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Newbie B-Day question: Help overclocking my P5K3, Q9300 and OCZ Gold DDR3 10666 combo

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esumsea

New Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2008
Newbie B-Day question: Help overclocking my P5K3, Q9300 and OCZ Gold DDR3 10666 combo

Hey Guys

I am a newbie at overclocking and it happens to be my birthday:beer:, so if I ask stupid questions please be nice and don't flame me:cry:. I have tried searches and read stickies but have not found the info I need. If the information I asked is posted somewhere else or if you feel I should read another sticky, please provide a link. In fact I was reading a nice step by step and thought I had it saved to my favorites but now I can't find it. Anyway, let me get to my question:

BUILD:
I have purchase and assembled a new build (about my 6-7th one) consisting of an ASUS P5K3 deluxe motherboard, an intel Q9300, 2-1 gig sticks of OCZ Gold DDR3 10666 (1333 mhz) memory (I have two more gigs ready to go in) and a ATI 3870 video card.

I have built this to do some video editing of my AVCHD high def honeymoon video. Apparently this stuff needs alot of horse power and even though I thought I had built a sufficiently fast build, it is just barely fast enough slightly overclocked. Right now I am using ASUS windows based AI booster to run the CPU by increasing the fSB to 366 instead of 333 and have it going at about 2.8 ghz. Anything higher using this method does not work. However, I have read these cpus can go way past this to over 3 gig (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_6.html#sect0). In this review they were using an ASUS board. I tried their settings with no luck. I have also read that the memory can be run with a FSB of 400 here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31299?t=32363. Again, I trried their settings with no luck. :bang head

So, obviously I am doing something wrong or, as I suspect, something is limiting me and I have a feeling it is the memory. Maybe I should go with the platinum +. Can you guys help me out? Give me any info. I would GREATLY appreciate it:attn:. I am trying not to break the bank with a faster CPU, even though that may be the way I have to go.

Regards,
Mario
 
You should read up first else you screw something up.

You're better off using the BIOS for overclocking too.

All the stuff you'll need are in here:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=515316

Also, by the looks of things, you could run your RAM on a divider (lowering your RAM speed so that it is below or equal to its stock settings).

:beer:
 
OK, thanks mdamda for that link. That was the thread I was looking for. It does seem as though my memory may be inhibiting my overclocking abilities. I have done some checking and have found that the plat and reaper series of OCZ will overclock higher with the reaper being able to overclock to a dram frequency of 1600 mhz. I have now used the settings found here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31299?t=32363 to get my memory to run at a higher FSB of 400, which brigs my CPU to 3 ghz. However, my dram is still inputed as 1333mhz as per the settings in the thread posted above. Questions: Is it better to have a higher FSB with a lower multiplier? Do I still gain in memory speed if the dram frequency is not overclocked?

Another thing I find confusing is that the thread guide states that the max dram frequency, 1333 Mhz in this case, is not easily surpassed. However, I have read that reapers can go to 16000. Also, when I did not set the DRAM frequency to 1333Mhz and set the fsb to 366 with a multiplier of 7.5 using Ai booster the Dram frequency reported at over 1450 Mhz in the bios, so this has me confused.

Lastly, I cannot find a divider setting in my bios? Does anyone know where I would find this or does the motherboard figure it out itself if I set the FSB and the Dram Frequency?

I will keep trying new settings and reading more threads and then check back. Any more help you or others can offer will be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks!
Regards,
Mario
 
Geez, I know I am a newbie and these questions may seem simple but can I get a little input? :confused: We all had to start somewhere. I would trully appreciate some help.

Mario
 
No too many ppl here with DDR3 boards so you have to be patient. Maybe looking around this thread may help you with some settings. Someone will come along and post up their results/info for you.

Be advised that not all chips/board/ram will overclock. Just becasue that link you posted states that a chip will overclock to x, does not mean yours will. Same thing with boards, ram, video cards.

There's alot that goes into overclocking, not the "set & forget" method works.

Take a look thru the link I posted and maybe some of the settings used may help you out some.

Btw Welcome to O/C Forums :welcome:
 
I am trying not to break the bank with a faster CPU, even though that may be the way I have to go.
I have no experience with your board or RAM but I have worked with several Q9300's and all six of them would run OCCT/Prime stable at 3.3GHz at under 1.2v.
These were on Gigabyte P35 boards using between 4 and 8GB of RAM and the goal was NOT to increase any voltages other than vCore while keeping the case temps as low as possible.
The five production PCs were finally set to 3GHz (1.15v) as that allowed the Zalman 9500 HSF we were using keep temps in line.
My personal machine is watercooled and has run 3.3GHz for months now with no trouble at all.

We were running 7.5 x 440, so the FSB of 880 is well below the rated speed of your memory.
You're going to have to figure out your BIOS settings to see what needs to be done because I don't think it's the CPU or RAM that's holding you up.
 
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