overclocking my q6600

underworld288

underworld288

New Member
ok I don't have that much experience with overclocking a CPU. Now, I am trying to overclock the system that I have in my sig, the RAM is G.Skill by the way. I want to overclock as much as possible on air cooling, and I have a small fan next to my computer that provides extra cooling so it could go up pretty high. What do I do from hear? From what I've heard the stock multiplier on this CPU is 266, mine is 266.67 for some reason. I read somewhere once that I should have my memory clocked at two times my FSB; is this correct? If not can some steer me in the right direction?
 
First you should check out some of the guides here as well as ones on the net.

Your multiplier isn't 266, that would be your FSB. The multiplier on the Q6600 is 9 (2400 / 9 = 266.67). As for your memory, for best performance it should be clocked the same as your FSB in a 1:1 ratio. However if you have that set currently, then it would just be at DDR2 533, so you would need to overclock to bring it to it's factory speed (or faster).

Now since you're new at overclocking, I would just start off by raising the FSB to a point where it becomes unstable, then back down. Changing voltages, timings, and other settings will help to raise your overclock, however I wouldn't recommend it if you're new to it.
 
question, how much should I raise each time? Would it be good to raise the FSB by one each time? Or should it go higher?
 
underworld288 said:
question, how much should I raise each time? Would it be good to raise the FSB by one each time? Or should it go higher?
Click to expand...
Well since it's at stock now, I would raise it to say 300MHz, then 320MHz and so on until you start getting near 400 (if you can), then try and raise it say, every 5MHz. Once it becomes unstable or doesn't boot, then start to back it down.
 
ok, i raised the FSB to 286 safely but when I try to raise it 20Mhz more to 306 the computer doesn't boot. I reset the BIOS and everything is fine but does this mean I should up the CPU voltage or something?
 
yes, retail cooler but i have a mini fan that is blowing directly into my case providing extra cooling so cooling shouldn't be the problem. Oh, I raise the FSB to 296MHz and the memory clock to 592MHz and ran a prime 95 test for three hours, these settings seem to be stable. So, that being the case would this be the highest I can go?
 
underworld288 said:
yes, retail cooler but i have a mini fan that is blowing directly into my case providing extra cooling so cooling shouldn't be the problem.
Click to expand...

Actually, that mini fan isn't doing much. You need a high performance heatsink. Something like the Zalman 9700. Click here and here.

Personally, I wouldn't go any further with stock cooling. If you'd like to try, set the voltage to 1.375 and the FSB to 335. That'll get you to 3 GHz. Run Prime95 and watch your temps. Do you know the stepping of your CPU?
 
just as a reference or what ever, at my current clock of 2.66GHz the highest temp is on my first two cores (which idles at 35C). The other two cores are 31C and 34C, that doesn't seem to bad to me. With that would it be wise for me to up the FSB any more?
 
Yeah, go for it. So far, the temps look good. Make sure you increase the voltage. See how high you (safely) can get. As you know, the G0 stepping runs much cooler than the initial Q6600 release.

You should consider investing in the Zalman heatsink I mentioned in my previous post. I've heard of people achieving overclocks as high as 3.7 on air. :D
 
I think this is the highest I'm going to get to go cause even a slight up in the FSB and memory and the computer doesn't boot. Oh well, this is good enough for now.
 
underworld288 said:
I think this is the highest I'm going to get to go cause even a slight up in the FSB and memory and the computer doesn't boot. Oh well, this is good enough for now.
Click to expand...
2.66GHz is very low, even for leaving the voltage at stock. What speed is your RAM running at? my guess would be that you have it set too high.
 
underworld288 said:
I think this is the highest I'm going to get to go cause even a slight up in the FSB and memory and the computer doesn't boot. Oh well, this is good enough for now.
Click to expand...

Are the memory and CPU frequencies linked? If so, is it possible to unlink them in the BIOS?

EDIT: As Omega stated, your memory speed is probably too high.
 
Just wondering, but why do you have the RAM running at DDR2 592 when it was preset to DDR2 800?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top