OC'ing q9550 past 3.4ghz

[ricknash61]

Hey guys,

Would appreciate any help i can get. Currently have a q9550 on a Gigabyte X48-DS4 mobo overclocked to 3.4ghz (when I first built it). Did this by making the multiplier 8.5 and jacking up the FSB to 400mhz. I didnt need to raise vCore to do this (its sitting pretty at 1.2V). See CPU-Z and realtemp pics for specs and temps.

Now, what I would like to do is overclock it to 3.6ghz or higher. This is where things get confusing for me. For one, I can't adjust the RAM speed past 800mhz in the BIOS. What I can do, however, it increase the FSB past 400 and set a one to one divider (2.00D I believe) with the RAM. While this doesnt change the RAM value in the BIOS, when I boot up CPU-Z it shows the ram running 1:1 with the FSB. I assume this is how you overclock RAM on a gigabyte mobo? Also, does running with the FSB over the recommended FSB cause instabilities or damage the card?

Was wondering if anyone had some tips on overclocking my pc past 3.4ghz. There are voltage values that can be altered in MIT but I dont want to overvolt anything in case it fries. Does anyone have experience OC'ing on this specific board or gigabyte boards in general? Im using a vendetta 2 so I assume cooling shouldnt be an issue. Also, my ram is only 800mhz, but from what I hear it can be increased significantly.

My specs are listed in my sig. Thanks for your help!

[ricknash61]

Ok so here's an update.

At first I was worried about my RAM (see sig). So I tested it at 450mhz (900mhz total) using memtest86+ by adjusting the voltage up to 2.1V. It passed with flying colors, meaning it can be 1:1 with the FSB at 450mhz, which is my upper overclocking limit.

So the next part was going from 3.4ghz to 3.6ghz. I tried booting my PC up at 3.6 ghz using a fsb of 424mhz, multiplier of 8.5, 1:1 memory divider at stock CPU voltages (Vcore 1.23 in BIOS). This OC POSTed, but windows did not boot. So I increased Vcore to 1.25 (did not change the northbridge or fsb voltage settings), and windows booted up. It also past 1 hour of OCCT stress testing.

Only thing I'm worried about is the temps. The max temp for my chip is 71.4 C, and with stress testing the load temps were up to 63 C (35-43 idle). I think this is pretty high load temps. What do you guys think? Do you think I need to reseat my heat sink (OCZ vendetta 2)?

I'm going to run 12hrs of prime 95 overnight and see if its stable. The next step is to get to 3.8ghz. I think I'm going to have to up my Vcore as well as play around with FSB and northbridge settings. Do any of you have advice for me?

PS sorry for being a noob at this, I tinker with computers in my spare time I'm actually a scientist.

Thanks a bunch!

JD

[headsh0t]

63 degrees is fine. I've been running my q9550 @ 3.4 with those same temps for a while now. Temps were even running around 70 degrees for me in the summer. No big deal. That's really the only reason I haven't clocked my CPU higher, well that and it's a C1 so it's probably not gonna clock as high as an E0 and probably need more voltage getting there. IIRC I had mine running at 3.6 (can't remember volts) but it was getting way to hot for the chip so that's why I'm running @ 3.4 with 1.25 (HW Monitor - I think it's set as 1.3 in BIOS!). 3.8 should be achievable as long as you've got an E0. Just keep doing what you're doing(upping fsb, check for stability, up volts, check for stabilty,etc.) and you should be fine. Keep an eye on the temps!

[ricknash61]

Yeah, one advantage of winter approaching is colder ambient temps which means overclocking potential. Unfortunately, my gf likes to turn up the heat in our apartment, making the the house much warmer than I would like it...

I'm like you buddy, I got a q9550 right after they released it, which means I'm stuck with a C1 revision. So far, it hasn't required too much voltage to bring it to 3.6ghz. We'll see how much it takes to bring it to 3.8ghz and whether I feel comfortable with the temps. Speaking of temps, I'm going to buy another fan (Noctua NF-P12) to attach to my heatsink so that I have push and pull airflow since SKYMTL's review noted a decrease of around 5C at load with this type of setup. If that still doesn't give me good temps, I will probably reseat the heatsink and check if the temps get any better. I'm dreading this because it means I'll have to take out my mobo from my case and reconnect everything afterwards.

Headshot, what heatsink are you using?

Also, when I stress tested my RAM, I had the latency settings on auto, which means my RAM OC'ed to 900mhz but the timings dropped slightly, 5-6-6-20, if I recall correctly. Are these timings drastically slower than 5-5-5-18? I'm going to play around with timings after I achieve my desired CPU overclock, so its not all that important at the moment.

I didn't bother running prime 95 last night but i did manage to pass intel burn test (5 runs at maximum), which leads me to believe this OC is stable (woohoo 3.6 ghz!!!).

Now all I need is some free time to get to 3.8!

JD

[zsamz_]

nick reseat heatsink add seme xtra paste
only 1.2v n 65c+
my q9650 gets to 65c max @ 4.3

[Oversized Rooster]

I can do 3.8GHz with my Q9450 with 475FSB x 8 Multi with 1.325V. Load is at 58*C.

4.0GHz needs 500 x 8 Multi with 1.375V and also higher voltage for the chipset stuff. Load is 63*C then.

I use a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme with dual 120mm 1200rpm fans (push - pull). The mobo is an Asus P5Q-E with P45 chipset.

Despite being the first kid on the block with a Q9450 (C1), this thing OCes extremely well.

[ricknash61]

Well I reseated the heatsink and it knocked off approximately 10C under load at 3.6ghz, which means temps reach around 55C now. Still a little high, but from what I know giving the thermal paste time to set should decrease temps even further.
Should be able to make it to 3.8 without going over 65 C. This is all with a Vcore of 1.25.