Problems trying to OC Q2D 6600 and nForce 680i

[Quakindude]

You should uninstall nTune immediately. It's a buggy POS that causes way more problems than it solves and will actually affect your BIOS overclocks once you've booted into the OS. Some folks have killed their CPU's with it.

Set the CPU Multiplier to 9 and the FSB to 310. That should give you an effective clock of 2790 MHz. You do have the memory unlinked right? Set your CPU voltage to 1.375 and leave it there for now. Now fire up the PC and check CPU-z and tell me if it's correct. Remember to keep an eye on CoreTemp while you're doing this. No temps over 70°C ok?

BTW, if you continue to have overclocking troubles, pull out two sticks of your ram. There aren't many motherboards that like have all four Ram slots filled.If you have a 2x2Gb setup for ram, never mind.

[PkL728]

When I fire up Prime95 to check the stability, under my CPU info it says I have a CPU speed of 2999.64 MHz...

[Quakindude]

Originally Posted by PkL728

When I fire up Prime95 to check the stability, under my CPU info it says I have a CPU speed of 2999.64 MHz...

Did you do what I asked you to do above?

Let's get things correctly identified in CPU-z before you worry about Prime95. And I recommend using Orthos Prime instead of Prime 95.

[PkL728]

I had FSB set to Sync Mode and set FSB to 1240 Mhz for 2.79 GHz. I have 4 sticks of 1 GB Ram... but I'd prefer to not have to pull any out. I set the CPU Core to 1.375 V. Just fired up CPU-Z and it is saying I have a core speed of 2790 MHz. What's a good program for checking the tems?

[PkL728]

Should I run 4 instances of SP2004? 1 for each Core? Or should I run one on Core 0 and one on Core 3?

[Quakindude]

Originally Posted by PkL728

I had FSB set to Sync Mode and set FSB to 1240 Mhz for 2.79 GHz. I have 4 sticks of 1 GB Ram... but I'd prefer to not have to pull any out. I set the CPU Core to 1.375 V. Just fired up CPU-Z and it is saying I have a core speed of 2790 MHz. What's a good program for checking the tems?

Forgot Nvidia doesn't use the un-multiplied FSB settings like Intel does. So from now on, I'll make sure I convert it. LOL!

As long as you don't hit an overclocking wall, you can leave the ram in.

CoreTemp is my preferred temp monitoring program.

Get Orthos Prime here. AKA, Stress Prime.

At 1.375V, monitor your temps for about 20 minutes and let me know what the average of the 4 cores is. Should be around 50°C loaded by Stress Prime with that cooler.

Then, go ahead and bump the FSB up to 1275. If it boots and loads Windows, shut right back down and hit 1305. Then do Stress Prime and let me know the temps please. You should be able to hit 3.1GHz with little problem. You may have to bump the voltage up a bit though. I won't use more than 1.45V on my Quad though. But that is up to you. Intel says 1.5V is the max for the Q6600.

[Quakindude]

Stress Prime will only start two threads. So running one on Core 0 and one on core 3 should engage all 4 cores. I might be wrong though. It's been awhile since I've used it on a 4 core.

[PkL728]

Speed fan for 2 instances of the test running for about 10 minutes shows an average CPU temp of 60 degrees C. It has a temp of 57C for Core 0, 55C for Core 1, 54C for Core 2 and 53C for Core 3.

[Quakindude]

Speedfan isn't the best utility for measuring temps. CoreTemp, which I linked to above, does a better job of it. And with the core temps you gave me, 55°C would be your average, not 60.

What are you running the CPU at now for those temps?

Just noticed you are using Vista 64-bit. I don't think CoreTemp works in Vista 64. Might try changing the properties to use Vista 32 or XP 32 compatibility.

Sheeesh. Looking at too many forums at one time.

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

Just noticed you are using Vista 64-bit. I don't think CoreTemp works in Vista 64.

Correct - Core Temp and x64 Vista do not get along. At all.