I'm not sure what BIOS version I have. Cant seem to find it. Also cant seem to find any downloads for my bios on their website. Any easy way to ensure I have the latest version? Some sort of windows updater or something?
always a mistake for me to read stuff like this! my Q6600 runs stable (or what i call stable anyway) @ 3.2ghz using 1.3625v on an abit ip35. just tried to up it to its old 3.6 but it dosent like it @ 1.3625, and i cant be arsed getting on my knees anymore tonight to reset the BIOS!
na, even with 1.3825 its not playing ball anymore, does anyone know if the IP35 is stable at or over 400fsb?
Yes, and then some. My old IP35-E maxed out at 470; had to turn up the NB volts two or three notches though. The IP35 Pro could hit 500. [edit]IIRC, with a quad core you have to tweak the GTL Ref in the BIOS. Although, that could have been on my old X38 board.
Apparantly I was running F2 and the latest is F4. I tried downloading the latest version and running it but it says its not compatible with my current OS, think its because I am 64 bit or could I be installing it wrong? Do I have to uninstall anything before hand or is it just a case of donwloading it and running it? Thanks. I'm slowly making progress!
Thanks for all the help! I want to try that but I remember reading that you shouldnt update BIOS if you have no problems with your current one, that updating it is risky. Is there high risk involved?
To put it in perspective, I've built and upgraded hundreds of PCs, and I've had two bios updates fail. However, on both occasions, I was able to rectify the problem very easily. "Don't update if you don't have a problem", but you do, don't you - didn't you say yours doesn't hold any changes made?
Thats true. If I do encounter a problem and the bios doesnt update correctly, what will happen and how can I fix it? (Just in case my PC doesnt boot. I could be left stranded not knowing what to do!)
I'm not sure if Gigabyte do it, but Asus boards defaulted to boot from CD if the BIOS corrupted. The Motherboard CD had a boot sector that re-installed the original "factory fresh" BIOS, allowing you to recover and reflash at your convenience. Perhaps someone here can confirm if Gigabyte do it to. Do you have the original motherboard CD?
I think I might have the CD somewhere. I will have to check at the weekend. Is it worth the risk/hassle of doing all this to get my CPU from 2.9 to 3.0Ghz? Would I see a marked improvement?
Not a big one, but it's worthwhile persevering and learning to stabilise an overclock. Who knows when you'll want to push it further? I know very few overclockers who will clock a CPU so far from its potential and leave it at that. They might do initially, but they soon go back and push it further. Once you've got the bug, it's difficult to stop.
I know I haven't replied to this in a while but I recently installed Windows 7 and I am determined to get this working. I've managed to change my vcore. I changed it to 1.35V to start off with (none of the BIOS settings changed this time for some reason). However, running prime95 torture test, it crashes immediately. It only seems to work when the voltage is "auto". This results in CPU-Z showing me an idle core voltage of 1.376V. Here are screenshots of my current BIOS settings: Any ideas? Thanks.
JUst a little off-topic from whats being discussed but just curious as I have Q6600 G0 processor in the house and I'm looking to overclock it soon on air. Has the artic freezer on a Asus p5k. Now, whats the max clock I can get to on the Q6600? Its just I'm sure I remember overclocks of 4GHz on air being discussed about before...to me the 3GHz overclock sounds conservative..so the question is....does anyone know what is the max possible overclock on a good air-cooled system on a good board for overclocking like the Asus? Thanks
Around 3.6GHz was the average back in the day I think. Probably 3.2-3.4Ghz on a AC Freezer. Mine went to 3.6GHz with a Sythe Mugen 2 and P5K wifi-AP.
It's been a long time since I overclocked a Q6600, but the CPU VID looks really high (VID = Normal CPU Vcore). That may explain why you're having so much trouble getting it stable. The VID range was something like 0.85v to 1.35v, but many quads were well below 1.3v. If your chip needs 1.325v for stable operation at stock speed, it likely will require 1.4v or more for a decent overclock. 1.45 to 1.5v is the generally accepted max vcore for a Q6600, but much depends on how effective your cooler is. With a good cooler, you can push the vcore a bit more, but keep an eye on your load temps.
Thanks for the reply. I have an arctic cooler freezer cooler. I've heard its a decent cooler. What are the risks in increasing my voltage? Will I just BSOD or could it do permanent damage to my CPU? Thanks again.
