OC'ing a Q6600 on an Asus P5E

[7earitup]

Okay - so I did some searching around on the forums and could not find an exact reference to a Q6600 and an Asus P5E. I pretty much need advice from someone who is still running these same parts or who has in the past and still remembers how to OC them to their max.

Here is my current OC:

As you can see, I have the B stepping and G0 revision - this chip is supposed to be able to hit 3.6 (9*400) easily. The problem is that I have tried everything to hit those numbers and I end up with a blue screen of death every time.

What am I missing? What voltages do I need to up to make 9*400 work? Who here has the exact (or very similar) setup and has been able to get 3.6 Ghz?

Thanks for all your help - I apologize ahead of time if there is a thread on this exact topic that I somehow overlooked.

 

[dbrons]

I had the P5E and an E8500 prior to building my new system. Originally I had an earlier C2D but I can't remember which.

My original processor could run at 3.6 but I never could get the E8500 to OC very much.

As I recall a big problem with the P5E was that memory could not run at it's rated speed in particular ddr2 8500. You might try choosing a lower setting for your RAM.

Have you checked out the forum?
http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5E&board_id=1

Dave

 

[VirtualLarry]

Not all Q6600 chips will do 3.6. Especially later ones. Early G0 batches were best. I got fairly lucky with mine, it does 3.6 on low volts. I could probably push it to 3.8 on water if I wanted to. (But I don't do water yet.)

 

[7earitup]

Not all Q6600 chips will do 3.6. Especially later ones. Early G0 batches were best. I got fairly lucky with mine, it does 3.6 on low volts. I could probably push it to 3.8 on water if I wanted to. (But I don't do water yet.)

Care to share any settings on voltages and whatnot? I know you don't have the same MB, but it may help me out.

Thanks.

Also, is there anyway to tell if my G0 is an early one?

 

[Shmee]

hey, you should be able to look at the box and see the batch number of the chip I believe, also, let us know the VID, which can be had via coretemp. Lower VID G0s are better generally, the later ones went high as 1.325 or more :C

my old Q6600 rig could do 3.6, if I had a better cooler. i needed about 1.45 vcore for that though, which is fine for a kenstfield, as long as your heat is under control. I was on the evga 780i ftw.

When ocing for 3.6, assuming your chip and cooling can do it, run the ram 1:1 is best for stability. Only thing else you should really need to mess with would be vcore and northbridge voltage, which depends entirely on the motherboard. how far have you upped the vcore to try to get 3.6 stable? what are load temps like?

also what cooler are you using? Make sure to test with both p95 and also try a linpack variant.

 

[Shmee]

also, here is a brief overview of the setting from my board: note this was stable BUT for the load temps were way too high so I lowered it.

Vcore: 1.45
FSB VTT: +1 notch up from normal (forget exact value)
NB: 1.45 if I remember correctly, which was several notches up for my board
400x9
400*4:3 = 533 =1066 DDR (my ram was Gskill pi DDR2 1100)

VID = 1.25 (G0)
Cooler: xigmatech dark knight

here are the settings I stuck with:
356*9
Vcore: I believe it was close to yours, probably 1.325 if I remember
FSB VTT: same
NB: same
356*3:2 = 534 = 1068 DDR

 

[7earitup]

I am using a Tuniq Tower, although I think I may need to remount it.

I was able to squeeze 8*425 (3.4 Ghz) out of it for now.

 

[RaiderJ]

I have a similar setup, but a P5Q-EM motherboard. Also have a Tuniq Tower cooler. Here's a shot of CPU-Z with my 3GHz overclock, not sure if it'll be helpful or not.

 

[NumericalMethods]

Pretty sure you will be heat limited using a Tuniq Tower on a 65nm quad core. The one I had did well on the Conroe dualies and struggled a little on my Yorkfield ( 45nm quad ). I don't think it would have made the grade with a Kentsfield.

3.4 GHz is still a great overclock for one of those chips though. Congrats

 

[Shmee]

ya gj. what are temps like? btw, best I got on my tuniq tower was 3.3

 

[Smartazz]

I also have a Q6600 G0 with a Tuniq Tower but on a Gigabyte EP45-DS3L. I run it at 3.4GHz at ~1.4625v. At 3GHz it's at 1.35625v. Volts are kind of high, but temps stay below 70C and I only run it at 3.4GHz when playing Battlefield 3.

 

[Shmee]

under 70 C is good, but only for full load. BF3 != full load, such as linpack or prime95.

Of course, that was my problem too, it was stable, but too hot under full load. Even with the dark knight.

 

[Smartazz]

Oh yeah, of course it's not a full load, but I reboot and change my settings back to 333x9=3GHz when I'm going to do other stuff. At 3GHz it doesn't break 60C under full load running BOINC. It won't pass stability tests at 3.4GHz, but it's completely fine for BF3. Even at 3.4GHz there's still a noticeable CPU bottleneck in some of the bigger maps, but it's totally playable. I'm tempted to crank it up to 3.6GHz for BF3 which is fine as long as it isn't crashing right?

 

[7earitup]

At (8*425) 3.4 Ghz I am idling around 40C-45C and under Prime95 I get as hot as 68C-69C. It is much hotter than I would like but I have not noticed any issues thus far.

I may be switching it out soon anyway and if not, I am at least going to remount my Tuniq Tower.

 

[Smartazz]

Why do people commonly use an 8x multiplier? Doesn't that just put more stress on the motherboard and RAM?

 

[7earitup]

Why do people commonly use an 8x multiplier? Doesn't that just put more stress on the motherboard and RAM?

Honestly, I never knew it put more stress on the mobo.

 

[Smartazz]

Honestly, I never knew it put more stress on the mobo.

If will if you up the FSB to the point that it needs more voltage it will. 425MHz FSB probably isn't anything to worry about, but I'm cautious when playing with voltages outside of the CPU voltage.

 

[7earitup]

If will if you up the FSB to the point that it needs more voltage it will. 425MHz FSB probably isn't anything to worry about, but I'm cautious when playing with voltages outside of the CPU voltage.

I could not seem to nail a stable overclock to 3.4 using a 9x multiplier. What I have it set to now is stable.

 

[Smartazz]

I could not seem to nail a stable overclock to 3.4 using a 9x multiplier. What I have it set to now is stable.

Hmm, maybe I should give that a try, however that'll overclock my memory so I'm not sure if it'll help in my case.

 

[7earitup]

So I swapped my CPU:
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2070157

 

[7earitup]

Dropped my voltage some more:
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2071238

 

[alyarb]

Probably one of the lowest volt yorkies I've seen at that freq. congratulations.


actually I see it's 3399 and I thought it was 3999. Are you going to try for more?

 

[Shmee]

nice grats on the new CPU! nice oc start as well! u should shoot for 4 if u can though

 

[7earitup]

nice grats on the new CPU! nice oc start as well! u should shoot for 4 if u can though

I do not think my RAM could handle a large OC like that.

 

[Smartazz]

Nice CPU, you're lucky to have been able to swap. The Q9550 is a beast.