Top Overclockers on GATT.....Help Wanted!!!

[rassmatic]

i need help overclocking my processor. i've placed an order for the following parts:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Asus P5N32-E SLI Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB PC2-8500
Thermalright Ultima 90 with Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm fan

i've never overclocked anything in my life, and i don't even know where to start. i'd like to get anywhere from 3.2-3.4Ghz out of the processor (comes at 2.4Ghz stock). can someone please help a brotha out!!?!!

[Crixx_Creww]

hmmm

did yu do enuff research on that board?

i would have personally chosen the gigabyte p35 board instead...

very overclocking friendly
most of it is pretty easy from the bios

but ill let the more experienced asus guys give yu a hand with this one


one more thing

while yu wait, go to one of the over clocking forums, like hard oc or anand tech and GURU 3d, if yu have an nvidia card as well


if yu need help with ocing yur nvidia card, i can be more helpfull in that.

[Spazosaurus]

3.4 might be asking a bit much of a q66.

That said, look for FSB and Multiplier controls in your bios. To make things simple, just adjust the FSB, leaving your muliplier at 10x. Gradually increase, test using Orthos as you go along. Pay close attention to your temps. Keep stock voltage until the machine becomes unstable. Im not familiar with that HSF, but it should be OK.When you start to become unstable, increase voltage incrementally. Rince & repeat until you find your highest stable OC.

Nv 680i isnt a bad board at all, should give nuff overclocking options and stability, but I don't really trust nvidia all that much for Intel builds. I prefer to go with intel chipsets. A good board to get would have been the Abit IP5 pro, which is THE BEST board for the Intels right about now. Of course, if SLI is your game, that isnt the board for you. Other than that, you cooking. (metaphorically speaking of course)

[daniboy79]

lol... i'd leave it-ta-fark-alone!!

Q6600 yu-rass!!
ENJOY!!

[Saxito Pau]

I'll add my own lil tidbit:

I can personally attest to the RAM reaching DDR2-1066 @ 2.2V, with board OCing, being a current owner of such.

See a review here:
http://techgage.com/article/crucial_2gb_ddr2-1066_ballistix_tracer/1

[rassmatic]

ok, so should i backup my system before OCing? and do i face any dangers, as in my cpu or board being damaged when doing so?

[Saxito Pau]

ok, so should i backup my system before OCing? and do i face any dangers, as in my cpu or board being damaged when doing so?

yes (backup) and DEFINITELY yes (damage to board). Do remember that OCing will require increasing the voltages (in particular) and FSB to your CPU and board. Just don't push it too far.

btw, what PSU are you using? you will need at a minimum a 600W high end PSU for the job

As a side note this be an decent article for you to look at for OCing your Q6600:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/07/25/overclocking_intel_core_2_quad_q6600/1

[Spazosaurus]

Good question. What PSU are you using.

At the very least, by overclocking, you're putting your hardware under some pretty heavy stress, however, you'll have to do some serious overvolting to damage quality components founf on boards designed for overclocking. And yeah, read the guide and what I posted above, but the important thing to remember is that they're just guides, meaning your results could vary wildly from others' since your max stable OC is very much dependent on the particular parts you have (read even two different parts of the same exact model have different potentials)

[W1nTry]

With regards to the voltage damaging your motherboard, in most cases than not, it won't seeing as the manufacturer's won't give you options beyond the tolerance of their hardware. That being said, ramping the voltage can cause harm to the other components in your system, namely your CPU, RAM (to a lesser extent depending on the make) and add in cards. Depending on the frequency settings and options you can find situations where you ramp the frequency of the FSB or change the multiplier settings and it can also ramp the add in slots as they are a multiple of the FSB. It really does vary from mobo to mobo and the most useful thing for us may be some screenshots of the bios so we can see what options you have available to you so we can advise. The PSU is a VERY important factor in OCing that alot of ppl take for granted. Just some food for thought.

[Arcmanov]

I have reached 3 GHz easily with my E6600, and 3.2 GHz with a lot of tweaking.  So you may reach at least that.  In practice though,
quad-core chips are a little harder to OC than dual-core ones (unless you get one with G0 stepping, then its all good).

Anandtech was able to push a X6800 to 3.9 GHz with that cooler you selected, so you might be able to squeeze out 3.4,
but remember, that CPU is a dual-core, and an 'Xtreme' one at that, so its tailor-made for high OC.

One question though: if OC'ing is your goal why did you not ask for advice before purchasing?  It has been shown that the
P35 chipset is now the new OC champ, and all new dual-core steppings are turning out to be wicked OC'ers, seemingly
limited only by the capabilities of the motherboard, RAM, and HSF.  Even the new Pentium Dual-Core (not to be confused with the old Pentium D)
is turning out to be a solid OC'er as well.

[Crixx_Creww]

yeah i think yur mobo choice wasnt the best.. p35 or bust at this point

and there are mobos that can lock the fsb speed on the parts yu dont want to be affected by yur oc

very usefull if  yu dont have super top notch parts except ur processor

[rassmatic]

ok, but are there any high-end SLi P35 boards out there? i'd really like an SLi board.

[Crixx_Creww]

giga byz ytteee
and lol @ "high end" p35 boards they are all high end

[Spazosaurus]

Depends on how you define high end. For exmple, i'm getting a cheap Gigabyte board (check this $hit out) that overclocks among the best of them, but without the bells and whistles like more than 4 SATA's and RAID. Anyone in the market for an affordable KILLER build should definately check this out. So high end can be defined on both the performance or features front.

That said, understand this...when you talk P35, you're talking Intel chipset, which does not NATIVELY support SLI, meaning that you MIGHT get it to work, but if so, not all that well. Ignoring the fact tat SLI is nowhere near cost effective, if you reaaaalllllly want SLI, then nvidia is the way to go, but for others who dont care for it, and don't see the need for spending large amounts of cash for something that can be done with something that costs a lot less, Intel chipsets FTW!. Also better performance with intel chips. /end pro Intel rant.

[rassmatic]

i'm considering getting the XFX nForce 680i SLI instead of the Asus P5N32-E SLI. saw it on SaxMan's post http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/07/25/overclocking_intel_core_2_quad_q6600/1. what do u guys think?

[Arcmanov]

A waste of money in my opinion, unless you are dead set on using 2 video-cards in SLI.  If you are, then go
for it, but I'm getting a sense that you're not entirely 'in-tune' with what's at stake here.  It seems you
want the XFX board 'because it has SLI', but do you know of all the overheads involved with making
this configuration work properly?

SLI is a serious hardware undertaking, (even for an experienced techie like me), and if you don't know what you're doing, you can damage your
very expensive hardware.  I normally don't recommend it because of the number of things that can go wrong, and because
of the cost overhead.  Can you readily replace an 8800 GTX if one fails?

[Spazosaurus]

He seems to be pretty set on the SLI board. Both of them are good, Rage, whichever one floats your boat.

[rassmatic]

can u be more specific on what problems i may encounter when using SLi? i mean i know about the power requirements and whatnot, but can u really damage ur system? first time i hearin bout dat. i honestly would rather buy one GPU now then a second one 1 year later, rather than having to replace it when it becomes obsolete.

[W1nTry]

The sad reality of SLI, Crossfire and any other multi-card based solution to date has been abissmal performance benefit. meaning, we've TO DATE not seen more than a 50% (and that's in very select cases) performance increase though you have to look at it as a 100% COST increase. Meaning you have 2x8800GTS but it gives you barely better performance than a 8800GTX but it costs MORE than a GTX. The same has held true for crossfire. Its a mix of Video driver issues, OS issues, and hardware limitations. Most though SLI and the ilk are things for BRAGGING RIGHTS as opposed to SENSIBLE price performance. Not only that, but SLI is B-R-O-K-E-N on Windows Vista and will reamain that way for some time.

Now consider this, Video manufacturers have a product refresh cycle of about 8 MONTHS... NOT YEARS. What is KING of the hill TODAY will be MID-RANGED in the next revision aka THE NEXT YEAR. So whereas IF the product refresh were 2 years, then SLI and Xfire would be VIABLE options to increase performance without changing ur tech, it USUALLY makes FAR MORE SENSE to just BUY A NEW CARD, than add in another older card. PLUS, in MANY CASES as mentioned in an article I posted JUST today on the 8800, because of the product refresh rate, the card you buy today MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE in 2 years when you want to bump your video performance without changing your card or rig. These are 'inconvenient' truths of multicard setups.

The ONLY ARENA that has benefitted from multi-card tech in a MEASURABLE manner are those that play games at LUDICROUS resolutions i.e. ABOVE 1600x1200 WITH AF and FSAA, however at those resolutions what they usually don't tell you is that the game ALREADLY LOOKS gorgeous and the AF and FSAA effect is reduced from the naked eye perspective. Plus if you're a FPS gamer... well you REALLY won't be STILL long enough to see the jagged edges.

Now I am not saying don't buy SLI, you may be one of the few to go SLI and raise your light bill a few hundred dollars a year but you'll have some bragging rights.... 1 positive of having multiple 16x slots is putting a mix of video cards to run maybe folding on an AMD base X1K series OR if you want to support Multiple monitors. Just some food for thoughts.

[Spazosaurus]

At the end of the day when you're ready to scrap your SLI system and build a new one, you'll have two cards instead of one. Also, as W1n said, SLI is broken in Vista, but even if it wasnt, many games still either dont support SLI (or crossfire) at all and if they do, its only on a limited level.

New generation cards are roughly twice as fast and if not, almost twice as fast as the previous generation parts. That fact alone says that Nvidia is kinna shooting itself in the foot. Those consumers like yourself who say, "well ah go buy ah next card next year and fling it in SLI, more performance nah" dont even realise that ONE new gen card blazing their fancy SLI setup, which would have cost a lot more than taking the initial route because even if you find an identical card after a year, it will still cost a substantial amount, definately enough to make SLI more expensive, troublesome and cumbersone with LESS performance.

If you think SLI still makes sense to what you want to do, well....good for you.