Quad Core Thread: Overclocking, Cooling, Motherboards, Troubleshooting & General Info

[Clunk]

Looks like a lot of people are going for a Quad, so maybe there should be a thread for posting your overclocks, cooling, general quad core overclocking questions etc.

Maybe we could get a list of Air Coolers together, a list of motherboards that play nicely with each stepping, and any tweaks, tips and tricks that you may have

There was already this thread, but probably best to start a fresh one.


Air Cooling

Thermalright Ultra eXtreme - Requires a more powerful fan to get the best from it. Recommended by SadikP, Phil_P

Tuniq tower 120 - Tried and tested with dual core, doing well with quad core.

Scythe Infinity - Tried and tested on dual core, seems to be doing well with quad core - more info as we get it. Recommended by Choo Choo, Pollaxe.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - For those on a budget, this is a decent step up from the stock cooler, but dont expect massive overclocks with this one. - Recommended by GSV[Trig].

Will list more here as people add them.

Water Blocks.

D-Tek Fuzion - Excellent block with a mirror finish base, highly recommended for quad core. - Recommended by Daza, Clunk, fat jez.

Swiftech Apogee GTX - Another tried and tested block, highly recommended for quad core.

AquaXtreme MP-05 Pro LE - Great for dual core, but didnt perform with the quad, so cant recommend this one.

If you are using a different block, please state what you have, including the rest of the stuff in the loop, and how it performs, and I will add it here.

Motherboards.

Looking for personal recommendations here. Doesnt have to be a great overclocker, just rock solid. If it is a great overclocker, please mention that as well. Quad core only though please.

Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi AP - Excellent set of features and a great overclocker, but overshadowed by the P35 chipset boards.

Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi AP - Awesome quad core overclocking, extremely stable, even at high FSB. - Recommended by Clunk, fat jez.

Asus P5K Standard/Vanilla Version - Another great performer, although not quite as good and the Deluxe model, and has some voltage options missing and some of the other features are removed to keep the costs down. - Recommended by Choo Choo.

P5K-E WiFi - Slightly chopped down version of the Deluxe with different power circuitry. Looks to be working well for a few people at the moment. - Recommended by GSV[Trig]

Gigabyte P35-DS4 motherboard (rev 1.1) "Motherboard BIOS (F4) supports G0 out of the box and boots up fine with memory at default 1.8v (detected SPD using slower timings)."Recommended by Phil_P - Click here for more info.

I will include more as people add them.

Misc Coolers/Heatsinks.

Thermalright HR-09U / HR-09 - These are a bit pricey, but they work brilliantly, and with a small, no fuss mod, can be made to fit the P5K boards. These are especially handy when you are using watercooling, or a heatsink that doesnt blow on the mosfet area, and when you are overclocking a quad core, the mosfet area gets extremely hot! You can find some pics of them, and the mod here, here, and the entire thread for the P5K Deluxe can be found here. Recommended by Clunk.

Applying thermal paste to a quad core.

There is a slighly different way of applying the thermal paste to a quad.

Click here to open a PDF with instructions.

Tweaking those temps.

This bit will only work if you have a waterblock or cooler fitted that fits on with screws or bolts.

So, you have everything set up, but one or more of your core's temps are much higher that the other's.

Open Coretemp (or any other program that shows all 4 core's temp's at the same time).

You need to start your stress testing program so that the CPU is under full load, reach into the case, while keeping an eye on the screen, and turn one of the nuts/screws that hold the block/heatsink down.

As you turn, you will notice that one of the cores will increase/decrease in temperature. Move to the next screw/nut and do the same. You will find that each corner corresponds to one of the cores.

Have a mess around with all of the 4 screws/nuts and you should be able to tweak the temps so that they are within a couple of Centigrade of eachother.

Important!

Temps vary wildly, and depend on many different factors, cooling used, thermal paste, actual contact with the IHS/heatsink, fans, airflow, software used, room temps etc, so please take the temps that people post, with a pinch of salt.

Also, if you are watercooling, a backplate can work wonders for your temps. Because of the way that waterblocks (and some heatsinks) fix to the board, a lot of bending occurs around the socket area, and this in turn can lead to poor contact with the block/heatsink and the IHS on the CPU. So, we take out the X shaped black bracket from that kit (you dont need the rest), and then that goes at the back of the motherboard, and then everything clamps together the same as before, and the board bend is virtually eliminated.

The cost is around £5, and for me, it was £5 well spent. Not everyone will benefit, but for that price, its a no brainer.

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I'll add more later

[EarlGrey]

Yeah, come on guys! I'd love to know if the newer chips really do overclock better!

[Clunk]

I thought there would have been some interest in this. Maybe not that many people bought them after all?

[godsdog]

Not a personal experience to add, yet. But I noticed a bit-tech "Overclocking Intel's Core 2 Quad Q6600" article dated the 25th July. Not quite sure when the guy wrote it - "If the rumours we’ve heard are true, Intel is planning to lower the TDP to around 90W on the Core 2 Quad Q6600 with the introduction of the G0 stepping". Maybe of interest for a passing read, dunno

[Clunk]

Thanks for the link, the only problem there, is that they only used an ES in the tests.

What I was thinking, is if we can get people that have got a quad to list their system specs, and any problems they are having, and also say if everything is going well, and to post their overclocks.

Just a general info thread for quad cores and related hardware

[godsdog]

Well I fit right into the category ..just not quite yet.

I'll wind up pulling the trigger sooner rather than later though, I can feel it coming.

[DratUK]

XS are running a similar thread so we can get an idea what these can do.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=152722&page=2

Mine arrives today from KustomPC, I expect it to be a B3 stepping. Once its settled in I'll start OCing and see what I get.

[badass]

Originally Posted by Clunk

I thought there would have been some interest in this. Maybe not that many people bought them after all?

I ordered mine teus and its not going to be delivered until friday. I plan to make sure its stable at stock first, so dont expect anything from me till next week some time
Doesn't mean I dont plan to be contributing to this thread with some overclocks, but I think many others may be in a similar position.

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by DratUK

XS are running a similar thread so we can get an idea what these can do.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=152722&page=2

Mine arrives today from KustomPC, I expect it to be a B3 stepping. Once its settled in I'll start OCing and see what I get.

Theirs is a G0 stepping thread, whereas this one will hopefully be for all of them, including motherboards and cooling, troubleshooting etc....or at least that is the idea

No doubt every board will have at least one of these.

Originally Posted by badass

I ordered mine teus and its not going to be delivered until friday. I plan to make sure its stable at stock first, so dont expect anything from me till next week some time
Doesn't mean I dont plan to be contributing to this thread with some overclocks, but I think many others may be in a similar position.

No rush mate, was just pondering wether it was worth gathering any info if no-one was interested thats all

[Clunk]

Also, going to change the name of the thread.

Quad Core Thread - Overclocking, Cooling, Motherboards, Troubleshooting & General Info.

if it will fit

[staffsMike]

mine has just turned up but i'm not overclocking it as its not for me unfortunatly.

It's a B3 so i will give you the stock temps with the Scythe Ninja once it's built

[Phil_P]

Originally Posted by Clunk

I thought there would have been some interest in this. Maybe not that many people bought them after all?

I'm very interested, just haven't bought mine yet

[badass]

Well I would be posting some info here..........

If it wasn't for the fact that the drivers I downloaded from the ASUS site last night were ALL corrupted.
I downloaded them again. Corrupted.
Used WinRAR to unpack them. Corrupted.
I dont have the time to sort it now, as I'm off.

I'll post some info over the weekend when I get the drivers installed.

[Clunk]

I tried grabbing some stuff off there the other day and it was corrupted as well, its probably been hacked again.

[5aboy]

well im waiting to sort out my watercooling thing first, then itll be a G0 q6600.

[Biscuit]

Originally Posted by badass

Well I would be posting some info here..........

If it wasn't for the fact that the drivers I downloaded from the ASUS site last night were ALL corrupted.
I downloaded them again. Corrupted.
Used WinRAR to unpack them. Corrupted.
I dont have the time to sort it now, as I'm off.

I'll post some info over the weekend when I get the drivers installed.

Iv had this problem before. The Nvidia Forceware firewall driver (or something like that) seemed to be the cause of it. Re-install the exsisting drivers without the Nvidia firewall and you might have more luck. Or maybe as clunk said it has jus been hacked

sorry to drift off topic a little clunk!