Q6600 Help Please

N

NeonAntec

n00b
Joined
Apr 5, 2010
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Hey guys, I’m new to overclocking and would love some help with my Q6600. I’ve read quite a lot of forums and managed to get a stable 3.15GHz running Prime95 for 3hours but when I attempt 3.4GHz Prime crashes after 4mins but it will render a 6 hour video in 3Ds Max perfectly without crashing. As I said I’m new so I don’t know all the Abbreviation but I’m learning. So here’s where I’m at

Computer Setup:
Intel Q6600 2.4GHz
Corsair H50-1
Gigabyte GA - P35 – DS3L
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 XTC PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Series (4 x 1GB)


The stable 3.15GHz is:

31ghz.jpg


BIOS CPU Volts @ 1.41250v
PCI Express Frequency (MHz) @ 101
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) @ 2.40 = 800, 840


For the 3.4GHz it’s set to:

BIOS CPU Volts @ 1.47500v
9x379 = 3.41GHz
PCI Express Frequency (MHz) @ 101
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) @ 2.00 = 800, 758

Any help getting the 3.4GHZ stable would be great

Thanks Alex
 
Try bumping up MCH voltage. Also lower the PCIe freq to 100. Might also have to give the CPU a little more voltage. Those Gigabyte P35 boards have horrendous vdroop. Already seeing .06v at idle, I bet that shoots up to .1v at load.

As reference for me to hit 3.6 on my P35-DS3R I need to set my vcore in BIOS to 1.55v. At idle I see 1.47v and at load it's 1.41v. Seems like the more voltage I give it the bigger the margin of vdroop I see.

Don't be scared to jack up the cpu voltage so long as temps at load are ok. Though you might want to get better cooling if you are seeing idle temps in the high 30's low 40's at 3.1Ghz. My temps are in the low to mid 20's at idle running 3.0Ghz on my Q6600.
 
Thanks HydroBudz will give that a shot latter. Underload @ 3.15 cpuz says that the core voltage goes down to 1.312.

HydroBudz said:
Though you might want to get better cooling if you are seeing idle temps in the high 30's low 40's at 3.1Ghz.
Click to expand...

I only just got the H50 about 1 month ago so i dont have the money to change atm :(

Ok im totaly confused now, ive just put everything back to stock and cpuz says core voltage = 1.264v isnt that bad being lower then the vid?
 
More volts definately for sure On my Q6600 it needed 1.5 to hit 3.8 anything above that took way more volts like 1.57 so all you can do is try, could be just one little setting.
 
HydroBudz said:
Try bumping up MCH voltage. Also lower the PCIe freq to 100. Might also have to give the CPU a little more voltage. Those Gigabyte P35 boards have horrendous vdroop. Already seeing .06v at idle, I bet that shoots up to .1v at load.

As reference for me to hit 3.6 on my P35-DS3R I need to set my vcore in BIOS to 1.55v. At idle I see 1.47v and at load it's 1.41v. Seems like the more voltage I give it the bigger the margin of vdroop I see.

Don't be scared to jack up the cpu voltage so long as temps at load are ok. Though you might want to get better cooling if you are seeing idle temps in the high 30's low 40's at 3.1Ghz. My temps are in the low to mid 20's at idle running 3.0Ghz on my Q6600.
Click to expand...

What's the best way to see how bad the vdroop is? cpu-z? I have the same board, and my Q6600 doesn't seem to like anything over 3.15 Ghz. Note that I have a B3 stepping so I know it takes a lot more to get a little so my expectations are tempered. I've tried all the way up to 1.475v and it will boot fine at 3.3 Ghz even but not be stable. Meanwhile temps are fine. I've heard several times to stay below 1.5v . But as I understand it, does 1.55 mean more like 1.45 due to vdroop?

I'm sorta firing off the cuff here, but I can post later with better specifics.
 
Mine was the same way on vdroop, .1v under load. On my old Abit IP35Pro I could only get 3.2ghz anything more required 1.5+v in the bios and would vdroop to 1.4 and not work. Didn't want to run that high as idle voltage was only like a .02 drop.

I bought a Asus mobo with the vdroop control and its running 24/7 at 3.6ghz now 1.426v fine. My cpu was pretty good as it would run 3.2 @ 1.18v though, but needed the extra consistent voltage to get 3.6
 
HydroBudz said:
Try bumping up MCH voltage. Also lower the PCIe freq to 100. Might also have to give the CPU a little more voltage. Those Gigabyte P35 boards have horrendous vdroop. Already seeing .06v at idle, I bet that shoots up to .1v at load.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Enable LCC and up the MCH voltage at least .1V (.2V probably is better) and the FSB voltage as well. I had a tough time getting high clocks out of my northbridge on my P35-UD3P.
 
When my q9550 (Rev. C1) hit the wall at 3.5 on this P45 board. (3.6 on the previous P35.) I had to bump the NB, and DDR RAM voltage a bit. (OCZ RAM as well.)

As it stands I have vcore at 1.475. CPU-Z never goes past 1.408. It now runs stable at 3.8. (P.S. Make the 3.9 now.)
I bumped the northbridge to 1.2 vs 1.1, and and RAM from 1.8 to 2.0.

On the old board I need to bump the MCH, but not on this one.

One needs lots of patience with OCing. There are so many options (Well, good OCing boards at least.) and it takes time to find all the best settings for the max OC.
 
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Some good tips here and an "old school" guide to OCing that board/cpu combination.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1169366

MCH voltage increase (and put some extra cooling on it, glueing a fan to the heatsink is best)
and with quads I found that increasing the FSB voltage a bump or two helps as well.
 
I run my q6600 at 3.8ghz on water cooling. Had to up cpu voltage, nb voltage, sb voltage slightly, increased memory voltages for overclock, and change the FSB. The motherboard and the chip are the big deciding factors in the overclock as well. Some of the older q6600's dont overclock for shit, and they run really hot.
 
HydroBudz said:
you might want to get better cooling if you are seeing idle temps in the high 30's low 40's at 3.1Ghz. My temps are in the low to mid 20's at idle running 3.0Ghz on my Q6600.
Click to expand...

Could the high temps be to do with the high VID on my chip? Or could it be the way I have my H50 arranged? I have the radiator sandwiched between two fans blowing out the case.

antec902.jpg
 
You cooling setup seems fine.

I found that a 8x multiplier was more stable with my Q6600. I'm running mine at 8x450 @ 1.4125v in bios.

To isolate the CPU overclock you should set the memory speed to its lowest possible for now. Then work you way up from what you know is stable. The best way is to really find the limits of your motherboard and memory before trying to go for the max oc. Find out how high your motherboards bus speed can go. You will probably have to increase the north bridge voltage slightly.
 
JohnleMVP said:
You cooling setup seems fine.

I found that a 8x multiplier was more stable with my Q6600. I'm running mine at 8x450 @ 1.4125v in bios.

To isolate the CPU overclock you should set the memory speed to its lowest possible for now. Then work you way up from what you know is stable. The best way is to really find the limits of your motherboard and memory before trying to go for the max oc. Find out how high your motherboards bus speed can go. You will probably have to increase the north bridge voltage slightly.
Click to expand...

Hmm, doing 8x450 = 3.6GHz is an interesting way of tackling the problem I never considered. I usually did 9x400 = 3.6GHz. I will try that and see what happens!

My B3 Q6600 does 3.6GHz on 1.48v and 3.4GHz on 1.36v. I upped MCH core to 1.2v and CPU termination to 1.3v.
 
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HydroBudz said:
Don't be scared to jack up the cpu voltage so long as temps at load are ok. Though you might want to get better cooling if you are seeing idle temps in the high 30's low 40's at 3.1Ghz. My temps are in the low to mid 20's at idle running 3.0Ghz on my Q6600.
Click to expand...

His cooling isn't the issue, it's that he is doing 1.41250v for only 3.1GHz!!!

I can do 3.1GHz with probably around 1.3V and my Q6600 is a B3 revision which is 10 watts more TDP than his (hotter, requires more power for performance).

NeonAntec, it's probably not your CPU that is holding you back but your mobo and ram. Prime will crash for me if I don't give my northbridge a little more power and make sure my ram is rock stable (again, requires more voltage).
 
Dumb question but how do you test for ram stability? Memtest? Or just using prime95
 
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