Read this guide at least 3 times before you try anything, jsut get familiar with it and post questions before you try overclocking.
Right then this is my version of overclocking a Q6600 (B3) on the nvidia 680i chipset using the EVGA reference board so it the bios screens you see could be a tad different from the non reference boards from Asus, Abit and Gigabyte, if your using a dual core cpu then settings might vary especially the voltages so be aware, a bit of sensibility is needed aswell, if your air cooling keeps the voltages on the cpu core to under 1.5v and the temps to under 70c under load or you run the chance of damaging your cpu same goes to water under 1.5v and under 70c guys. If your using stock cooling on the motherboard make sure you have that little fan attached to the northbridge aswell, regardless of the cooling in the case you NEED that little fan.
*please READ please*
Now if you blow-up your hardware, kill or damage it in anyway I'm not responsible so don't bring your lawyers after me. I also take it your not new to overclocking so I shouldn’t have to talk about how to disable or enable things either,
That is all.
Now if you dont have the following get them before reading on.
Lavalys EVEREST Ultimate Edition reads temps and voltages : Lavalys - Comprehensive IT Security and Management
Cpu-z will read what clock you cpu is at : CPUID
Prime95 will stress your system and tell you if its not stable test for 8hrs or over to be 99.9% your stable : Free Software
You'll also need coretemp to measure you cpu cores temps, Core Temp
And I also never use nvidias control panel to overclock as people have had problems with it in the past so you can either uninstall it or take a risk and LEAVE it alone completly.
Now lets get overclocking.
Now when you boot up the system mash the “delete” key to get into the bios once there you’ll see the following screen now the option we want is the “advanced chipset features” use the arrow key to move down to it and hit enter to erm enter it.
Once there you’ll see the following screen, which I will call home (remember it) now the first thing I usually do here is to go down to “HPET function” and make sure it’s disabled the same with “nvidia GPU Ex", also make sure the "system BIOS Cachable" is disabled.
Right then scroll up to “system clocks” press enter and the following screen will appear, now all you’ll ever need to change here is the “cpu mulitplier” (which I leave at 9x), “cpu spread spectrum” and “ PCIe Spread Spectrum”, now make sure “cpu spread spectrum” and “PCIe spread spectrum” are both disabled as they will effect system stability if enabled once you’ve done that press escape to take you to home.
Once at home scroll down to "FSB & Memory Config" and hit enter once there it will look like the following:
Leave "sli-ready memory" on disabled at all times.
This is where most of the overclocking is done, scroll down to "FSB-memory clock mode" and change it to "unlinked" and even more options are unlocked like so:
Right in this guide I will get you upto 3ghz on a Q6600 which nearly any chip+board should do, so scroll down to "FSB(QDR), MHz) and hit enter a box should come up which says "key in a DEC number" now to get to 3ghz youll have to enter 1340 as the DEC number and press enter, now scroll down to "MEM (DDR), MHz and press enter a box will appear now depending on what ram you have will depend on what number you put in here so:
If you have PC5300 type 667
If you have PC6400 type 800
if you have PC 8600 type 1066 (I have this RAM)
Once youve type in the number for the ram you have press enter, now whne your overclocking the cpu you wont overclock the ram which will help in getting the most out of your cpu, so if you havent got to lost the page should look something like this:
Now scroll down to "memory Timing Setting" and a page should appear like so:
Now you can leave it on optimal if you dont know your ram timings but if you do change "optimal" to "expert" and enter your ram timings, my timings are 5-5-5-15 so look like this. (I recommend you leave the Advanced memory settings on auto for best performance.)
Right back to the home menu and select "CPU Configutation", now make sure eveything apart from the cpu cores are disabled so it should look like this after your done:
Now go back to the home menu and select "system voltages" and it should look like this with everything on "AUTO":
Now this is where it gets tricky as everyboard and cpu is different so will require different voltages what I am using is a guide to get most to work, so enter:
1.41250 as the "CPU Core" voltage.
1.4v as the "CPU FSB"
For the memory enter what your Memory is rated at mine is 2.2v yours might/will be different, if you dont know leave it on auto, or ask in this thread and Ill help as much as I can.
1.45 as the nForce SPP (Northbridge)
1.525 as the nForce MCP (Southbridge)
1.34 as the HT nForce SPP <-> MCP.
Now it should look like so if you did it right:
Now if you've followed the guide you should be ready to press F10 which will save the settings and reboot the system, once you get into window open up everest and have a quick check of the "MCP" temp it is recommended by me and other to try and keep this under 50c if possible.
Now you open coretemp and prime95, I recomment you do a "blend test" in prime 95 for at least 8hrs to check stability also if the temps of the cores in coretemp go over 70c at any time shutdown and check the mount if your cpu cooler/cpu block.
Now if you want 3ghz as your 24/7 clock you can test for 8hrs with prime95, if you want to go for higher then test for about an hr then up the "FSB (QDR),MHz" to 1380 for 3.1ghz, 1425 for 3.2ghz, 1470 for 3.3ghz, you will also have to increase the voltages aswell, by how much is upto you but only do it in tiny amounts as you'll damage something if you do it in huge jumps, again nothing over 1.5v on the cpu.
Now you more than likley get to a point where the system will fail to boot even to the bios so you will have to do a "cmos clear" which involves shutting the system down UNPLUGGING the mains power lead and waiting a few minutes then moving the cmos clear jumper to the right for 30~40 seconds then moving it back to the normal possiton this pictue show the jumper in the normal position:
Right apart from reminding people to keep the cpu temp and voltage to under 70 and 1.5v I dont think theres much else to say any questions post them in this thread for more help msn is your friend so add me daza2020 (at) hotmail (dot) com , and Ill help as much as possible.