Hey all, It's question time again ;-) I have built my new system based on a Quad core Q6600 on a BFG 680i SLi board with twin 8800GT OC2's and 4 gig of Crucial Ram, my question is this, everyone said go for the Q6600 as it can be overclocked so easily to 3.0ghz etc, how does one go about this, I tried upping the Ghz on the Nforce controller but it just freezes, then I read that I have to up voltages etc....anyone care to walk me through this? Any help much appreciated, easy to follow step by step help really really appreciated Moo On another note it's worth mentioning that something may be a little screwwy, I am running Vista 64 ultimate, when I run 3D Mark all is good with high FPS on the 3D tests BUT on the CPU tests I only get 1 frame per second with doesn't seem right, any ideas about this? Vista performance tests also only show my CPU as a score of "1"
You should be doing it via. the BIOS. Up the FSB a small amount each time say 5 or 10Mhz to start with then decrease the raise and slowly slowly up the voltage, run some Prime 95 once you've booted at your new speed. Or have a look at Bit-Tech article on overclocking the Q6600.
Many thanks for that, any idea about this bit though, seems really odd that the chip in standard mode should run like such a dog. "On another note it's worth mentioning that something may be a little screwwy, I am running Vista 64 ultimate, when I run 3D Mark all is good with high FPS on the 3D tests BUT on the CPU tests I only get 1 frame per second with doesn't seem right, any ideas about this? Vista performance tests also only show my CPU as a score of 1"
Hi, welcome to the forums. Think these 2 threads may be of some use Useful Overclocking links (for beginners) Asus P5N32-E Overclocking Guide I found this article rather handy when overclicking my own system, I am aware its a different board, however it is a 680i chipset board with the bios's almost identical. I second what Mankz says about increasing the fsb by incremental amounts, with any luck you should be able to push to 1333mhz fsb and cpu@3.0ghz. If IRCC should be 333mhz internal fsb in the "FSB and Memory config" under the "tweaking" section in the bios for a 3.0ghz cpu overclock. What bios version are you running? Is the vista a fresh install? As for vista showing cpu as 1 in rating score, have you run the experience index test, as i think all items start off as a score of 0 or 1 untill tested then it would change, least thats how it was for me.
What bios version are you running? The stock one that came with the Mobo Is the vista a fresh install? Yep, Fresh 64 bit Ultimate As for vista showing cpu as 1 in rating score, have you run the experience index test, as i think all items start off as a score of 0 or 1 untill tested then it would change, least thats how it was for me. No I havn't run it, to be fair the Vista score doesn't bother me but getting 1FPS in 3d mark does, though games seem to run beautifully, so maybe it's not worth worrying about a score. Thanks for the help.
If its the 3d mark 06 cpu test with the test that looks like the red hilly desert with drones running around, then hey my Q6600 only gets about 2 or 3 fps a sec when overclocked, yet all games fly. If you run the vista experience index test then im sure the cpu would score as a 5/5.9.
Awsome, that put's my mind at rest slightly, I have read through the articles that you prescribed. Am I right in my thinking that overclocking a chip isn't as simple as "Set voltage to X and FSB to Y" then? So basically I should raise the FSB slightly until the system becomes unstable then raise the voltage until stable again until I get to where I want to be (around 3.0 Ghz), are there any grids around to your knowledge that show various different examples?
every chip is different so it's hard to document as such. I'd say try it and see, if you're after 3.0 ghz that shouldn't be difficult with that chip and that setup, just watch your temperatures dont get too high (personally i set a limit of 60C fully loaded...) RwD
Small steps each time im affraid, each chip and mobo are different in overclocking. I was able to push my internal fsb to 343mhz (1373mhz external fsb) to get a 3.09ghz cpu clock without having to adjust ANY voltages, as have a lot of other people using the 680i chipset. Increase the FSB first a lil bit, test, if runs smooth, increase fsb again, untill system fails a benchmark/prime95 test. At this point increase the northbridge and cpu voltages up by no more than 0.025v, test again and increase untill stable, when increasing the voltages you will also generate more heat, so be sure to have suffcient cooling. Thats about the extent of my experience with overclocking a q6600 on a 680i chipset board.
I managed to get 3.150GHz on stock voltages, any higher and it would crash then I got to about 3.3GHz on upping the voltages. I've decided to stay on 3GHz on stock though, but it greatly depends on the motherboard. What revision are you using? The overclockable one is SLACR G0 stepping. The others are not so overclockable IIRC. There are plenty of guides on overclocking on this site and others so there would be no point us rewriting it, google it
Maybe you should look at these results http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17779323 You will see that almost all top performers are revision G0 quad cores.
I run a Q6600 at 3.2 Ghz at stock voltage. My suggestions are 1) Monitor your CPU temperature to ensure that your CPU cooler is upto the CPU being overclocked. On full load I get about 54C with a Scythe Ninja 2) Make sure your not overclocking the memory - adjust the memory multiplier to keep the memory running at stock speed at the FSB you using 3) Leave the voltages and multiplier set to defaults - just increase the FSB by increments Once you have established the maximum FSB that is stable with the above constraints, then you can consider changing other parameters such as the voltage - having got to 3.2 GHz so easily I haven't bothered - will experiment a bit more when I have the time to push it beyond 3.2
