Odd overclocking a q9650

[(G{in}[AK)TION]]

well i do see a setting called "CPU LLC" and its currently set to 1.5v. should i raise that to 1.6? i know the dangers if setting it too high.

 

[maxfly]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?197802-Retail-Q9650-Overclocking-Thread happened upon this tonight. itll take you a couple years to read through it but should help you hit 4.0

 

[EarthDog]

well i do see a setting called "CPU LLC" and its currently set to 1.5v. should i raise that to 1.6? i know the dangers if setting it too high.

Nope. You should just see an optiion that says Load Line Calibration and it has levels, not voltage.

 

[Johan45]

Makes me wonder if it's PLL he's referring to

 

[(G{in}[AK)TION]]

Whoops, yeah your right johan its PLL.

 

[EarthDog]

So, do you have an LLC setting on that board? Is it using the latest bios, right?

 

[(G{in}[AK)TION]]

yeah it has the latest bios but there is no such option in bios. i just checked all over.

kind of makes me wish i put more time and effort in finding a good board.

 

[Johan45]

The Vdroop is quite normal I had to mod my x38 Formula to keep my voltage more in-line with BIOS settings

PLL is usually CPU specific some like it higher some lower. You likely need to add some voltage to the MCH/NB as I suggested earlier

 

[(G{in}[AK)TION]]

Does adding voltage to North bridge actually decrease vdrooo? Because when I had all voltages set manually to stock I experienced no crashes when I was stress testing at 445mhz

 

[Johan45]

Oh, I thought you were still seeing instabilities. No it won't help the V_Droop

 

[EarthDog]

Does adding voltage to North bridge actually decrease vdrooo? Because when I had all voltages set manually to stock I experienced no crashes when I was stress testing at 445mhz

The NB isn't part of the CPU as it is with modern processors. They are not related. Vcore is Vcore in this case.

 

[(G{in}[AK)TION]]

I was already thinking of getting another board...but then i found this forum

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?194136-BIOSTAR-IP45-Vdrop-mod

it seems like some people have also found a way, but it doesnt involve a pencil. All i wish to do is get rid of vdroop since it drops the vcore on my board down from 1.368v to 1.320v. If i can find a way to just bridge with just a piece of wire or solder, then ima go work on my solder-fu.

Also, it seems like i can push my e8400 on this board way above 4.10ghz if i had better ram.

But when it comes to the Q9650 i can also do the same but cores 2 and 3 will be at 2.5ghz for some reason (if i leave intel Speed step off).

 

[EarthDog]

Also, it seems like i can push my e8400 on this board way above 4.10ghz if i had better ram.

Yep, the board, most boards can clock FSB higher with a dual... its less stress as mentioned earlier. That and the game of FSB with memory and overclocking etc... welcome (back) to Penryn!!!!

But when it comes to the Q9650 i can also do the same but cores 2 and 3 will be at 2.5ghz for some reason (if i leave intel Speed step off).

Not entirely sure why that happens... are you certain they are runing at 2.5GHz? Can you confirm with a different piece of software... that doesn't make sense to me...

 

[Johan45]

If you're not benching it and don't really need the headroom or it's not making it unstable why bother with the hard mod. There's a good chance you could kill it

 

[(G{in}[AK)TION]]

@EarthDog

Which piece of software do you recommend? or which one do you usually use?

@Johan45

Because why not if i can pull it off with something as easy with a pencil mod or simple soldering job?

 

[EarthDog]

Hwmonitor, Hwinfo, OCCT will show all cores...

Because why not if i can pull it off with something as easy with a pencil mod or simple soldering job?

Another reason is .04 droop isn't that bad in the first place and can easily be overcome by adding a bit more vcore. Also, is it vdrop or vdroop, they are two different things... One is the difference between the bios setting and idle in windows (drop), the other is the difference between idle and load (vdroop).

 

[(G{in}[AK)TION]]

The first two pictures you see are with intel Speed step disabled





And in this picture, this is with intel speed step enabled.


So what do you think? I also have an Asrock G31m-s board laying around here. i can test the processor in that board to see if somethings not right with the biostar or the processor.

 

[Johan45]

If you haven't soldered before then tr it first on something broken.
To test how many cores are working I would use something like Cinebench R15. The score difference will be pretty obvious

 

[(G{in}[AK)TION]]

q9650 is left clocked at 3.8ghz.

with Speed step enabled i get a score of 403cb in cinebench R15

And with speed step disabled my score is 340CB.

 

[Johan45]

Definitely something wonky going on with that BIOStar board IMO. It might just be their BIOS but that's really not how it's supposed to work