Overclocking Q6600. Where do you start?

[Sephiroth720]

Hey Everyone,

 

So I've decided to overclock the Q6600 system I have here at home in hopes of pairing it with a GTX 760. The CPU is running at its base clock (2.40 GHz) and I have heard that this particular CPU can be comfortably OC'd to 3.2 GHz which I would like to achieve. I would like to point out at this time that I have NEVER overclocked any piece of hardware I've owned... I've always been too worried about damaging the hardware. 

 

I have searched around youtube etc. for videos showing how to do this (see below) and for some reason even if I follow each step I am unsuccessful. The computer shuts off when "saving & exiting bios" as it should but then won't post until i do a 30-sec power cycle on it and then I receive an "overclocking failed" error at which time I restore optimized defaults and try again. 

 

Can anyone help me with this? Please, Treat me like an alien when it comes to OC'ing as I do not understand what voltage etc. I need to change and do I need to follow the RAM steps on this video? I do not want to overclock the RAM. 

 

It's quite frustrating when everyone else has been able to successfully OC a CPU or GPU and every time I try, I don't even know where to start. How do you know what voltage you need at what clock speed? argh.. lol. Any help would be appreciated.

 

P.S I really did try to source every piece of information before posting this here because the last thing I wanted is to come across as a "noob". This is the only aspect of PC building I have not yet ventured into.

 

Thanks  

) 

[7Hertz]

What memory and what board is this?

[Sephiroth720]

1 minute ago, 7Hertz said:

What memory and what board is this?

MB: Asus P5Q-E

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR2 (2 x 2GB)

[7Hertz]

1 minute ago, Sephiroth720 said:

MB: Asus P5Q-E 

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR2 (2 x 2GB)

I could see it easily doing 4ghz if you have a decent enough cooler.

 

FSB to 480

FSB strap auto

Dram on lowest divider.

CPU voltage 1.39v

Dram voltage, use Ram specified.

 

You want a stable CPU before you touch Ram.

 

[Sephiroth720]

1 minute ago, 7Hertz said:

I could see it easily doing 4ghz if you have a decent enough cooler.

 

FSB to 480

FSB strap auto

Dram on lowest divider.

CPU voltage 1.39v

Dram voltage, use Ram specified.

 

You want a stable CPU before you touch Ram.

 

When you say "Use specified" you mean, Specified on the RAM or "AUTO" on the motherboard? The RAM has the timing & voltage on the side but i thought if i just left it to auto it'd be okay. I was wrong apparently.

[7Hertz]

1 minute ago, Sephiroth720 said:

When you say "Use specified" you mean, Specified on the RAM or "AUTO" on the motherboard? The RAM has the timing & voltage on the side but i thought if i just left it to auto it'd be okay. I was wrong apparently.

It is just labelled Dram voltage on ASUS 775 normally. Auto is good enough yes.

 

DRAM voltage will matter when you try to bring up your Ram clocks again once you find a sweet spot for the CPU.

 

[Sephiroth720]

12 minutes ago, 7Hertz said:

It is just labelled Dram voltage on ASUS 775 normally. Auto is good enough yes.

 

DRAM voltage will matter when you try to bring up your Ram clocks again once you fins a sweet spot for the CPU.

 

I've attached a few images of my BIOS settings after changing your recommendations. Can you see anything I've done wrong because the system won't post until I do a forced power cycle on it after applying those settings? I thought I had the RAM wrong at 5 - 5 - 5 - 15 and the RAM actually states on it that it's 5-5-5-12 so that should be fine now. 

[7Hertz]

Disable Spread spectrum, this inhibits processor stability on LGA 1366.

 

Load Line calibration put this to intel spec if available, or put it to extreme or the highest setting.

 

If the voltage fluctuates in Windows and causes instability, we can look into this later.

[Sephiroth720]

11 minutes ago, 7Hertz said:

Disable Spread spectrum, this inhibits processor stability on LGA 1366.

 

Load Line calibration put this to intel spec if available, or put it to extreme or the highest setting.

 

If the voltage fluctuates in Windows and causes instability, we can look into this later.

Spread Spectrum for CPU is now disabled (Also, This CPU is LGA 775).

 

Load Line Calibration is also disabled (Intel Spec according to mobo)

 

Still not posting. Is this odd ? or am I just not meant to OC stuff? lol

[7Hertz]

Just now, Sephiroth720 said:

Spread Spectrum for CPU is now disabled (Also, This CPU is LGA 775).

 

Load Line Calibration is also disabled (Intel Spec according to mobo)

 

Still not posting. Is this odd ? or am I just not meant to OC stuff? lol

What speed is your ram specc'd for?

[Sephiroth720]

The lowest setting on was either "931Mhz" or AUTO. Fairly certain it's only 800Mhz RAM though. (Attached image of sticker on side of RAM)

 

[7Hertz]

Attempt CL7 timings.

 

7-7-7-21-4-52-6-3 and run Dram voltage at 2.0

[Sephiroth720]

58 minutes ago, 7Hertz said:

Attempt CL7 timings.

 

7-7-7-21-4-52-6-3 and run Dram voltage at 2.0

It seems to be a RAM issue for sure. Your option here didn't work but I lowered the FSB to 400 (for the original target of 3.2Ghz) and put my RAM to 801Mhz @ 1.80 v and i finally got the windows loading circle however it blue screened and gave me an error "Page_fault_in_nonpaged_area".

 

Frustrating that it was as easy as it was for the guy in the original video... I didn't think you had to change the ram speeds at all.  It's set back to original 2.40GHz now until i figure out what's going on. 

[7Hertz]

Yeah your Ram does not enjoy being above it's base clocks by the looks of it.