Help With overclocking Q9550 please.

[SinisterRellik]

I built a new rig a while ago and this is my first quad core setup. Im having alot of trouble overclocking my q9550.
Heres what i got in my tower.
Evga 790i ultra sli mobo
intel q9550
zalman 9700 cpu heatsink
6gb of ocz reaper hpc 1333 (pc3 10666)
Coolermaster real power 1000w psu
2x evga 9800gtx+

At first i had problems with the ram timings, but after talking to a tech at OCz, ive got the ram running pretty smooth now.
SO after i got that stable i started on the q9550.
Ive got the multiplier at 8x and the n/2 enabled which makes it 8.5x
I updated the board bios to the new p07 version.
The computer runs stable with the fsb at [email protected] stock.
I cant even get it to run stable at 3.0ghz. Most of the bios settings for the cpu ive kept at auto.
Ive been running the memory and cpu unlinked. I dont wanna go overboard with the overclocking . id be satisfied with maybe 3.2ghz.
Even if it set the fsb to 1400. Windows wont load and it keeps restarting until i lower the fsb back to 1333.
Everywhere i go im seeing people saying their getting the q9550 to 3.6ghz or more on good air cooling. At this point id be happy with an even 3.0.
Im wondering if i should raise the voltage, and thats where im seeking some guidance. Anyone familiar with this cpu able to give me some recommendations?
Before i put the 9550 i had a e8400 that i had overclocked and stable at 3.4ghz easily...
Perhaps there is something im overlooking so i thought someone could help me out here. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[SinisterRellik]

Well, i did what some had recommended on here and checked out the indepth quad core overclocking guide on Tom's hardware. Ive learned alot more about quad overclocking now and im slowly on the way to gettin this thing running good. Since im using 1333mhz memory and cpu, i synced them and am slowly upping the fsb while following the appropriate voltage guidelines. So far ive got the cpu running at 2.95ghz from the stock 2.83, and following what i read, the computer is already running faster and more stable then it ever has. Everytime i start up i run HWMonitor,cpuz,and a few other progs. Im keeping an eye on voltages and temps. I restart ,up the fsb another 10mghz and keep going at that pace.
Still, if anyone has any recommendations, id appreciate your input. Ill let ya know how fast i get this baby running....

 

[karkas]

Sorry to burst your bubble but that DDR3 is only rated at a 333 FSB. You are probably going to struggle getting that CPU much higher than 3ghz (8.5 X 353).

I'm sure that RAM cost a lot, but you prolly need DDR3 1800+ to get that CPU to 4ghz... Thats a crap load of money. If you can return that memory you have, I would swap it for some faster stuff. Otherwise you could run them unlinked, increase timings, increase voltage or all 3....

Honestly the easiest/best thing to do is just bite the bullet and get different RAM.

 

[SinisterRellik]

I was actually just going to post something about that.
Yeah i got the computer running almost perfectly stable at 3.08ghz. It started up fast, windows loaded fast, just a few progs have been slightly more laggy then normal when opening them. I probably need to tweak the memory timings a little or the cpu voltages. I suppose its trial and error from this point on.
Yeah, after i started reading more into it, i realized that i wont be able to oc this cpu much more with this ram. I knew i should just went for the 1600 i was gonna get at first. I dunno if i can return these to newegg anymore. Ive had em for probably 2 months now.
Sadly i already more then broke the bank building this rig,so i dont have the money to risk frying anything.I wasnt planning to go crazy with the overclocking. My goal was originally to get to 3.2ghz. but now,with this memory, i dont think that will be attainable. Only thing i can think of now is perhaps selling this 6 gigs of ram to someone and investing in a 4gb kit of faster ram. Sadly i dont know many friends running ddr3 memory.
That was the other thought i had. One of the techs from ocz recommended that i take out the 2 sticks of 1 gig memory (because im running a 4gb kit and a 2gb kit, 2x 2gig sticks in the the first channel and 2x 1gb sticks in the other) and just run the the 4, and that i would be able to attain higher timings that way. What do you guys think? Should i sacrifice the 2 gigs and go for better timing?

 

[||Console||]

he has a NV chipset he can unlink the ram and run it @ stock sppeds and just clock the CPU

 

[Aztroth]

tbh, you dont really need 6 gigs for anything... not yet anyways. also, if you wanna tweak the processor higher, I would suggest unlinking it from the ram like suggested above, and then adjust the voltage, timings and fsb for the ram individually. its a little more time consuming, but it gives you much better results.

 

[karkas]

I probably need to tweak the memory timings a little or the cpu voltages.

I don't think adding to CPU volts will help you. Increasing the timings and mem volts might buy you some more FSB room though.

I suppose its trial and error from this point on.

Yes, you can also try running the memory unlinked, though this often doesn't buy you much of a performance increase.

Yeah, after i started reading more into it, i realized that i wont be able to oc this cpu much more with this ram. I knew i should just went for the 1600 i was gonna get at first. I dunno if i can return these to newegg anymore. Ive had em for probably 2 months now.

Yeah, I dunno

Sadly i already more then broke the bank building this rig,so i dont have the money to risk frying anything.

Thats the problem with DDR3 sadly, DDR2 woulda cost ya 1/4 the price and still gave you faster RAM

One of the techs from ocz recommended that i take out the 2 sticks of 1 gig memory (because im running a 4gb kit and a 2gb kit, 2x 2gig sticks in the the first channel and 2x 1gb sticks in the other) and just run the the 4, and that i would be able to attain higher timings that way. What do you guys think? Should i sacrifice the 2 gigs and go for better timing?

I don't have any experience with running memory like that so I'm not really sure. If its the same memory I don't see what the problem is with increasing the timings. It's certainly worth a try while trying to attain a higher OC, then you can add them in later when you think you have maxed out... must confess though, I'm not really sure.

GL and keep us informed

 

[SinisterRellik]

Cool, thanks for the info guys. Its been a while for me since ive really been into overclocking. But the opportunity to build a badass rig finally presented itself, and i did the best i could with my available credit.
Anyhow, i linked the ram and cpu together while doing all of this ,because for some reason, beforehand, i couldnt get the cpu to overclock at all. I tried just running the memory at 1333 , and just ocing the cpu, but it just wouldnt go. I linked them and slowy upped them both as i went up. Now that i got things running more stable and the cpu is over 3ghz. im going to unlink them and take the extra time to tweak them both separately.
Ive always stuck with ocz with my builds, and theyve always treated me well. Im thinking perhaps ill try to sell this ram and get the 4gb 1600mhz kit to replace them. They are about the best i could afford i think. The price just jumps up way too much for the 1800 memory. Newegg has 1600 reapers for 250$ plus a rebate, 1800 jumps the price up to almost 400....

 

[SinisterRellik]

Rofl, i just realized your comment on the bottom of your posts ||console||
hahaha thats funny stuff man...

 

[SinisterRellik]

Well. im not sure what happened, but heres where im stuck at for today. i tried to just run the 4 gig kit in here and started up the computer. I kept the memory at loose timings just for starters. WIndows would be extremely sluggish and eventually crash. ALso in the midst of overclocking today i started to get a "windows host process rundll32 has stopped working" error upon startup every time, even when the computer was running really stable and fast. And my nvidia control panel stops working when i try to start it up too. I had saved the stock profile,put the 2 gigs back in, and loaded it up. Windows is running, but kinda sluggish, and im still getting the rundll32 and nvidia control panel errors. I tried to update control panel too and i got some kinda error.
Everything was fine last night, and i dont see how my slight overclocking would cause such a problem ,especially when set back to stock settings.
I cant understand why i cant get the computer running like it was @3.02ghz before i took the extra 2 gigs of memory out and then put them back in. Everything is now the same as it was when it ran beautifully before.
Everywhere i look online people are saying they get the rundll32 error for completely unrelated situations from mine, such as errors with Nero and such.
Also, no matter what i try, i cant seem to run overclocked in anything other then linked and synced mode. If i run unlinked and keep the cpu and memory settings exactly the same as they were synced, it doesnt work, the computer runs very sluggishly.
If i was running higher mhz ram, it wouldnt matter, but right now i can only push the cpu and memory linked to [email protected]. I really do seem to be limited because of my memory only being 10666. Ah well. Tomorrow ill set the fsb an memory linked to 1333mhz again and slowly go up again until i reach 3ghz stable again i suppose....*sigh*

 

[SinisterRellik]

Well. its 6am i havent slept yet, but im an insomniac, so its ok lol.
I got the computer running stable again at 3ghz. Its running even better then before.
Ive done more research avidly trying to catch up on my overclocking info.
Ive been using several programs to help out. Prime95,memtest86+,Hwmonitor just to name a few.
I really want to run the torture test for a good 9 hrs while i sleep at night ,but the thought of leaving my cpu and memory load at 100% all night doesnt sit well with me.
I know its a highly recommended program, and some people even run it for 24hrs strait saying that sometimes it wont find errors until the 16-20th hour, but is it really safe to have such a heavy load on the cpu for so long?
with my current settings, i let it run for an hour while i watched some tv. It found no errors and with hwmonitor open, the cpu never went over 58c. I dunno its just that this is probably the most ive ever spent building a computer and frying something would probably crush my soul atm lol.
So,Im sure some of you guys gotta be familair with prime. Maybe you can give me some pointers? Also, i tried looking around, my prime didnt come with a stress.txt in the download,nor a readme, and there are many options in the program i dont quite understand yet. Every download ive found just has prime.exe in it and when i extract it to a folder and install, im not seeing those help files. Could anyone hook me up with a link that has all the files included so i could start learning more about the prog? Thanks.

 

[karkas]

If you are worried about frying something don't go to sleep with it running, just rent some DVD's, let it run and check on it every hour or so to make sure its fine.

If your temps have been fine you prolly have nothing to worry about, but I can understand your apprehension.

There should be a "torture test" option in prime95, then you can pick "blend" or "small ffts." I forget exactly and I'm at work now so no access to check my own.

You could also run OCCT, I think tahts only like a 2 hr test.

 

[jason4207]

Sorry to burst your bubble but that DDR3 is only rated at a 333 FSB. You are probably going to struggle getting that CPU much higher than 3ghz (8.5 X 353).

I'm sure that RAM cost a lot, but you prolly need DDR3 1800+ to get that CPU to 4ghz... Thats a crap load of money. If you can return that memory you have, I would swap it for some faster stuff. Otherwise you could run them unlinked, increase timings, increase voltage or all 3....

Honestly the easiest/best thing to do is just bite the bullet and get different RAM.

Ummm...No....

DDR3-1333 runs at 667MHz. Unless you get your FSB up to 667MHz you have nothing to worry about. When you run DDR3, you typically run higher memory dividers like 2:1, but you don't actually have to. If he ran that memory 1:1 he'd have unlimited headroom for FSB OCing.

I don't think adding to CPU volts will help you. Increasing the timings and mem volts might buy you some more FSB room though.


Yes, you can also try running the memory unlinked, though this often doesn't buy you much of a performance increase.



Yeah, I dunno


Thats the problem with DDR3 sadly, DDR2 woulda cost ya 1/4 the price and still gave you faster RAM



I don't have any experience with running memory like that so I'm not really sure. If its the same memory I don't see what the problem is with increasing the timings. It's certainly worth a try while trying to attain a higher OC, then you can add them in later when you think you have maxed out... must confess though, I'm not really sure.

GL and keep us informed

DDR3 doesn't help any on the 775 platform except in benchmarks, but it definitely doesn't hurt. DDR2 is not faster, but it is a lot cheaper.

If you are worried about frying something don't go to sleep with it running, just rent some DVD's, let it run and check on it every hour or so to make sure its fine.

If your temps have been fine you prolly have nothing to worry about, but I can understand your apprehension.

There should be a "torture test" option in prime95, then you can pick "blend" or "small ffts." I forget exactly and I'm at work now so no access to check my own.

You could also run OCCT, I think tahts only like a 2 hr test.

I wouldn't recommend a DVD stress test to confirm stability. P95 small fft overnight for the CPU, OCCT custom 2hr RAM test for the NB/RAM, and memtest for the RAM. Once you get all 3 of those stable, drop your FSB another 5MHz, and you should be golden.

 

[karkas]

Ummm...No....

DDR3-1333 runs at 667MHz. Unless you get your FSB up to 667MHz you have nothing to worry about. When you run DDR3, you typically run higher memory dividers like 2:1, but you don't actually have to. If he ran that memory 1:1 he'd have unlimited headroom for FSB OCing.

Well I'll defer to jason's superior experience here. I've never personally used DDR3 but I coulda' swore everything I read said you that it ran at 4x FSB speed like the intel CPU.

I apologise if I'm spreading mis-information here...

DDR3 doesn't help any on the 775 platform except in benchmarks, but it definitely doesn't hurt. DDR2 is not faster, but it is a lot cheaper.

I know DDR2 isn't faster than DDR3. I was going off of the false assumption that the DDR3 was only rated at a 333 FSB whereby ddr2 1000 would be rated at 500FSB. So in that sense I was saying "faster."

I wouldn't recommend a DVD stress test to confirm stability. P95 small fft overnight for the CPU, OCCT custom 2hr RAM test for the NB/RAM, and memtest for the RAM. Once you get all 3 of those stable, drop your FSB another 5MHz, and you should be golden.

I wasn't talking about a DVD stress test... he said he was afraid to leave the rig running overnight unattended while he slept.... I was suggesting he rent some DVD's and chill at home while he stability tested.

 

[jason4207]

Well I'll defer to jason's superior experience here. I've never personally used DDR3 but I coulda' swore everything I read said you that it ran at 4x FSB speed like the intel CPU.

I apologise if I'm spreading mis-information here...




I know DDR2 isn't faster than DDR3. I was going off of the false assumption that the DDR3 was only rated at a 333 FSB whereby ddr2 1000 would be rated at 500FSB. So in that sense I was saying "faster."


I wasn't talking about a DVD stress test... he said he was afraid to leave the rig running overnight unattended while he slept.... I was suggesting he rent some DVD's and chill at home while he stability tested.

No problem man....sorry if I came off as arrogant.

Just to clarify...The bus speed is your base clock or FSB speed. The FSB has 4 lanes, so it is considered quad-pumped. Sometimes you'll see the FSB speed expressed at it's actual speed, and sometimes you'll see it expressed at it's rated or effective speed. A 333MHz FSB has an effective speed of 1333MHz. I usually don't type 'MHz' when referring to the effective speed since there really isn't a clock signal switching at that speed. So, I'll say 333Mhz or 1333FSB.

RAM runs at the same speed as the FSB when in the 1:1 ratio. DDR is Double Data Rate, so it's able to send data on the rising and falling edge of each clock tick. So when in 1:1, and at 333Mhz bus DDR runs at 333Mhz, or at DDR2-667 effective speed.

That's why you don't need fast RAM to run today's CPU's. Even the QX9770 w/ its 400FSB only needs DDR2-800 to run stock. Anything above that is just gravy, and you can either run it 1:1 w/ tight timings or shoot for higher speeds using memory dividers, and looser timings. DDR2 and DDR3 are basically the same thing except that DDR3 is capable of higher speeds. They both are double data rate. You might have seen screenshots where someone had the RAM running 4x the bus speed. In this case the 2:1 divider was used, but by no means is this required.

LOL about the DVD thing! I was pretty drunk last night!

 

[kenk2008]

HI All!

Thought I would post here instead of starting a new thread since I have a 9550 also.

I'm set to start ramping up my speed and was wondering what the max I should be looking for with this CPU. I would like to get it at 4.0. Is it possible with this CPU (running at 3.4 now)? I have a C1 version of the CPU.

And if anyone has the DFI DK X-38T2R MB and this CPU what have you been able to achieve? And at what settings?

Thanks for any help!

Best regards,
Ken

 

[SinisterRellik]

Thanks for all the help and advice guys. And thanks for reassuring me on my ram jason. For a min there i was all bummed out and was ready to sell off my 1333mhz ram for some 1600 or 1800. But i should be ok with this? I got the computer running pretty stable at 3.02ghz (i know thats nothing big) but with all the trouble i was having at first, its nice to break 3ghz and have the computer actually turn on lol. I just downloaded OCCT and im going to run that in a few. Everything is running great so far, the only weird problem ive noticed is that upon first startup, some progs seem a little laggy to load. such as my firewall,gadgets,and a few startup programs. It almost seems like after the computer "warms up" that everything gets faster. I havent gotten todo any long term oc testing yet, but im sure its something that just needs a little tweaking. I left my comp on all day and night yesterday to finish up some downloads, and i left a few monitoring progs up all night to keep record. The computer ran stable and never got hot running for more then 24hrs. I feel like im at least in good range with my settings right now. I guess its just time for the fine tuning.
I just took the whole thing apart today and put in my new Zalman 9700. Its pretty sweet. Im running even cooler then before now, so im hoping for some even better overclocking!

 

[SinisterRellik]

Sweet. Finally got it running unlinked. Got the memory running at 1400mhz and the fsb at 1500! Its running at almost 3.2 ghz! woot! But im still getting the slight startup lag...
Im not sure what voltage i should be running the cpu at 3.187ghz but i think the core is at 1.235v and the fsb at 1.20v.
The memory timings are at 8-8-8-24-2t right now. I wonder if i should loosen them up a bit? I know theres something that need a little tweaking to fix this lag, but i cant figure out what. Any recommendations on a test i could run to help rule out some things and figure out what it is that needs adjustment. I dunno if its just me, but this quad core really seems to behave differently then the dual cores ive dealt with in the past and im not experienced enough yet to notice all the signs....Oh the other odd issue popping up is sometimes(not often) after adjusting some settings in the bios, when i start up, my clock doesnt have the right time and date anymore. Any ideas?

 

[SinisterRellik]

Hey guys. Havent checked in on here in a few days. Ive done some fine tuning and gotten the computer running really well. I lowered the memory back down to 1333mhz and got the timings way lower then they were at 1400. The cpu is running perfect at 3.2ghz so far and i think im feeling confident enough to aim for a little higher. Ive got nothing on "auto" anymore and that helped alot. Temps are great. the cores are running between 37 and 45C! I think i could push this to 3.4 with a little work! Again thanks for all the info and help earlier guys.

 

[karkas]

GJ man Now save those settings you know you are good at and push it higher

You should be able to hit 3.6 - 4ghz on that baby if you can keep the temps down.

Keep us informed