As the title states, I need some help. I have never overclocked an Intel system before. Only AMD. Im a bit confused as to how they do it. I have gotten the computer at 3GHz (not sure if it was stable because I didnt test it) and the temps were 61C idle. Thats to hot for my liking until I can get an after market cooler. Now I know most of you will say wait until you can get a better cooler other than the stock one that I am using. However, I have been able to overclock it some with no temp change.

When I got the comptuer to 3GHz and booted to the desktop, I had a few problems. First issue was that I could not view the My Computer's Properties. Tried like hell but got no where with it. Was like this at speeds even close to 3GHz. However, the RAM speeds I didnt like. I was at DDR2 667 speeds with my RAM. My RAM has been said to hit DDR2 1000 speeds and when I first got my computer up and running, I got my comptuer to boot to the desktop at that RAM speed at 3GHz.

Computer specs:

PSU: OCZ GameXStream 850W
Motherboard: EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz
Memory: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel @ 4-4-4-12 Model F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ
Hard Drive: WD 2x80GB RAID-0 SATAII HDD,WD 250GB SATAII HDD, Maxtor 300GB SATA150
Video Card: BFG nVIDIA 8800GTS @600/1000
Monitor: SAMSUNG 22 inch SyncMaster 226BW
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium x64

Help me out guys.

Intel CPU formula is:

FSB x Multiplier = Clockspeed

In a 1:1 situation your RAM will be running at the same as your FSB. Your multiplier is gonna have a max. All you gotta do is make sure your FSB and RAM can handle the speeds and your basically gonna be running smooth. Intel overclocking is simple once you realize this.

Stock for a Q6600 is:
266.7 x 9 = 2400mhz
Note this has a divider to make the ram run faster than the FSB. Obviously DDR2-800 can handle much higher than 266.7.

In your case you'll be overclocking your ram if it goes over 400mhz. That ram can probably handle like 450mhz or so though.


So for example in a 1:1 you could do this:
400 x 9 = 3600mhz
This will make your CPU hot, but with the proper cooling you could hit 3.6ghz Without overclocking the RAM at all. And 400mhz should be nothing for your motherboard. Most Intel Core 2 boards can handle well over a 400mhz FSB.

Mess around with your FSB/RAM ratio though until you have your RAM running at about 400mhz or so and your FSB at the speed you want. Basically your gonna want your RAM to be running faster than your FSB unless your gonna do a 1:1, 400x9 like above.

There is absolutely NO WAY you wil get 3.6GHz on air. NO chance. I'm struggling
with 3.6 (x9 multiplier) on water and it's just now having it at all. The Best I've got so
far is:

Core : 3400MHz
Multi : x8
Bus : 425.1MHz
FSB : 1700.4 MHz

That's only just stable. I'm still tinkering with Volts, etc. I will post all my volts, etc
when i get back cos gotta go just now!

Tam...

I'm not saying he SHOULD do that, I'm just saying its certainly possible with the right cooling.

Also notice that it would be possible without even overclocking the ram. The only problem is the heat.

For 3Ghz:
334x9 = 3006mhz
5ram/4fsb divider makes ram run at 417.5mhz

For 3.2Ghz:
355x9 = 3195mhz
7ram/6fsb divider makes ram run at 414.16 mhz

What kind of ram/fsb divider options do you have?

Heres' what you need to do:
1. Decide what Final Speed you want
2. Divide that by 9 and figure out the FSB your gonna need to reach it
3. Figure out the RAM/FSB ratio that will make your RAM run at about 400mhz or so with that FSB you figured out in step 2.

Here are my divider options.

Auto
1:1
5:4
3:2
Sync Mode

why cant you just run the memory unlinked to FSB to find the max overclock of your CPU. then fiddle with memory dividers later if you so wished. thats the point of the nforce 6 series chipsets non? also bear in mind 680i owners that there are many many reports of a FSB 'hole' especially with the q6600. meaning it just isnt stable between certain FSB speeds. dropping the multiplier and overclocking past the FSB 'hole' can solve this sometimes.

Oh wow, I didn't realize you can unlink them on the 680 series otherwise I would have recommended that too.

works fine unlinked on my nforce 650. core 2's like synchronous RAM/FSB speeds but i dont think there is a discernible performance hit by running a slightly off divider with unlinked and overclocked RAM

I cant remember who it was, but they referred me to this website.

http://evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=61146

Tam-the-Bam said:


As you can see from my profile, I can do 3.5 GHz, FSB = 1557 MHz, and with OCZ DDR2-1000 PC2-8000 @ 1070 MHz, 4-3-3-8, FSB:RAM ratio = 8:11, Latency = 47.6
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/8356/md10704338me6.jpg that's at Idle: ~45°C, Load: ~50°C. That's the best combination of ratios I found so far...

how old is you E6600 tam? newer steppings of the E6600 dont overclock as well as older ones. mine (B2 revision) can do over 3.8ghz, on air, on my zalman 9500. i need some serious volts thru it and its kinda too hot, but with a 9700 or a thermalright ulktra 120 it would be fine and stable. atm 3.4 is about spot on for me, any faster is pointless, hardly any gains for gaming which is my main interest. X1950XT is totally maxed out, when i get a faster GPU i will push further so as not to bottleneck.

also i forgot to mention the quads dont overclock as well as the duals anyway. its a given, simply because they are just two duals glued together and as a result get hotter and use more power as you would expect and the cores are harder to match up than a dual. your CPU will only OC as far as the slowest core will go..........

Vulcan i don't have that cpu anymore. I'm on Quad 6600.
Also MD the kinda overclocking am talkn about is keeping the RAM to 1:1 Ratio.
That's why I'm finding it hard to keep it stable.

Actually how important is the RAM Ratio? I mean does it have a huge impact?
I've never tried an odd ratio?

Mark that was me that gave you that link regarding your MoBo for OC'ing.

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=234081 yes this was stable but my temps were to high for me

Mark did you get your H/S yet?And Tam 3.6ghz is very possible with air and the Q6600.Heck guys are hitting 4.0 and better with the G0 stepping's

Yea i know that Mothow, but i was on about the B3's. They're so feckin hot!!
My mate has the G0 and he'd had 3.8GHz on air and at 50c core temps!
I'm gutted!

Ebay time...lol

Mothow said:
I just got the package. So I will be installing it shortly.

Mark Allen said:
Nice i wanna see how good that h/s really is.From the reviews it sounds like it should kick ass

I have the Stepping 7 Revision B3 so heat's a major problem for me EVEN on water!
If i'd waited for the G0 then I'd be able to push well into 4G's with the water.
Was gonna buy the G0 but gonna wait for the new Pen intels instead!

Dude 3.4ghz is plenty fast.Thats what im running at right now.I have a watercooling setup that i havent installed yet.(not as nice as your's)Mabe when i do ill run it at 3.6ghz and 3.8ghz for benchmarks and what not.But if a dual core at 3.4ghz is fast then a quad at 3.4ghz has got to be amazing

Mothow said:

amazing at what tho. theres hardly any use for quads, even now. 99 percent of games dont support it, half the games that say they support multi threading actually dont properly, i.e STALKER, oblivion, episode 1. theres no quad scaling of performance. most programs dont even support dual threading never mind proper 4 core scaling. encoding it would be good if the program could use it, the ones i do dont actually either though so meh lol when the software catches up to the hardware it will be useful. but i would imagine the world will have moved onto octo chips by then, end of 2009/ early 2010. seems like another case of processor manufacturers jumping the gun once again. double precision CPU's anyone.............?

Quake 4, Call of Duty2 uses 2 cores.
Bioshock, Lost Planet uses 4 cores. Then there's Quake Wars, Crysis, etc all coming out
that will utilise 4+ cores. This's all happening now dude