Overclocking Q6600

[Disturbedguy]

Hello one and all..

Well as the title says, I want to overclock my Q6600 just for an extra little..kick.

I love my system as it is and it runs fine, I just think a little extra kick will be nice.

So, what am wondering is, given my current specification (< - My System) what do people think is a reasonable and stable overclock I can obtain.

Also, I am thinking of re-applying the thermal paste on my CPU, was wondering what people think is the best thermal paste to use and how best to apply it.

I mean I have obviously applied thermal paste before, as I have built many machines in the past, but have always wondered how thin/ thick a layer of paste to apply?

Usually, I put a small..blob in the middle of the cpu then spread it out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[MSIC]

Hey, my thread here might help a bit.
http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...hs-please.html
Also remember that Hexus forums have sticky's generally about this.
Mine hasn't arrived yet, but hopefully i'll be up & clocking by mid-week. I'll post back my experiences.

One thing though - where in the world did you get a 52MB Geforce 8800GTS? That thing must run like a dog...

[shaithis]

I love the arctic silver 5 personally. They also have a PDF on their site showing the best way to apply it.

Its basically a very thin line of paste, with the line going in a different direction depending on whether the CPU is dual core or quad core.

[matty-hodgson]

3GHz would easily be achievable by only upping the volts by one notch.. or if you're lucky enough, not at all..
i'm pretty sure it's Blitzen that has a Q6600 that can go upto 3.6Ghz or something like that without even touching the volts.. which is nothing short of amazing tbh.

i have an ABIT IP35 and a Q6600 and i can get 3.8GHz from mine with a Scythe Mine cooler.. so you should be able to get something like 3 or 3.2 easily.

[Disturbedguy]

MSIC - its not 52 its 512Mb small mistake by me there xD

Hmm so it seems I would be able to get a decent overclock without messing with too much.

Will have a look around and see if I can find anything with a bit more help and explanation on what to edit/ not edit.

[matty-hodgson]

do you have an aftermarket cooler?
or just the standard HSF thingy?
if you're wanting to overclock i'd suggest you get a better HSF first.

[MSIC]

MSIC - its not 52 its 512Mb small mistake by me there xD

I did, in truth, suspect that to be the case. Still, it makes you wonder if there could be a market for a 52MB 8800GTS... maybe somewhere in Bolivia, powering a 320 x 240 resolution screen..
Good luck on the overclock.
Mine will be on a P35 Gigabyte board with an Akasa HSF, so i hope to get over 3Ghz without straining the system.

[Disturbedguy]

Am not sure what I am going to aim for but an overclock to 3Ghz without a temperature increase, or too much of a temperature increase would suit me fine.

[tensim]

I'm off sick today (damn man flu ) so have been playing around with overclocking my Q6600... I have to say, it really does seem too easy... currently sitting pretty at 3.2Ghz no problems at all (so far, touch wood )

All I've done is manually set the RAM timings, disable CE1 and Speedstep, set the RAM divider to 1:1, set the multiplier to 8, then gradually increased the FSB up to 400MHz... I had to give just the tiniest increase in CPU voltage to get it to boot OK, just one notch on the abit uGuru setting (currently it reports 1.32V to the CPU).

Temps off Everest Ultimate are:

IDLE --> CPU = 15C (must be wrong!?), C1 = 30C, C2 = 31C, C3 = 14C, C4 = 24C
LOAD--> CPU = 27C, C1 = 44C, C2 = 44C, C3 = 38C, C4 = 38C

I'm happy with this, a 33% overclock... it's provided a noticeable speed boost which is nice Maybe I'll start playing around a bit more and see how far I can go... mwuhahahaha

[Webby]

Okay read the sticky on hw to overclock it will answer all your questions but basically this is the procedure you need to follow.

First disable CE1 and EIST (speedstep)

1. Go into the BIOS set your memory divider to 1:1, your memory speed should now be 533MHz
2. Locate your CPUs FSB it should be 266 at the moment
3. Change the FSB to say 300, notice that your memory speed is now 600MHz
4. Check your CPU speed should be 2.7GHz

Boot into windows run a stress test for a while Intel Burn Test is probably the fastest, give it at least 15 iterations.

If it comes back stable then change the FSB to something higher again say 333MHz - CPU speed 3GHz Memory speed 667MHz

If it is unstable (fails the stability test) then increase the CPU voltage a notch and try again, keep an eye on your temperatures while stress testing.

As I said at the start read the overclocking sticky everything that applies to duels applies to quads as well.

[Disturbedguy]

Matty I have an after market cooler...tis a scythe one..think the same as yours.

Cheers for that Webby

Have spoken to Lee form SCAN and he has said that when he did an OC on his Q6600 he just knocked the FSB up to 333 from 266 and it was stable.

What does setting the the memory divider to 1:1 achieve?

Will have to get Intel Burn Test also, I am a bit apprehensive to be honest, so I might bottle it and not do it at all, as I have no money to replace anything I damage.

[matty-hodgson]

3. Change the FSB to say 300, notice that your memory speed is now 550MHz

shouldn't it be 600MHz?
300x2 = 600
1:1 = 600:550?

Matty I have an after market cooler...tis a scythe one..think the same as yours.

well if it's this 1:

make sure you clean out the bit just behind the fan every month or so cos mine gets clogged with dust A LOT.

it's a very good cooler is that as well.. so you should be able to get 3.6GHz pretty comfortably from it, if you wish to go that high.. just make sure your case ventilation is good enough and you'll be fine

What does setting the the memory divider to 1:1 achieve?

it just basically gives you more 'lee-way' with the RAM.. cos most RAM doesn't really overclock all that well, so if you set it at 1:1 with PC2-6400 RAM (which you have) you can go all the way upto 3.6GHz without overclocking the RAM.

[moogle]

it just basically gives you more 'lee-way' with the RAM.. cos most RAM doesn't really overclock all that well, so if you set it at 1:1 with PC2-6400 RAM (which you have) you can go all the way upto 3.6GHz without overclocking the RAM.

Helps rule out errors while you overclock your CPU as well, much less hassle then when you've got your CPU's settings for the overclock you can overclock the ram too.

[Webby]

Matty yeah your right I had originally said a FSB of 275 hence the 550 for the memory but then I thought it should probably go to 300 no problem so why not try there first

And as Moogle says by setting the RAM divider to 1:1 you are not overclocking the memory as you push your overclock on your CPU if you want to go past 3.6GHz you will then start overclocking the memory as well at that point drop the CPU FSB and change the divider so that the memory is running faster than 800MHz and test that for stability, then once you know the memory is stable at a particular speed say 900MHz you can then set the divider back to 1:1 and continue overclocking the CPU with reasonable assurance that any errors are from the CPU and not memory.

[Disturbedguy]

Hmm ok thanks...

Im a complete novice at overclocking so will be attempting to find where to set the timings and such as well as turn CIE and the other thing off, thanks again.

[matty-hodgson]

well i have an Abit IP35 motherboard.. so here's where you find all that stuff:




SoftMenu Setup - this is where you change all the core clock speeds, FSB, RAM speeds, voltages and everything like that..
don't go above 1.35v with the Q6600 and you're still within Intel's 'safety range' as stated on the side of the box and on their website.
but of course, if you want to go above 1.35v, you can.


Advanced BIOS features - this is where you disable all the C1E and EIST (you'll find them within the 'CPU feature' area)


Advanced Chipset Features - this is where you adjust all the RAM timings.. on that print screen it's set to 5-5-5-15, so adjust it accordingly.. the higher the number, the easier on the RAM it is. you need to set yours to 4-4-4-12 @ 800Mhz, with 2.1v (change the voltage in the 'softmenu setup' area.