Overclocking a Core 2 Quad

[crazysteve240]

How much would you be able to overclock a Q9650, Q9550, or Q9450 on an Asus P5Q SE motherboard? I will be using Hynix DDR2 800MHz RAM, and a Hyper 212 LED for cooling.

 

I was able to overclock a Pentium E2180 to 3.0 GHz stable from a base clock of 2.0 GHz. The speed that I want from one of these Core 2 Quads is around 4.0 GHz, is it possible?

[Droidbot]

It all depends on the chips - some could have had the spit oc'd out of them in the past and now OC worse as a result.

 

Test them all, I'd like to see this

[Dabombinable]

4 minutes ago, crazysteve240 said:

How much would you be able to overclock a Q9650, Q9550, or Q9450 on an Asus P5Q SE motherboard? I will be using Hynix DDR2 800MHz RAM, and a Hyper 212 LED for cooling.

 

I was able to overclock a Pentium E2180 to 3.0 GHz stable from a base clock of 2.0 GHz. The speed that I want from one of these Core 2 Quads is around 4.0 GHz, is it possible?

Probably to 3.2GHz at most. Although for me that was with a P5K VM and Xeon X5450-which is far better binned than standard Core 2 uad.

Just now, Droidbot said:

It all depends on the chips - some could have had the spit oc'd out of them in the past and now OC worse as a result.

 

Test them all, I'd like to see this

The motherboards VRM are kind of bad. Not as bad as my P5K VM's, but still bad.

[Jurrunio]

Core 2 Quad Q6600s mostly got to around 3.5GHz because of it's higher clock multiplier but there are some that cracked 4GHz. For other C2Qs... Maybe 3.2GHz? Possible to go 3.8GHz IMO. Feel free to test them out. C2Qs are tough CPUs, even overclocked for their entire life, they usually out-live the mobo.

[Dabombinable]

53 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Core 2 Quad Q6600s mostly got to around 3.5GHz because of it's higher clock multiplier but there are some that cracked 4GHz. For other C2Qs... Maybe 3.2GHz? Possible to go 3.8GHz IMO. Feel free to test them out. C2Qs are tough CPUs, even overclocked for their entire life, they usually out-live the mobo.

The motherboard can't handle anything more than a light overclock, its got 4 phase analogue VRM for the CPU, and it has no heatsink so it can't handle much more than 3.2/3.3GHz for the majority of Core 2 Quad. Maybe 3.4GHz.

[crazysteve240]

13 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

Probably to 3.2GHz at most. Although for me that was with a P5K VM and Xeon X5450-which is far better binned than standard Core 2 uad.

The motherboards VRM are kind of bad. Not as bad as my P5K VM's, but still bad.

That was actually my original plan. I purchased an X5460 and an E5450, and was going to put one of them in my system, but it doesn't post. More details on that here: 

 

 

[Beowulff83]

I am currently at 3.5 with my q9550 on a gigabyte 965p ds3 auto voltage still testing but everything seems stable, 3.4 was stabile prior.  If I go to 3.6 everything falls apart I could not get it stabile at any voltage or combination of voltages. Don't forget to set your pci-e frequency manual 100mhz. 

[crazysteve240]

Just now, Beowulff83 said:

I am currently at 3.5 with my q9550 on a gigabyte 965p ds3 auto voltage still testing but everything seems stable, 3.4 was stabile prior.  If I go to 3.6 everything falls apart I could not get it stabile at any voltage or combination of voltages. Don't forget to set your pci-e frequency manual 100mhz. 

What is your ram speed?

[Beowulff83]

Kingston hyperx 2gb x4 pc2 6400

timings 4 4 4 12

3.4 ghz was 8.5 multi and 400mhz fsb.  this was the fastest my motherboard would let me go with out ocing the ram.

 

At 3.5 my fsb is at 415mhz slight oc to the ram

 

I tested the ram only at 900mhz so I don't think that is what was holding me back past the 3.5 ghz mark 

 

[dexT]

Q9650 is guaranteed to be E0 stepping, the best clocking and final Core 2 revision.

 

The board would be the problem though. You could try adding heatsinks with thermal adhesive to the VRM and actively cooling the North Bridge and VRM with a powerful fan. 

 

Then try 

 

FSB 444

Multi 9

CPU skew 200

CPU volt 1.4

LLC 1.5

NB volt 1.65

[dexT]

Maybe work up to that NB volt or less actually. The cooler on that board is tiny.

[crazysteve240]

24 minutes ago, dexT said:

Q9650 is guaranteed to be E0 stepping, the best clocking and final Core 2 revision.

 

The board would be the problem though. You could try adding heatsinks with thermal adhesive to the VRM and actively cooling the North Bridge and VRM with a powerful fan. 

 

Then try 

 

FSB 444

Multi 9

CPU skew 200

CPU volt 1.4

LLC 1.5

NB volt 1.65

Here is my fan setup, do you think this would be able to cool the VRM and Northbridge? I think at 3GHz on my Pentium E2180, the Northbridge is at around 30-50 degrees Celsius. 

[dexT]

26 minutes ago, crazysteve240 said:

Here is my fan setup, do you think this would be able to cool the VRM and Northbridge? I think at 3GHz on my Pentium E2180, the Northbridge is at around 30-50 degrees Celsius. 

I don't think so. I've never went far on a board like that you just have to try.