Newbie overclocker: Q9450 & Abit IP35 Pro

[atrifix]

OK, newbie overclocker here. I am running with Q9450, Abit IP35 Pro, Corsair Dominator 2x2GB 1066 (PC2-8500), Xigmatek HDT-S1283, PC Power & Cooling S61EPS 610W, EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB G92, Antec Twelve Hundred.

First thing, updated my BIOS to 16 and changed my VRAM to 2.2V. I am doing okay at 420 FSB (3.36Ghz). Once I push to 426 FSB, I can still load Windows, but am no longer prime stable. At 431 FSB, Windows loads but crashes fairly quickly. I tried raising vcore from default 1.2375V to 1.3375V. No luck. At 436 FSB, Windows fails to load.

I feel like I should be getting higher stable speeds than this. I don't intend to push the CPU as far as it can go, but I do want to know how high it will be stable and then make adjustments. Thoughts? Am I doing something wrong or am I just reaching the practical limits of how far this board can go?

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/9969/tempscy6.jpg

CPU is at 31C in BIOS, System 30C, PWM 40C.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

keep it at 3.36, whats wrong with that? take the North bridge and raise it slightly from the default

 

[bryanW1995]

you are putting too much stress on the mch at that high of an fsb on a quad. My x3350/ip35 pro system is almost identical to yours, though I have 2x1 gb of ballistix instead. I highly recommend graysky's guide:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2057083&enterthread=y

he recently updated it and it is seriously awesome. report back here after you've read his guide and followed the instructions. I'll be happy to help you out with specific questions. I can tell you right now that if you read his guide and follow the instructions you will almost certainly get into the 3.5-3.7 ghz range. After you've done all the work and figured out what you're doing I'll give you my settings and we can compare notes

 

[Diogenes2]

.... you will almost certainly get into the 3.5-3.7 ghz range ..

He's at 3.6 ....

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Diogenes2

.... you will almost certainly get into the 3.5-3.7 ghz range ..

He's at 3.6 ....

huh? he's at 3.36 right now, not 3.6. I'm at 3.6 on my x3350, and would be in that range on my q9450 if it wasn't saddled with that craptastic though free-to-me zalman hsf.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I thought the Zalman 9500 an 9700 were good HS&F's?

 

[Diogenes2]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995

Originally posted by: Diogenes2

.... you will almost certainly get into the 3.5-3.7 ghz range ..

He's at 3.6 ....

huh? he's at 3.36 right now, not 3.6. I'm at 3.6 on my x3350, and would be in that range on my q9450 if it wasn't saddled with that craptastic though free-to-me zalman hsf.

My bad ..

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
I thought the Zalman 9500 an 9700 were good HS&F's?

it's not that they're "bad" so much as they're just not strong enough to dissipate the massive amount of heat that a highly-overclocked quad generates (even 45nm). I originally got that 9700 for my Athlon 64 3700+ 3 years ago, and it had been around for a while even then. cooling requirements have changed in the past few years.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
I thought the Zalman 9500 an 9700 were good HS&F's?

it's not that they're "bad" so much as they're just not strong enough to dissipate the massive amount of heat that a highly-overclocked quad generates (even 45nm). I originally got that 9700 for my Athlon 64 3700+ 3 years ago, and it had been around for a while even then. cooling requirements have changed in the past few years.

So what are the latest greatest HS&F cooling devices?

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
I thought the Zalman 9500 an 9700 were good HS&F's?

They were good when they came out, but they're several year old designs at this point.

 

[Foxery]

You didn't mention RAM timings, VTT, or northbridge voltage.

My first suggestion, however, is to change your GTL REFs from the default 67% to 65%. (Found at the bottom of the Voltages BIOS screen) This alone stabilized my IP35-Pro without even increasing VTT and Northbridge voltages.



**Note to lurkers: For use with quad-core CPUs only!

 

[atrifix]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
you are putting too much stress on the mch at that high of an fsb on a quad. My x3350/ip35 pro system is almost identical to yours, though I have 2x1 gb of ballistix instead. I highly recommend graysky's guide:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2057083&enterthread=y

he recently updated it and it is seriously awesome. report back here after you've read his guide and followed the instructions. I'll be happy to help you out with specific questions. I can tell you right now that if you read his guide and follow the instructions you will almost certainly get into the 3.5-3.7 ghz range. After you've done all the work and figured out what you're doing I'll give you my settings and we can compare notes

Thanks very much for the advice. After some tweaking, I was able to get it to load at 444Mhz (3.55Ghz) by increasing Vcore to 1.3075, VTT to 1.17, and MCH to 1.44V. Won't load Windows at a higher FSB with these voltages. I'm happy with my current 3.55Ghz, but it's not prime-stable (although as far as I can tell, it's very stable when not running prime95). I bumped up the voltages slightly on the SB core and the ICH 1.05V (I think to 1.55V and 1.070V). I'll see if that changes anything.

My first suggestion, however, is to change your GTL REFs from the default 67% to 65%. (Found at the bottom of the Voltages BIOS screen) This alone stabilized my IP35-Pro without even increasing VTT and Northbridge voltages.

Thanks, I will try that.

 

[lightfoot3b]

I'm struggling to get my x3320 stable @ 3.0+ I can run prime for 16 hours at 3.0 but even with some raised voltage I am only prime stable for an hour at 3.15. I'll have to read that guide and see if I can get higher as well.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'm beginning to think that running prime or OCCT for long periods of time is burning out parts sooner than expected life. Every time I've stopped running either, the first 20 seconds, the machine runs terribly slow, like the system has been shocked. To me, that doesn't seem right and I won't run either of them for any long period of time now.

 

[lightfoot3b]

hmm I think without advanced knowledge of what is going on that would be hard to say. Mine runs like a top during the testing (they have low priority) and as soon as I turn them off all cores go to 0-1% use and my system responds flawlessly. Check your antivirus or another background process for use after you kill the testing software.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: atrifix

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
you are putting too much stress on the mch at that high of an fsb on a quad. My x3350/ip35 pro system is almost identical to yours, though I have 2x1 gb of ballistix instead. I highly recommend graysky's guide:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2057083&enterthread=y

he recently updated it and it is seriously awesome. report back here after you've read his guide and followed the instructions. I'll be happy to help you out with specific questions. I can tell you right now that if you read his guide and follow the instructions you will almost certainly get into the 3.5-3.7 ghz range. After you've done all the work and figured out what you're doing I'll give you my settings and we can compare notes

Thanks very much for the advice. After some tweaking, I was able to get it to load at 444Mhz (3.55Ghz) by increasing Vcore to 1.3075, VTT to 1.17, and MCH to 1.44V. Won't load Windows at a higher FSB with these voltages. I'm happy with my current 3.55Ghz, but it's not prime-stable (although as far as I can tell, it's very stable when not running prime95). I bumped up the voltages slightly on the SB core and the ICH 1.05V (I think to 1.55V and 1.070V). I'll see if that changes anything.

My first suggestion, however, is to change your GTL REFs from the default 67% to 65%. (Found at the bottom of the Voltages BIOS screen) This alone stabilized my IP35-Pro without even increasing VTT and Northbridge voltages.

Thanks, I will try that.

vtt defaults to 1.20. ok, here are my settings (getting from uguru now)

vcore 1.35
mch 1.52
cpu vtt 1.3v
ich 1.09
ichio 1.60
cpu gtlref (both) 69%


the vtt description actually calls it "cpu vtt 1.2v", so your problem almost certainly lies there. your mch is probably ok at 1.44, but bump up your vtt to 1.30. run occt mix for 1 hr. realistically you will probably need a bump in vcore but you're close.

Do not listen to the previous poster, prime95 and/or occt won't mess up your computer, all they will do is bring out errors NOW while you're testing instead of 6 mos from now when you really need it to be stable.

What's your vid, 1.1875?

btw, foxery did have some problems with gtlref, but that is just a % of cpu vtt. he might have had an issue with his cpu or mobo, but mine is rock solid 24/7 at the settings that I listed. I ran an e6750 for 9 mos with nearly identical settings (other than leaving gtlref at default), too, so I'm confident that this mobo can handle it.

 

[atrifix]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
vtt defaults to 1.20. ok, here are my settings (getting from uguru now)

vcore 1.35
mch 1.52
cpu vtt 1.3v
ich 1.09
ichio 1.60
cpu gtlref (both) 69%

My VTT defaults to 1.1V, with settings of 1.13V, 1.17V, 1.21V, 1.25V, and 1.32V (max). uGuru is crashing in 64-bit Vista.

CoreTemp reads my vid at 1.2375V.

EDIT: My Core temps climbed into the ~70 range while running OCCT (though around ~65 according to SpeedFan), so I am a little reluctant to raise Vcore any more. Maybe I should dial this back a little?

 

[bryanW1995]

use real temp instead of core temp. they both show the same distance to tjmax, but the vast majority of 45nm owners agree that realtemp has a more accurate tjmax guess (95c). 70c running occt is 35c to tjmax iirc (since occt uses 105c instead of 95c as tjmax). If you're still 35c to tjmax running occt then you have plenty of oc left. Unless you're a folder you probably will never get within 5c of that occt temp.

realtemp will also give you the correct vid, though 1.2375 is certainly a reasonable guess. A better way to check is to see what the lowest cpu voltage your mobo will let you run in the bios. That number will be your true vid. Yes, you cannot undervolt your cpu below vid on any ip-series mobo.

the setting is actually called "cpu vtt 1.2v". You can edge it up as you edge the mch up, so if you put the mch at, say 1.52 like mine you'll be able to bump vtt up higher. I've heard bad things about running vtt over 1.4, but I've never heard of a problem at 1.3.

1.44 mch is probably ok for 444x8. try the vtt at the closest setting that you have to 1.3 and run occt for 15 min. keep that up until you're at your desired max oc, then run occt for an hour followed by prime for 12hrs. if you fail with 1.44 mch and 1.3 vtt up vcore .01-.02v and try again. let me know how it goes.

 

[atrifix]

My setting is called "CPU VTT Voltage". I think it defaults to 1.10V -- with mch set to 1.25 (default) the max vtt setting is 1.17. I will try boosting it up to around 1.3V though. My vid is indeed 1.2375.

Currently doing stability testing with OCCT and Prime95. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[bryanW1995]

interesting. do you have uGuru installed? I didn't reboot into bios, I just looked at uguru.

 

[atrifix]

Don't have uGuru installed--it doesn't seem to work for 64-bit Vista. Problem was definitely the CPU VTT; I increased it to 1.25 and ran OCCT for an hour stable. Could boot Windows at 3.6Ghz.

I think I'm happy with 3.55Ghz, though. It lets me run my RAM at 1066 Mhz in 4:5, and I don't want my temps to get much higher than they are now. I could probably push it to 3.6-3.7Ghz if I increased some more of the voltages, but I think I'd rather find the lowest stable voltages for 3.55Ghz.

Thanks for all your help, it has been much appreciated. Will post my settings when I get them finalized.

 

[atrifix]

Update: Am now fully stable at 3.55Ghz (444 FSB).

Final settings:
vcore 1.3075V
mch 1.44V
cpu vtt 1.25V
ich 1.05V
ichio 1.50V
cpu gtlref 67%

I tried using your settings, but I could only get windows to load at 460FSB (3.68Ghz). Since I seem to be hitting the wall I would rather keep my voltages down and run my RAM at 1066Mhz.

 

[fastman]

Originally posted by: atrifix
OK, newbie overclocker here. I am running with Q9450, Abit IP35 Pro, Corsair Dominator 2x2GB 1066 (PC2-8500), Xigmatek HDT-S1283, PC Power & Cooling S61EPS 610W, EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB G92, Antec Twelve Hundred.

First thing, updated my BIOS to 16 and changed my VRAM to 2.2V. I am doing okay at 420 FSB (3.36Ghz). Once I push to 426 FSB, I can still load Windows, but am no longer prime stable. At 431 FSB, Windows loads but crashes fairly quickly. I tried raising vcore from default 1.2375V to 1.3375V. No luck. At 436 FSB, Windows fails to load.

I feel like I should be getting higher stable speeds than this. I don't intend to push the CPU as far as it can go, but I do want to know how high it will be stable and then make adjustments. Thoughts? Am I doing something wrong or am I just reaching the practical limits of how far this board can go?

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/9969/tempscy6.jpg

CPU is at 31C in BIOS, System 30C, PWM 40C.

We have very simular systems, question for you if I may, haven't you used the .5 multiplier in the BIOS that the 16 ver BIOS gave you? I've read it puts less of a strain on everything else!

I'm running at 3.4 (400 x 8.5) with minor volt bump on CPU, I have low temps and its very solid.