LGA775 Core2Duo, Core2Quad OVERCLOCKING guide

[Jumper118]

Couldn't really find much on it but generally newer is both cooler and more tolerant of higher clocks (because the chips are better).

 

Assuming he is running that RAM at factory settings that looks like some pretty weaksauce RAM...

 

EDIT: PC6400.. pretty sure that means 800mhz

 

Personally I wouldn't buy it full stop the extremes are no better than regulars on a decent board.

i know the ram sucks. its xms 800mhz 4-4-4-13, but he has it on auto. i think i could get £25 for that maybe £50 for the board and then if the cpu isn't any good they go for £50 on the bay as well. might put in an offer at £80. all of them on hwbot seem to be C0. 

[Dabombinable]

i know the ram sucks. its xms 800mhz 4-4-4-13, but he has it on auto. i think i could get £25 for that maybe £50 for the board and then if the cpu isn't any good they go for £50 on the bay as well. might put in an offer at £80. all of them on hwbot seem to be C0. 

Its actually XMS 800MHz 5-5-5-18, which is similar to my XMS 1066MHz which runs at 4-5-5-18 at 800MHz.

[Jumper118]

wait a min, on hwbot all the best scores are c0!  i thinks i might get it. 

[Dabombinable]

wait a min, on hwbot all the best scores are c0!  i thinks i might get it. 

So........my Xeon X5450 is good.

[harrynowl]

wait a min, on hwbot all the best scores are c0!  i thinks i might get it. 

So........my Xeon X5450 is good.

Probably not, just most likely more people benched them. When I was shopping around there were LOADS more C0 X5450s than E0 X5450s.

[Jumper118]

So........my Xeon X5450 is good.

http://hwbot.org/hardware/processors#key=xeon_x5450 have a look.

Probably not, just most likely more people benched them. When I was shopping around there were LOADS more C0 X5450s than E0 X5450s.

maybe. i will see. if its worse than my none x chip then i will sell it anyway.

[Jumper118]

got the bundle for £80 so we will see how it goes. i'm interested to see how far the fsb will go on this x38 board. 

[Dabombinable]

 

http://hwbot.org/hardware/processors#key=xeon_x5450 have a look.

maybe. i will see. if its worse than my none x chip then i will sell it anyway.

 

Damn, I managed to get just over 4.2GHz with the cheapest 120mm AIO you can get. Imagine what I could get with a decent 240mm rad and 120mm fans. That's well within the reach of my rig (4.8GHz). Also, so is 460CB points.

 

Edit: OMFG, only 3 points off Emuler. I need to install XP on a HDD, run it in safe mod and get cracking with R15.

Edit 2: Until I free up a HDD, does HWBOT accept Windows 10 technical preview entries? Or is it too close to Win 8/8.1?

[Nonco]

@harrynowl

I just found an old PC at my house with a Xeon 3040. Is it worth having a go at OC'ing it?

[harrynowl]

@harrynowl

I just found an old PC at my house with a Xeon 3040. Is it worth having a go at OC'ing it?

Certainly worth a try, it's the Xeon equivalent of the E2160/E6300 by the looks of it, some people got 200% from these really low clock chips

[Jumper118]

My QX9650 and X38 DQ6 came this afternoon the board is really heavy and feels very well build, even compared to the asus P5Q. I will be testing it out tomorrow as i have been doing my Xeon tonight. i'm also thinking of doing a QX6950 vs Xeon thing as well. the Xeon is on a P45 board so it should have the FSB overclocking advantage, but the QX has an unlocked multi even with the lesser X38 chipset, so this could be interesting. 

[WkdPaul]

Got my 50$ ghetto build OC'd to 3Ghz ... but only because I have a crappy 975x chipset!

 

Yes, 50$ for the whole build because of the (damn) motherboard, bought it locally a few weeks ago but didn't realized the 975x chipset didn't like high FSB!

 

The rest I got for free or was leftovers from previous builds ... and when I say free, I mean it was either given to me or I found it on the side of the road!!! (not kidding!)

 

HP DC7600 Tower

Intel Q9400 (free ; given to me)

Asus P5W DH Deluxe (paid 50$ locally)

4GB DDR2 6400 (free ; from old build)

4GB DDR2 6400 (free ; found in a Dell Optiplex 760 on the side of the road)

Orion PSU 585W (free ; from old build)

Sound blaster Audigy 2 Platinum (free ; from old build)

Asus HD7770 Ghz (free ; from old build)

1 Kingston 64GB SSD (free ; from the side-of-the-raod Optiplex)

2x 500GB WD HHD (free ; given to me)

Chinese heatsink that looks a bit like the ARCTIC Freezer 7 pro with 2 Enermax 80mm in push/pull (free ; from old build)

 

 

Like I said, sadly it's stuck at 3Ghz ... anything above 375Mhz and weird things start happening, anything above 380Mhz and I can't boot because it won't recognize any hard drives!!!

[harrynowl]

Got my 50$ ghetto build OC'd to 3Ghz ... but only because I have a crappy 975x chipset!

 

Yes, 50$ for the whole build because of the (damn) motherboard, bought it locally a few weeks ago but didn't realized the 975x chipset didn't like high FSB!

 

The rest I got for free or was leftovers from previous builds ... and when I say free, I mean it was either given to me or I found it on the side of the road!!! (not kidding!)

 

Intel Q9400 (free ; given to me)

Asus P5W DH Deluxe (paid 50$ locally)

4GB DDR2 6400 (free ; from old build)

4GB DDR2 6400 (free ; found in a Dell Optiplex 760 on the side of the road)

Orion PSU 585W (free ; from old build)

Sound blaster Audigy 2 Platinum (free ; from old build)

Asus HD7770 Ghz (free ; from old build)

1 Kingston 64GB SSD (free ; from the side-of-the-raod Optiplex)

2x 500GB WD HHD (free ; given to me)

Chinese heatsink that looks a bit like the ARCTIC Freezer 7 pro with 2 Enermax 80mm in push/pull (free ; from old build)

 

 

Like I said, sadly it's stuck at 3Ghz ... anything above 375Mhz and weird things start happening, anything above 380Mhz and I can't boot because it won't recognize any hard drives!!!

Are you on AHCI or IDE?

[WkdPaul]

Are you on AHCI or IDE?

AHCI

[harrynowl]

AHCI

some say that legacy/ide can tolerate higher FSBs, can't say I've experienced it myself but it might be worth a go.

[WkdPaul]

some say that legacy/ide can tolerate higher FSBs, can't say I've experienced it myself but it might be worth a go.

I thought of that but from what I could find it seems related to the memory controller, for some reason people that hit that 375 FSB wall were actually able to go around it by only using 2 memory sticks ... not exactly an ideal solution IMO.

 

I haven't had time to try and downgrade to 4GB but I might test it this weekend but for roughly 50$ I'm happy enough with it! lol

[arnavvr]

I thought of that but from what I could find it seems related to the memory controller, for some reason people that hit that 375 FSB wall were actually able to go around it by only using 2 memory sticks ... not exactly an ideal solution IMO.

 

I haven't had time to try and downgrade to 4GB but I might test it this weekend but for roughly 50$ I'm happy enough with it! lol

 

You can try and get a QX6700, as they have unlocked multipliers.

[Jumper118]

Got my 50$ ghetto build OC'd to 3Ghz ... but only because I have a crappy 975x chipset!

 

Yes, 50$ for the whole build because of the (damn) motherboard, bought it locally a few weeks ago but didn't realized the 975x chipset didn't like high FSB!

 

The rest I got for free or was leftovers from previous builds ... and when I say free, I mean it was either given to me or I found it on the side of the road!!! (not kidding!)

 

HP DC7600 Tower

Intel Q9400 (free ; given to me)

Asus P5W DH Deluxe (paid 50$ locally)

4GB DDR2 6400 (free ; from old build)

4GB DDR2 6400 (free ; found in a Dell Optiplex 760 on the side of the road)

Orion PSU 585W (free ; from old build)

Sound blaster Audigy 2 Platinum (free ; from old build)

Asus HD7770 Ghz (free ; from old build)

1 Kingston 64GB SSD (free ; from the side-of-the-raod Optiplex)

2x 500GB WD HHD (free ; given to me)

Chinese heatsink that looks a bit like the ARCTIC Freezer 7 pro with 2 Enermax 80mm in push/pull (free ; from old build)

 

 

Like I said, sadly it's stuck at 3Ghz ... anything above 375Mhz and weird things start happening, anything above 380Mhz and I can't boot because it won't recognize any hard drives!!!

that isn't bad at all for what you have paid for it. 

[WkdPaul]

You can try and get a QX6700, as they have unlocked multipliers.

yeah, I have a few QX6*** on my ebay watchlist! lol

 

I'll keep the Q9400 for now and grab a QX when I see a good price!

[BootyBasher]

thanks for this guide, my dad has a Q6600 and some Core2Duo's laying around, tomorrow I will check what chipset the MoBo's are. if I remember correctly one of them is a P45. 

 

I might build a PC for a friend of mine, he wants to get into PC gaming, but not many games are available on his MacBook.

 

I am going to crank up an old case and see what I can make of it.  :rolleyes:

[WkdPaul]

Just tried and this MB really is sensitive to the amount of memory sticks vs the FSB ...

 

With 4GB I don't have any problems booting into Windows with the FSB @ 385

 

[Jumper118]

Just tried and this MB really is sensitive to the amount of memory sticks vs the FSB ...

 

With 4GB I don't have any problems booting into Windows with the FSB @ 385

in that case you need to decide whether you need the extra spped more or the extra ram more. 

[WkdPaul]

yeah ... tried with 3 sticks and though it's "more stable" it's not really usable, I can post at higher FSB but anything above 375Mhz is buggy. The best I got with 3 sticks was getting the Windows splash screen with the mouse pointer with the blue busy circle and then *crash* ...

 

Since I'm gaming with this build I'll go with more RAM, anyway the best I seem to be able to get on air is 3.2Ghz (400Mhz) (though that were simple quick tests, I might be able to get higher if I start tuning the different voltages).

 

I'll simply get another used HD7770 locally (around 50CAD), that will bump my FPS more than a few FSB points and the total price of the build will still be 100$ (CAD)

[zMeul]

my tale of overclocking Q9550 on a X38 mobo (GA-X38-DS5 from GigaByte)

manual overclock is no go - for some reason I can't understand, once I save the settings and the system posts, it will reboot and revert back to defaults

to get it "working" I had to resort to GigaByte's own auto-overclock called C.I.A.2 - it boosts the FSB bases on some pre-sets

my current pre-set boosts the clock from 2.8Ghz to 3.2Ghz with a multiplier of 8.5:

I had to disable EIST and C1E Halt State because it interfered with some games - they desynced  :huh:

upped the VCore voltage to 1.3 because the Vdroop is rather massive, even with load line calibration:

 

the hottest core, ambient temp ~30deg Celsius :

I'm using a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO with a single fan

---

some benches:

FireStrike stock - http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4413480

FireStrike OC - http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5388995

SkyDiver stock - http://www.3dmark.com/sd/3191163

SkyDiver OC - http://www.3dmark.com/sd/2848165

[Dabombinable]

my tale of overclocking Q9550 on a X38 mobo (GA-X38-DS5 from GigaByte)

manual overclock is no go - for some reason I can't understand, once I save the settings and the system posts, it will reboot and revert back to defaults

to get it "working" I had to resort to GigaByte's own auto-overclock called C.I.A.2 - it boosts the FSB bases on some pre-sets

my current pre-set boosts the clock from 2.8Ghz to 3.2Ghz with a multiplier of 8.5:

I had to disable EIST and C1E Halt State because it interfered with some games - they desynced  :huh:

upped the VCore voltage to 1.3 because the Vdroop is rather massive, even with load line calibration:

 

the hottest core, ambient temp ~30deg Celsius :

I'm using a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO with a single fan

---

some benches:

FireStrike stock - http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4413480

FireStrike OC - http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5388995

SkyDiver stock - http://www.3dmark.com/sd/3191163

SkyDiver OC - http://www.3dmark.com/sd/2848165

Not too shabby. Looking at that Xeons are definitely just significantly higher binned consumer chips with the tabs in a different orientation.