Q6600 Overclocked w/ Questions

[lear]

I have some questions about my overclock/setup.

I have a Q6600 G0. I overclocked it to 3.2 ghz by lowering the multiplier to 8 and increasing the FSB to 400. I think this allows me to keep a 1:1 ratio with my 800mhz ram.

Some Questions:

1. My RAM, Crucial, was running at 5-5-5-18. It should be 4-4-4-12. Was it okay that I went and manually changed them to 4-4-4-12 in my BIOS?

2. Voltage: Right now I have no idea how much voltage there should be. For the time being I have it set to automatic. I have read that the automatic voltage will over estimate. Any suggestions here?

3. SpeedFan: I noticed my speedFan was all mess up (See attached images). Most if not all of the voltages, fans, and temps are messed up. I eventually found out how to add 15C to the temps (more inline with Core Temp).

4. Core Temp: Temperature monitoring program. For starters, it crashes my computer. My computer just shuts off. It seems if I wait a couple minutes after my computer starts up, it will not crash. My Second issue is that it shows me at 450mhz x a multiplier of 8. I'm really at 400mhz with a multiplier of 8. thats not a big issue for me though since cpu-z shows it correctly.

5. Temperatures: Is it usual for the cores to have different temps? Two of my cores will be at 30C, and the other two will be at 35C. Under full load they go to 55C, 60C respectively. This is a 20C jump in temp from idle to load. Is this bad? I kinda messed up a little bit when mounting my HSF Tuniq Tower. I didn't get it exactly on the center when i put it down and had to wiggle it to the center so I could screen it in to the back plate. I was going to retry but I figure I would have to clean all the AS5 off the cpu and heatsink, would be a pain. Also, I literally could pick up my motherboard using just my Tuniq Tower because the suction was so great (so I figured it must have good contact).

Heres the screenshots I took of my 8 hour test: (I had to white out part of the screen to reduce the file size, sorry) Also, my room temperature is 22C.
http://www.ocforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=58835&stc=1&d=1186932519
http://www.ocforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=58836&stc=1&d=1186932539

Q6600 G0
GA-P35-DS3R
Crucial Ballistix 2GB BL2KIT12864AA804
Tuniq Tower
AS5
Antec 900
8800 GTS 320
OCZ 700W PSU
2x Raptors in Raid0

 

[sofarfrome]

Question 1: Yes, it is OK to do that. As a matter of fact it is recommended to do that. When OCing you should never let the board take control of voltages or timings.

Question 2: see response to question 1.

Question 3: Try the latest version of speed fan.

Question 4: see response to question 3 but substitute coretemp.

Question 5: Yes it is typical. Your temps seem a little high but you don't state what the ambient is. Also, I would reinstall the HSF.

 

[lear]

Thanks sofarfrome for the quick response.

I am using the latest versions of coretemp, speedfan and occt that I can find. Also, I kinda had the room temp hidden in my post. It is 22C.

My core 0 and core 3 are higher than core 1 and core 2. Does anyone know where these are physically located on the chip itself? That may help me out since I know how I screwed up my seating of the HSF .

 

[batboy]

1. By all means, manually set the timings. The auto timings tend to be conservative so all motherboards will boot ok.

2. If your temps are ok, I would think auto voltage with a modest 3.2 gig O/C would be ok. Otherwise, you'll need to do a trial and error method to find your lowest stable vcore. For example, manually set the vcore to maybe 1.4v and see if it'll run 8X400 stable. If not, bump up voltage another notch and try again. If it does run stable, try one setting lower.

3. Blah, those are some of the reasons why I don't use SpeedFan.

4. Dunno what the problem is there. Once you figure out temps, you really don't need to use it much after that. Did you try TAT?

5. Some temp variation among cores is normal. There is usually at least 2 degrees difference on my duo core. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[Maverick0984]

I don't think yours is running hot, my cores vary from 38 to 47 doing normal tasks. That is not quite idle, but basically idle. I'm also OC'd to 3.44ghz.

My ambient is over 29C though, so that accounts for most of that.

 

[Karadhas]

1-2: Absolutely, always set this stuff by hand.
3: Adding 15C accounts for the Tjunction diff between dual and quad cores
4: Coretemp does that to me too, get the new beta .95.3 from someone
5: I'm idling at 48-46-44-48 so yeah, you're fine. Tuniq towers are awesome but like all single and dualcore designed heatsinks they don't have their best spot right above the cores with quaddies. if you get a good mount with the heatpipes going across the two cores rather than up and down between them it will make a fair difference in temps, maybe even them out a little.

Other than that you've got an awesome OC with great temps.

 

[lear]

I decided to take your advice and do my voltages manually. It dropped load temps down to 52C from the previous 58C-60C. Once my arctic silver settles in, I should see another degree or two lower too. I'm also running all my case fans and my Tuniq Tower on the lowest rpm (compared to the screenshots where I am running everything at max rpm). It got a little too loud for me, heh.

I did a half-baked job lapping my Tuniq Tower. I could tell with just a few rubs of the 320 that it was very concave. I didn't have enough sandpaper to get it completely flat, but it is a lot better than it was previously. The next time I take out my Tuniq Tower I will lap the rest of it and hopefully I don't use all my sandpaper before the job is done.