Q6600 O.C. problems.

[IndieRock13]

Hey, I just got my computer built yesterday and set into overclocking it. Here are the specs:

 

Cooler Master CM-690 Case w/ 4 fans

520W PSU w/ 28 amps on 12V rail

Asus P5K Mobo

Q6600 w/ G0 stepping

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Heatsink

A-Open Extreme 2GB DDR2 SDRAM - 800+ Mhz 4-4-4-12

EVGA nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 320MB SuperClocked

 

So I got it all put together and decided to try some overclocking after I got it set up. I ran Prime 95 25.4 for about 20 minutes and it was a nice cool 48C average. Went into BIOS and turned off all of the powersaving options, set the RAM to a defined 4-4-4-12, and set the FSB to 333Mhz with the RAM also set to 667 so it was 1:1. I set the VCore voltage to 1.365.

 

Booted up and everything went great. Ran Prime 95 for 8 hours and there were no errors. Here is where my confusion starts. The temperatures never got above 56C during the entire test. Two core averaged 56 and the others 55. This was measured with SpeedFan with the +15C modifier on each core as well as with CoreTemp. They disagreed a bit like usual but averaged around the same. CoreTemp said it got up to 59 on a couple of core.

 

These are perfectly acceptable temps though, especially for the G0 stepping. So I thought, ok, I should have some success going even higher.

 

I've tried FSB of 350, 360, 370, 380, and 400. I left the RAM scaled to 1:1 and kept the timing at its rated 4-4-4-12 at 2.1V (which it is rated at) and also tried it with 5-5-5-15. No matter what I've done though, windows starts up fine and everything is dandy, but Prime 95 errors out in the first minute on at least one core, saying "rounding returned 0.5, expected less than 0.4. Hardware failure detected"

 

I kept the VCore at 1.365 the whole time, which is the upper limit of the CPU's limit that I'm comfortable with. Even the slight upping of the FSB to 350 caused it. The temps stayed normal at around 58 or so. The G0 I had heard was fine at least until 70C. It seems like the RAM has to be on 667 or 800 for it to work at all (although the 400 FSB caused a system hang on XP boot so I can't really confirm that except that 333 is working.)

 

 

What could my problem be? The RAM? Just can't go higher with the CPU even though temps are fine?

 

 

*scratches head*

[road-runner]

I kept the VCore at 1.365 the whole time, which is the upper limit of the CPU's limit that I'm comfortable with.

I am going to say that 1.365 is your problem. I think you have found your max over clock for those volts. If you want to go higher with your over clock you are going to have to give it more volts which is going to also make more heat.

[Waco]

The CPU needs more voltage or it needs to be run at a slower speed, plain and simple. The RAM doesn't sound like it's the problem. The motherboard *could* be causing the problem though that'd be less likely than the CPU topping out at that voltage.

[IndieRock13]

Hmm, Intel's specs list the max voltage for the Q6600 as 1.37 so I didn't want to go any higher. I've read that others had gotten 3.4 Ghz at 1.37v just fine. How high would be safe to volt it do you think?

 

Also, how do you think the motherboard could be affecting it? Anything I could do to NB volts or any of that jazz? I've never messed with that detailed of OCing as I'm obviously a newbie at this.

Edited September 18, 2007 by IndieRock13

[Verran]

Hmm, Intel's specs list the max voltage for the Q6600 as 1.37 so I didn't want to go any higher.

The whole point of overclocking is running things out of spec.

 

You think AMD would tell me it's OK to run my Opteron 148 at 1.6v?

 

I've read that others had gotten 3.4 Ghz at 1.37v just fine. How high would be safe to volt it do you think?

I've not heard of many people getting 3.4 out of a Q6600 at any voltage!

[IndieRock13]

I've not heard of many people getting 3.4 out of a Q6600 at any voltage!

 

Seems like everywhere I go people are reporting 3.4 as their max.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/244276-2...600-4ghz-stable

 

and

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/244136-2...600-4ghz-higher

 

for example. One of the OC tutorials I read also said the highest they got was around 3.4 with aircooled but it was too hot. My temps are quite a bit lower at 3Ghz than theirs were though.

 

 

I suppose I could always try upping the volts... but maybe I should play safe and be happy with 3Ghz.

[airman]

Hmm, Intel's specs list the max voltage for the Q6600 as 1.37 so I didn't want to go any higher. I've read that others had gotten 3.4 Ghz at 1.37v just fine. How high would be safe to volt it do you think?

 

Also, how do you think the motherboard could be affecting it? Anything I could do to NB volts or any of that jazz? I've never messed with that detailed of OCing as I'm obviously a newbie at this.

 

 

with my g0 i sit around 3.3ghz on stock volts with stock cooler and pc6400. just for the heck of it, put a memory divider on JUST to rule it out. that's what i would do.

 

 

 

Hmm, Intel's specs list the max voltage for the Q6600 as 1.37 so I didn't want to go any higher. I've read that others had gotten 3.4 Ghz at 1.37v just fine. How high would be safe to volt it do you think?

 

Also, how do you think the motherboard could be affecting it? Anything I could do to NB volts or any of that jazz? I've never messed with that detailed of OCing as I'm obviously a newbie at this.

 

 

with my g0 i sit around 3.3ghz on stock volts with stock cooler and pc6400. just for the heck of it, put a memory divider on JUST to rule it out. that's what i would do.

[Verran]

Well it does look like the later stepping Q6600's are doing better than the early ones... Still, results vary. Just because theirs did it doesn't necessarily mean yours will.

 

But upping the voltage will tell you pretty quickly. If more volts fixes your problem, well there ya go. If it doesn't, you know it's something else. It's just simple problem solving. Test solutions until you find what works.

[IndieRock13]

just for the heck of it, put a memory divider on JUST to rule it out. that's what i would do.

 

My mobo doesn't accept Memory speeds lower than the CPU FSB. When I set the CPU FSB to say 350, the lowest DRAM Freq I can choose is 700Mhz.

 

Any way around this or am I limited by the P5K mobo's settings?

 

 

Maybe I should try updating the BIOS... too bad I didn't get a lame ol' floppy drive.

Edited September 18, 2007 by IndieRock13

[kingdingeling]

Verran, you're really outta the loop the G0 Q6600's really OC like the first set of E6600's, sometimes even more!

[Verran]

Verran, you're really outta the loop the G0 Q6600's really OC like the first set of E6600's, sometimes even more!

Apparently! (and now, admittedly )

 

The first batch of Q6600's OC'd like poop, and I haven't heard much since then. If the new Q6600's are hitting 3.4 fairly reliably, that actually makes them a bit more considerable at their current price-point.

[road-runner]

According to the Q6600 Database people are getting 3.4 - 4.0 Ghz on G0 revision. Take a look at that database for motherboard types and cpu volts.