Overclocking Striker Extreme

Hi, I have a Strike Extreme motherboard, and I can't get it to overclock.
I have read alot of FAQ's about overclocking, but no matter what settings I try, it seems my system BSOD's.

So, what I was wondering, is if I posted my specs, if I could get a reccommendation of some overclock settings that might work.
When I got a 3ghz overclock stable enough to run 3D Mark, it seemed it improved my SLI performance over stock settings, hence I was getting something like 10 FPS more.
Right now my SLI is 1/2 the FPS of single GPU and I'm hoping an overclock would allow SLI to work properly, I read CPU was the bottleneck for SLI on some website, although I don't know how correct that is. Even If it won't help SLI I would still like to overclock.

I would like to get my system as close to 4GHz as possible, AS CLOSE being the imparitive word, which in reality, with your comments/suggestions, might be 3.5 or 3 GHz.

If it is too much to ask for a personal reccomendation, that's fine, I thought I would try though, and any help at all is greatly appreciated.
If anyone knows what BIOS I should be using for the Striker for overclocking, that would be awsome.

My system specs are:

Vista 64bit Ultimate
Striker Extreme Motherboard
Q6600 B3 Stepping
4 GB 4 X 1GB OCZ 900MHz DDR2 7200 4-4-4-15 Platinum/Gold (Can't Remember)
8800GTX OC2 SLI
Creative Xfi Platinum Pro
1200W Thermaltake Toughpower
Coolit Eliminator Peltier Liquid Cooling
Cooler Master Cosmos
Lapped CPU and Heatsink
Corsair Dominator Ram Fan
Ghetto Fan Job, over 4 fans hanging by zipties
3 Raptor X in Raid 0
Hitachi "Death Star" 1TB HD



As I said, any help would be appreciated, anywhere from telling me to mess off to a complete OC profile suggestiong


Thanks for "Any help" you might throw at me.


Brodie
P.S. If this thread is too asky, ignore it, I mean no harm, I come in peace.

Gosh darnit, I just can't get a good setting past 3Ghz, although since this is my first time overclocking, I am pretty sure I could go higher if I had help.

I heard 1T was better than 2T, but I dont know what timing I should have to change to 1T.

unfortunately the striker just doesnt oc quads very well you likely wont get much more out of that mb.
1t really wont make much difference other than a few benchmarks tbh.

So CPU is not the bottleneck for SLI then?
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=127331,it

Has settings to go to atleast 3.6GHz, unfortunatly they don't work on my system it would appear.

Update:
By setting vcore to 1.675 I can get a 1560 Quad FSB to get to the loading windows screen before freezing. Would a higher VCORE help or is it something else

im sorry to say it but no matter the vcore you push thru your cpu you wont get a better oc.the striker is severely fsb limited with a quadcore.its a design flaw in the mb itself.
your best bet is to wait for the 780i/790i mbs to release and try to sell your striker and get a new mb.
if you can find someone to trade for a evga 680i a1/t1 you should be able to get a better oc but even then youll likely only be able to hit 3.6 with a evga.the 680i chipset just doesnt clock quads very well.

i would go easy on the vcore as well.you can damage your cpu if you give it too much voltage/heat.

maxfly said:

im sorry to say it but no matter the vcore you push thru your cpu you wont get a better oc.the striker is severely fsb limited with a quadcore.its a design flaw in the mb itself.
your best bet is to wait for the 780i/790i mbs to release and try to sell your striker and get a new mb.
if you can find someone to trade for a evga 680i a1/t1 you should be able to get a better oc but even then youll likely only be able to hit 3.6 with a evga.the 680i chipset just doesnt clock quads very well.

i would go easy on the vcore as well.you can damage your cpu if you give it too much voltage/heat.

Click to expand...

Darn, I guess I did'nt pick my part's well then
Thanks for the advice though
I'll try to get 3.2 before I resign myself to a peasant life of 3 Ghz
One last question, do you have any idea if I could get 3Ghz on stock Vcore, and if my board can do T1 memory settings, which I don't know a great deal about, I just heard the performance was much better. Are there any programs to monitor ram temp's, because I might have to raise the volt's to get to T1 right.

The thread that started it all, the unrealistic expectations of getting 3.6Ghz from a q6600 on a striker extreme:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=127331,it

Thanks Everybody(So far only maxfly)

ya i was seriously set on the striker but i'm oh so glad i went with the eVGA 680i a1 board instead, well until i heard that the new 45nm quads won't work on it. but i will upgrade to the 780i or what ever it may be called once it comes out.

i'm not sure what the max recommend voltage is for a q6600 is but i would not go 1.67, at least thats what i've heard.

also you have a b3 stepping which is harder to oc which might also play a role in the instability problems your having.

I will resolve myself to waiting, but if I could be reccommended a rough place to start on 1T settings for 4-4-4-15 4x1G 900Mhz memory that would be awsome!

you should be able to get them stable between 800-900mhz @1t.it just depends on your modules and mb.it may take some time to find the sweet spot tho.

Thank you, I got it to boot at 3.2GHz and 4-4-4-15 910MHz 2T 2.2V ram 1.4V CPU.

Ohhh one last question, Is a 1.4 Vcore (Windows Speedfan) Okay, or is that too high. I have to set it to 1.55 in the bios to get it.

1.4v is fine but 1.55v in the bios is awfully high for 3.2,.15v of droop is pretty big.you may want to double check the droop with asus probe or everest to be sure its correct.

Edit: It looks Like I'm going to have to up the voltages even more

Okay I think I have everything roughly ironed out.
My settings:
2.27Ghz
VCORE BIOS: 1.45
VCORE CPU-Z: 1.312V
Temperatures Core Temp Prime 95 4 Cores: About 85C a Core
Temperature Core Temp Idle: About 65C a Core
Ram: 4-4-4-15 900MHz 2.2V


The only thing I'm worried about is the temperatures, is 85C too high when running PRIME 95 4 Core Blended mode with 2400MB Memory?
Yay for a so-far stable OC

yes , 85c is too high... back off before you start a fire. 70c is the limit for most people

My temps seem to be about 45 Idle, and 80 only when I'm running prime 95 on 4 cores as I'm also running 3dmark 06 and pcmark vantage.

As long as my processor can hold out for 3 months to 1/2 a year under those temp's I'm okay with them. So comes my next question. Can my processor hold out to that level of temperature for 3 months to 1/2? I only want it to last till January/Febuary when the Q6770 is released. I know there can't be a exact answer, but I was just asking for a ballpark.

Do you think re-seating my heatsink would make a difference? I think I put way to much Artic Silver on it. Since I lapped it I heard you only need to put the littlist amount. I put 2 grains of basmati rice worth of the stuff on.

If re-seating is reccomended I would appreciate it if I could post here with a picture to make sure I do not use too much.

Thanks,

Brodie

jordon said:

yes , 85c is too high... back off before you start a fire. 70c is the limit for most people

Click to expand...

I agree. That probably is why you're getting a hard lock.

RJARRRPCGP said:

I agree. That probably is why you're getting a hard lock.

Click to expand...

Start a fire for real? Wow....
I re-seated my heatsink using almost no AS5 at all.
I clocked to 3GHz stock temperatures, and my temps are about 40/75
Since my cooler is only 125W of heat dissipation, I am contacting the company to do an upgrade to a better model.

The model I'm looking at has 250W of heat dissipation, will that be enough to cool my CPU?

Haha, I fixed my heating problem by opening a window, in -16C weather that is. Since I live in alberta, I dont need to upgrade my cooling system. Although it is a bit of a pain to have to put alot of clothes on. I'm sitting here in a full winter jacket, smartwool socks, fur slippers, ski mask, gloves, sweater, hat, and long underware

It did fix my cooling problem though, I went from being (Idle/Load) 55/90 to 15/50

Haha.... a ski mask? Lol