Overcloking a Q6600 on a P5Q Deluxe

CPU Bacth #- L804A687
Vid-1.325v
G0 Stepping

Hey guys, im pretty new to overclocking, usually just run my pc's stock. Just looking for some extra power without pushing this chip to the limit. I just dont know what to change in the BIOS. If anyone using this board that knows how to run the BIOS on this motherboard or some tips, id greatly appreciate it.

Easy first step is to increase the FSB some. You might do 3G with that CPU (FSB=333) with no other changes. Don't make one huge FSB change, divide it up into several steps. Test stability using something like Prime95.

Lots of variations beyond that first step. Second step would be to increase the CPU voltage when you've reached a FSB where the board is no longer stable.

Yea im running at 3.0 right now, what temps do you think are ok to stay at? Right now im at around 35*C on each core. Can i make the multiplier 400 and run 3.6 without voltage?

_D4VE_ said:

Yea im running at 3.0 right now, what temps do you think are ok to stay at? Right now im at around 35*C on each core. Can i make the multiplier 400 and run 3.6 without voltage?

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Good progress Dave!

Is the 35C under load, running Prime95? I would want the temps on or under 60C under load for 24/7 operation. You'll get some varying opinions on that (some will say higher) but that is mine.

I doubt you'll make 3.6G without more volts. You might make 3.2G. Try it and see, it all really depends on how lucky you were in the chip you got.

Adding a little voltage isn't that big a deal, it is the temps you want to watch to keep them at an acceptable level.

At this point you may want to go read the sticky over in the CPU forum (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=515316). It'll provide more detail for you. Post questions in this thread or anywhere you think they fit.

Enjoy the 4th!!! Your little town helped start all this.


EDIT: Suggestion, change your blue signature to another color. I find the combo of blue on black background nearly impossible to read. Maybe it is just me.

deeppow said:

Good progress Dave!
Is the 35C under load, running Prime95? I would want the temps on or under 60C under load for 24/7 operation. You'll get some varying opinions on that (some will say higher) but that is mine.
I doubt you'll make 3.6G without more volts. You might make 3.2G. Try it and see, it all really depends on how lucky you were in the chip you got.
Adding a little voltage isn't that big a deal, it is the temps you want to watch to keep them at an acceptable level.
At this point you may want to go read the sticky over in the CPU forum (<a href="http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=515316" target="_blank">http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=515316</a>). It'll provide more detail for you. Post questions in this thread or anywhere you think they fit.
Enjoy the 4th!!! Your little town helped start all this.

EDIT: Suggestion, change your blue signature to another color. I find the combo of blue on black background nearly impossible to read. Maybe it is just me.

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Yep it is hard to read.

+1 on reading the thread. It helped me a lot. I wanna see how far you get this thing, I am going to purchase one of the P5Q Pro's soon.

Thanks for info guys, really appreciate it. Yea i did read that post before i started everything and my setting are all according to it. Ill run Prime95 tonight and see how high the temps go. And hope you all had a great 4th too! A little rainy here, but we had a John Legend concert and fireworks that still went on. All in all was a great time in the city of Independence!

_D4VE_ said:

CPU Bacth #- L804A687
Vid-1.325v
G0 Stepping

Hey guys, im pretty new to overclocking, usually just run my pc's stock. Just looking for some extra power without pushing this chip to the limit. I just dont know what to change in the BIOS. If anyone using this board that knows how to run the BIOS on this motherboard or some tips, id greatly appreciate it.

Click to expand...

I had the same exact VID on my old Q6700(both chips are almost the same) and on my P5Q deluxe was able to run stable 3.2ghz(8x400) with a bois voltage of 1.33125. I have Gskill DDR2 1000 so my ratio was 4:5. Make sure you turn off C1E, Intel Virtualization(Vanderpool), CPU spread spectrum and Max CPUID Value Limit. Enable Load Line, if you run a manual overclock the ASUS bios will turn off speedstep but if you can see it in the advanced menu then turn it off to. Some people might suggest you manually set your FSB strap to NB but I found that leaving it on auto with this board was just as good and when I tried 400mhz FSB strap I had major problems so best to not mess around there until you got it figured out pretty well. As far as 3.6ghz goes you probably won't hit that, I couldn't get my Q6700 stable even at 1.48 Vcore(kept crashing windows) and thats why it got RMA'd in hopes of getting a slightly better overclocker in return.

EDIT: BTW, at 3.2ghz(1.33125) with my Zalman 9700 I was getting temps near 52C under load and 30C idle. I am not familiar with your cooling rig so I don't know what temps you should expect, but at 3.2ghz you should hope to stay under 60C under load.

I think im just gonna stick with 3.0. Runs fine for me and this way dont ave to mess with voltage and lower the life of my CPU.

hi i,m new to overclocking. i am trying to reach 3.4 ghz and am currently at a stable 3.3ghz(8x412)@ 1.43 vcore(everything else set to auto) can't get stable @ 3.4 (9x400fsb) even when i increased the vcore to 1.5v.
I disabled C1E, Intel VT, Max CPUID, and CPU spread spectrum then enabled Load Line Calibration.

system -
cpu - [email protected](8x412) vcore - 1.43v
mobo-p5q deluxe (bios 1003)
memory - kingston hyperx pc 6400 @ 825mhz
cooler - thermalright ultra 120 extreme w/ noctua npf-12 fan
graphics - nvidia geforce 8600 gt-256
case - coolermaster cm 690 w/ 6x noctua npf12 fans
hdd - 2x 500gb sata
os - windows vista (32bit)
power - coolermaster real power pro 850w

how can i get to 3.4 without increasing the vcore to a level which is unsafe for 24/7 use? someones help would be greatly appreciated.

lookus said:

.....
memory - kingston hyperx pc 6400 @ 825mhz

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First, to forum.

Assuming your CPU is a later stepping (such as GO), my guess is that you've reached the point of being memory limited since the stock speed is 800. You might give the memory more voltage to see if that helps however with DDR2 pumping memory voltage is of marginal help.

lookus said:

hi i,m new to overclocking. i am trying to reach 3.4 ghz and am currently at a stable 3.3ghz(8x412)@ 1.43 vcore(everything else set to auto) can't get stable @ 3.4 (9x400fsb) even when i increased the vcore to 1.5v.
I disabled C1E, Intel VT, Max CPUID, and CPU spread spectrum then enabled Load Line Calibration.

system -
cpu - [email protected](8x412) vcore - 1.43v
mobo-p5q deluxe (bios 1003)
memory - kingston hyperx pc 6400 @ 825mhz
cooler - thermalright ultra 120 extreme w/ noctua npf-12 fan
graphics - nvidia geforce 8600 gt-256
case - coolermaster cm 690 w/ 6x noctua npf12 fans
hdd - 2x 500gb sata
os - windows vista (32bit)
power - coolermaster real power pro 850w

how can i get to 3.4 without increasing the vcore to a level which is unsafe for 24/7 use? someones help would be greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

What is the VID, stepping, batch # of your CPU?.

So, deeppow is right on the memory thing first of all. It's really nice to be able to run unlinked at a higher FSB with some 1066 Rated RAM instead of 800. You might want to have a look around.

If you're trying to get to 3400MHz, then you're going to need to try 425x8 or 378x9, not 400x9. That will give you 3600MHz.

Try increasing your FSB voltages a bit. Like a couple of notches each. See if it makes a difference. I know it does for me when I get past 3.2V. Normally, that will be the FSB voltage, NB voltage and SB Voltage and HT voltage.
At 3600(9x400)-4000(9x445) I have these voltages a couple of notches from max. You are putting a significant overclock on the FSB too, therefore it goes to follow that you might need to increase the voltage to other mission critical components as well as to the CPU. I find this does not add alot of extra heat, but you can always turn them back down later if you figure it's not helping.

But again it would help to know your VID, so we can give you our experiences with overclocking and what you can expect regarding frequency per voltage and the associated temperatures. I personally have dealt with a 1.265 and 1.325VID and I have a 1.2000 on the way to test out. So far they have acted quite differently.

If you are running a higher VID chip you will likely reach 3.6GHz with that board, but perhaps not at a voltage or temperature that you are comfortable running 24/7.

thanks for replying. i appreciate the help and time. when i'm trying for 3.4 ghz @ 8x425fsb core temp and cpu-z say the following -

vid - 1.325v
stepping - b
revision - go
batch no - ??? (how would i find this?)

also what is the best bios version. i had 1003 but then i saw it was pulled because it was to buggy. so now i have reverted back to 0803. opinions?

thanks again.

Batch number is on the cpu box but it won't help you know it.

As meionm said, don't worry about the batch #. I'm not sure what the latest BIOS is for that mob but download it and flash.

Set your cpu multiplier to 9 ---- no gain in running 8 instead of the default (9). What is the max FSB you can reach? My experience is that reaching 3.2G at a stock voltage (or near to it) is within reason. Thus reaching 3.4 should be possible unless something is unusual about the particular components you have.

I was curious about the batch # to compare it with his VID. I'm interested in these types of things. I didn't say it would help him. At the very least he now knows how to find the batch # of an intel CPU, something I know I wondered about until I asked someone.

the problem with running default miltiplier and a 377 fsb is that the ram frequency options are 755 mhz or 903 (or something) mhz. i know that 900 ish is way too high for my ram and bios tells me that setting a frequency lower than 800mhz may cause system failure due to spec violation. which is exactly what happens. ie - it will not post. why is this. iwould have thought that i should be able to run ram slower(maybe at a slight performance loss). is there something i can adjust to allow my ram to do this? thanks again for the help.

lookus, I'm not sure why your board produces the message it does. I've run memory slower than spec much of the time when using Intel chipsets. Maybe you have some conflicit in the settings you're using.

To keep a solution simple, I suggest you reset the memory settings to auto in the bios. Hopefully this'll solve the boot problem. If not reset all the bios settings back to default.

Next, work your FSB up with increased cpu voltage as needed --- typical overclocking approach. How high can you go with the FSB?

With your components, a very common target point could be FSB=400 using a cpu mult=9. These of course result in a memory speed of 800.

i tried for my max. fsb. i ran the mulpiplier at 6x which gave me a fsb of 1600 mhz and stable. maybe my ram is the problem . in the bios booklet it states the qualified vendors lists of rams. mine is not listed. how important is this?my bios will only post if i run my ram at 800mhz or a little over( ie 825mhz)i have tried 9x 400 @ 3.6 ghz (with ram at 801mhz) but my system crashes. says it has shut down to prevent damage and something about incompatible hardware.thats at 1.5v in cpu-z. which is way too high.

so how important is this qualified vendors list thing?

I tend to not pay much attention to the "qualified vendor list" since it isn't unusual to find several major vendors and their components that are not on the list. My approach to memory selection is pretty simply,
1) stick with one of the major brands (e.g. OCZ, Mushkin, Corsair, plus others) that meets my needs including speed, storage, etc.
2) check with other users such as those in the memory forum here at OCforums to see if problems have been experienced with the memory, motherboard, cpu combo.
This approach doesn't guarantee that you'll be problem free since you can always get a bad component but it does help guard against known conflicts that can exist.

Question: when you say you're stable at 400 with a cpu multiplier of 6, what are you using to test stability? To any extent, test using Prime95 with large FFTs. If this is stable then I would conclude the memory is fine and the problem lies with either the NB or the CPU (or their bios settings).

lookus you might try this:

CPU Voltage: 1.45
CPU GTL Voltage Reference: AUTO
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.56
FSB Termination Voltage: 1.26
DRAM Voltage: set 1 knotch below what your sticks are rated
NB Voltage: 1.26 or 1.28
SBridge Voltage: Auto
PCIE SATA Voltage: Auto

If this does the trick, after you get the speed you want, start dropping them one at a time to find what you need.

Also, try this:
FSB Strap to North Bridge: Auto
DRAM Frequency: keep at or close to 800

That is all I can think of while at work and connot see all the bios options. This board has a bunch of them and they all matter somewhat.