Clocking my Kentsfield Q6600 to 3.0ghz

Hi, Im trying to get my Q6600 cpu to 3.0ghz and running at all the right settings so im looking for any advice from those in the know,
My board is a Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R which is the older P35 chipset,
The bios allows me to use auto and manual settings,this is what im getting by hitting the auto/lowest OC setting, Is there anything wrong with these settings that i should change?vid to high? 3.0ghz is all i want it clocked to but want to insure settings are all ok..

For only a 3.0GHz clock (600MHz overclock) w/ a G0 stepping Q6600, the Vcore shouldn't need to be any higher than the VID, which in your case is 1.325v.

Cheers,so cpuid is showing 1.376 v do i need to lower it in bios? or should i up the bus speed a bit more to get 3.20 3.40ghz,what mhz should be set to reach 3.20? It is on auto clockk atm and i had to change spd setting as it was oc ing my ram which i didnt want to do.

Well there's a little more to it than just lowering the Vcore. Lower the Vcore to 1.325v, then run Prime blend to check for stability (objective: no failed threads / workers). If Prime passes, then again lower the Vcore (2 steps at a time) and re-run Prime. Keep lowering the Vcore until one or more threads fail, then bump the Vcore to the previous setting that passed Prime. The objective is the lowest Vcore possible for a given clock.

Ok so il go into my bios change from auto to manual and change the Vcore down to 1.325 then run the blend test,how long should i let that run? if it passes is it ok to just stick with 1.325v ,I understand the lower you can get the volts the better/cooler running etc,So what cpuid is saying is what my volts are now and is to high?

Yes the voltage is too high, as is for the most part normal when the Vcore is set to Auto. Let Prime run for approx. 1/2 hour on each setting, just to give you an initial indication of stability. After Prime fails, just raise the Vcore to the last Prime stable setting and let it run for a longer period of time.

I will post back results after tests etc.Thank you for your advice much appreciated

Ok sorted the vid to stock 1.325 and upped a 003 on the bus speed to 336 on this vid,now getting just over the 3.0 i wanted and going by cpuid the core volts dont go over 1.280,everything seams good but still have to run prime,but thinking of oc ing just a bit more say 340 bus speed maybe?..(starting to get the bug i think)
So my qusetion is dose this look about right before i do a prime test? cheers redduc900 for your help

Getting an error on core 2,prob my PSU all the time the test ran cpu volts never went past 1.28,prime reports [Jan 12 22:16] Test 7, 120000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M753663 using type-1 FFT length 40K, Pass1=32, Pass2=1280.
[Jan 12 22:17] Test 8, 120000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M745473 using type-1 FFT length 40K, Pass1=32, Pass2=1280.
[Jan 12 22:18] FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.49609375, expected less than 0.4
[Jan 12 22:18] Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
[Jan 12 22:18] Torture Test completed 36 tests in 38 minutes - 1 errors, 0 warnings.
core number 2.. error could this be my PSU?

Get your actual loaf voltage to 1.325. Try adding load line calibration (set to high) to.compensate for vrdoop.

EarthDog said:

Get your actual loaf voltage to 1.325. Try adding load line calibration (set to high) to.compensate for vrdoop.

Click to expand...

Thank you can you explian a bit more plz,my bios is set to 1.325v but everything is only saying im getting 1.28.do i need to up it in my bios from my vid setting?

So it looks like you idle at 1.28 even though you set it to 1.35? If so, that is vdrop (difference in what u set in the bios to idle in windows). What does the voltage drop to under load (vdroop)? The goal is to get it to 1.325v load. Ideally, to make it easy, you do now want vdroop. To minimize vrdroop find the Load Line Calibration setting in your bios and set it to high or enabled and see what that does. Between the VID and the LLC, again, you want 1.325v load.

Try setting your CPU voltage (CPU Vcore) to 1.35V in the bios then see what CPUID Hardware Monitor and CPU-Z say your voltage is at idle and under load.

I say that because that's the setting that my Q6600 needed to be stable at 3GHz with my Gigabyte board (GA-G33M-DS2R). Required voltage varies from one CPU to another, but that should get you closer.

Looks like your level of vDrop is the same as on my board (0.06V). So I'd probably bet that under load your vCore is dropping down to around 1.25V.

Also, what EarthDog said is accurate. I'm not sure though if your board has LLC, not all LGA775 boards did (mine doesn't).

Cheers both that clears vdrop up for me,my min/idle is1.264 and maxing at 1.280,No i dont have LLC settings,I just upped my volt settings in bios by 6 steps up the pre listed settings to 1.35625 volts(which is the settings you used Tech Tweaker?) now im idling at 1.296 jumping up to 1.312,so looks like my max volts is 1.312,,do i need to get my volts up any more? dose my volts need to not go over the vid or do i need to set it so it idles on 1.350? (my vid)cheers

As I said above, your goal is 1.325 volts under load. Make that happen and see where.you stand with stability then.

Ok upped my bios cpu volts again to 1.37500 cpuid now says 1.328 and drops to 1.312 when in windows idle,if i go lower v in bios i get 1.312 highest,Its imposibale for me to hit my vid 1.3250,I cant manauly enter and number i have to select from a list of set volts,cpuid HM says its at 1.33v cpuid z says 1.328v.
Im confused now are these V's to high now? heres screen shots.These volts ok now? if i fails prime would i need to up volts or down them? Thanks again for your help.

Fails prime, raise the voltage. You do not have to exact on them. 1.325 was just a starting point. You may need more, or less.

Please also see the C2D/C2Q(what you have) overclocking guide...http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=515316

Geobuzby said:

Cheers both that clears vdrop up for me,my min/idle is1.264 and maxing at 1.280,No i dont have LLC settings,I just upped my volt settings in bios by 6 steps up the pre listed settings to 1.35625 volts(which is the settings you used Tech Tweaker?) now im idling at 1.296 jumping up to 1.312,so looks like my max volts is 1.312,,do i need to get my volts up any more? does my volts need to not go over the vid or do i need to set it so it idles on 1.350? (my vid)cheers

Click to expand...

I should have been more clear in my response.

I had sent 1.350V in my bios, but in my OS when I opened up Hardware Monitor I saw 1.31V max at idle and 1.26V minimum under load. I had my overclock settings at 9x333MHz for 3GHz with a 3x multiplier on my memory for an effective memory clock speed of 1000MHz (because my memory is rated to 1066MHz). I ran it that way for months and it was fully stable (tested with prime95 for three hours to verify stability and it had no errors or warning messages).

Seems your board handles vDroop better than mine does because I was seeing a greater difference between my idle and load voltages.

No, your voltage doesn't necessarily need to go over the vid of the chip. It's just a matter of finding what voltage setting it will be stable at. Perhaps it will require more voltage than the vid, or it could be less (as in my case), or it might be the same as the vid. Trial and error. Took me a couple hours of testing before I found the magic number for my PC to be stable at the given overclock.

Really my testing methodology is to find the exact minimum voltages my computer requires to be completely 100% stable. There's no reason to give it more than it needs, because that can increase the heat (temperatures) needlessly.

Its me confusing things lol..set my bios to 1.3750 and cuidz says 1.312 jumping to 1.328 in idle some times showing 296,but on 100% testing of all cores volts stay at 1.296 all the time.So thinking i had to match my vid i just kept upping bios so im going to lower it to 1.296 or there about.

Just find the lowest stable voltage. Arbitrarily raising or lowering without testing is not helping to reach your goal...