Hi guys. So I am going to attempt to overclock my Q6600 to 3.ghz 2moro. My motherboard is a Gigabyte EP31-DS3L. I am quite a noob when it comes to overclocking, so I have a few questions! I overclock through the BIOS right? Also with the voltage, do I leave that on auto? So what do I need to change in the BIOS to get my 6600 to overclock to 3.ghz? Do I just change the FSB speed? And finally. I had a look at my old stock intel GPU cooler. I couldn't see any easy way of getting it off my motherboard. Do you twist the 4 plastic holding screws on the edge of the CPU cooler? Thanks in advance for any replies. I am rather baffled by all this overclocking business.
If overclocking you really need to read more on the subject first... http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2007/07/25/overclocking_intel_core_2_quad_q6600/1
this is a very basic explanation of overclocking its basic maths. your Q6600 is rated at 1066mhz. you always divide this number by 4 so 1066/4= 266, this is your fsb. (or cpu frequency) then your processor (cpu) has a multiplier of 9 (or cpu ratio) so 266 x 9 = 2394mhz or 2.4GHz, your stock speed boot into bios, and disable C1est, and any other power saving features. unlink your ram, using the ram divider, so it stays at stock speeds, you can overclock the ram later. this means leave it at 667mhz or 800mhz or 1066 can you raise the fsb? yours is now 266. (266 x 9 = 2394mb or 2.4ghz ) try rising it to 280 boot into windows download realtemp and coretemp (google them) install and run them then download intel burn test (ibt) and run it. have a look in task manager and notice how much free ram is listed. in ibt set threads to 4 (for 4 cores) and then click on custom ram and enter an amount just below the free amount. eg. i have 2520mb free ram. so i enter 2500 into the custom ram. run the test for 5 passes. for now, keep an eye on temps (do not let it go over 75.c) or download prime95 and run the torture test/large fft's if test runs fine, go back into bios, and change frequency (fsb) to 300 and repeat the tests. keep doing this in 20mhz steps until windows will not boot. then just go back a step (remove 20 from the fsb) to the last stable frequency, or just raise the cpu voltage a couple of levels. it should now boot. the Q6600 is happy upto 1.5v, so dont be scared to raise the voltage. its a balancing act, higher voltages will get you higher fsb, but it will also give you higher temps. my B3 revision Q6600 needs 1.39v in the bios to get to 3.3ghz. if yours is a G0 revision, you should be able to get this speed at a lower voltage. also try raising the northbridge voltage (NB or MCH) a couple of levels, or if you have 4 sticks of ram, you may need to add some more, (but do not go over 1.4v) the trick is to do this step by step, and not go straight to eg. 400 (400 x 9= 3.6ghz), just take your time. also for some reason using the x 9 multi, i couldn't get past 3.0ghz so i dropped it to a x8 multi and i got it to 3.4ghz easily. get the cpu maxed before increasing the ram speed
Interesting, I'm in exactly the same position as Mr burns, not really confident in overclocking my Q6600 either
As suggested by other members, do a good amount of background reading first. Also make sure your CPU cooler is free of dust, and good airflow through your case. If you only have the stock CPU cooler then this will significantly limit your overclock as it will get too hot at lower frequencies than it would with a better cooler. There a some youtube videos on how to remove the intel heatsink, if you are upgrading it make sure you clean the cpu surface well and use new heat paste (very important). I would run the cpu at stock speeds initially, with a temperature program running after swapping the CPU heatsink just to make sure it is all fitted properly.
this will depend a lot on your motherboard and cooler. On a stock cooler, you will not get over 3.0ghz as the heat will be too much. Some cheap motherboards dont like overclocking quads. The Q6600 is nearly bulletproof, it is happy upto 1.5v ( i have seen some at 1.6v ) and once when i was using the stock cooler, my Q6600 reached 80.C and shut down on me, so it will protect itself as well. there are loads of guides out there, just do your research. go for it, even if its at 2.7 - 3.0ghz, that is a 15 - 25% increase
I've got an asus P5N-E sli, but also there's a strange issue with one of the ram slots whereby if there's a stick of ram in one of the slots (cant remember which slot it is), the system wont turn on
i think overclock is not the best way to get power from your pc, but some programs help on that.... of course less positive than manual overclock, but safer.
I had this exact issue, fine with 2, drops to async mode with 3 (so a tad slower) then with 4 I had to loosen the ram timings manually & nudge the voltage up in bios with just the 2 sticks in, save, power off, add the other 2 sticks, power on & retry till I got it right. I was using Team Elite 800MHz ram, which is not on the QVL. If you still have the other stick sitting there looking lonely in a drawer, give it a go, its worth it to get the dual channel working properly. Just remember to save your settings! Another sure fire way to get 4gb is to trade your chips in for 2x2gb instead, of course.
a 3ghz overclock should be simple enough by just setting the fsb to 333 and multi to 9, also set the dram freq to what ever ram you have ie 800mhz, a good cpu heatsink and fan would help things something like a arctic cooler pro would be ok for a 3ghz oc, and lastly once stable i would take the cpu voltage off auto and start knocking it down until its not stable then back to where it was
I think you may have difficulty with that chipset and overclocking to that frequency. You may get to 2.7GHz, but I'd be surprised if you can get it much further and stable. The P31 chip isn't great for overlcocking from my experience.
