Overclocking my old boy ( Core 2 Quad q9400)

[trents]

Or it could mean your motherboard just can't handle a 500 mhz fsb frequency. There is a limit to what every motherboard will be able to cope with in this regard.

 

[Vishera]

Is it possible to go above 450 without going straight to 500? Maybe try to find an in between.

Ah, I imagine FSB overclocking was nice to have so you didn't absolutely HAVE to spend money on an unlocked chip. I hear the BCLK OC method still hasn't been patched for Skylake, i guess that's the closest us new gens will ever get

 

[EarthDog]

Or it could mean your motherboard just can't handle a 500 mhz fsb frequency. There is a limit to what every motherboard will be able to cope with in this regard.

+1

As I said earlier, your problem is likely with the ram running too fast. It's already overclocked at 450 FSB/900 mhz ddr. Raising it will only raise your memory clocks more since you are already at the lowest fsb:memory ratio of 1:1.

Is it possible to go above 450 without going straight to 500? Maybe try to find an in between.

Ah, I imagine FSB overclocking was nice to have so you didn't absolutely HAVE to spend money on an unlocked chip. I hear the BCLK OC method still hasn't been patched for Skylake, i guess that's the closest us new gens will ever get

back then, the only unlocked chips were the extreme series... you didn't have a choice but to overclock via fsb unless you bought those expensive cpu. Times were different as there wasn't an affordable extreme cpu.

 

[pavel_kolarov]

I found out what my problem is and it is as you said.right now i am running 463 fsb and ram at 926 on auto voltage.My ram is limmiting me when i go over that,even when i loosen the timings and increase the dram voltage.I can't change the ram divider too,the first option after auto is the 1:1 fsb:dram .The only thing i can think for right now is loosening the timings even more.Will that help?Also what does the other memory options,like memory OC charger and AI Clock Twister do?Will they help somehow? Btw the heatsinks around the cpu aren't that hot,but when i checked them with the thermal gun it showed 60c.
Sorry for me not responding for a long time but i didn't have alot of free time
Right now i don't have any money to upgrade,this is why i am trying to OC this thing to it's maximum,but later this year i hope i will probably have some money to spend for an mb-cpu-ram upgrade . Can you suggest me what to upgrade with? I am using my PC mainly for gaming (alot of GTA V,the witcher 3),programming(still begginer,but i hope i will become good with graphics programming ) and sometimes making youtube gameplay videos just for fun.Should i go with something crazy like i7 7700k that will last me for years or i5 7600k will do the job for me? Btw if i buy i7 the mb will be asus's z270 models with price range between 150 - 200 Euros. And if i get i5 probably i will spend little more money for a motherboard.I will get good cooler,something like corsair hydro series,or cooler master and probably will OC the cpu,but just a little,because i want it to live long years.

 

[Johan45]

There are still things you can try. Have you added any NB voltage yet. Running 4x2Gb of ram and 450+ FSB will require more NB voltage and auto only compensates to a point. If that mobo bios has a monitor section check to see if it lists the current NB voltage. That will give you a place to start.

 

[Vishera]

+1

As I said earlier, your problem is likely with the ram running too fast. It's already overclocked at 450 FSB/900 mhz ddr. Raising it will only raise your memory clocks more since you are already at the lowest fsb:memory ratio of 1:1.

back then, the only unlocked chips were the extreme series... you didn't have a choice but to overclock via fsb unless you bought those expensive cpu. Times were different as there wasn't an affordable extreme cpu.

That's what I meant, besides with Skylake there's no way to overclock CPUs that have locked multipliers these days is there? It must have been nice to still have the ability to overclock, even if it wasn't EXACTLY the same thing.

 

[pavel_kolarov]

I have already tried increasing the NB voltage. I made it 1.30 (Google said max 1.40),but it did not help.

 

[Johan45]

That's p45 right? As long as temps are OK I have run up to 1.5v, like I said if you have monitor in the BIOS check to see if it displays NB voltage if not you can check with ASUS PCprobe to see voltage in windows. I wouldn't be surprised if it's already a lot higher than 1.3v

 

[pavel_kolarov]

I tried installing asus PCprobe it said it is not supported for this model or something like that.. Then i checked the NB voltage from Aida64,but it always shows 1.1 even when i changed it. So i tried and set the NB voltage at 1.4v and FSB at 475. PC started perfectly and i ran IBT(because it is faster than Prime).This test usually crashes in the beginning,when my fsb is 475,but with 1.40 nb voltage i passed 10 times with level set to maximum and it told me that my CPU is stable.So i thought i am going to try the 500 fsb but when i dragged the mouse to restart my PC it crashed with BSOD.I did increase not only the NB voltage,but the CPU voltage by one notch too and relaxed my ram timings to 6-6-6-21 (from 5-5-5-18).Any ideas why did that bsod appear?

 

[Vishera]

Kinda hard to tell you that without the actual error. Sure, it was most likely something to do with the CPU but could have also been something else. Any chance you could get into the system logs and give us the error message?

 

[pavel_kolarov]

This critical is when the BSOD happened.

 

[Johan45]

More core voltage

 

[pavel_kolarov]

It looks like more core voltage fixed the stabillity issues(still stressing,tho).But always when i set the fsb at 500mhz windows automatic repair starts up.Probably 500mhz fsb is over my board limit,is it ?

 

[Johan45]

You can't just set 500 and cross your fingers. This is where the OC gets harder and you have to work it up maybe 5 at a time or less adjusting voltages as needed. Yes it could be a board/chip limitation too.

 

[pavel_kolarov]

Yes i will try slowly by adjusting the voltages and i hope i can reach 500.Anyway thank you so much for the help i will probably leave a blend test overnight to see if everything is ok with 475.

 

[Johan45]

NP and good luck