HOWTO: Overclock C2Q (Quads) and C2D (Duals) - A Guide v1.7

[graysky]

@btdvox: no, it should use 2 cores all by itself. Alternatively, google prime95 v25 and use it.

 

[ALECUBA]

Originally posted by: graysky
@btdvox: no, it should use 2 cores all by itself. Alternatively, google prime95 v25 and use it.

so wat ur saying is that 1 orthos for 2 cores, example(my cpu)...
another question....would it be better if i lowered the timings in my ram?? they are default at 1066MHZ 5 5 5 15 2T and i have them with vmem=2.0 ...great guide btw...thx

 

[graysky]

If you can get the timings tighter, more power to ya... I haven't found that 4-4-4-12 is faster than 5-5-5-15 though. Try it and let me know if you can measure a difference

 

[jr2408]

Question:

I have a non-overclocked E6600 right now, and am planning to get a Q6600 as I multi-task a lot.

Does overclocking to 3ghz give a noticable performance increase?

 

[ALECUBA]

Originally posted by: jr2408
Question:

I have a non-overclocked E6600 right now, and am planning to get a Q6600 as I multi-task a lot.

Does overclocking to 3ghz give a noticable performance increase?

apparently yes....it should be better!

@graysky: would i use sis sandra benchmarks to measure the difference b/w the two sets of timings??

 

[foyo]

hey gravsky - it's a perfect match and anandtech - thanx for sticky!

I bought the Bax Axe 2 with Q6600 and GEiL 1066 - let's see, if I will match your target...

But, I'm an old stager ... and know the discussion what will be better - more MHz or less latency. I bought the 1066 (533 MHz) and can't use the bandwith when I make a 1:1 decision. But with this event i can reduce the latency under 4-4-4 ... perhaps...

Let's see what is better - more bandwith or lower latency - what Do you mean??

 

[foyo]

if you know what I mean

Does latency matter??

 

[ALECUBA]

sounds fair to me...i guess ill leave the timings as they are and get the freq up to like 1200MHZ since its duable np....thanks

edit: how is it that people get a Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme and put a fan on it...if someone knows a thread i could see pictures pls let me know...thx

 

[apoppin]

edit: how is it that people get a Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme and put a fan on it...if someone knows a thread i could see pictures pls let me know...thx

http://www.thermalright.com/a_...ation_u120_extreme.htm

Step-by-step exactly how i did it
-only a few fans actually fit, Scythe S-FLEX being very popular.

 

[ALECUBA]

so the fan actually comes with the hs?? thx for the link..

 

[btdvox]

my bios doesnt have a setting for PCI clock just PCIE, which i have set for 100. I cant find anywhere it says PCI clock at all, I have the new P5K Premium board,

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: ALECUBA
so the fan actually comes with the hs?? thx for the link..

no it doesn't ... your choice of fan is sold separately

 

[bryanW1995]

yeah, I ended up getting the tuniq tower instead of the ultra 120 x b/c it was 55 shipped vs 90 shipped after fan cost, plus the fan installation hassle/lapping hassles/etc.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
yeah, I ended up getting the tuniq tower instead of the ultra 120 x b/c it was 55 shipped vs 90 shipped after fan cost, plus the fan installation hassle/lapping hassles/etc.

actually installation is easy - especially the Scythe S-FLEX - it just clips right on

i am pretty happy with mine especially because it was flat enough

 

[btdvox]

Well I finally got to OC my E6850- after messing around and getting use to the system, I got my Vcore to 1.4 and upped my FSB to 422X9 = 3.8 Ghz. I left my Ram at 1:1 which is only like DDR2-848 but ill be clocking my ram soon, Anyways I ran Orthos for 7 hours Stable. Im really happy with the outcome, at least I think I should be! My System temp was 45 Degrees, and my CPU was at 52 Max. I remember my old CPU being clocked and the heat being at like 65+!! Plus I thought 1.4 is a Not extremely high but a higher Volt for sure comparing to stock 1.375.

At this rate Im sure I can get the CPU to 4.0GHZ at 1.485 probably I dont think Im going to now as Its prob just overkill for me, I might down the road- when crysis comes out

I dont know if this is good or not, you guys can prob tell me, I know the Volt could prob be lower but im too lazy to keep running orthos for 6 hours to see if its stable at a lower volt. And Im pretty happy with the temps. Another thing that should be said was, when i bought my Ultra-120 Extreme I made sure the base was flat at the store. I know those who order online cant do that, but my base was really flat and shiny. Ive heard of some that are curved and not shiny.

But anyways I used Speed fan for my case and chipset temps and RMClock for the Core temps like the guide said. This guide rocks for sure. I just need to clock my ram properly now. I think Ill set it to DDR2-1055 and set my timings to 4-4-4-12 and hopefully it passes. Whats the best way to stress test Memory other than Memtest. I want to use windows to test. Should I just use blend Orthos?
Anyways heres a pic for my clock, sorry for the really bad pic, I used all my money to buy the comp hahaha. this is taken off my crappy camera phone- Orthos is at 6hours if you look closely.

Pic:

http://i44.photobucket.com/alb...ox/Nicolesphone024.jpg

PS: I only had one time where I couldnt boot to Windows, I set my timings on my ram to aggressive, when i rebooted , i successfully POSTed and then the Microsoft logo came up but then I never loaded into Windows Vista. It was just a black screen. When I rebooted It came up with the Safe Screen mode with the options stating "Because of a hardware change etc etc, then it gave the option to put the Windows disc in to repair the comp, and then the options that are usually given in Safe screen mode, But I pressed boot windows normally, and windows booted.
I guess what im asking lol is I read about clearing CMOS and stuff, should i worry about that stuff when my OC failed?

 

[charles488]

Just built a new system and I am new to overclocking could someone please give me some pointer.
Hardware build.
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DQ6 with E6850
PNY VERTO GEFORCE 8800 GTS 640MB
LITE-ON LH-20A1L-06 20X SUPERALLWRITE SATA+LIGHTSCRIBE
SEAGATE 400GB ST3400633AS SATA300 7200RPM 16MB
OCZ OCZ850GXSSLI GAME XTREME ATX 12V V2.2 / EPS 12V 850W nVIDIA SLI CERTIFIED
CRUCIAL BALLISTIX TRACER BL2KIT12864AL1065 2GB KIT (1GB x 2) MATCH PAIR PC28500 1066MHZ 5-5-5-15 240-PIN (Have 4 gig of match pair installed)
ANTEC NINE HUNDRED (BLACK) ATX TOWER CASE NO POWER SUPPLY 3x5.25" 6x3.5"(hidden) 6x5.25"(hidden) W/WINDOWED SIDE PANEL, FRONT I/O CONNECTORS & 120mm CASE FAN x 3
EXTRA 120mm FAN(BLUE LED) (This case also has a 200mm fan at the top,note psu fit in the bottom of this case and works well.
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15900
Also have updated the bios to F5L 2007/07/24 an running xp home

 

[graysky]

Originally posted by: charles488
Just built a new system and I am new to overclocking could someone please give me some pointer.

...you did read the guide, right? What problems are you having specifically here..?

 

[charles488]

I would just like to set the ram to factory spec in the bios ,not the auto setting. I see that it is at 1.8 and would like to set it at 2.2. The PC runs great with low temps on air it has 5 (120mm) and 1 (200mm) fan in case. Intel stock cpu fan. Fan from psu and gpu blowing outside of case also. THe side panel fan blows on the ram and help keeping it cool.

 

[btdvox]

I got one more quetion for graysky, I am starting to end my overclocking experience, With my E6850 im @ 3.925 orthos stable (7 hours) and now im just trying to clock my ram correctly. Right now the two main dividers im looking at is one set at DDR2-1049 and another at DDR2-1090. my Ram is rated at DDR2-1066 so i tried the DDR2 1090 @ 2.2 voltrs ( rated) and i got a overclock crash, (upon boot it would say OVERCLOCKED FAILED) and i would have to set up my bios again, then i tried at 2.25 and still same thing after trying to stably run it on orthos.

So lastly i tried 2.3 volts which is the highest id like to go, my system is staying really cool but im having no luck getting to dd2-1090 even at 2.3 volts, and i just got the overclock fail screen again, So for the last straw before i try 1049 and lower timings, i tried switching some parameters over like dram static read and transaction booster and when i ran orthos it went for an hour but then it crashed and when i rebooted the system i got a different error saying Cmos Bad Checksum error , this really worried me, so i unplugged the system and plugged it back in and it booted fine at default settings.

Im gonna run orthos again on my last stable overclcoks but should i be worried even though it posts fine and goes to the desktop ok?

 

[Carnack]

I am seeing a paradox in my OC effort on the G0 rev. of the C2Q6600. Perhaps you can shed some light on which foot I am shooting, graysky...

I am OCing a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 (rev.1) with Ballistix DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12 2.2v, factory specs. I decided to follow your guide since you cited a fair amount of the hardware settings just to see how things compared. I had recently OC'd a E6600 on the same board and had it stable 3.2Ghz at moderate voltage and temps. So I figured I would see similar results with the quad.

Bzzzttt! Wrong answer!

This pupppy just resfues to run stable beyond factory spec (9x266) regarless of the voltage thrown at it. I have loosened up the RAM timings numerous times but it has zero effect. The core temps even when juiced up never hit above 58C, even though I am running this on air with an older Thermalright 90C (I know I need a better cooler for this). I am just trying to get a stable clock reference point!

The paradox comes in when I lower the Vcore voltage to 1.1V, where under full load of Orthos AND Prime running it is rock stable (plus 28 hours) - and extremely cool (barely cracking 41C)!

Whats a poor boy to do? (I want 3Ghz from this processor at the minimum.)

I have followed your guide to a tee, but this processor just does not seem to want to play ball. The only real anomoly I see is that I do get blue screen when I select SATA AHCI mode which distrubs me, but otherwise ther is nothing out of sorts from this configuration as compared to the E6600 which ran flawlessly.

Do you have any idas as to how I should trouble shoot this grasky, or do I simply have 'one of those processors' that deems me to be 'unlucky'? Thanks for your two cents!

 

[graysky]

Originally posted by: btdvox
I got one more quetion for graysky, I am starting to end my overclocking experience, With my E6850 im @ 3.925 orthos stable (7 hours) and now im just trying to clock my ram correctly. Right now the two main dividers im looking at is one set at DDR2-1049 and another at DDR2-1090. my Ram is rated at DDR2-1066 so i tried the DDR2 1090 @ 2.2 voltrs ( rated) and i got a overclock crash, (upon boot it would say OVERCLOCKED FAILED) and i would have to set up my bios again, then i tried at 2.25 and still same thing after trying to stably run it on orthos.

So lastly i tried 2.3 volts which is the highest id like to go, my system is staying really cool but im having no luck getting to dd2-1090 even at 2.3 volts, and i just got the overclock fail screen again, So for the last straw before i try 1049 and lower timings, i tried switching some parameters over like dram static read and transaction booster and when i ran orthos it went for an hour but then it crashed and when i rebooted the system i got a different error saying Cmos Bad Checksum error , this really worried me, so i unplugged the system and plugged it back in and it booted fine at default settings.

Im gonna run orthos again on my last stable overclcoks but should i be worried even though it posts fine and goes to the desktop ok?

What is your MB? I'm not sure what setting you're talking about in the first paragraph of your post. Are you running each DIMM at a different frequency?

 

[graysky]

Originally posted by: Carnack
I am seeing a paradox in my OC effort on the G0 rev. of the C2Q6600. Perhaps you can shed some light on which foot I am shooting, graysky...

I am OCing a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 (rev.1) with Ballistix DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12 2.2v, factory specs. I decided to follow your guide since you cited a fair amount of the hardware settings just to see how things compared. I had recently OC'd a E6600 on the same board and had it stable 3.2Ghz at moderate voltage and temps. So I figured I would see similar results with the quad.

Bzzzttt! Wrong answer!

This pupppy just resfues to run stable beyond factory spec (9x266) regarless of the voltage thrown at it. I have loosened up the RAM timings numerous times but it has zero effect. The core temps even when juiced up never hit above 58C, even though I am running this on air with an older Thermalright 90C (I know I need a better cooler for this). I am just trying to get a stable clock reference point!

The paradox comes in when I lower the Vcore voltage to 1.1V, where under full load of Orthos AND Prime running it is rock stable (plus 28 hours) - and extremely cool (barely cracking 41C)!

Whats a poor boy to do? (I want 3Ghz from this processor at the minimum.)

I have followed your guide to a tee, but this processor just does not seem to want to play ball. The only real anomoly I see is that I do get blue screen when I select SATA AHCI mode which distrubs me, but otherwise ther is nothing out of sorts from this configuration as compared to the E6600 which ran flawlessly.

Do you have any idas as to how I should trouble shoot this grasky, or do I simply have 'one of those processors' that deems me to be 'unlucky'? Thanks for your two cents!

You're using a P5B-Del? What BIOS version? The G0 chips require at least beta version 1210 as I recall.

I haven't experienced what you're describing at all. Since the temps are fine, it's very likely a setting in the BIOS that's messing it up. Clearly your board is fine since your e6600 can hit higher frequencies. Did you set your non vcore voltages to auto at first coupled with setting the vcore on the chip to something in the high-end of the range (like 1.3ish)? You might also want to relax the mem. timings to 5-5-5-15 and leave the fine adjustment timings to their default settings.

I dunno what to tell you about your AHCI setting. I'm assuming you have the latest Intel driver installed and that you have an ACHI enabled HD...?

 

[sithhar]

Hey there, great thread! I'm curious - I tried googling this with no luck, My 00 and 02 cores on my B3 Q6600 keep saying:

WARNING: Affinity Mask: Process: 0xC Sys: 0xF

When I run two instances of Orthos, is this normal? I have not OC'd my chip yet, all stock settings, I'm just working on gettnig my case as cool as possible for now.

 

[graysky]

sithhar: that's normal if you set affinity... you might wanna switch to using prime95 v25.3 -- it's easier to use.

 

[sithhar]

Thanks man, I'll give it a try.