LGA775 Core2Duo, Core2Quad OVERCLOCKING guide

[harrynowl]

Hi there everyone, saw this topic and got interested on it.

 

I've got a Q9400 with stock cooling. What do you guys think that it's the best combination to use!?

 

I'm posting CPU-Z pics of my proc, main and mems.

your picture doesn't work

 

you can do a validation and send the link to me though

 

stock cooling wont get your far voltage wise, but it doesn't mean you can't overclock. I'd go no more than 50mV (0.05v) over stock voltage in your BIOS.

 

Just go as far as it can take you I guess

[MicaLovesKPOP]

Hello! since I've been interested in attempting some OCing lately (I've never OC'd at all yet!) and came accross this post from Linus' Facebook page...

I'm giving it a go

 

- I remembered I had a C2D E8400 laying around, which from what I understand is a good choice for OCing.

- I only have one option as for the main board (w/o purchasing one ofc), and that's this fella: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5QPLAM/specifications/

now it says it's a G41 chipset, but elsewhere it said it's a P45.. I'm not sure what to think. if it's a P45 it should be a good overclocker from what i see in the main post, and if it's not a P45.. is this a board a good option?
- ram slot A1 unfortunately turned out to be broken, leaving me with just slot B1. with the current ram sticks I possess, this means it's maxed out with a 2gb ddr2-800mhz stick by Kingston.
- I don't really have any decent GPU's laying around atm.. so it's currently sporting a HD 4670 1GB. Otherwise I'd already be stepping down to a GF 6800.

I freaking adore the 6800 though, as it was part of my very first PC and survived long-during overheating up to 180°C when its fan broke. ... it may just be fitted with an AMD fan these days though..

- I'm currently using the cooler from a different LGA775 cpu, can't remember the model name but it was either a 2.4 or 2.6GHz C2D.

This cooler is twice as tall and has some copper, for what it's worth. I figured it should be an upgrade.

- it's powered using a 430W Antec power supply.

so a quick summary: C2D E8400 / Asus PQ5PL-AM / 2GB DDR2-800MHz / HD 4670 1GB / bigger Intel cooler / 430W PSU

it's currently going through all it's updates, as the AMD driver installation required a something-something my Windows didn't come with. Oh right, the pc is on Windows 8.0 atm.

---

soo welcome to part 2 of the post I guess

I'm creating this post for a couple of reasons. For one, I'd love to get some opinions and estimations of what I could be able to achieve. Aside from that, I'm also hoping to get the tips n tricks I'm sure you have and I will need at some point:P as you may be able to tell, I'm REALLY excited to tackle this project! I don't think I'll have the time to work on it daily once the weekend is over, but I started this Friday and think I've made good progress ^^

so the idle & low-workload temps for the system look a little something like this (can't give exact figures right now, just take my word for it that temps are more likely to be slightly lower than higher):
CPU: 30°C
HD0: 37°C
HD1: 42°C
CPU: 27°C
Core 0: 30°C
Core 1: 33°C
*** Please do note that the hard disk temps are temporarily as high as they are. HD0 is right above HD1, and HD1 gets over 50°C w/o the fan cooling it in an open case, so I'll likely relocate HD0. HD1 is just in the system for the lulz anyways, cause I love the sounds it makes. (pretty sure it's at the end of its life )

I think these are fine temps for low workload, like browsing folders & running installers? I do only have a single casefan installed right now though.. and it's at the back, pulling air out. if you guys have suggestions for better cooling options, there's space for 2 fans at the front, behind the HDD caddy, and 1 on the side, at the start of a tube towards the CPU. I will have fans laying about.. somewhere. also I'm not sure of the model, but the case is by Antec and looks to be quite a premium one, but pretty old. behind the mobo it showed something about pentium 3&4/xeon mobo placements.

um ok not sure what else to post right now. I realize this post is completely messy, but it's just passed 2am and I'm just writing this all down as quick as I still can cause I also need some sleep ;p sorry if it bugged you >.<

I look forward to encouragement and any help or tips you guys may have and a big THANK YOU to harrynowl for dragging me into this!

[harrynowl]

<snip>

Hey there, nice to see you joining us in the overclocking world

 

Your board looks like a G41 based on the ASUS website, and the RAM issue wont be too big a problem, sometimes less RAM makes it easier to overclock as it's less stress on the memory controller.

 

Your low temps are looking about right, although like you say your HD1 is getting a bit toasty

 

In terms of cooling you could run without a side panel, or if you fancy cutting holes in your case you could "make" your own fan mountings if you like the challenge (I'd probably go for option 1).

 

As your board is an ASUS your BIOS should look like mine which means life should be easier for you, best of luck

 

E8400s should be capable of 4GHz, although G41 may not manage such a high FSB (but you never know). I'd start with 3.6GHz which is 400MHz on the bus, remember to drop your RAM frequency to as close to 800 as you can after changing the FSB

[MicaLovesKPOP]

Hey there, nice to see you joining us in the overclocking world

 

...

Hello, thank you

hmm.. it's good to know the ram issue won't be a big problem. the board does did support dual channel though, and I'd like to actually have the PC working as backup PC when friends are over, for example.. in which case I find 2GB to be too little. the board supports 4GB per slot, so I may look for a cheap 4GB DDR2 stick. if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear those.. DDR2 can be expensive these days, I believe.

the HDD's are actually running cooler today, both of them. not sure why:P both 5 degrees cooler, while the ambience & other parts should be about the same as yday.

yay similar bios ftw:P I've looked through all the settings available in there, so I am able to navigate my way around pretty quickly now:)

3.6GHz? sweet. that's already faster than the fastest CPU I've had.. that may not mean much, but it just sounds cool from an old lil chip:) (I upgraded(?) to a Phenom II X4 965 after having the E8400)

I've ran Cinebench twice today (no OC yet whatsoever), both starting with the PC in idle temps. both times the score resulted in 160 cb. as for temps, I've had HWmonitor open and these were the maximum temps:

RUN #1

cpu=62°C

cpu0=62°C

cpu1=61°C

RUN #2

cpu=62°C

cpu0=62°C

cpu1=62°C

the 4670 is apparently not supported (I'm using R15.0), so no OpenGL scores. also I'd like to add that I kept the only case fan running on low RPM; it has 3 settings.

correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe from these temps I can conclude that cooling is sufficient. the temperatures quickly gone up to around 58°C, and then slowly went up from there, even decreasing as well.  the majority of the benchmark it was between 58-61°C.

-- 

I don't think I completely understand the relation between values that are important to OCing these CPUs though, despite reading your and someone else's explanation (other forum).

could you make it more accessible for me somehow? I'll give another go at figuring it out now though, so that I can try my luck on the aforementioned 3.6GHz

EDIT:

I decided it'd be a good idea to put the case fan on its middle setting, and I've done another Cinebench-mark after doing so. I was quite surprised

the maximum temps were 59°C for all 3 mentioned earlier.

however, the initial climb to higher temps, did not stagger at 58°C, but at 48°C! from there on it slowly went up, eventually going down more quickly than up (but still slightly rising). for a long period the max temps were 58/58/57, but during the rendering of the right-column, all 3 popped up to 59 for a split-second. the noise is pretty acceptable, so I'll probably keep it this way for now.

just wanted to add this extra info already:)

[harrynowl]

Hello, thank you

hmm.. it's good to know the ram issue won't be a big problem. the board does did support dual channel though, and I'd like to actually have the PC working as backup PC when friends are over, for example.. in which case I find 2GB to be too little. the board supports 4GB per slot, so I may look for a cheap 4GB DDR2 stick. if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear those.. DDR2 can be expensive these days, I believe.

the HDD's are actually running cooler today, both of them. not sure why:P both 5 degrees cooler, while the ambience & other parts should be about the same as yday.

yay similar bios ftw:P I've looked through all the settings available in there, so I am able to navigate my way around pretty quickly now:)

3.6GHz? sweet. that's already faster than the fastest CPU I've had.. that may not mean much, but it just sounds cool from an old lil chip:) (I upgraded(?) to a Phenom II X4 965 after having the E8400)

I've ran Cinebench twice today (no OC yet whatsoever), both starting with the PC in idle temps. both times the score resulted in 160 cb. as for temps, I've had HWmonitor open and these were the maximum temps:

RUN #1

cpu=62°C

cpu0=62°C

cpu1=61°C

RUN #2

cpu=62°C

cpu0=62°C

cpu1=62°C

the 4670 is apparently not supported (I'm using R15.0), so no OpenGL scores. also I'd like to add that I kept the only case fan running on low RPM; it has 3 settings.

correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe from these temps I can conclude that cooling is sufficient. the temperatures quickly gone up to around 58°C, and then slowly went up from there, even decreasing as well.  the majority of the benchmark it was between 58-61°C.

-- 

I don't think I completely understand the relation between values that are important to OCing these CPUs though, despite reading your and someone else's explanation (other forum).

could you make it more accessible for me somehow? I'll give another go at figuring it out now though, so that I can try my luck on the aforementioned 3.6GHz

EDIT:

I decided it'd be a good idea to put the case fan on its middle setting, and I've done another Cinebench-mark after doing so. I was quite surprised

the maximum temps were 59°C for all 3 mentioned earlier.

however, the initial climb to higher temps, did not stagger at 58°C, but at 48°C! from there on it slowly went up, eventually going down more quickly than up (but still slightly rising). for a long period the max temps were 58/58/57, but during the rendering of the right-column, all 3 popped up to 59 for a split-second. the noise is pretty acceptable, so I'll probably keep it this way for now.

just wanted to add this extra info already:)

Temps looking good, there's headroom for more voltage

 

The clock speed is calculated by the bus frequency * the multiplier, as our multiplier can't be changed we change the bus frequency.

 

So on an E8400 it's 9*333 for ~3GHz stock clock, by making that 333 bus speed 400 we get 9*400 which is 3.6GHz.

 

I would fire my bench up but I got dogs sleeping on the bed and my overclocking setup makes a racket (5k rpm fans ftw) so I can't show you unfortunately

[MicaLovesKPOP]

Temps looking good, there's headroom for more voltage

 

The clock speed is calculated by the bus frequency * the multiplier, as our multiplier can't be changed we change the bus frequency.

 

So on an E8400 it's 9*333 for ~3GHz stock clock, by making that 333 bus speed 400 we get 9*400 which is 3.6GHz.

 

I would fire my bench up but I got dogs sleeping on the bed and my overclocking setup makes a racket (5k rpm fans ftw) so I can't show you unfortunately

ah.. I see. would you mind perhaps taking this to 1:1 chat somewhere? I feel like you may actually enjoy helping me out that way, and it should be easier/quicker I think^^

here's some info I gathered btw (that's all I can find):

CPU Voltage (Vcore):	1.168V [min 1.160 / max 1.336V]CPU FSB Voltage:	?DRAM Voltage:		1.80V (auto)NB Voltage:		? (auto)SB Voltage:		? (1.5V?)CPU ratio:		6/9 (9, unlocked)Bus speed:		333MHzFSB speed:		1333MHzCPU Stepping:		E0Motherboard Chipset:	G41--	Voltage 0	1.17 Volts [0x92] (CPU VCORE)	Voltage 1	1.85 Volts [0xE7] (VIN1)	Voltage 2	3.26 Volts [0xCC] (+3.3V)	Voltage 3	4.90 Volts [0xCC] (+5V)	Voltage 4	7.58 Volts [0x88] (+12V)	Voltage 5	1.58 Volts [0xC6] (VIN5)	Voltage 6	0.90 Volts [0x70] (VIN6)--* the values w/o brackets are what I got from CPU-Z/HWmonitor** the values between () brackets are what I got from the BIOS*** the values between [] brackets are additional info**** I added that list of voltages in case it helps finding out the FSB voltage.

 

[MicaLovesKPOP]

is there anything I need to do to enable certain features?

 

I located the 'CPU Ratio Setting' and 'AI Overclocking' features, but I can't change the CPU Ratio Setting, and while I can change AI Overclocking to manual, revealing the CPU frequency & PCI Express Frequency. I can't change those either.

help? if I need to update my bios I have no clue how btw.. cause it's always said to not update it when everything is working cause it can go wrong.

[harrynowl]

is there anything I need to do to enable certain features?

 

I located the 'CPU Ratio Setting' and 'AI Overclocking' features, but I can't change the CPU Ratio Setting, and while I can change AI Overclocking to manual, revealing the CPU frequency & PCI Express Frequency. I can't change those either.

help? if I need to update my bios I have no clue how btw.. cause it's always said to not update it when everything is working cause it can go wrong.

Send me a PM on the forum and I'll get back to you shortly, just doing some work

[ProKoN]

@op

 

my board gets cold bugs at sub zeros temps

 

how can i fix this? blow torches?

 

p5q pro turbo

[harrynowl]

@op

 

my board gets cold bugs at sub zeros temps

 

how can i fix this? blow torches?

 

p5q pro turbo

try hwbot forum?

[Dabombinable]

I found the problem with my ASUS  P5Q Turbo. It managed to do what my ASUS P5K-VM couldn't do even though it has an 8 phase VRM with heatsinks, and even when I tried to kill the P5K. The 4 VRM next to the 8 pin CPU power connector caught fire. I can not believe that a motherboard like this was able to get damaged in such a manner. I need to ask around for a better motherboard because the P5Q Turbo is totally fucked.

[harrynowl]

I found the problem with my ASUS  P5Q Turbo. It managed to do what my ASUS P5K-VM couldn't do even though it has an 8 phase VRM with heatsinks, and even when I tried to kill the P5K. The 4 VRM next to the 8 pin CPU power connector caught fire. I can not believe that a motherboard like this was able to get damaged in such a manner. I need to ask around for a better motherboard because the P5Q Turbo is totally fucked.

Blimey... my P5Q Green was cheaper and seems much better

 

Although after a 1.5V Xeon trip and 1.4V on the Northbridge it seriously needed to cool down.

[Dabombinable]

Blimey... my P5Q Green was cheaper and seems much better

 

Although after a 1.5V Xeon trip and 1.4V on the Northbridge it seriously needed to cool down.

Well the NB on my rig was fine, the cooler I had on is the best I could buy without going liquid. From now on I'm going to look at LN2 overclocking records for my choices, I'm not going to skimp on components again, even if it takes weeks or months to save. This is the topic I started: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/316405-motherboard-troubles/

[Bludude41]

I upped my Core 2 Quad Q6600 from 2.4 GHz to 3.0 GHz thanks to this guide, but I'd like to push it further.  I got it into the BIOS at 3.33GHz. I also managed to get the FSB:DRAM ratio from 2:3 to 1:1.  At 3.33 GHz I get a BSOD trying to boot to Windows.  I'm back at 3 GHz, but trying to push it a few hundred MHz further.  Do I add more voltage, and if so how much? Another thing to note is I overvolted the FSB by 0.05V - should I add more voltage?  I'd like to push it further but I'm really green when it comes to overclocking. (I'm surprised I've made it to 3 GHz.) Anything I should adjust?  Info listed below from CPU-Z:

 

Bus speed: 333MHz

Rated FSB: 1332 MHz

Multiplier: 9 in BIOS, 6 in CPU-Z (9 Max, 6 Min)

Core Voltage: 1.376V

Stepping: B

Revision: G0 (That's the better overclocker, correct me if I'm wrong?)

 

RAM Info: Single channel DDR2 4GB, with a frequency of 333 MHz with an FSB:DRAM ratio of 1:1, as mentioned above.

[harrynowl]

I upped my Core 2 Quad Q6600 from 2.4 GHz to 3.0 GHz thanks to this guide, but I'd like to push it further.  I got it into the BIOS at 3.33GHz. I also managed to get the FSB:DRAM ratio from 2:3 to 1:1.  At 3.33 GHz I get a BSOD trying to boot to Windows.  I'm back at 3 GHz, but trying to push it a few hundred MHz further.  Do I add more voltage, and if so how much? Another thing to note is I overvolted the FSB by 0.05V - should I add more voltage?  I'd like to push it further but I'm really green when it comes to overclocking. (I'm surprised I've made it to 3 GHz.) Anything I should adjust?  Info listed below from CPU-Z:

 

Bus speed: 333MHz

Rated FSB: 1332 MHz

Multiplier: 9 in BIOS, 6 in CPU-Z (9 Max, 6 Min)

Core Voltage: 1.376V

Stepping: B

Revision: G0 (That's the better overclocker, correct me if I'm wrong?)

 

RAM Info: Single channel DDR2 4GB, with a frequency of 333 MHz with an FSB:DRAM ratio of 1:1, as mentioned above.

I'd try pushing the Core Voltage to ~1.425V, based on the cooler in your profile that should be just fine. And give the FSB another 50mV (so +0.1V total).

 

And yes, G0 (SLACR) is the better of the two steppings

[Bludude41]

I'd try pushing the Core Voltage to ~1.425V, based on the cooler in your profile that should be just fine. And give the FSB another 50mV (so +0.1V total).

 

And yes, G0 (SLACR) is the better of the two steppings

Thanks, I overvolted the Vcore and the FSB like you instructed and got it to 3.3 GHz (Damn you're a good OCer), but if I try for 3.4 ish I get a BSOD for Windows.  Is there anything I can do about this?

[harrynowl]

Thanks, I overvolted the Vcore and the FSB like you instructed and got it to 3.3 GHz (Damn you're a good OCer), but if I try for 3.4 ish I get a BSOD for Windows.  Is there anything I can do about this?

Well you can do more Vcore or just stick with 3.3, B3 steppings usually didn't get much more than 3.3 and given your board isn't the best I'd not go much higher.

 

What I'd work on now is making sure the 3.3GHz clock you have is stable (10 passes of IBT on maximum), and all your temps are in check.

 

I like to use CPUID HWMonitor and RealTemp GT for my temps

[Jumper118]

Q9650 on the way. didn't fancy cutting my board to go xeon. 

[harrynowl]

Q9650 on the way. didn't fancy cutting my board to go xeon. 

wimp

 

I got some higher scores on my xeon I'm yet to unleash so you'll have to get something good

[Jumper118]

wimp

for now......... if the C2Q fails then i might get annoyed and buy a 5450/60, but we'll see what happens. unfortunately i'm starting to want a gigabyte p45 board. i'm just waiting for the right moment to get one and ditch the asus (which is why i dont want to cut it). in the meantime this asus board will have to do.  

[harrynowl]

for now......... if the C2Q fails then i might get annoyed and buy a 5450/60, but we'll see what happens. unfortunately i'm starting to want a gigabyte p45 board. i'm just waiting for the right moment to get one and ditch the asus (which is why i dont want to cut it). in the meantime this asus board will have to do.  

I quite like my ASUS... I'm not sure if it's the newest of the P5Q range or not but it seems really good considering it was the cheap option.

[Jumper118]

I quite like my ASUS... I'm not sure if it's the newest of the P5Q range or not but it seems really good considering it was the cheap option.

i do like mine, the bios is great and has more options than my z77 mpower, but there is just something about the gigabyte boards

[harrynowl]

i do like mine, the bios is great and has more options than my z77 mpower, but there is just something about the gigabyte boards

I don't like Pheonix bios much though

[Jumper118]

I don't like Pheonix bios much though

not many options?

[harrynowl]

not many options?

and the layout is not very nice in comparison IMO