TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

As per title
So I have had a little play around (the joys of having an ASUS board with a utility you can mess with ) and clocked her up to 3ghz but with a fsb of 1333mhz (dont really want a fsb that high, 800 would be nice or at the most 1066mhz)
So a few questions.

My cpu has a multiplier of x9, do I have to stick with 3/6/9 or can I use 8/4/2 for instance?
I take it I cannot exceed the x9 multiplier?
Whats the maximum overclock I can do on air with this cpu safely (I have heard of 3.6ghz but dont know if that was on air or water cooled)

Ta

Tony

serega

You cannot go above 9x multiplier and there is no reason why you should be afraid to tune your bus speed way up. TO run 3.6ghz you will need to run the FSB at 1600 mhz which is absolutely fine, to make full use of that front side bus speed you will need a pc3-12800 memory as it will quite easily take 1600 mhz and DDR3 starts to really shine through at those speeds!

The tuning potential your chip depends solely on your ability to keep it cool. And keeping it cool depends on your stepping just as much as your cooler. If you have a G0 revision of the chip and its a SLACR configuration, you will be laughing. Im currently running 3ghz with 9x333 bus (no, there is no other way to get there, but im just confirming : ) and my current temps are 30 C on all cores except core#4 which is 26C.

serega

serega

The other thing to keep in mind is your voltage. Some chips seem to require more voltage for the same speed. Obviously the more voltage you put through your chip, the hotter it gets, but if you do not give it enough voltage your PC will crash and freeze periodically, depending on how bad its starved of volts.

I suggest downloading a program called PRIME 95 with which you can test the stability of your PC quite easily, just do a torture test for a few hours and if there are no errors and no crashes then you can either lower the voltage if your temps are too high, or if you are happy with your temps and the system is stable, you've got a perfectly stable overclocked Q6600!

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

You can only use the multipliers 6-9, all the others will be locked out.

Don't worry about the RAM speed, it has no real-world effect on performance, only on a couple of specialist benchmarks. In all normal work the system will remain CPU-limited. Just be careful of the RAM speed as you raise the bus speed: you need to be certain whether instabilities are down to CPU, northbridge or RAM. If you can't tell, drop the RAM speed first - if you're naow stable, that's what it was. If that fails, drop the multiplier. If that works, it's the CPU not the northbridge, if it doesn't, it's the northbridge.

The maximum OC is in the lap of the Gods. Mine is at 3.6Ghz (450 x 8) on air, others have got higher, some not so high. Much will depend on your cooling, and on your courage - how many volts you are prepared to stick through it. Bear in mind that while it might shorten the lifespan, we are talking ten years rather than twenty.


M

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Cheers I have just clocked her up to 3ghz for now see how she runs on that (though that may just suffice )
I have the option to adjust the memory on my ASUS AI so it seems to be ok for now as I dont think running it at 1333mhz is a good idea lol but I can also use ddr3 on this board so that may be an option for me later
Thanks all

Tony

PS, I have the B3 CPU version.

serega

what sort of voltage and temps are you running with that setup meridian. And what sort of ram are you running for those 900mhz ?

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Hmmm ok next issue...
I seem only to be running with 1 core here I have updated the BIOS (to no avail) so it has to be a windows issue? (running vista 32bit SP1).
I know there is a way of setting up the ammount of cores used on start up, could this be the problem? (if so how do I reinitiate them? )

Ta,

Tony

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Oh its ok now i found HAL after using msconfig.exe (advanced then ticked it, applied and restarted, have 4 cores working again after going back in and selecting them )

Tony

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Voltage is (IIRC) 1.4875. Temps are about 65-70oC. RAM is OCZ 1066 stuff (CAS5 5-5-5-15), running at 1080.


M

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Modern games need every last MHz to make them run properly. Any that are left over run SETI.


M

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Run this

Futuremark - Benchmarks - 3DMark06 - Introduction

Download these

CPUID
(CPU-Z 1.51)

Core Temp

There are probably a few others around that are good, but these do me for now

Tony

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Now I take it my B7 version isnt quite as power efficient or runs as cool as the G0 version?

Tony

serega

You are correct, G0's are the overclocking chips of choice. Mine runs stable at 3 ghz with only 1.15 volts, its pretty amazing considering stock voltage for that chip is 1.27 volts. So my overclocked chip at 3 ghz runs cooler than someone's stock processor

serega

As for processing power, i dont play games but i just love to browse web, listening to music, downloading files, burning iso's or dvds running anti-virus check at the same time and see no performance slow-down at all

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Its just like tuning your scoob but cheaper

Tony

Shaun

Tony,
I clocked my Q6600 as soon as it was slotted in over 18 months ago. Has been running 3.4ghz (with 3rd party air cooler) no sweat since day one..... never bothered pushing it any further though tbh.

john_s

iTrader: (1)

Mine's been clocked at 3.3GHz pretty much since I built the system. Kept meaning to try it at 3.6GHz, but never got round to booting into the BIOS to push it any further.