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

[dazbradbury]

Spotted a sharkoon which performs well for my 120mm. Thanks for the tip. Might stick with the silverstone though for my CPU fan, as I think it will fit in my case, and provide better airflow than a 92/90mm.

Anyway, just to let you know, overclocked my Q6600 to 2.7 on Stock and it's fine. Temps get a bit high if I push it any further. Will let you know how I get on with my new parts.

Thanks again for the help,
Daz.

[dazbradbury]

Wooo! Ok, my new fans and heatsink have arrived.

Put them in today, but struggling to get a stable overclock.

One thing that worries me is my RAM, I'm unsure as to what voltage it needs as it doesn't say on the sticks itself. Putting the part number into google I get:

benchmark.co.yu/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=25934&d=1185961262

So I have gone with that info for now.

Anyway, I tried to run at a FSB of 360, but didn't seem to be able to get it stable. Even when hitting CPU temperatures of up to 66C (In Speedfan). How hot should I be willing to go?

Have now dropped it to a FSB of 350 and am going to try again.
Do you think I should be expecting better results?
Also, my fan pushes ALOT of air, however, it seems to struggle to push *through* the heatsink, should I try pulling it instead?

Thanks for the help.

btw, I'm stress testing with Prime 95, running on all cores.

[Clunk]

What make is the RAM? And how come you went for PC2-5300 for overclocking?

That aside, you should be able to get 333x9 without overclocking the RAM.

I am guessing that you dont have the RAM set to 1:1, and that is why your overclock isnt stable.

[dazbradbury]

Hi,

My RAM is unbraded as far as I can tell. I got it for free, and thought I'd make use of it!

However, it may well be my limiting factor. However, stable or not, my temperatures still seem a little high. I was hoping to never see temperatures around 65C...

Do you think it could be my Heatsink is not seated properly? From my testing, it seems my CPU fan at 2000rpm does as good a job as when it's at 3,500 rpm. Makes me thinking it's not having to do as much work as it should be doing.

I may try lapping the heatsink (not done yet!), and then re-applying.

Oh, and my ram is set at 1:1. (I followed the guide in your sig actually!)

Cheers, Daz.

[dazbradbury]

Hey, I was just wondering. I've been doing a bit of testing, and installed a few more fans.

Which temps are accurate, coretemp or Speedfan? For the cores, speedfan always shows temps that are 15C less than the corresponding core in coretemp. So which should I follow? And what should my maximum be?

Secondly, why are two of my cores consistently 10C cooler than the other two?

Any help is much appreciated.
Daz.

[Clunk]

Hi,

My RAM is unbraded as far as I can tell. I got it for free, and thought I'd make use of it!

However, it may well be my limiting factor. However, stable or not, my temperatures still seem a little high. I was hoping to never see temperatures around 65C...

Do you think it could be my Heatsink is not seated properly? From my testing, it seems my CPU fan at 2000rpm does as good a job as when it's at 3,500 rpm. Makes me thinking it's not having to do as much work as it should be doing.

I may try lapping the heatsink (not done yet!), and then re-applying.

Oh, and my ram is set at 1:1. (I followed the guide in your sig actually!)

Cheers, Daz.

Post all your bios settings and we can have a look.

[Clunk]

Hey, I was just wondering. I've been doing a bit of testing, and installed a few more fans.

Which temps are accurate, coretemp or Speedfan? For the cores, speedfan always shows temps that are 15C less than the corresponding core in coretemp. So which should I follow? And what should my maximum be?

Secondly, why are two of my cores consistently 10C cooler than the other two?

Any help is much appreciated.
Daz.

10c is a bit too much of a difference for 2 of the cores. Generally, there is one that is maybe 6-7c higher than the rest.

You might not have the heatsink clips in properly.

Coretemp is what you should use.

[dazbradbury]

Ok, well I've changed the RAM, to a measly 1GB but of PC2-8500. So it's much better for going faster.

I also took off my heatsink, cleaned it up, and put on some thermal paste, this time a little more willingly. So I had a nice even layer accross the bottom.

Anyway, I booted back up at 3GHz an it was fine, temps were WAY cooler under load.

Have now put the voltage up to 1.45v in the bios, reading as 1.424v in CPUz. And put my CPU up to 3.4Ghz. With 9x multi. Tops out at about 62C after 10 minutes with Prime95 running. Will leave it for longer and see how it goes...

I still have two of my cores cooler, but now at idle only one is 2-3C cooler. At full load however, the same two drop to 7C cooler than the other two. (The temps I refer to above are the hottest.)

Thanks again, Daz.

[dazbradbury]

On a side note, is there any ram you would recommend for my set-up? Am looking to get a 2x1GB matched pair, but don't really want to spend over 60 or 70 GBP...

[dazbradbury]

Am thinking:

http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...2_dual_channel

or

http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...er_hpc_edition

Hmmm...

[Clunk]

Temps are ok.

You will probably be faster overall with the 2x1GiB of PC2-5300 installed.

I would go for the platinum version from the 2 you have listed, the reaper is just the same RAM with a gimicky heatsink.

If you want to overclock and tweak the RAM, go for some ballistix.

[EarlGrey]

I'm not sure whether to start a new thread or not, but I'll start here.

I am just ordering a q6600 G0 system, but am unsure about the heatsink to get. There are a lot of conflicting opinions around. Could people suggest what overclocks they can get to with various coolers. The Thermalrights and Scythes of the world seem to be top of the pile, so I'm thinking of going with the Sythe Infinity, though I'd consider a Thermalright if I could find anything in stock.

There's so little reliable information around it makes life rather difficult. If you look at two websites testing the same components they will always have wildly different results...

Anyway, thanks in advance

[shaithis]

Between the top heatsinks, there really isn't going to be a huge difference.

The biggest factor in your overclock when choosing between these is your CPU, RAM and motherboard

Inifinity, SI-120 extreme, etc Just choose the one which you prefer (mounting mechanism, size, shape, fan mounting etc)

[TensioN]

another noobie question.. on everest home and motherboard manager5 my 12+volts is 9.18v yet on speed fan its 11.30v ??? which is most likely inaccurate? thanks..

[kinnth]

I just wanted some help / feedback on my overclocking experience. So far I havnt!

I bought myself a quad core and a new motherboard, I have a q6600 and an ASUS P5NE-sli board, check my system for the full bumph.

I then was reading this and thought i wanted more out of it so bought myself a scythe air ninja cooling system plus fan. This things a beast, about 15cm high with around 30 metal plates for heat dissipation plus a 10cm fan or something. My case is quite adequatly cooled, its a thermaltake soprano or the like and has a 12cm rear fan 12cm front fan 8cm side fan and i have the scythe fan inside blowing air over the cooling and out to the back 12cm fan.

I thought that this buy would significantly reduce my heat but I still seem to get 2 cores avg 57-59 and other 2 54-56 when running nothing. I then pumped on core 95 to try and they settle around the 73 degree mark after around 3 mins after which i didnt want to risk and switched it off. This doesnt sound right to me what can i do to resolve.

My only real thought was that i didnt apply enough thermo paste, i followed the precise instructions on the pdf that clunk recommended a thin line across the centre. Should i apply more, i threw the stuff provided away. Which should i get?

Help me lower those goddam temps! (please!)

[EarlGrey]

Should i apply more, i threw the stuff provided away. Which should i get?

Help me lower those goddam temps! (please!)

Crikey, 73! I would suggest the first place to look is the thermal compound, as the stuff provided is generally poor. Arctic Silver 5 is the stuff I used and has been oft recommended, it's either the best or pretty close to it depending on who you ask.
With thermal compound you really don't want much - ideally you would end up with a layer that is fractionally thicker than the surface roughness of your CPU and Heatsink. Take a look at your heatsink, it should appear flat, you want a layer roughly as thick as the error in that flatness (if that makes any sense).
So, in short - do not apply more!

My idle temps with a q6600 are in the 30's, but I think I'm lucky. One thing to check is have you set your voltages - I don't know about your motherboard, but sometimes when left to auto voltage some motherboards do strange things. best set it manually. You can find out what voltage it should be by running Core Temp (which you should be anyway) and looking at the VID