Overclocking my Q9300

[rak526]

I recently got an aftermarket air cooler (CM V8) and now want to start pushing my Q9300 further (currently at 3GHz and 1.25v). I can get it to 3.09 GHz, but no further. Try to raise the voltages (highest I went was 1.3v) to get 3.3GHz stable, but no dice. It usually BSOD's right before the Vista log in screen. Should I try to push it higher? It's staying cool... my temp read high and it says 45 C on idle and no higher than 55 C on load (Prime95). Check my system specs on the left for more info. Also, I've OC'ed my ram to 1066. Should I drop it back down and try to get the CPU up first, or will the higher ram clock help me?

 

[FilipM]

Bump the Northbridge Voltage by 0.1 ~ 0.2V, bump the FSB Voltage by 0.1V (dont know under witch settings are they hidden on your board) set voltage at 1.3V (do not go higher that 1.3625V under load) and then try. Also, keep the ram as close as possible to your default speeds - if you have 800Mhz ram, try to keep it as close as possible to 800. You get the point.

 

[a_ump]

well according to intel spec finder, your chip is safe up to 71.4 celcius and 1.36v. I woudl think you have more juice that you coudl squeeze out of it but your usinga 780i

 

[rak526]

I've bumped the Northbridge and the FSB up already. I'll take the ram back down to 800MHz and try again in a couple hours. My wife is streaming some video to the tv, so I gotta wait.

 

[kyle2020]

look at it this way - I need 1.32V to get 3.2 stable on my Q6600, and its a beast of an overclocker (4Ghz stable fully fledged) so bump your core voltage to 1.35 / 1.4!

 

[rak526]

Ok... took the ram back to 800 and set the cpu voltage to 1.3v and got a stall at the boot up. Bumped the voltage up 2 more notches and it booted up. Set at 3.3GHz and going to run Prime95 on it for a couple hours before I try for 3.5GHz. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[kyle2020]

whats your max voltage setting?

 

[rak526]

1.36v... nowhere near that yet.

 

[kyle2020]

christ, 1.36 should see you up to about 3.4!

 

[a_ump]

plus, have you included vdroop/drop? every motherboard supplies your cpu with less voltage than what you set in the bios, for example, i set my voltage to 1.31v in bios but my motherboard only feeds my cpu 1.264v so i have a vdroop of ~.05; i think it's due to resistance that your cpu get less volts than what you set.

 

[rak526]

no, didn't factor that... should I go by what I set it to, or what the reading actually is?

 

[rak526]

Currently at 3.47GHz w/ 1.35v set and reading in the 1.31v area. Seems to be as high as I can push it. Bus is at 1850... at 1900 and setting voltage to read 1.36v it won't even boot into Windows. Messed with the NB voltage also and still no dice. Oh well... that's almost a 1Ghz overclock right there, and I'm happy with it. Thanks guys.

 

[a_ump]

Your welcome and good job , how long did you run prime95? and what are your temps?

 

[rak526]

Haven't run prime for an extended period of time on this setting yet. Maybe I will get to that tonight. Switched to realtemp for my temps, and they report closer than core temp was. I got 2 cores sitting at 39 C and 2 cores at 33 C.

 

[a_ump]

can you push your oc any higher?, maybe not for 24/7 if your con comfortable with it, but just to see the chips potential, if the temps really didn't increase i wanna see if you did get a gem and it's potential

 

[Totally Unr3al]

Nice OC well done

 

[rak526]

I've tried 3.57GHz, but I couldn't get it stable, even with the voltage at 1.36v. The temps still stayed the same... only about a 1 C increase across the board. Think maybe I should push it past 1.36v?

 

[insider]

Yes just watch the temps.

 

[a_ump]

i won't say yes or no, this is your decision if you feel sketchy about it then don't imo, go on instinct when it comes to pushing your hardware past what it's spec'd to do stabily. That doesn't mean much since every processor is only spec'd to do it's stock speed but you know what i mean. If it were my chip yes, i've pumped 1.42v(vdroop 1.36v) to get my 3.4ghz clock stable for benches when i had my 8800GT, but the q6600 is spec'd to be able to handle up to 1.5v. This one is your decision, i've never owned the q9300 so i can't tell you it's capabilities oc wise, but i've heard that 45nm have a harder time with high voltage, that's why intel spec'd them lower than the q6600.