Help With Overclocking a Q9550

[TheLonelyDevil]

Hey guys,

Got handed a Q9550 to try and squeeze performance out of before I upgrade to Ryzen 2 in the coming months.

Specs/Hardware I'm working with at the moment:

Intel Q9550
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L (https://www.gigabyte.com/in/Motherboard/GA-EP45-UD3L-rev-10)
2 sticks of OCZ DDR2 800 Gold 5-5-5-15 (These sticks: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QILPO6)
2 sticks of Samsung DDR2 800 6-6-6-12 (These sticks: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050D6KXI)

The board had issues booting with the two pairs of RAM having different timings, and went into a boot loop, so I had to boot with a faster stick and bring them down to the other sticks' speeds to make it all boot.

Got the CPU stable at 4 GHz with the following settings:

471*8.5 (4003.47 Mhz)
PCI-E at 100 Mhz
CPU clock drive at 800, PCI-E at 700
MCH Strapping 333 (DDR2 942 effective at 6-6-6-15)

Vcore 1.34375V
Termination 1.3V
PLL 1.55V default
Reference 0.807V
MCH 1.3V (Reference at 0.863V)

Running the RAM at 2V.

Images:

Settings:









Case and Airflow:







Now, I have just a Hyper 212 with a Noctua IPPC 3000 on it to keep the temperatures leashed. It's still hitting 75C tops (proceeding to turn into a jet turbine in the process) via IntelBurnTest.

Question is, where should I proceed to start looking at overall temp reduction?

Since DDR2 died years ago (it's not very easy getting the RAM for it either, so I can't jump straight to better memory to do more with this chip) and further investment into this platform is a massive dead end, I'm looking at getting temps down somehow to enable smoother 24x7 operation until the platform upgrade.

Any advice? Any help very welcome at this point.

Thanks.

Edit: Reason for the thread is to request for a direction to go in in terms of voltage reduction. Can I pump it into something to get the CPU voltage down? Admittedly this was quite a lazy overclock.

 

[Zerileous]

Well typically the only way to do this is to decrease voltage. Which usually requires a decrease in clocks.

What about case airflow. If you take the side panel off, do temps improve? If so then you know you could improve airflow to improve temps. Sharing a pic of your build, we might be able to give some advice to improve airflow.

 

[TheLonelyDevil]

Airflow is somewhat fine, with standard Antec fans lining the intake (2) and exhaust (1). I'm also reusing the 1 fan left which came with the heatsink on the side panel to throw some more cool air into the chassis.

Images here:

https://imgur.com/a/KwTlQdB

Edit: Temps only improve by a degree or two, down from 75 to touching 73 with the panel off.

 

[EarthDog]

See if you can lower vcore, yep. There isnt anything else you can boost to make vcore lower. If you ca t lower vcore, better airflow or cooler. Maybe more exhaust (top) instead of a 3:1 intake.


Also, host images here so it doesnt go away.

 

[storm-chaser]

Voltage and clock speed go hand in hand when talking about core temperature. That being said you may also want to dial the CPU multiplier down to 8.0x if CPU is not stable after a voltage reduction.

Another thing, what is your intended purpose with this rig? I.E. what is it used for? Because in the real world you may never see the type of CPU loads you'll get with this torture test. Just saying, if you never see temps like that in the real world, it may be better left as is.

 

[TheLonelyDevil]

See if you can lower vcore, yep. There isnt anything else you can boost to make vcore lower. If you ca t lower vcore, better airflow or cooler. Maybe more exhaust (top) instead of a 3:1 intake.


Also, host images here so it doesnt go away.

Couldn't figure out how to host images here on mobile. Will do!

Thanks for the airflow suggestion. It's just the space in my case is quite terrible since the 212 takes up almost all the space I have.

- - - Auto-Merged Double Post - - -

Voltage and clock speed go hand in hand when talking about core temperature. That being said you may also want to dial the CPU multiplier down to 8.0x if CPU is not stable after a voltage reduction.

Another thing, what is your intended purpose with this rig? I.E. what is it used for? Because in the real world you may never see the type of CPU loads you'll get with this torture test. Just saying, if you never see temps like that in the real world, it may be better left as is.

Thanks for the suggestion about the CPU multiplier! I'll take a look and tinker with the voltages some to see if I can reduce the voltage that way.

Usage will be for some gaming (CS primarily) and other lightweight stuff. Nothing that stresses the CPU in the types of load I stress-tested for. I guess I could just leave it at that since it's just the T-Case I crossed, and not the TJ-Max.