X3350 / Q9450 Overclocking Thread

[Foxery]

Originally posted by: vaylon
I just did the hd benchmark test and the first test went fine. Scores in the mid 60's FPS. But then it went thru a second set and the highest score was 24 fps and as low as 9.

Ran CPUID and it showed temps in the high 90"s c for all 4 cores. and a voltage of 1.47 for the core.

Yep, these chips will downclock when they overheat - to the 6X multiplier normally used for power saving. Mine did the same when I improperly mounted the heatsink one day.

Semi-OT:
My Q9300 became unstable but I'm working on it again - lower speed, and much lower voltages across the board, and it seems to be happy.
Was: 3400 mhz @1.35v and all kinds of crazy NB/VTT/GTL settings
Stable: 3000 mhz @ 1.21v, stock NB/VTT/GTL (67%)
Testing: 3180 mhz @ 1.29v, stock? NB/VTT, 65% GTL

Now that retail prices have stabilized, the 9450 is probably a better bang for your buck for an overclocker, but the Q9300 isn't so bad.

 

[Wolken007]

vaylon, if I leave my voltage settings at auto, it boots at 433x8 on my GA-EP35C-DS3R but uses 1.4vcore. The Vid on my 9450 is 1.225v. Temps seem to be fine at 1.4vcore, but I worry about running that much voltage through the chip. I can use all stock settings and stress no problem at 400x8, but as soon as I bump it up a little, I start running into serious stability problems. Do you adjust your MCH and FSB voltages at all to go above 400fsb? I have 8gb OCZ DDR2 800 memory that is being run at 866 speeds when at 433x8. There is no problem there, as I know the memory can do 1066 speeds no problem at 2.1v.

 

[bryanW1995]

8gb of ram will severely curtail your oc'ing ability. it puts a lot more stress on mch in particular, which is already stressed by running a quad. 65nm quads don't show the problem as much b/c most people don't have the cooling to run them over 3.6, but 45nm quads could hit 4.0ghz on good air if fsb limitations didn't kick in. Most quads that I've seen/heard about max out at 450-470 fsb with 2x1gb ram. if you go up to 2x2 gb ram you might still get a similar oc, but when you go to 4 sticks (esp 4x2gb) you're simply putting too much stress on the mch. 8x425 prime stable would be great with that setup, anything better is just gravy imho.

btw, 1.4 vcore in bios is fine, though that does seem a little high for 3.47. what's your vcore at idle and load?

 

[vaylon]

Wolken, so far I have left both the MCH and the FSB voltages at normal.
But I did play with the voltage this evening by lowering my FSB to 380 and dropping my voltage down to 1.12.
Surprisingly it worked. Ran prime and hdstress test and only increased core temps by a 10C, it idles at about 41-44 each core(using core temp).
I think I will be pulling a couple of my sticks of memory out also, 8gb is just overkill at this point and it is noticeable. Vista ultimate loves it but xp doesn't.

 

[bryanW1995]

well, 8 gb with vista x64 isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just overkill right now. Realistically, it will be a year or two before we see "normal" users ever exceed 4 gb.

 

[ThaJollyMan]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post/reply on anandtech forums. I read through a few pages of this thread and it seems as though, compared to all the other q9450 overclocking threads i have gone through, that the q9450 seems to maxing at 3.5-3.6ghz due to the low multi. I just ordered:

q9450 & Zalman cnps 9700 Cu cooler
xfx 780i sli ish9 mobo
OCZ Reaper HPC 2x2gb
BFG 9800 gtx oc
CM Stacker 830 case

This is a big upgrade for me...i am coming from a P4 3ghz...no need to give of the rest of the old system as its practically from the stone age at this point. When i ordered this i was thinking it would be a great gaming setup. I definitely want to overclock which is why i was traversing anandtech and many other forums to see what a good setup would be and how everyone elses compared to mine. I havent gotten the system yet...should be here in a couple of days. Just wondering what you guys think about the hardware i ordered and how well you think it will OC with the q9450. BTW...i am only running 32-bit XP pro, will this limit my being able to use multi cores with games, and other programs? Will be upgrading to vista 64-bit in a month or so. Any suggestions on where to get Vista 64-bit cheap? Newegg?

Thanks

 

[secretanchitman]

i hit 3.2Ghz easy with 1.3vcore and the rig in my sig. my cooling is the thermalright ultra-extreme 120 with a noctua s12 fan.

hopefully i can go higher! left everything else on auto (except for ram timings).

 

[secretanchitman]

i fine tuned my board and i came out to 3.4Ghz at 1.2vcore! this board freaking rocks...

 

[fastman]

Originally posted by: ThaJollyMan
Hi Guys,

This is my first post/reply on anandtech forums. I read through a few pages of this thread and it seems as though, compared to all the other q9450 overclocking threads i have gone through, that the q9450 seems to maxing at 3.5-3.6ghz due to the low multi. I just ordered:

q9450 & Zalman cnps 9700 Cu cooler
xfx 780i sli ish9 mobo
OCZ Reaper HPC 2x2gb
BFG 9800 gtx oc
CM Stacker 830 case

This is a big upgrade for me...i am coming from a P4 3ghz...no need to give of the rest of the old system as its practically from the stone age at this point. When i ordered this i was thinking it would be a great gaming setup. I definitely want to overclock which is why i was traversing anandtech and many other forums to see what a good setup would be and how everyone elses compared to mine. I havent gotten the system yet...should be here in a couple of days. Just wondering what you guys think about the hardware i ordered and how well you think it will OC with the q9450. BTW...i am only running 32-bit XP pro, will this limit my being able to use multi cores with games, and other programs? Will be upgrading to vista 64-bit in a month or so. Any suggestions on where to get Vista 64-bit cheap? Newegg?

Thanks

Welcome aboard, The Q9450 O/C's well but, I'd say research that board and memory as they will factor big time in your O/C capabilities. Cooling is a factor I'd keep an eye on too.

I don't believe not having a 64 bit O/S is a factor in muti-threaded games/programs as I used to have a Opti 165 and supreme commander would crawl at times and CPU utilization would be at 100% with the Q9450 it barely affects it and my Adobe Premiere CS3 moves fast now too. That is what sold me on the Quad vs. the Duel.

Here's my setup, which was easy to do with very low volt bumps

Good luck

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Oops never posted my results.

x3350 @ 3.4 Ghz @ 1.18 volts 45*C idle 55*C load
8GB ram 1:1

 

[themattman]

My Q9450 and Gigabyte P35-DS3L won't go any higher than 3.0Ghz. No matter what I do I can not get anything stable past 1500FSB.

I'm a bit disappointed, but I don't feel like spending $150 on a new motherboard just for a 200Mhz increase. Essentially owning an extreme edition quad core is good enough for now

 

[GuitarDaddy]

What's your other spec's ? That board shouldn't be limiting you, I have a DS3L and have no problems going well over 400FSB with a C2D and I'm pretty sure it can do at least 400 with a penryn quad. My penryn quad doe's 450FSB on an older less capable board.

Post you specs and bios settings and the folks in this thread can get you past 3ghz

 

[themattman]

|Intel Q9450 @3.00 1.2v|Lapped TRUE|Gigabyte P35-DS3L|Mushkin 2x2gb DDR2-800|Patriot 2x2GB DDR2-800|EVGA 8800 GTS 512 Stock|Antec 900|Corsair 520HX|Asus Xonar DX|

I can add more, but here are the following BIOS settings that I have in my memory:

Multiplier 8
FSB 375
Vcore 1.2
Nbridge normal
FSB Normal
PCI Normal
PCI freq 100Mhz
RAM Divider: 1:1
RAM speeds (5 5 5 18)

 

[GuitarDaddy]

First I should tell you that FSB's between 375-399 are tough and usually require raising the Nbridge volts significantly. At 400+ boards automatically reduce the internal timings also know as the "strap", because of this it is normally easier to get stable at 400 or 401 than between 375-399. And with 8gb or ram you may need to bump the ddrvolts just to get them stable at the rated DDR2-800

I would try

Multi 8
FSB 401
Vcore 1.3-1.35 (once stable you can start testing with lower volts)
ddrv +.1 or +.2

everything else the same, if thats not stable bump the Nbridge and/or FSB +.1

 

[bramdo]

Hi guys,

I'm happy to announce that after months of savings I purchased an asus rampage formula board and a q9450 cpu. I already had 2*4 gb hyperx pc 6400 ddr2 from kingston so i'm using these also. I tried to oc succesfully with asus automatic bios tool to 3 ghz but i got a software warning that the nb voltage and the dram voltage was too high.

My question is what a decent oc (can survive at least a year till nehalem) for the 9450 can be and how much voltage the vcore, nb and dram can take without risks,

Bram

 

[Foxery]

This thread is full of exactly that information. Go back a few pages.

 

[bramdo]

Hi Foxery,

I've read the pages but I can't understand some abbreviations.
Maybe my settings as I can see the in the monitor are formulated differently:
VCORE: 1.23v
Dram: 2.05v
Dram Ref: 1.02
NB: 1.47
+3.3: 3.28
+5: 4.94
+12: 11.82
SB: 1.07
SB2: 1.55
FSBT: 1.30

I've read something about the VTT (on the anandtech review of the extreme they blew up) and the 45nm so I was wonedring if my figures are save because on video conversion they save me 1/5 of time?
Bram

 

[maximal]

Hey all,

I just built a moderately OC'd system around Q9450 and ASUS P5E WS Pro (X38 + DDR2) with 8Gig PC-6400 OCZ Gold Series RAM (5-5-5-18). All I want for OC is 400Mhz FSB, due to the fact that C2Qs are FSB starved according to most rearview. Well I bumped up the FSB to 400MHz, kept multiplier at 8x for an effective 3.2Ghz CPU clock, set RAM to advertised 5-5-5-18 timings, kept all voltages at auto as per ASUS guide (it says for moderate OC the board will adjust voltages automatically).

The OC's system passes Prime95 v25.6 small FFT test (36h stable), but fails blend and large FFT test after about 8h with round off errors. This, I am thinking, is a memory issue, although Memtest86+ ran stable for 24h. Could someone check my reasoning on this? I would then adjust either VTT and/or Vdimm, right? But which one first, I hear VTT is a danger zone for C2Qs. I would also like to be OCCT stable, but OCCT seem to crash at startup under this OC in Vista x64, but runs fine at stock speeds. Any suggestions on this would be appreciated.


Q9450 2.66Ghz OCd 3.2Ghz
ASUS P5E WS Pro
Antec Earth Watts 500W PSU
ATi 3450HD
2x 500G Seagate 7200.11 HDs
Vcore = 1.265
Vdimm = 1.85

 

[themattman]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
First I should tell you that FSB's between 375-399 are tough and usually require raising the Nbridge volts significantly. At 400+ boards automatically reduce the internal timings also know as the "strap", because of this it is normally easier to get stable at 400 or 401 than between 375-399. And with 8gb or ram you may need to bump the ddrvolts just to get them stable at the rated DDR2-800

I would try

Multi 8
FSB 401
Vcore 1.3-1.35 (once stable you can start testing with lower volts)
ddrv +.1 or +.2

everything else the same, if thats not stable bump the Nbridge and/or FSB +.1

I tried about seven or eight variations of this, and I can't get anything to work. I was thinking of getting an E8400 just to see if the motherboard or processor is holding me back.

 

[Sind]

Originally posted by: maximal
Hey all,

I just built a moderately OC'd system around Q9450 and ASUS P5E WS Pro (X38 + DDR2) with 8Gig PC-6400 OCZ Gold Series RAM (5-5-5-18). All I want for OC is 400Mhz FSB, due to the fact that C2Qs are FSB starved according to most rearview. Well I bumped up the FSB to 400MHz, kept multiplier at 8x for an effective 3.2Ghz CPU clock, set RAM to advertised 5-5-5-18 timings, kept all voltages at auto as per ASUS guide (it says for moderate OC the board will adjust voltages automatically).

The OC's system passes Prime95 v25.6 small FFT test (36h stable), but fails blend and large FFT test after about 8h with round off errors. This, I am thinking, is a memory issue, although Memtest86+ ran stable for 24h. Could someone check my reasoning on this? I would then adjust either VTT and/or Vdimm, right? But which one first, I hear VTT is a danger zone for C2Qs. I would also like to be OCCT stable, but OCCT seem to crash at startup under this OC in Vista x64, but runs fine at stock speeds. Any suggestions on this would be appreciated.


Q9450 2.66Ghz OCd 3.2Ghz
ASUS P5E WS Pro
Antec Earth Watts 500W PSU
ATi 3450HD
2x 500G Seagate 7200.11 HDs
Vcore = 1.265
Vdimm = 1.85

vdimm might be too low, my problem at getting mine stable at 3.2 was my vdimm was too low, all other settings are now at stock except for that, vdimm is at 1.98 now, but my ram is rated to 2.1

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: themattman

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
First I should tell you that FSB's between 375-399 are tough and usually require raising the Nbridge volts significantly. At 400+ boards automatically reduce the internal timings also know as the "strap", because of this it is normally easier to get stable at 400 or 401 than between 375-399. And with 8gb or ram you may need to bump the ddrvolts just to get them stable at the rated DDR2-800

I would try

Multi 8
FSB 401
Vcore 1.3-1.35 (once stable you can start testing with lower volts)
ddrv +.1 or +.2

everything else the same, if thats not stable bump the Nbridge and/or FSB +.1

I tried about seven or eight variations of this, and I can't get anything to work. I was thinking of getting an E8400 just to see if the motherboard or processor is holding me back.

I assume you mean by didn't work = failed to post or load windows? If thats the case I too suspect it is a ram problem. List the exact model of your muskin and patriot ram. If your ram is mismatched in voltage spec, ie.. muskin 1.8v patriot 2.1v you may have to bump the ddrvolts as much a +.4 or +.5 to get it stable or maynot be able to run them at DDR2-800. Running 4 identical 2gb sticks is sometimes a trick to get stable, running two different 2x2gb kits has got to be tougher

 

[Sysjack]

CPU: Q9450
OC: 3600MHz
Stepping: 7C1
Week: L803
Code: B526
Vcore: 1.19375 Set in BIOS, 1.176 reported in CPU-Z and BIOS hardware monitor

Cooling: Air
Cooler brand/model: Thermalright Ultra 120X + Noctua NF-P12

Motherboard: Asus Rampage Formula
Bios Version: 0308
Operating System: XP32

RAM: 2 x 2Gb
RAM brand: Corsair
RAM rated speed: PC2-8500
RAM actual speed: 900
Latency: 5-5-5-15

Stability: Prime95 v25.6 -- 8.5hrs Large FFTs (stopped with no errors) 24.5 hours Blend (stopped with no errors)

http://img292.imageshack.us/im...oc1011937524hrswy9.jpg
The min temp there isn't idle. I reset realtemp partway through and didn't let it cool down after I stopped the test.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Nice chip, more headroom?

 

[Sysjack]

I think I'm mobo limited to about 460 FSB, and that takes a lot more voltage (but not much more to the CPU). It's a shame, given how little Vcore it takes to get the chip to 3.6Ghz.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
This is why i chose to sit on my hands until i can get a 9x multi for sub $300 for 45nm.

Keep posting mark! I like hearing results from an experienced OCer.

Amen. I'm waiting for Q9650 or better for $300 or less.