNPS9700 and some OCZ Freeze. I think I could push it farther but I seem to be GPU limited if I go any higher.
 
I have a Q6600 B3 I use for a HTPC setup, its on a Gigabyte EP43-DS3L board.

I have had to go from 9x266 to 8x333 to keep my normal voltage (3GHz wanted a 0.1v bump but this works out at 2.66GHz but faster FSB). You should be ok to just raise the FSB to 333MHz and then setup your RAM frequency so that it does not change from where it is now giving you a simple 3GHz speed.

My Q6700 that I use for games I run at 8x400 for 3.2GHz every day use but that needed a little fiddling, 3.6GHz (9x400) is obtainable with elevated voltage but its stressing on the chip. When a new build is close I may push it for longer than a test.

Both setups are water cooled with my Q6600 running at 42C flat out and silent when I do Blu-Ray to MKV transcodes. If you want to go down the water cooling route dont buy a generic kit, its not that hard to buy all the bits you need (pipe work, connectors, pump, radiator, CPU block and a reservoir)
 
officermartinez said:
Great.. You've got a G0. In general, the G0 stepping is thought of as a better overclockable processor than its B3 stepping brother. If you have the little program CORE TEMP downloaded, it displays your VID. Generally, it is thought of in these terms: The lower the VID, the better the processor. This is just a generalization due to the amount of minimum voltage required to power your individual processor. The higher the VID, generally, it will take a little more voltage to power that individual processor. I just took a snap shot of my settings off of CORE TEMP and circled the related info on the screen shot below:

--snip--

OK.. Your ram. I see issues with your ram. This is the "weakest link" in your setup. May I suggest a low cost / good solution for your overclocking needs? The XMS2 Corsair ram is decent but you can purchase a really good set of HIGHLY overclock friendly DDR2 really cheap these days. Personally, I have had REALLLLLLY good results from my GSkill ram. It is 1066mhz ram, running 24/7 at 1080mhz. Check out this ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166 ..It's 4gb's. 1066mhz. Low cost. It has been VERY solid for me, so I can personally vouch for this ram. CAS latency is 5-5-5-15. $59 is a minimal investment for achieving your goals!!
Click to expand...

Core Temp gives a VID of 1.2750v.

What about this RAM? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145
 
hi there, this may help you, you can check my temps, voltages and FSB, so you can get an idea of the settings im using on air......i overclocked my q6600 g0 stepping to 3.0 ghz and im using a thermaltake v1 HSF, heres a screenshot, mine was stable for 26hrs while running prime95 small ftt's torture test with round-off checking enabled, all 4 cores working at a 100%....
i hope it helps....let us know what happened with your results : )

2002651476762267862_rs.jpg
 
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