Another Q6600 Question!

Hi guy's n galls, needing help here with a bit of an over clocking problem and I just KNOW that you can help me out. Here's the system:

Q6600 B3
Asus P5K mobo
Corsair XMS2 2Gb 5-5-5-12
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7

My problem is that this memory is new in. Beforehand I had Elixir PC5400 memory fitted and could OC the FSB to just under 300Mhz. Now with the new RAM I can't do shit, even if it is quicker. Another problem seems to be that I can't alter the multiplier past x9 and I'm sure it can go higher than this. Is this down to the B3 stepping? I'm really green when it comes to oc'ing but was told that is a dawdle with these cpu's. Where has it all gone wrong? Cheers!

Nope, 9x is the highest you can go with a Q6600.

As for your RAM, what can't you do with it? Do volts help? What was wrong with the Elixir?

Hi Snod, there was nothing wrong with the Elixir RAM other than it ran slower than the Corsair. As I've said earlier, I'm a bit raw at OC'ing and I wouldn't have a clue what to set the voltage at to ensure stable running without burning it out. Also I don't have a clue about mucking about with latencies! I've also heard that this cpu can be clocked up to 3.8Ghz,surely this can't be done just by upping the fsb on it's own?

In your BIOS I am going to assume that you have one pretty similar to mine as I have a P5K Deluxe w/ a B3 stepping quad also.

Here is the basic setup that you should start with.

JumperFree Configuration Settings
AI Overclocking: Manual
CPU Ratio Control: Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting: 9
FSB Frequency: 266
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: AUTO (at 266FSB defaults to 2:3/DDR800 for AUTO)This is where you should bump it down to 667MHz to give you some more head room for scaling
DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency: 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay: 5
RAS# Precharge: 5
RAS# Activate to Precharge: 15
TWR: AUTO
TRFC: AUTO
TWTR: AUTO
TRRD: AUTO
TRTP: AUTO
DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled

Transaction Booster: AUTO
Clock Over-Charging Mode: AUTO

CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled

CPU Voltage: AUTO(you can always start at 1.4v)
CPU Voltage Reference: AUTO
CPU Voltage Damper: AUTO
CPU PLL Voltage: AUTO
DRAM Voltage: 2.10* depending on what your ram specs are.
FSB Termination Voltage: AUTO
North Bridge Voltage: AUTO
North Bridge Voltage Reference: AUTO
South Bridge Voltage: AUTO

Advance CPU Settings
CPU Ratio Control: Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting: 9
C1E Suppport: Disabled
Max CPUID Value Limit: Disabled
Vanderpool Technology: Disabled
CPU TM Function: Disabled
Execute Disable Bit: Disabled
PECI: Enabled

The subtimings have been found to be quite tight as is and unless you have the ram that can run
TWR: 3
TRFC: 30
TWTR: 3
TRRD: 3
TRTP: 3

then I would not worry about them as much. I don't know what type of cooling you have or how far you want push your CPU but IME anything over 3~3.2GHZ will require a jump in certain voltage requirements.

When I run my quad at 3600MHz(any higher and while it is stable, temps just get too dam high) here is what I run in my BIOS in order to give you a better understanding of what it might take.

FSB Frequency: 390
PCI-E Frequency: 110
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-1200
DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency:5
RAS# to CAS# Delay:5
RAS# Precharge: 15
RAS# Activate to Precharge:15
TWR: AUTO
TRFC: AUTO
TWTR: AUTO
TRRD: AUTO
TRTP: AUTO
DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled

Transaction Booster: Enabled
Boost Level: 1
Clock Over-Charging Mode: AUTO

CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled

CPU Voltage: 1.52
CPU Voltage Reference: AUTO
CPU Voltage Damper: Enabled
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.50
DRAM Voltage: 2.30v
FSB Termination Voltage: 1.40
North Bridge Voltage: 1.55
North Bridge Voltage Reference: AUTO
South Bridge Voltage: AUTO

I am not sure if your board has the Transaction Booster option, but if you do let me know and I can give you some more info on it.

Also one more tid bit of info about your ram slots. It has been found out that the black slots are designed to be optimised for higher memory clocks/low latency clocks compared to yellow dimm slots. This was confirmed by bingo13 @ Anandtech.

Now THAT's the sort of response I like! Full of detail. Cheers Brian, I'll let you know how I get on.

Well! THAT's strange! I couldn't set your values Brian but I got it set to 3.07Ghz VERY stable and more importantly managed to pass the Prime 95 torture test, HOWEVER, now that I'm back folding something strange is happening. The CPU frequency is oscillating between 2Ghz and 3Ghz, like it's working in bursts of 3Ghz. What the hell is causing THAT??

In fact, what I think I'm seeing here is the clock frequency switching between x6 and x9. W.T.F.??

Did you make sure that you disabled C1E Support?

What options exactly could you not set?

Well it didn't like a 390 MHz FSB I guess as it wouldn't even turn on; or it could've been any of a number of things, I couldn't tell. When I got back in it had locked up and I got myself another EUE. I don't remember disabling C1E though. Guess I'll just have to trial and error it but you gave me some good pointers!

bro!!!slow down!

390 is more than pushing it a little bit. B3 stepping traditionally don't like to go higher than 3200~3300MHz w/o causing huge amounts of heat dissipation. Is your setup in a case?

You really need to turn off the power saving option in order to make this work.

What did you end up setting your vCore to?
what are your temps om Coretemp under load?
What is your ram running at and at what voltage?

better yet write what you exactly used for BIOS settings. Copy and paste from previous post and use as a template.

Did you have transaction booster as an option?