q9650 - how to get a stable oc at 4ghz???

Hi

Please could anyone here give any guidelines as to how to get a stable 4ghz overclock with the following q9650 and P5k (p35 chipset) if this is posible? I think the settings are correct for such an overclock, but the pc tends to lock.

Are there any settings below that people can suggest are to high or need to be lowered to get a stable 4gz Oc with the settings below?

Hoping of some help,

Thanks Andrew



P5k (Revision 2) premium black pearl p35 chipset motherboard. bios 1101
Ocz reaper heatpipe pc2 6400 (ocz2rpr800c42g) memory 2x4gb sticks
Intel core q9650 retail stepping A revision E0 vid 1.25
vista ultimate
ocz water block, idle temp 35-38 degrees.

Cpu ratio x9
fsb strap 333
fsb frequency 450
pci-e frequency 100
dram frequency auto
command rate auto
timing control
timing:
5-5-5-18-3-54-6-3-3
Dram static read control disabled
transaction booster disabled
relax level 3

Cpu voltage 1.43v
cpu pll voltage 1.70v
fsb termination voltage 1.40v
dram voltage 2.3v
nb voltage 1.55v
sb voltage 1.20v

Clock overcharging voltage auto
load line calibration enabled
cpu gtl voltage reference 0.63
Nb gtl voltage reference 0.67
cpu spread spectrum disabled
pci-e spread spectrum disabled
cpu clock skew auto
nb clock skew auto

c1e support disabled
max cpuid value limit disabled
vanderpool technology disabled
cpu tm function disabled
execute disable bit disabled

 

Hi

You can't just copy someone elses settings, apply them to your system and expect the overclock to work. If that's what you've tried to do. As 'I think the settings are correct for such an overclock' suggests.

I have an ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (X38) with a Q9550 that I'm overclocking at the moment. Not quite the same as your system but similar, I'll let you know what I find out if you like. Currently I'm at 3.8GHz and trying out different CPU GTL voltage ref values. Unfortunately I don't get that much time on the system to try these things out so my progress tends to be quite slow - too many other things need my attention too.

 

I don't know how load line calibration is on other motherboards, but for me load line calibration helped to get an easy early over-clock but sucked for getting those last few hundred MHz out of my cpu.

I think I only have one reference voltage in my bios, but whatever its for it really affected stability. I would change the reference in one direction till the system was obviously unstable, then start changing the reference voltage in the opposite direction till the system was again obviously unstable, then finally pick a voltage in between which I thought should allow for maximum stability.

I don't have any experience with the cpu/nb clock skew since I don't have that option in my bios, but I've read in other posts that those settings also affect the stability of the system allowing for either higher clocks or lower cpu voltages. A quick google search found this and this post explaining what exactly is skew. Keep gtl ref and skew in mind while trying to achieve your maximum over-clock.


From experience on my current motherboard random lock ups have occurred due to:

Cpu voltage ping either up or down due to load line calibration being enabled.

Cpu voltage set to low/high. At my highest stable over-clock(3.6GHz) if I change the Cpu voltage in either direction the Cpu starts to chug and eventually crashes =/

Gtl ref was a life savor in stability. Too far one way or the other and the system became unstable.

Ht voltage helped a bit. I just increased it and if it helped then I kept it, but if not then I put it back down. Most of the time Ht voltage didn't really help me, but when I was very near stability(but not quite) my last tweak that pushed my system into stablity was increasing Ht voltage just a bit.

For w/e reason NB/SB voltages haven't seemed to impact how stable my system was. It was as if keeping them on auto was just as good as trying to mess with it myself. This could be the bios actually choosing suitable voltages for the FSB speeds though.


Good luck with your overclock.
PS wtf is clock overcharging voltage? *goes to google to find out as I post this* The settings available to you in your bios makes my Asus motherboard feel so limited x.x

 

450 mhz is frequently the maximum you`ll see for a combination like that. I would take the proc. back under 440 to see if the stabilty goes back up.