My OC'd Q6600 2.4GHz to 3.0GHz. 3.0+ possible?

ratbuddy said:

You should be able to hit 3.4 no problem with that cooling, and probably not a whole lot more volts. Beyond that depends on the chip. You might find the limits of the RAM before 3.4 though, so bump it down to 1:1 before you work on the CPU.

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ikix said:

my mobo is a bit weird. MSI MS 7357. It gives me an option on Ram Ratio all i have available is 1:1.25 or 1:1.50 thats its i cant set it to 1:1 unless if i set RAM to automatic maybe that is similar to 1:1 being default ne ideas?

thanks

**if you want i can try n get some pics of the bios

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ratbuddy said:

Ahh, looking at reviews and the manual, it goes by the default FSB of your processor with that board. 266 FSB means 1:1.25 is the lowest they'll let you pick. That stinks. Anything over 2880mhz/320 FSB is going to be running those DDR2-800 sticks overclocked. 3.4ghz would require the RAM to be capable of 944mhz which is by no means guaranteed.

That board does support a 1:1 ratio with a 333mhz FSB processor, and there's an easy way to give it one: tape over a single pin. It's called a BSEL mod, and the best pictures I can find of which pin to tape over are at http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t58361.html with another one at http://www.livingroomfun.info/blog/20081119/hardware-overclock-of-a-q6600-within-a-dell-xps-420/

If you're comfortable covering one little pad on the bottom of the CPU with electrical tape, that would be the way to go. Just be careful not to screw anything up

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ikix said:

oooh lol so all i have to do is cover one little pad on the bottom of the cpu...right...need to get me some electrical tape tomorrow and some razor blades as that square cutout looks tiny oh and a magnify glass lol.

ok so once i do this would i be automatically set to 3ghz by default. allowing me then too overclock upwards from 3ghz??

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ratbuddy said:

Right. The motherboard would see it as a 333x9 processor and you could take it from there.

Again, don't do this unless you are comfortable with it - I'd hate to have you break a pin or something and come looking for me

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ikix said:

so 333x9 processor at the default RAM mhz? currently im way over 800mhz. What will be the RAM mhz be once im @ default 333x9?

thanks again but i think i'll give it a bash not literally. Hopefully all goes well. Any tips you can give or things i must not do?

such as make sure the tape is exactly over the right pin.
???

**also on another thread i posted here - what do you think of a 4gb kit OCZ gold edition for £40?

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ratbuddy said:

The RAM runs at double the FSB when it's at 1:1, so you'll be at 667mhz. That gives you 66mhz headroom on the FSB before you even hit the RAM's rated speed.

Just make sure the pad is fully covered but don't cover any other ones and it'll be fine.

For the 4gb upgrade, well, depends how long you plan to keep the computer, and what you do with it. If you're running XP and don't see any paging, don't bother. On the other hand, if you can get £20 selling your current set, and are running Vista or W7, yeah, I'd go for it.

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ratbuddy said:

Ahh, looking at reviews and the manual, it goes by the default FSB of your processor with that board. 266 FSB means 1:1.25 is the lowest they'll let you pick. That stinks. Anything over 2880mhz/320 FSB is going to be running those DDR2-800 sticks overclocked. 3.4ghz would require the RAM to be capable of 944mhz which is by no means guaranteed.

That board does support a 1:1 ratio with a 333mhz FSB processor, and there's an easy way to give it one: tape over a single pin. It's called a BSEL mod, and the best pictures I can find of which pin to tape over are at http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t58361.html with another one at http://www.livingroomfun.info/blog/20081119/hardware-overclock-of-a-q6600-within-a-dell-xps-420/

If you're comfortable covering one little pad on the bottom of the CPU with electrical tape, that would be the way to go. Just be careful not to screw anything up

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ikix said:

Hi just been reading up a bit more on this MOD and was wondering if this will work on my motherboard as it says its mainly for DELL type machines? Shoulde the theory be the same?

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ratbuddy said:

People usually do it for Dell and such because there are no BIOS options for OCing. In your case, it's just so you can select a memory divider which isn't available with a 266 fsb chip. Same theory though, yeah.

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GT3mich said:

What version of Q6600 do you have? B3 or GO. I had my B3 version above 3.4 on air a few times but the Vcore was over 1.4 volts. It wasn't easy to do and I didn't like pumping that much juice into it. The GO version is a better overclocker. Now this Q9550 I have now is a sweet OCer.

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