Overclocking the Q8200

[checkeredhat09]

Well for a good OC on your cpu you will also needa good oc on your ram seeing as 800mhz will only get you to 2.8ghz@ stock.

Well I'd just be glad to get to 2.8 at all. So to my dismay, somehow I can't even boot the system at 400 GHz FSB. In order for RAM to even be a limiting factor I would at least have to be able to run stable at 400 GHz. So RAM is a secondary concern atm. I just cant understand how all these people push 3.5 GHz and mine only survived 6 hours on Prime95 Blend at 375 MHz FSB!!!!!!

 

[checkeredhat09]

Well...now I don't think its my cpu's fault. I read somewhere online that the ASUS P5N7A-VM gets unstable at around 1500 Rated FSB. And due to my Q8200 low multi that translates to around 375 MHz....which explains Prime95 not working.

I saw online that with a C2D they got to like 3.3 GHz because that chip had a multi of 9. But with that multi, the FSB only had to be at 375 MHz.

So...maybe my mobo is choking my processor....thoughts?

 

[SamSaveMax]

Well...now I don't think its my cpu's fault. I read somewhere online that the ASUS P5N7A-VM gets unstable at around 1500 Rated FSB. And due to my Q8200 low multi that translates to around 375 MHz....which explains Prime95 not working.

I saw online that with a C2D they got to like 3.3 GHz because that chip had a multi of 9. But with that multi, the FSB only had to be at 375 MHz.

So...maybe my mobo is choking my processor....thoughts?

Pushing above 3GHz required PC8500 rams.
PC6400 rams like yours can be overclocked too. (max out around 850~890MHz)
Try 555-15 timing manually and bump its voltage to 2.1v
With that mobo....you may need to bump a lot of voltage to the NB due to its build-in graphic.

 

[Prime]

Hey guys im dabbling in this cpu.. could you guys talke a look at my thread and give me your input?
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=620256

( i guess i shoulda posted in here 1st.. sorry!)

 

[ArcturusVi]

Some concerns or thoughts.

Have this, Q8200 M1 revision.

Currently have it at 500x7 with a memory ratio of 2. Board is a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P F9 revision

I have G.Skill 1066 running at 1000 at stock memory voltages.

CPU voltage I had to get to 1.3 for stability. Anything lower, and it'd eventually crash windows, let alone prime or F@H. Temps are in the mid 40's at idle, barely getting to 50 under load of F@H. Prime gets it to near 60. HSF is a Xiggy Dark Knight, lapped, with AS5.

Speedfan shows
Temp1-40C
Temp 2-31C

I am to imagine these are the chipsets, with their voltages and bandwidth set to auto. PCI-e is locked at 100mhz as well.

Any of this sound right? Or any areas of concern or further tweaking? It's been solid for a few months, doing near 24/7 F@H or gaming. I guess this means it's stable, but do temps and voltages seem right? Thanks.

It does pass prime95 under any test for 12-16 hours. I only turn it off to do other things.

 

[kick]

its about right temps too.
Depends if you are running cpu term on auto or not you will be running v high voltages thru if you are.
temp 1 is the system temp,probably (unless you reassigned a temp value) its a little high and its not taken direct from the nb or sb,I had to install my own temp sensor for nb.
temp 2 is probably the cpu temp at idle,not cores temp.Speedfan should show those also
Personally ive gone down to 490 fsb because the voltages needed are much lower and I can still get 9gb bandwidth.
Check out tweaktown since you have a gigabyte board.

 

[ArcturusVi]

its about right temps too.
Depends if you are running cpu term on auto or not you will be running v high voltages thru if you are.
temp 1 is the system temp,probably (unless you reassigned a temp value) its a little high and its not taken direct from the nb or sb,I had to install my own temp sensor for nb.
temp 2 is probably the cpu temp at idle,not cores temp.Speedfan should show those also
Personally ive gone down to 490 fsb because the voltages needed are much lower and I can still get 9gb bandwidth.
Check out tweaktown since you have a gigabyte board.

Thanks for the tips. I got it at 3.4GHz with auto everything besides divider and memory voltage. Passed Prime for all night. Seems a lot more stable now.

 

[kick]

I used to run my UD3 with a lot of auto settings for 5-6 months.
At 490 fsb PLL V will go to 1.7V+! and cpu term to 1.6V
At 500 fsb PLL V will go to 1.8 and cpu term to like 1.65v

personally i think these are too high for long term usage and it took a lot of adjusting in bios to get PLL down to 1.57-1.6 and cpu term down to 1.34-1.37.
Save the bios setting you find stable (F11 and F12 keys for saving and loading bios).
Then load and save optimised defaults and work from there.

I loaded in the cpu ref and mch ref voltages shown with optimised defaults loaded..once you do that they will automatically increase at the right percentage as you increase the other settings.
Up to about 470 fsb people seem to be able to run voltages very close to stock after that the V's needed go up rapidly.
510 for me needs over 2.3v for memory alone:2.08 needed for 490.
Then again my 800mhz mem wont go much above 1000mhz easily.
cpu below 490 1.25V approx.490 1.34v approx.500 1.39 v approx etc.

A lot is down to board/memory/quadcpu fsb limits with our low multiplier.

 

[Steven-1979]

1.8/1.65 auto settings are definitely a lot more than needed. Hardware Canuks did test these settings extensively, including a 100 hour stress test, and never had any problems. But I do suggest lowering everything to as low as possible while still maintaining stability just for the long term health of the cpu and producing less heat. I found vtt increases to cause even more jumps in heat than vcore.

 

[tanderson]

hey guys, ive been reading this thread a little bit. and am having problems. with nothing changed but the FSB and ram multiplyer in bios i can only get it to 2.55Mhz.
im not quite sure how to change the Vcore or anything else about the Ram or any of that. can someone point me in the correct direction to get the Q8200 up to 2.8 or so? and could you be a little specific, im not sure what "vcore" is labeled as in my bios i see CPU Voltage control and Normal CPU V Core. can ya'll also explain a little of what it does and what i should change it to?

Thanks guys!

 

[Evilsizer]

for starters for us to help you, please list the specs of your computer...

 

[tanderson]

i have a gigabyte p35-ds3l mobo rev. 2.0
6gb ram ddr2 at 667mhz is what bios shows.
1x2 gb is qimonda?
2x1 gb is samsung and other 2gb stick idk what maker it is.
i have the Q8200 processor overclocked to 2.55ghz with all settings stock except turning off C1E and EIST and have the multiplyer set at 2x
and cpu V core is stock at 1.23750V

need more info?
Thanks for the response!

 

[Bobnova]

I think the ram is probably your issue, it's already running at it's maximum speed.
You could try loosening the timings (if they're 6-6-6-18 now, set 'em to 7-7-7-21, the 4th number should be the first three put together generally), that may buy you a bit more OC.
If your bios has an option for 533 ram speed use that, but i doubt it will.

 

[tanderson]

okay how do i change it to 7-7-7-21. i havent seen anything in my bios that shows the numbers like that. and what if it is set differently?
thanks for the input. and should i get new RAM will that make things easier?
Ive read people can get to like 2.8ghz with just upping the FSB.. i cant even get to 2.59 by upping the bus anymore than it is. but it runs stable now.
Thanks!

 

[Evilsizer]

well the reason why it wont oc higher right now is because of the ram. simply the ram is rated for DDR2-667, since that is dual data rate. take 667/2=333.33, so be all accounts your highest rated per that stock ram is a 333.33 fsb. how ever you have it running higher at 2.55/2.59ghz.

what your looking for is this
http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/mainboards/ga-p35-ds3l/b4.jpg
to get there from the main bios
http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/mainboards/ga-p35-ds3l/b1.jpg
go to the MIT section, there you should find ram section for timings.
**source link**
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p35-ds3l_6.html#sect0




one thing you could do for us before hitting up the bios... is going to www.cpuid.com and getting cpuz and post a screen-shot of the memory tab. You might get lucky though and have ram that can run higher with a bit of work. Overclocking in some cases can require a bit more elbow grease then what some let on.

 

[tanderson]

the ones of the memory itself is just a little extra in case you could grab more info. the first one with the 3JeDec 1-3 has 4 gbs total running the same and the last one is a 2gb stick not sure of maker and it runs differently than the other 3 sticks.

thanks for the help i will now read the links you gave me

 

[tanderson]

i found the "(SPD)" but it wouldnt let me change the ram timings it would only allow me to change the multiplier which is set at 2

 

[tanderson]

so i finally got it up to 2.60Ghz!
i changed ram timings from 5-5-5-15 to 6-6-6-18 almost loaded but didnt. then went fron that to 6-7-7-20 and now it is up and running, also changed the DDR2 OverVoltage control to +.2 and upped the Vcore to 1.24375v.
running a test right now and will let it run for a couple hours and let ya'll know the results.

 

[Evilsizer]

have you run memtest86 on the ram at those settings? the ram timings are really loose for what most consider low speed on the ram. is negating any performance increase from the increased clock speed. i would say consider getting new kit of ram to use, something that is either, DDR2-800 cas4 or DDR2-1066 cas5.

 

[tanderson]

it ended up not being stable. so i changed it back to what was stable. so you're saying i should go down to like 4-4-4-12? that didnt even boot up at all so i kept raising it and it finally boot at 6-7-7-20 and was stable for a little while but finally froze.