My first official OC'ing attempt

[xXxRithxXx]

Hey,

Well today I finally got to put my MSI P6N Diamond MOBO to rest...finally. I could not get a stable OC more than 200MHz over stock on my Q6600 which was very . I seen a sale on the EVGA 750i MOBO at NCIX last week so I decided to get it along with some OCZ Reaper DDR2 RAM. Today it finally arrived!...after a very impatient installation I finally boot it for the first time. I immediately went into the BIOS, changed this and that and BOOM, 3.0 GHZ in 10 secs!. Not a bad trade-off from my 680i MOBO thats for sure.

I didn't think it would be stable at all but to my amazement it has been running priime for over 2 hours now with no hitch. That makes me very happy!

A screenie:




What do you guys think of my temps, are they average?. I know I probably could of applied the TIM better but how many degrees would that net me?. Also, would you guys suggest lapping the CPU or the HS(TRUE BLACK 120)? Any suggestions would be nice as I would like to push it further!

Cheers!

[3.0charlie]

Usually Q6600s do 3.0 on stock volts. Try it.

[xXxRithxXx]

Well I tried the stock voltages with 3.0GHz. Couldn't get it stable. Also, I could boot into windows at 3.6GHz but my voltages were at 1.5v and it wasn't stable. I read on some forums that the Pencil mod helps out stability but now I can't even POST past 3.1GHz. I dunno if I damaged my MOBO by doing the mod but as it stands I am at 3.1Ghz CPU core with linked RAM at ~1120MHz and it's prime stable. More details are below:

Frequencies:

CPU(Q6600) - 3.1GHz @ 1380 FSB
RAM(OCZ Reaper PC8500) - Linked to FSB @ 1105MHz
Timings are 5-5-5-15-2T

Voltages:

CPU - 1.46v(Bios) 1.42(Windows)
RAM - 2.2v
CPU FSB - 1.4v
NB - 1.5v
SB - AUTO

All the necessaries are also disabled in bios

So anyone have any suggestions/comments on this?

[3.0charlie]

Keep the ram unlinked for the time being, and stock speed. Oc only the chip, since your chipset will allow it. For 3.6, you'll need in the vincinity of 1.5-1.55V Vcore. Keep a close eye on the temps: max. 65C.

[xXxRithxXx]

I will definitely try that 3.0Charlie!, but what do you think of the other voltages??. Also, by doing the pencil mod, could I have possibly damaged my MOBO?

[3.0charlie]

You may have damaged the board doing so. I've seen it. But first try it, with the Vcore I specified. Other voltages should be fine, maybe a bump in NB and FSB voltages.

[xXxRithxXx]

Well I up'ed the FSB and the voltage like you said. I first tried 3.6GHz @ 1.55v, it booted but BSOD's in prime after a short amount of time. Also, the temps were at 65c. Seeing that the temp and voltage were both at the limits you said I decided to back of from 3.6GHz (For now anyways). I brought the CPU back down to 3.5GHz but again that decided to BSOD in prime at like 20-30mins. Again I changed the FSB to 3.4GHz and set the voltage back to 1.5v even and now I've been running Prime for 2 hours stable. I will leave it overnight and see what happens. Also, if this 3.4 is rock solid what should I set my RAM too, should I link it or keep it unlinked? and also if linked what divider should I use??

[3.0charlie]

Don't forget, you can increase the Vfsb and Vnb when unstable. But you won't see a difference between 3.4 and 3.6...

As for the ram, there is better performance when linked, synched. But that means your ram will need to handle the FSB set (377?) Run the dividers first as close to the ram spec, then it's a matter on oc'ing the ram too. Stability comes from voltage increase in Vram, and Vnb again.

[xXxRithxXx]

Can you explain to me what Sync mode is?. I got the RAM running 3:2 with the FSB which comes out to be ~1000MHz. Thats only 60MHz off what they are spec'd for. Running Prime now and crossing fingers for stability .

Oh by the way, thanks charlie, your a great help!

[3.0charlie]

I'd love to explain what Sync mode is, but I have no idea! I had once a 680i board and that was the first time and last time I had a nVidia chipset. Sorry.

For testing, you can use OCCT for 2 hours. I consider a rig stable after that, for my customers. For me, I needs to be CPU folding stable...