What is holding back my Q9400?

C

Celestial Avenger

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
Messages
414
Hello,

I'm a relative amateur at overclocking processors, but I have had success in the past with overclocking my Intel processors. I've been attempting to overclock my Q9400, but cannot get over a barrier of 3.7 GHz. I've upped the stock voltage to 1.4, and I don't feel comfortable with pushing it any higher. My ultimate goal is 4.0 GHz (500x8), but the outlook is bleak. Here is my current setup

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66 GHz overclocked to 3.7 GHz (463x8)
2GB G.Skill DDR2-1066 underclocked to DDR2-926 for 1:1 ratio
Gigabyte EP45-UD3R motherboard
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Antec 400W PSU

The processor still does only 31C idle. Should I just accept that 3.6 is my limit, or is there some simple change I can do (without replacing a part) to push the processor a bit farther?

Thanks--
 
Last edited:
what is your load temps? have your tried to bump up the northbridge to see if thats holding you back? what about the ram?
 
make sure your ram voltage is set to 2.1v.. its very important with that ram that its at 2.1v once its above DDR2-900

and like lilfiend.. whats the load temps? because idle temps are pointless with core2duo's/quads since they are incorrect..
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the board is maxing out at 463fsb. That's pretty fast. I'm not sure what the average fsb is for P45 boards though.

It is possible you need to bump up the termination voltage. I've heard that quad cores tend to need a bump there at high fsb speeds.
 
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