How much voltage is too much

[joaoparaiso]

Hi,

I have a B3 stepping Core 2 Quad Q6600 running on a Asus P5B-E with a Thermaltake Big Typhoon.

I've tried a lot of various different overclocking settings, but I would need some advice to choose the best one. Here are the stable settings I managed to find so far:

3.0ghz @ 1.400v - 100% stable, excelent temps (30ºC idle / 56ºC full load)

3.2ghz @ 1.500v - also stable, but sometimes crashes when shutting down windows vista, other times it fails to boot, but in 99% of cases everything goes right and completely stable
3.33ghz @ 1.5375v - 100% stable, temps of 41 - 68ºC, but after 10 minutes of Everest CPU torture test, it starts thermal throttling. Doesn't crash though.

3.43ghz @ 1.5875v - same as with 3.33ghz, but starts thermal throttling earlier

What do you think? Should I stick to 3.0ghz? a 0.1v increase to pass from 3.0 to 3.2ghz seems a bit too far for me. Is a 1.500v plus voltage bad for the running life of the CPU?

I reccon that if I switch the Big Typhoon for a Thermalright Ultra120 Plus, I could get it working at 3.60ghz at 1.650v, but that kind of voltage would be too far off, right?

I'm also puzzled that I can't find any stable reasonable overclock between 3.0 and 3.2 ghz. It seems that until 3.0ghz it barely needs any overvolt at all, but from 3.0 on it needs quite a lot of voltage increase even to a modest increase in speed.

Any oppinions would be apreciated.

 

[Markfw]

Well, I can't get over 3.1 Do that and call it good.

 

[myocardia]

You just don't have a good overclocking chip, unfortunately. You should stick with 3.0 Ghz @ 1.40v. At that speed, you're already extremely GPU-bound, anyway. BTW, were you aware of how bad throttling is for your processor? Do everything you have to do, to keep it from throttling.

 

[mervin338]

Dude, that cpu fan you have is one of the best, so I don't think it's a good idea to spend the extra ching on a thermalright for the minimal performance gains you might get. What kind of stuff do you do that requires you to be running your cpu at 3.6ghz anyway?

All systems run a little differently, even when 2 identical systems have the same components, so you're going to need your benchmarking programs to tell you when to stop pushing your hardware.

The Vcore isn't the only thing you're going to have to adjust in order to stabilize your system. At the very least your NB is probably going to need some voltage adjustments (increases) too.

 

[joaoparaiso]

Thanks for your replies. I had already upped the memory and fsb voltages, but that doesn't help either.

Given your oppinions, I think I won't buy the Thermalright and stick with my Big Typhoon.

I will probably leave it at 3.0ghz, originally I wanted more because I didn't want to see my new rig being embarassed compared to my old dual-core E6600 @ 3.70ghz in applications not optimized for multiple cores.

But if even with a 7950GX2 I'm GPU-bound at 3.0ghz, I guess I will leave it at 3.0ghz then.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Limit to 1.40.

 

[Goldenstyx]

I personally would not go anywhere above 1.5v. From your description seems that B3 chip is reaching the limit, I doubt you gonna get much more out of it even with more voltage. Like myocardia said, B3 stepping chip just not that good for oc.

I just assembled a new rig last night with the G0 chip. Lapped few hours of IHS and Tuniq Tower 120. Got into BIOS bumped FSB to 333, default voltage everything and there goes the 3G Hz. With Tuniq fan set at low my idle temp is around 38 C, 45~47C when running super PI.

 

[darkfalz]

You should be happy with 3 GHz at 1.4v. It's more of a "sweet spot", an extra 600 MHz for an increae of less than 0.1v, then another 0.1v required for another 200 MHz is not really worth it IMO.

 

[darkfalz]

Originally posted by: joaoparaiso
Thanks for your replies. I had already upped the memory and fsb voltages, but that doesn't help either.

Given your oppinions, I think I won't buy the Thermalright and stick with my Big Typhoon.

I will probably leave it at 3.0ghz, originally I wanted more because I didn't want to see my new rig being embarassed compared to my old dual-core E6600 @ 3.70ghz in applications not optimized for multiple cores.

But if even with a 7950GX2 I'm GPU-bound at 3.0ghz, I guess I will leave it at 3.0ghz then.

You got an E6600 to 3.7 and traded it in? Crazy.

 

[tooriski]

i have the same board, and can not get it stable above 3ghz, however i can get 3ghz at 1.3125vcore (vdroop pencil mod helps).

this board has trouble with overclocking quads, does duos fine, had a e6750 at 3.6ghz....so if you really want some more speed upgrade your board, but far as i think, 3ghz on a q6600 is very good and more than enough for any game or app out there.

 

[imported_g33k]

I'd take it to 1.5V @ 3.2ghz. So if it dies in 5 years instead of ten, will it really matter? Not for me, I would've gone through two new builds in that time. In the meantime that 200mhz give you a small but enjoyable increase in performance. Now 1.65v would be too much in my opinion, unless you only planned on keeping it for a year or so.

Ive had my opty running at 1.51V for two years with no ill effects. If it dies tommorow, no big loss as I'm looking to upgrade again and that would provide the perfect excuse.

 

[maluckey]

joaoparaiso

How much voltage is too much? In all seriousness it's when the CPU melts. Keep it very cool and you're likely to find the limit of frequency before the voltage limit. Is it likely to kill your CPU in 5-6 years? Who knows? I STILL have an OC'ed 2400+ Barton core that after four years of running at 2.4 gHz and 1.85v will tell you that the doom and gloom folks are likely overly sensitive

Back before I gave the Barton setup to the kids, I took it as high as 2.1 volts for extended benchmarking. It still runs fine at 2.4 gHz and 1.85v...the same as when new.

I'm sure that my setup is not unique on this board. I saw someone with an old AMD K6III+ in their sig recently!!!!!! Now Those were bad azz in their time!!