I know I'll be going for a quad core (probably Q6600) DDR3 setup just as soon as motherboards with PCI-Express 2.0 come out... oh when will the wait end. Otherwise with my luck by the time I fancy upgrading my graphics card again my motherboard will be incompatible.
Our weapon of choice in this case was a Scythe Infinity with its default 120mm fan spinning at around 1200 RPM. Well have a full review of this cooler in the near future, but for now well say that it performs well but has a few mounting-related flaws.
I'm using the EVGA 680sli-A1 w/p30 bios, and have the Q6600 running my system stable at 3.6ghz (400x9, or 1600fsb) on air (thermalite 120 extreme)--granted, as case fans I'm using two four-inch monsters, which I got at a fish store and are made to cool metal-halide fixtures. I've scored 19,200 in 3d mark 06 at this speed (with a pair of 8800GTX's and the ram timings lowered to 3-3-3-10), but I have not run any severe tests like prime95--and don't plan to. The system does not crash or act funny when I do anything from audio conversions to playing Oblivion for hours; so for me, that's stable enough. My temps hover around 35c to 37c at idol (27c @ stock speeds/voltages), and hit a bit above 50c during 3dmark06. One of these days I'm going to switch to watercooling and and switch between the q6600 and a 6850, but that's only when I have time to custom design an efficent WC rig.
Quick question:
I'm overclocking my q6600 now and i was trying to test it using prime95 but I can only get 1 instance to run at anyone time, how did you manage to get 4 running?
Originally Posted by poz235 I'm using the EVGA 680sli-A1 w/p30 bios, and have the Q6600 running my system stable at 3.6ghz (400x9, or 1600fsb) on air (thermalite 120 extreme)--granted, as case fans I'm using two four-inch monsters, which I got at a fish store and are made to cool metal-halide fixtures. I've scored 19,200 in 3d mark 06 at this speed (with a pair of 8800GTX's and the ram timings lowered to 3-3-3-10), but I have not run any severe tests like prime95--and don't plan to. The system does not crash or act funny when I do anything from audio conversions to playing Oblivion for hours; so for me, that's stable enough. My temps hover around 35c to 37c at idol (27c @ stock speeds/voltages), and hit a bit above 50c during 3dmark06. One of these days I'm going to switch to watercooling and and switch between the q6600 and a 6850, but that's only when I have time to custom design an efficent WC rig.
HI iam new to this forum as i would like to purchase a Q6600. and just wondering can i get other branded motherboard with intels P35 chip?? will they be the same performance or will it be worst??? if there is can i get some suggestion please AND is there other chip set that can be used with Q6600 ??? or is P35 the best one on the market thank you . And on ur test it clearly showed that the P35 chip is better to run higher clock speed then Nvidia s chip but over all which is better??? as i don't understand much between these two thanks.
Either P35 or nForce 680i is usually the one to go for. Different motherboards will give you different options to overclock, you can search through our motherboard reviews to see our overclocking and the options on every board to determine which features are right for you. Nvidia boards have SLI for example, P35 has Crossfire. You don't need an expensive motherboard as the Abit IP35-E or Gigabyte GA-P95-DS3R work also very well but you get less features. The Asus Blitz Formula is a republic of gamer board and is very expensive in comparison to other P35 boards but you get a LOT of BIOS options for overclocking and features built in like temperature probes.
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi Not much point considering a CPUs overclock is never guaranteed - we'd need to take several from several batches and test a whole load for an average.
Is a shame. But ok then. Do you actually pay for the hardware you use or do you get given it free?
Free. Usually (long term) loans. We're big enough now to require a ton of hardware on a regular basis. Depending on what's being reviewed at once between ourselves and TR we can have anything up to eight or nine rigs on the go at once. We've got to cover memory, CPUs, chipsets, graphics (high and low), sound, etcetc
Generally stuff comes and goes all the time, and our work PCs are really crap compared to what we test with! Haha :D :)
Now at 2.9 GHZ i can run the new multicore Prime95 torture test stable for 12 hours (I cancelled after the 12 hours) but when i bump the CPU to 3ghz the pc is unstable. Temps are all fine (at 2.9ghz i get 35 idle 50 load(55 during a really hot day), @3 i get 37 idle 54 load(59 during a really hot day)) remembering i live in Singapore and the ambient temps can be as high as 34c. The MB temp never gets above 38 even after 12 hours of prime 95. This leads me to believe Temps are not the limiting factor as they are well within limits for this CPU (you may like cooler but it's kind of hard to achieve much cooler with the ambient so high and my hatred of watercooling(long story).
I've tried upping voltages, relaxing ram timings although i run in Unlinked mode) i followed the nVidia overclocking guide to the letter, i'm just all out of ideas. i don't see how 100mhz can take a CPU from rock solid stable to utter shambles regarless of how much i increase the voltage it just won't get stable.
Have i got a poor overclocking chip:(? or is the something i can do to increase the oc?
Trying to get 3ghz stable I pushed voltages to 1.45. I'm unwilling to apply much more voltage than that, since I think it would push temps over the edge.
Rail Voltages for you to look at:
3.3V -> min 3.22 max 3.33
5V -> min 4.97 max 5.04
12V -> min 12.03 max 12.09
Try turning off the EEP/SLI on the memory. I've heard (although, as you can see from my sig, I've no relevant experience yet) that this can cause instabilkity on overclocking.
I am slightly concerned at you not being able to get more than 2.9GHz from a G0 Q6600 though. Cos I'm intending on getting one of these puppies and taking it straight to 3GHz by increasing the FSB to 333MHz (in smaller increments obviously).
I'm not too annoyed as obviously this PC can do everything i ask of it without hiccuping, but i really wanted to try for 400mhz FSB so i could run my ram at 1:1 (i was going to drop the multiplier to 8X for an overall 3.2ghz so i didn't crank up the heat too much) but i can't even get to 333mhz stable (regardless of multiplier) it doesn't seem to be a FSB gap either as experimenting with higher FSB's lead to the same poor stability.
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Is there an ETA on this? :)
That what you looking for?
*kicks RSS client*
I'm overclocking my q6600 now and i was trying to test it using prime95 but I can only get 1 instance to run at anyone time, how did you manage to get 4 running?
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=prime+95+quad+core&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enGB225GB225
bam
http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=8638
bam
http://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=110033&postcount=4
Awesome - welcome to the forums ;)
Check these: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=138935
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=137725
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=138572
Either P35 or nForce 680i is usually the one to go for. Different motherboards will give you different options to overclock, you can search through our motherboard reviews to see our overclocking and the options on every board to determine which features are right for you. Nvidia boards have SLI for example, P35 has Crossfire. You don't need an expensive motherboard as the Abit IP35-E or Gigabyte GA-P95-DS3R work also very well but you get less features. The Asus Blitz Formula is a republic of gamer board and is very expensive in comparison to other P35 boards but you get a LOT of BIOS options for overclocking and features built in like temperature probes.
Not much point considering a CPUs overclock is never guaranteed - we'd need to take several from several batches and test a whole load for an average.
Is a shame. But ok then. Do you actually pay for the hardware you use or do you get given it free?
Generally stuff comes and goes all the time, and our work PCs are really crap compared to what we test with! Haha :D :)
I'm new to this board but you all seem to know what you're talking about so i figured must be a good place to get advice :D
I have a new PC and I'm having trouble getting the overclock past 2.9GHz.
SPECS:
Q6600 @2.9
2GB PC6400 OCZ Reaper RAM (4-4-4-15)
EVGA 680i
2x MSI 8800gts 320MB OC edition
Thermaltake V1 CPU cooler
500GB Seagate HDD
NZXT LEXA Blackline case (3x120mm fans)
ANTEC Quattro 850W PSU
Now at 2.9 GHZ i can run the new multicore Prime95 torture test stable for 12 hours (I cancelled after the 12 hours) but when i bump the CPU to 3ghz the pc is unstable. Temps are all fine (at 2.9ghz i get 35 idle 50 load(55 during a really hot day), @3 i get 37 idle 54 load(59 during a really hot day)) remembering i live in Singapore and the ambient temps can be as high as 34c. The MB temp never gets above 38 even after 12 hours of prime 95. This leads me to believe Temps are not the limiting factor as they are well within limits for this CPU (you may like cooler but it's kind of hard to achieve much cooler with the ambient so high and my hatred of watercooling(long story).
I've tried upping voltages, relaxing ram timings although i run in Unlinked mode) i followed the nVidia overclocking guide to the letter, i'm just all out of ideas. i don't see how 100mhz can take a CPU from rock solid stable to utter shambles regarless of how much i increase the voltage it just won't get stable.
Have i got a poor overclocking chip:(? or is the something i can do to increase the oc?
Thanks in advance!
but that shouldn't affect you from going to 3Ghz. what CPU voltages have you been up to?
Full voltages at 2.9GHz:
CPU: 1.3V
FSB: 1.4V (using auto)
RAM: 2.0V (using EEP/SLI Ready enabled)
Nforce: 1.5V
AUX: 1.5V
HT: 1.2V
PCI-E:1.25V
Trying to get 3ghz stable I pushed voltages to 1.45. I'm unwilling to apply much more voltage than that, since I think it would push temps over the edge.
Rail Voltages for you to look at:
3.3V -> min 3.22 max 3.33
5V -> min 4.97 max 5.04
12V -> min 12.03 max 12.09
I am slightly concerned at you not being able to get more than 2.9GHz from a G0 Q6600 though. Cos I'm intending on getting one of these puppies and taking it straight to 3GHz by increasing the FSB to 333MHz (in smaller increments obviously).
It could be that you have a bad chip. I dunno.
Andy
I'm not too annoyed as obviously this PC can do everything i ask of it without hiccuping, but i really wanted to try for 400mhz FSB so i could run my ram at 1:1 (i was going to drop the multiplier to 8X for an overall 3.2ghz so i didn't crank up the heat too much) but i can't even get to 333mhz stable (regardless of multiplier) it doesn't seem to be a FSB gap either as experimenting with higher FSB's lead to the same poor stability.