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help oc q9300 on 790i ultra

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elitegoliath

Registered
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Greetings all, I am new here and am new to overclocking. I have done a lot of research, watched videos, but now am in need of real people help. Here is what I am working with:
Windows 7 Ultimate
Intel core 2 quad q9300 2.5Ghz
nForce 790i Ultra
XFX Nvidea 9800 GTX 512mb sli X2
Mushkin Enhanced DDR3 2g X2
Koolance liquid cooling for CPU and GPUs.
Temp at all times even during testing does not rise above 45c according to koolance gauges.

What I was able to do is increase my FSB (unlinked) from 1333 to 1400 with Auto settings on voltages. This has given me:
1400/4 X 7.5 = 2.63 Ghz
Vcore = 1.3 (auto)

Memory was set to 1066
7
7
7
20
1T
Voltage= 1.5 (auto)

Here is my issue. I have tried the slow and steady way of increasing FSB after taking Vcore and memory off auto and making manual minor adjustments. I know the auto settings over calculate but it seems no matter what, even if i change the settings to 1.3v manual, my system becomes unstable. I can increase FSB by about 10 to 20 but my system begins to become unstable. I am a bit lost as to what to do now because I am fairly certain I can to at least 3.5 GHz but I cannot achieve anything higher. I was able to slowly get it up to about 2.8 ghz but the entire time I was able to get to desktop but none of my drivers worked for my gfx cards and things were buggy. I would need to get my paper from home to give you these settings. Thank you for taking time to help this noobsauce. =D
 
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Don't set the vCore and RAM voltage on auto.
What is your RAM rated at - timmings, speed etc?
Also whats your QPI voltage, I'd try 1,35 just to be sure if I were you.
And some people have better luck with Load Line Calibration set to Enabled so enable it, if disabled.
 
Thank you Mario1, when I get home I will check these settings and make changes. I will also get my meory specs to you then as well. Since auto has my voltage settings at 1.3v for core, and 1.5v for mem, where do you think is a good ball park area to set them manually to? (mem min. is 1.5).
 
I'd put 1,35 on the vCore just to be sure the CPU would get enough power under OC and after you get a stable overclock you can lower it a little bit and see if its still stable.
1,35vCore would get you to 3,1ghz easily.
If your ram is rated at ermm lets say 1600mhz, put it to 1333mhz so under the 3,1ghz OC it would still run @ +/- 1600mhz.
 
Thanks again Mario1. I will do that later and let you know how that goes. Also, do you happen to know the equation for calculating the mem mhz?
 
Thanks again Mario1. I will do that later and let you know how that goes. Also, do you happen to know the equation for calculating the mem mhz?

Well you just need to know how ratios work.
If your CPU is running @ 800mhz rated FSB and your RAM ratio is 1:2 (FSB:DRAM) than your ram is running @ 400mhz, to get the effective clock you multiply it by 2, because DDR stands for Double Data Rate so 400x2 = 800mhz.
 
Ok my memory is speced at:
7-7-6-18 1.85-1.95V
1600 MHz

My QPI is on Auto btw, I will try changing it later.

When I set this up, I will set this at 1333 like you suggested, and at about what voltage do you think would be safe to start around? Oh, the LLC option is hiding from me. I went all over my bios looking for it but it's either tucked away somewhere I do not know or it is also called something different. As far as the ratio, thank you, I understand now. Ok, I am going to go run some more tests. I am really appreciating your help so far.
 
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Ok, I was not able to bring it to a stable condition using the following settings:
FSB 1600/4*7.5= 3,000
Mem 1333
Voltages:
CPU Core: 1.5v
CPU FSB: 1.3v (auto)
Memory: 1.85v
nForce SPP: 1.35 (auto)
nForce MCP: 1.5v (auto)

Memory timing:
7-7-7-20-1T

When I kept all the settings the same but backed the FSB down to 1500 I got the windows loading screen before I Blue screened, but at 1600 it would get the corrupted windows error over and over. I returned my PC back to the settings from before and everything is back to working. It seems like no mater what, anything higher than 1400 starts to get unreliable. But I am not skilled at troubleshooting OC yet so with your help I know it can be done. =D

EDIT: Ok, I was getting very suspicious so I decided to run some tests on my hardware. I started with Prime95, which yielded errors right from the start. So I looked it up online and found that Memtest is a good place to start. So I cranked it up and had more errors right from the start. So I tried changing the mem voltage a little and things were not getting any better so I JUMPERed my BIOS and figured it would be a good idea to test from fresh settings. I still got errors. So I moved my memory to different slots and suddenly it said I only had 2G RAM vice 4. So I moved them again and I was back to 4 and so far have gotten 0 errors on memtest. Apparently the left most 2 slots for memory on my mobo either don't work with only 2 sticks, or are both corrupted somehow. After I finish fully testing them I am going to try again with your settings and let you know if it yields any results.

EDIT 2: I also had a very old version of the BIOS that I swore I had updated. This is also helping.... -_-
 
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Ok, I ran some tests. I was able to increase the FSB from 1333 to 1360 with successful stress tests on the memory which has been giving me the biggest issue. I am keeping it at 1066 for now until I can get the CPU up there. At 1360 FSB it would not matter what core or mem voltage i put it at, it will not take. i also tried to put the vtt up a notch (I believe that is QTI? I read a document here on this website that basically said that I am fairly certain) but it still isn't making my memory stable. Oh, and I still can't find out where to access the Load Line Calibration options anywhere in my BIOS. I could really use some more advice.
 
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Ok, I ran some tests. I was able to increase the FSB from 1333 to 1360 with successful stress tests on the memory which has been giving me the biggest issue. I am keeping it at 1066 for now until I can get the CPU up there. At 1360 FSB it would not matter what core or mem voltage i put it at, it will not take. i also tried to put the vtt up a notch (I believe that is QTI? I read a document here on this website that basically said that I am fairly certain) but it still isn't making my memory stable. Oh, and I still can't find out where to access the Load Line Calibration options anywhere in my BIOS. I could really use some more advice.

Load Line Calibration should be labeled LCC, also making your RAM work @ 1066mhz means that it would run @ 1066mhz @ stock CPU settings, but will the speed will increase when you OC your CPU.
So be sure to check your RAM speeds via CPU-Z where it says RAM frequency or something like that you multiply it x2 to get your effective RAM clock.
 
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