How to Overclock this Combo: Q6600 G0 SLACR, BallistiX PC800, and GA-965P-DS3 rev. 1.0

[alvin777]

Hi. I've tried hard for a whole day using articles I've found online (I could overclock to 2.66 but whenever I restart the BIOS would seem to bring it back to default- any idea why this happens?) to overclock this rig but to no avail.

 

I'm using Scythe Inifinity/Mugen (+ original fan) after market HFS. If anyone has successfully (stable under Prime95 or OCCT) overclocked the Q6600 using the mobo (and same revision) I have please share your complete settings- voltages on mem, chipset and CPU (or it was set to Auto), setting on the EIST, No Memory Protect, Virtualization, FSB, memory timing, etc. I have the latest mobo firmware and I boot to Win 7 RC1 64-bit.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Gbu

 

Updated:

 

Hi. (I had another detailed report/reply than this but TPC's bug didn't display it, no more time to rewrite, lol. TPC really needs to fix this FF/FF3 bug. What is FF btw?). yeah123, cool overclock at 3.9Ghz (was it prime95/OCCT/Everest/Orthos stable?) What's your water/air cooling rig and temp?

 

Got to overclock stably at different frequencies nicely after 3 hard days of trial and error. Infinity is a great cooler for it's price, fan options and for its low to zero noise- great fan design even at 1200+rpm. OCCT stable: Lowest undervoltage is 1.1v at default frequencies for both the CPU and mem. Highest was 1.59v at 3.4Ghz, CPU, mem was 900+Mhz 5-5-5-15 with temp on lowest core below 70 Celcius (highest core at around 75 to 77). Only the vCore was changed, all at x9 multiplier.

 

Ambient temp is around 31 Celsius, TIM used was Nano Diamond which is recommended for it's price and performance (if you can find one. I had to ask my friend for some) for its price and performance (sometimes a degree better then AS5, though AS5 is still the most available, affordable and coolest but it's nothing significant). Generic casing with 120mm generic exhaust fan (improper for this as it probably can't keep up with the heat), side panels removed. Faster Slip Stream fan (Ultra Kama may be too noisy at 46+ decibles, the ideal is not more than 45 decibels, 40 below is even better) and better casing could improve the temps to 10 degrees lesser at 3.4Ghz (it add 7 degrees when the casings are on, with no side cooling, Slip stream reduces it at around 1, push/pull at aroudn 2 or 3) or 15 if the Infinity was modded (lapped CPU, hood on heatsink, screws instead of push-pins, TIM applied on heatpipes which I didn't do). But it should be more on whatever works and if it's stable at this temps, for now there's no more need to spend thousands more for a good casing and fans, add thousands more for the time and effort to resetup up things and mods.

 

This should go higher stably at 3.51Ghz or 3.6 or more with NB and other voltage increase on some components while being below 80 degrees and water cooling at 1.6v, Slip Stream or Ultra Kama fan or more vCore but this CPU's TJmax is around 90 to 100- not recommended to go that far as Intel says the ideal mas for this should be not more than 85 but that's only for the CPU- it'll heat up the other components at even 84; though people upgrade faster nowadays anyway. Not more than 75 is ok, below 70 is good, below 60 is even better with exteme overclocks.

 

About Things Summary: Everest (trial 30 days), Speedfan, OCCT, Cinebench 10 64-bit, Crysis Demo 64-bit, Coretemp, Hardware Monitor, small Honeywell electric fan for side cooling at 1 setting (at 2 decreases it at 1 degree but it's too noisy), Enermax 460w (great PSU, supposedly it shouldn't be stable with the 4860 already recommended for you to have 500w), 4860 Sonic with switch to Turbo (factory overclock, this should have added to the temp)- dual BIOS which is safe for GPU flashing, iPhone's calculator and net access when I'm on the BIOS or when I'm looking up things (based on the some articles, I got to calculate to add .01v for every 27 FSB addition .01v : 27 ratio for this CPU), lapped Infinity (no need but had to find out, CPU not lapped- still under warranty and there's no more time, it works anyway:) ), CPU VID is 1.325v, Malaysia made (a little concave if placed on a razor blades cutting edge), the smallest amount of TIM was spread separately on the CPU and heatsink spread with fingers with a clean plastic sheet (the inside of a transparent plastic would be convenient, medical gloves may have powder on it and is not as smooth to use when spreading it evenly). This is done with Windows 7 RC 64-bit, it's very durable and it repairs itself even after probably more crashes you could remember while testing.

 

Exteme OC Tips for those who want it higher than 17% and lessons learned (20% is usually the allowance manufacturers have on their components): If none of the articles on your favorite sites work for your rig- 0) Pray first or wish yourself luck first:) and sleep well- there's still tomorrow; keep things as simple as possible; time and effort, performance and money; striking a balance is the most important but the hardest 1) if within budget, your parts should all be branded with good reviews, one bad part could ruin the whole (the casing and casing fans in my example) 2), if the budget is short, wait to have the budget, 2.1) get the parts that sites used if budget allows 3) if data or info (data btw is just part of an information which is something understandable) is not available in some instances follow the 1/3, 2/3 proportion rule- the proportion even used by nature 4) be contented at some point, it more of what works for your absolute need 6) look carefully at site recommendations and start from what worked for them 7) turn off in BIOS anything related to the system automatically adjusting voltages and stuff for you (C1E, reducing clock speed when it reaches thermal threshold)- can't beat the manual setting of a human:) most of the time (Auto is good for some) 8) start with a known vCore voltage and work the FSB from there incrementing by 4 on the vCore and FSB, 4 is good coz' it's easier to put a median in 4 while being convenient at the same time 9) use the setting with as little extra decimals as possible (ex. 3.4, 1.1 instead of 1.59xxxx, etc.) 10) consider that temps (or higher if it's performance) may be lower in sites coz' their weather or ambient temperture is colder and they probably have been given by the manufacturer (or they got to secure a better one than the one you have) the best batch of a certain product being tested 10) cool all components as possible including intake for the hardisks (with hardisk far apart enough unless it has cooling- even so coz' fans are usually the first to break), test without the panels is possible and know that exhaust fans are more important than intake 12) Use Core Temp with Logging for temps (the log is in its folder, delete log every so often), CPU-Z to check if the frequency is correct and if you have the right batch (GPU-Z or OCCT for GPUs with loggin on), Use Everest under stability test (hidden in one of the menus), start the test for a few seconds then look at the maximum vCore voltage to work from that max- you usually add 1 to 3 steps higher over that (as it only displays not more than 3 decimal places which I hope it would soon), use Everest to find the max timings and site reviews to find the max frequency for your memory then use OCCT at medium (unless you're really testing your memory and CPU for life threatening jobs or for servers); OCCT is the best coz' you usually find out the stability with second to 5 minutes to 30- at 30 it's stable, at an hour or more doubly or more so, use Cinebench to test even more and games or OCCT with a browser open 13) Final test of stability is to find out if it saves your BIOS settings- shut down many time and restart, if it fails add a step higher to the vCore if it you still can. Turn on EIST again so that the CPU isn't running at full Mhz all the time, it'll adjust to the needs of the system and save energy 14) learn to be contented at some point, balance things out, focus more on weighing things like how significant will changes be and how much would the cost, how much time and effort would finding a specific part be worth it 15) find your sweet spot, mine was at 3.2 under 70 Celsius on the hottest core which is usually Core 0 with the side panels placed (to protect it more from dust and other things for example) 15.1) It's best to find the sweet spot by playing the your most demanding application (GTAIV instead of Crysis for example), it's still below 70 degrees with setting at max except for the view distance which is at 40 at 3.4 although the 2.4 default is enough for this rig at 1440x900 max monitor resolution; launch Core Temp with loggin on before launching your game 16) like war, OC best avoided. If it works for your needs and there's no need for speed in the near future then it's best to use it already instead of fixing and tweaking it. The best is to budget for higher performing part/s without anything having to be done to it- saving time is important too. Getting a Mac Pro is great too, it's possibly the the case where all great PC cases nowadays are based from (it's like Tempur as the gold standard for visco elastic foams:D

 

Mine is running at default at 1.1v but it's ready when I need more power (the settings for 2.66 which is all auto except the FSB, 2.97, 3.2 or 3.33 and 3.4 have been saved in the BIOS and notebook *BIOS when updated erases it). It does save energy and the environment too. Balance is important.

 

Gbu,

Alvin

[alvin777]

Updated