QX9650 4.02Ghz Air Cooled Good Standing ?

[Josh]

Right so ive been overclocking my Extreme Quad a little bit:

Standard Clock:
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/807/standardclockji7.th.jpg (http://img378.imageshack.us/my.php?image=standardclockji7.jpg)

Overclocked:
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8793/4ghzkp0.th.jpg (http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=4ghzkp0.jpg)

This is on a stock cooler on a Abit IP35 Pro with 4GB of OCZ 800Mhz DDR2 so dont laugh too much

Yes 75'C is high but its stable and running games like crysis just perfectly should i go more on air cooled any tips ?

[Revol]

Mate, you should definitely buy a better cooler. To be on the safe side at least.

[Josh]

Watercooling soon i just wanted to see how it ran air cooled on stock cooler

Its back to standard clock at the moment as i dont want to run it that hot

[clocker]

While you're waiting for the watercooling it might be interesting to play with the FSB/multiplier ratio and see what happens.
Say, try 400 x 7.5 (which still keeps you at 3GHz) and run a few benchmarks.

Sometimes the higher FSB will trump a lower FSB and higher frequency.

That seems to be quite a nice chip.

[Josh]

It ran 2 degrees lower and stable :D its set on that now and seems to be working just fine :D

Im new to overclocking so need advice on memory and things like that and safe settings

[clocker]

Once you get past stock there are no "safe" settings.

When OCing pay less attention to the speed and more to the performance.
Use something like the Everest memory bandwidth and winRAR test to see how your performance changes with different combos.
Once you discover the highest FSB/memory divider that works, then try upping the multiplier and see if it will run faster.
This is when you'll probably have to increase the voltage to the chip (and possibly other components as well) and that's when heat will become a factor.

See this (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=515316) more more specific info and good luck.

[Josh]

Right so at FSB Clock at 400Mhz x 8.5 Multiplier so 3400Mhz

48'C for 30 minutes so better than the 340Mhz x 9.0 at 3060Mhz which was 54'C so big difference in temps why is that then ?

[clocker]

Maybe a change in ambient temp?

[Josh]

Only thing it could be i think i left my windows open so the room was much cooler ive ordered a new cooler the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme and some atric silver 5 :) so hopefully it will bring temps down more so i can overclock a bit more

[clocker]

It's difficult for mere mortals to assert much in the way of "good/better/best" when it comes to cooling since we can't control room temps well enough.
An open window or a particularly hot day skews results beyond usefulness.

[Detale]

Only thing it could be i think i left my windows open so the room was much cooler ive ordered a new cooler the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme and some atric silver 5 :) so hopefully it will bring temps down more so i can overclock a bit more


Surely that can't hurt, best of luck

[Josh]

Also any advice on spreading thermal paste on a quad core cpu ive never done it before

[clocker]

I just put a dab- the proverbial "grain of rice- in the center and install the sink.
Subsequent removals have shown even and thorough dispersement over the heat spreader.

[Josh]

So no need to spread it about and stuff the heatsink its self spreads it thats good to hear just tried another clock

3600Mhz running temps of around 65'C using prime95 and coretemp as evevest appears to lie about temps by 10'C

[Acid_death69]

which everest are you running fella? mine isn't lying. Also if you want to distribute the thermal paste by hand, i found just a simple piece of plastic like an old credit card worked wonders or put a a plastic bag over your hand and then going round in circles. I found that using the plastic bag helped alot getting right into the corners without going over the edge.
It really is easy, it's nothing to be bothered about ive put thermal paste down a good few times like. twice on my pc, once on my mums, and another one a mates. ohnestly fella you will know by the temps results if you've done it right.

[Josh]

Have you compared coretemp to everest i was shocked at the difference im using Corporate Edition 4.50.1330

but started using prime95 64 bit edition and core temp to find what my actual core temps are amd cp-z for cpu info

[Acid_death69]

i dont use corporate edition i use ultimate edition 4.50.1330 i tried noseying at speedfan (latest upgrade) and that said the same as everest.

coretemp says the same as everest also

[Josh]

I never use speedfan just get dodgey readings and fan errors did with old pc as well very odd maybe just me.

New heatsink comes 2morow :D so will give it a good running in over night on a prime95 test for 12 hours and see hows it goes

[Acid_death69]

what heat sink are you going for? link please

[clocker]

You both should be using RealTemp. (http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/)

[Acid_death69]

lol got that to:p

[Josh]

Real temp it is and look back dan ive already said what im using nad its on and up and running :D results to come

[Acid_death69]

ah yerr ive seen that heatsink, Thermalright has a shit quality control, you might wanna look at the bottom of the heat sink where the metal touches the CPU. make sure it's completely flat, quite alot of them aren't if it aint flat it'll need lapping. You can easily find videos of it on youtube.

other than that it can be a very effective heatsink, i would shot some yate loon fans on it and create a push pull effect.

[Josh]

I already knew about the bottom after reading plenty of reviews mine doesnt seem to have that problem

Ive got the fan running at 500RPM and it still cooling better than stock cooler and my pc is running silent its great all fans running at 500RPM apart from GPU

I can hear agen :D

Right so here we go new stats with 3.60Ghz as its all i can get to run stable as high clocks seem to cause Prime95 to get errors straight away then BSOD

Stock Cooler:

Core Voltage 1.300V at Idle 1.250 at Load

Bus Speed 400 Mhz / Rated FSB 1600 Mhz

Core Speed 3600Mhz / x9.0

Temps 1-63 2-58 3-60 4-60

New Cooler:

Core Voltage 1.300V at Idle 1.250 at Load

Bus Speed 400 Mhz / Rated FSB 1600 Mhz

Core Speed 3600Mhz / x9.0

Temps 1-48 2-45 3-46 4-40

But i need help i can seem to get stable results anything above 3.60

just to add ive got 2 x 2GB DD2 800 (400Mhz) OCZ Reaper HPC at DRAM:FSB Ratio 12:10 so Memory clock is at 480Mhz ive tried setting it 1:1 seems to make no difference at all.

Maybe my volatges need increases to run a stable 4.0Ghz in Prime 95 i can get stable evevest test but prime just gets errors

HELP PLEASE :D

[Acid_death69]

how did you manage to get it to 4.0 before?

[clocker]

i need help i can seem to get stable results anything above 3.60...
Maybe my volatges need increases to run a stable 4.0Ghz in Prime 95 i can get stable evevest test but prime just gets errors


Yes, you probably do.
You've done the easy part- exploiting the overhead of the stock settings- so now the whole process gets much harder and infinitely more time consuming.
How committed are you to this and why?

[Josh]

I want to know the potential of my £1000 at the time CPU air cooled then watercooled

4.02Ghz was stable when using everest but when using Prime95 4th core gets a reading error.

I increased Northbridge voltage slightly and CPU to 1.44 so under load it drops to 1.40 and it runs stable at roughly 59'C until 30 minutes later the 3rd core had a reading error

Im scared if i increase some voltages i will kill something

[clocker]

Im scared if i increase some voltages i will kill something
The possibility exists.
There is widespread evidence to suggest that increased voltage chips degrade over time (which varies from @6 months to a year) and will no longer clock as high as they did when new.
This is accepted as the price one pays but then again, most of these chips are the cheap and friendly q6600 and e8400- not the top of the line extreme versions like yours.

You are putting a lot more on the line than most, hence the question about your commitment.

[Josh]

If i can achieve 4Ghz i would be happy can you help me clocker please :D

If temps become a problem i.e over 65'C i will increase fan speed frpm 500RPM back to 1400RPM as it makes big difference

[clocker]

Here you go. (http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/167489-asus-p5n32-e-overclocking-guide.html)

[Acid_death69]

lol i knew you were going to send him to overclockers:p

[Josh]

I dont use that motherboard tho so im a little confused

[clocker]

I dont use that motherboard tho so im a little confused
No, 'twas I that screwed up.
Try here. (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=147163)

[Josh]

Nice one thanks clocker will have a good read through when i get a chance think thsi mobo might have some good potential

[clocker]

Yeah, hours- possibly days- of fun there.