Downgrading from Phenom II to Core 2 Quad

[VirtualLarry]

I had my q6600 at 3.6ghz oc on stock, and stable at 4.2ghz on air with a slight voltage tweak.

R.I.P. My Q6600.

BS. No-one has run a Q6600 at 4.2, "with a slight voltage tweak", on air. The temps would be insane. You would know this if you had actually done such a thing, which I am pretty certain you never did.

 

[soccerballtux]

Is Northbridge frequency/voltages another factor I have to take into account when FSB overclocking?

cpu-nb frequency yes, but just do this with the multiplier don't bother with the actual bus speed
cpu-nb voltage yes

nb voltage itself no you shouldn't need to its really as simple as cranking the multipliers and voltages on the cpu and cpu-nb

 

[VirtualLarry]

G0 stepping. At 3.6ghz on stock HSF. I could boot to windows with it, but it would not run prime 95 without a few more volts.

At 4.2ghz I had it on a first gen CM212.

3.6? On the stock HSF? HAHAHAHAHA. Now I know you're full of it.

My Q6600 @ 3.6, is what I would consider a cherry chip. It does 3.3 on stock voltage, and only required a minor voltage bump for 3.6.

But at 3.6, under OCCT 64-bit Linpack, temps get up to 90C! And that's WITH a Tuniq Tower 120 cooler, considered one of the best of the old-school tower heatsinks.

No way were you running 3.6 on stock heatsink, not without massive throttling.

 

[dpk33]

you're going to have terrible voltage droop under load with a 65nm quad on the ip35e. I would advise against it.

Do all p35 boards have this vdroop issue? And is a slight overclock, say 3ghz, okay for it?

 

[SparkyJJO]

Just remember the C2Q is FSB limited and, depending on the workload, can get bottlenecked by it since the FSB is what links the two dual core parts together. I ran into that a couple of times with mine. I didn't often enough to make it a huge deal but it was still annoying when it happened as the whole thing would just slow down to a crawl.

FWIW, my Q6600 G0 got to 3.2GHz but that was as far as it wanted to go.

 

[Inspire]

Take whatever money you can get! If you can sell both, sell both!

This is the best suggestion I have seen so far.

Sell both and pick up an intel SB 2500K and thank the computer gods there were two people who allowed you to unload your old computer parts on.

 

[RobertPters77]

@larry

I disagree with you sir.

G0 stepping did remarkable things. I never claimed anything that could not be verified and/or tested by another Q6600 with G0 stepping.

I admit it was not stable under prime without more volts, But the chip did boot into windows just fine. I could watch a youtube video without BSOD.

 

[dpk33]

Can someone walk me through overclocking the Q6600?

 

[SparkyJJO]

@larry

I disagree with you sir.

G0 stepping did remarkable things. I never claimed anything that could not be verified and/or tested by another Q6600 with G0 stepping.

I admit it was not stable under prime without more volts, But the chip did boot into windows just fine. I could watch a youtube video without BSOD.

If it wasn't totally stable it doesn't count.

And G0, while better than B3, isn't "remarkable." I had three of them. Two got 3.2GHz, the other maybe got 3 GHz. I'm talking real, usable, 24/7 stable speeds, not some 5 minute sprint that won't last.

 

[7earitup]

Just remember the C2Q is FSB limited and, depending on the workload, can get bottlenecked by it since the FSB is what links the two dual core parts together. I ran into that a couple of times with mine. I didn't often enough to make it a huge deal but it was still annoying when it happened as the whole thing would just slow down to a crawl.

FWIW, my Q6600 G0 got to 3.2GHz but that was as far as it wanted to go.

Same here with my Q6600 with G0 stepping. I cannot get it beyond 3.2 Ghz - it just wont run - no matter how much voltage I push to it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If it wasn't totally stable it doesn't count.

I was assuming that he was claiming that it was 24/7 OCCT/Prime95/LinX stable, which is the usual standard around here.

Unstable suicide runs don't count.

Edit: Mine is fully OCCT 1hour Linpack stable.

 

[alyarb]

Sorry I'm with larry and toyota. I had a G0 Q6700 and was not happy with my temps at 3.5 Ghz, not to mention 4.2.. Some specimens may have done better, but that is the exception and not the rule. And since we are now 4 years after the fact I will say the odds of such a frequency are even lower.

I had a C1 Q9550 that did 4.2 for a few weeks but that was it. Let's be realistic. IPC is very close and the PhII clocks higher.

 

[tweakboy]

If OCed any Intel Quad core blows away a phenom II quad core. So ya ditch the AMD and see how far you can OC your Q6xx ,,, What stepping is it ? If its a GO , it should do 3.6 but theres some that bsod @ 3.6 and have to go lower. You can get a dudd, or a real champ, but you have to take up voltage really high, and no drops... gl gg and gl

 

[zlejedi]

I felt zero difference going from Q6600 @ 3,35 to X6 @ 3,7-3,8.

 

[grimpr]

I felt zero difference going from Q6600 @ 3,35 to X6 @ 3,7-3,8.

Well, put some real load on them, crank the cores up, multitask heavily, and you will see how the X6 system just flies and stays buttersmooth, there's no comparison between them, the integrated memory controller of modern chips is worth more than what the benchmarks show.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Why don't you put the Q6600 on Craigslist and see what you can get? Lots of people don't have a clue -- you might be able to sell it for damned near what an i5 2500k costs.
Link to Amazon's $400 Q6600 http://www.amazon.com/Processor-Intel-Q6600-LGA775-Socket/dp/B000YAVGL8

 

[Arkaign]

I'm in the camp of sell both. The average clock for clock between PhII and C2Q is quite close really. But the feature set on the s775 motherboard, the power/heat inefficiency of the Q6xxx at this time, and the fact that they still command halfway decent prices used adds up to a recommended sell and rebuild. You can get newer PCIe, Sata, and USB access, much lower power/heat setup, and upgrade path with either a new AM3+ or Socket 1155 build depending on your preferences.

 

[sangyup81]

If OCed any Intel Quad core blows away a phenom II quad core. So ya ditch the AMD and see how far you can OC your Q6xx ,,, What stepping is it ? If its a GO , it should do 3.6 but theres some that bsod @ 3.6 and have to go lower. You can get a dudd, or a real champ, but you have to take up voltage really high, and no drops... gl gg and gl

Overclocking the CPU-NB yields 15%-20% increases in performance for Phenom IIs and I guarantee most benchmarks you are probably looking at have CPU-NB set at stock. Properly overclocked, a Phenom II should be slightly ahead of a Core2Quad clock for clock but probably falls behind Nehalem and Sandy Bridge.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm in the camp of sell both.

Yes, that would be the optimal solution, I think.

 

[Cheesepie]

I'm in a similar situation. What is a good voltage for overclocking the Q6600?

 

[dpk33]

i can sell either one or the other. i basically have a motherboard (790FXT-UD5P and IP35-e) and ram (8gb) for each cpu. i'm not sure which one to sell. my friend needs a cheap quad core pc for low-resolution gaming (BF3, etc) and it will be paired with a GTX295.

 

[jacktesterson]

keep the phenom II, sell the q6600

It can O/C higher... or at stock speeds, the Phenom II is still better. You also get a platform that can still go to X6's if ever needed.

 

[Cheesepie]

how far can i push my Q6600?

 

[dpk33]

To be honest, I'm getting $550 for either the:
Q6600, 8gb ddr2 and IP35e board
OR
Phenom II 965 at 4.0 ghz, 8 gb ddr3 and 790FXT-UD5P board

Please don't ask me why I'm getting this amount of money, I just am

I'm just afraid that the Core2 won't perform up to how much the Phenom II can perform.

 

[soccerballtux]

Do all p35 boards have this vdroop issue? And is a slight overclock, say 3ghz, okay for it?

all the ones I knew of on these forums did...
It gets worse with time too.

I was running an e2180 that eventually "became unstable" at 3.4ghz, it was the vdroop getting worse under processor load. The voltage setting that used to give me a solid 1.48v then became 1.472v as shown in CPU-z...and occasionally then a dip down to 1.46-ish volts at which point my PC started becoming unstable. Wasn't a big issue, just jumped into the bios and cranked it up +0.025v and I was fine again. The e8400 I had overclocked to 3.9ghz had the vdroop worse at load-- lower voltage, so more of the power was coming from current (remember P = I * V...current times voltage) than with the e2180. If I recall it was like .04v droop under load...didn't like that and especially how it was getting worse with age.
I definitely wouldn't have wanted to run a 65nm quad on that board.
The fix for this problem was LLC-- load line calibration, and that board doesn't have it.

There are pencil mods you can look into for that board but I didn't quite understand what the pencil mod did and couldn't find where to draw it on my board, so I eventually sold the mobo + e8400 and bought my current motherboard and the CPU you see in my sig. Went from a dual to a quad for free!