# HELP OC'ing a Q6600 quad on a striker extreme



## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

ok, here's the deal, i run a computer/home theater/electronics etc. store/service so i have the ability to get just about anything i want for almost nothing. money is not the issue.

i am currently running a Q6600 on a asus striker extreme with 2x1gig OCZ 1066mhz(the SLI ones) with 2 evga 8800 ultra's in sli, ageia physx, enermax galaxy 1000wat DXX, cpu is cooled by a zalman 9700, and im running windows vista home premium 64bit. 

everything runs great at stock speeds... i can get the cpu to 2.98ghz stable for days... but at 3.00 ghz it locks up under consistent load (IE: after several minutes of MOH:airborne) 

I've tried just about everything i could think of and i have read what seams like thousands of threads on several different sites. 

i know most of you would just recommend a different board, but i want this one to work. how high is too high on the voltages? i've got several friends whos Q6600's run upwards of 4ghz stable as stock without much voltage increase. i know about the Vdroop problem on 680i boards. i've had to raise the vcore to 1.525v to get it to run more than an hour at 3ghz. at 1.525 in the bios cpu-z reports 1.4375v . does the problem lye elsewhere?


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

dont trust cpu-z for voltages first off lol. also what speed does your memory run at while your cpu runs at 2.9 stable? and is it a g0 or a b3?


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Oct 8, 2007)

whats ur ram divider?


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

ram is unlinked and runs at 1066mhz 5-5-5-15-2t. i have also ran it at 800mhz 5-5-5-15-2t and 800mhz 4-4-4-12-2t. 

everest reports 1.44v when bios is set to 1.525v. what other programs would you trust to give accurate vcore reading? intel's TAT? i've tried speedfan, it gives the same readings as everest.

SLACR  it's a G0

thanks so far for your help


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> ram is unlinked and runs at 1066mhz 5-5-5-15-2t. i have also ran it at 800mhz 5-5-5-15-2t and 800mhz 4-4-4-12-2t.
> 
> everest reports 1.44v when bios is set to 1.525v. what other programs would you trust to give accurate vcore reading? intel's TAT? i've tried speedfan, it gives the same readings as everest.
> 
> ...



theres a thank button at the bottom of everyone's post... 

if multiple programs are reporting the same voltage then its probably correct. what fsb and multiplier are you using for 2.98 stable?


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## hat (Oct 8, 2007)

Maybe you're hitting a FSB wall. Try dropping multi and raising FSB.


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

hat said:


> Maybe you're hitting a FSB wall. Try dropping multi and raising FSB.



thought of that, but on a 680i, you the fsb wall should be over 400 fsb no?


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

right now it runs fine at 9x330 however... when i drop the multi to 8 i cant get past 8x333(2.668ghz), it wont even post. i've tryed doing 8x375 to get 3ghz and it doesn't post, 8x 400 to get 3.2ghz and it doesn't post... etc, etc, etc. i've even tryed 8x450, 7x460, nothing works. should i just get a different Q6600 chip?


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## hat (Oct 8, 2007)

Try overvolting the northbridge.


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

hat said:


> Try overvolting the northbridge.



ditto, its an fsb wall, you cant get over 333 fsb, so overvolting the northbridge should work.


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

ok, how high can you go? NB stock is 1.2v and i have it at 1.65v currently. SB is set to 1.65 also. cpu vtt is set to 1.55(maxed out) vram is set to 2.4v and 1.2 HT is set to 1.4v.

i can run everest and watch the voltage drop .5 volt on everything under load(IE:cinebench). it cant be the power supply, im running a 1000 watt enermax galaxy dxx.  

thanks again for your help!


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

hmmm, whats your 12v votage? make sure its some like 11.97 and not like 10.90 etc. 

its called a voltage droop or vdroop. its common the intel platform.


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> ok, how high can you go? NB stock is 1.2v and i have it at 1.65v currently. SB is set to 1.65 also. cpu vtt is set to 1.55(maxed out) vram is set to 2.4v and 1.2 HT is set to 1.4v.
> 
> i can run everest and watch the voltage drop .5 volt on everything under load(IE:cinebench). it cant be the power supply, im running a 1000 watt enermax galaxy dxx.
> 
> thanks again for your help!



the max voltage is really the voltage as which you can run something without frying it lol.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Oct 8, 2007)

wait .. what is teh full load of ur system btw .. how many hdds etc every component?


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

12v is at 11.71 , 5v is 4.89v , 3.3 is 3.22v. i've tried setting the NB/SB voltage higher and it fails to boot, so bad that i have to clear the cmos and start from scratch. is there some secret setting that makes it all work? should i try a different chip? i've had a e6600 on this board and it got to 4.37ghz no problem. does the quad not like to go that fast?


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> 12v is at 11.71 , 5v is 4.89v , 3.3 is 3.22v. i've tried setting the NB/SB voltage higher and it fails to boot, so bad that i have to clear the cmos and start from scratch. is there some secret setting that makes it all work? should i try a different chip? i've had a e6600 on this board and it got to 4.37ghz no problem. does the quad not like to go that fast?



theres really no secrets when it comes to ocing lol. your voltages seem fine. just up every voltage other then the cpu and ram, like the fsb termination voltage and what not up to the next setting and try again. 

the trick to ocing is finding balance and stability


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

1 dvd burner
1 500gig sata drive
1 250gig sata drive
2 8800 ultras
1 q6600
2 1gig ddr2 1066mhz ocz (the sli ones with epp)
4 120mm fans
1 220mm fan (antec 900 case)
1 zalman cnps9700
1 ageia physx card
1 abit airpace pci-e 1x wireless card

does that help any? i guess the 2 8800 ultras is a little over kill, BUT... i still have the same problem if i only run one card and try to OC past 2.97ghz

like i said... it will run at 3.0ghz for about an hour but it WILL eventually lock up.


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> 1 dvd burner
> 1 500gig sata drive
> 1 250gig sata drive
> 2 8800 ultras
> ...



you dont have a problem with the psu, and this is slightly off topic, but how's the physx? 

also can you  put this info in your system specs in the user cp and make it avaliable to us?


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Oct 8, 2007)

have you disabled all teh unecessary stuff in teh bios? disabled speedstep/c1e?

teh network controllers and sata controllers you dont need?

disabled spread spectrum?

lightly overvolt teh northbridge and see what happen ...


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> have you disabled all teh unecessary stuff in teh bios? disabled speedstep/c1e?
> 
> teh network controllers and sata controllers you dont need?
> 
> ...



fbi covered a lot of the bios settings that you should have. i think he already tryed overvolting the northbridge and it doesn't seem to work.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Oct 8, 2007)

panchoman said:


> theres really no secrets when it comes to ocing lol. your voltages seem fine. just up every voltage other then the cpu and ram, like the fsb termination voltage and what not up to the next setting and try again.
> 
> the trick to ocing is finding balance and stability



shouldnt his voltages be a lil higher?


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

physx is great... nothing, and i mean nothing, supports it YET, other than cellfactor(which gets old pretty quick) and ghost recon advanced warfighter 1/2 which has noticebly  better fram rates and doesnt stutter when explosions occur. OH YEA.... it makes MOH:airborne look/run awesome!!! i got mine for $118. i have 1 16x pci-e slot open(the 3rd on the 680i board) soon to host a 8600gts when the nvidia physx driver comes out.


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> shouldnt his voltages be a lil higher?



11.7 seems decent. BUT, it may drop too low when hes ocing, which could explain why his system conked out when he was overvolted the nb. you want ot give us the 12v voltage when you're at 2.98 stable. 

you shouldn't be going under 11.5, if you are, go get yourself a new psu cause under that, you're killing hardware - kenny.


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> physx is great... nothing, and i mean nothing, supports it YET, other than cellfactor(which gets old pretty quick) and ghost recon advanced warfighter 1/2 which has noticebly  better fram rates and doesnt stutter when explosions occur. OH YEA.... it makes MOH:airborne look/run awesome!!! i got mine for $118. i have 1 16x pci-e slot open(the 3rd on the 680i board) soon to host a 8600gts when the nvidia physx driver comes out.



erm. shouldn't you be putting the physx in the third slow, which is another x16 slot while the middle one is an x8?


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

almost everything is disabled in the bios(anything i dont use is disabled). this whole experience with the quad is making me want to go back to the c2d instead but i'd rather get the quad running good. 

MY GOAL IS TO GET IT TO RUN STABLE AROUND 3.2-3.4 AND THEN I WOULD BE HAPPY.

thanks again for your help, everyone.


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> almost everything is disabled in the bios(anything i dont use is disabled). this whole experience with the quad is making me want to go back to the c2d instead but i'd rather get the quad running good.
> 
> MY GOAL IS TO GET IT TO RUN STABLE AROUND 3.2-3.4 AND THEN I WOULD BE HAPPY.
> 
> thanks again for your help, everyone.



like i said above, it could be a psu thing.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Oct 8, 2007)

whats teh voltage readings at teh highest o/c u can get?


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

panchoman said:


> erm. shouldn't you be putting the physx in the third slow, which is another x16 slot while the middle one is an x8?



yea that's what i mean... the 16x slot that runs 8x.

and the 12v under load IS 11.71... idle is 11.97v

i can get it to boot a linux live cd and run fine for over an hour(no lockup at all) at 3.67ghz, same voltages as 2.97ghz, 12v at 11.97 idle and 11.71 under load in linux. i don't really have a way to stress it alot though(in linux). I can play that penguin game for about 2 hours no problem.  is this just a windows problem? why the hell would windows lock up but not linux? (used ubuntu 7.04 x64 version)

any more suggestions?


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## hat (Oct 8, 2007)

Maybe it's a heat issue? Something overheating and crapping out?


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

cpu runs below 120 farenhieght under load. maybe NB is overheating? i've heard the voltage regulators overheat on the 680i boards and cause instability issues when OC'ing... would that be it? how do you measure temps accurately?

i guess i could just run it at 2.9ghz untill the 790i comes out in january?


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## gR3iF (Oct 8, 2007)

You could.


Maybe a better thing would be to make Cmos Reset then try to raise the Fsb und go down with the multi and the ram multi.

Then you can see if your Board is capable of 400mgh Fsb with a QWuad and youre Ram.
The second thing then is the Cpu.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Oct 8, 2007)

take out 2 sticks of ram ...


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 8, 2007)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> take out 2 sticks of ram ...



i currently only have 2 in there.

also i have tried the cmos reset thing several times... it simply will not run over 333 fsb with the quad. my c2d ran 420 fsb no problem on the same board though. thats why i think it's the cpu.


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

why dont you drop the multi of the cpu to 8x and then see if you can get over 333, cpu wont care if you go over the 333, its based on speed.


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## cdawall (Oct 8, 2007)

you could try a pin mod to get the chip to run 333mhz and then oc from there


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

cdawall said:


> you could try a pin mod to get the chip to run 333mhz and then oc from there



hmmmm, wonder if the 1333 fsb mod would work on the q6600?


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Oct 8, 2007)

should?


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## panchoman (Oct 8, 2007)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> should?



well it depends, this works on the e4xxx series, on them you can do a mod for 800-1066 fsb and then 1066-> 1333. if someone knew the pin layout and stuff and we have someone willing to try it out, we can do it.


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## cdawall (Oct 9, 2007)

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=132900









proof it works with quad core






how to


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 9, 2007)

interesting...... i'm curious to what exactly this does to the chip to make it run 1333. does anyone know? is it basically just a volt mod? also, will this help with the vdroop?

thanks for such a detailed post!!! i will give it a try and let you know if it works.


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## cdawall (Oct 9, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> interesting...... i'm curious to what exactly this does to the chip to make it run 1333. does anyone know? is it basically just a volt mod? also, will this help with the vdroop?
> 
> thanks for such a detailed post!!! i will give it a try and let you know if it works.



not a volt mod but similar it basically tells the mobo that the cpu is 333mhz stock bus instead of 266mhz stock bus


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## kwchang007 (Oct 9, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> interesting...... i'm curious to what exactly this does to the chip to make it run 1333. does anyone know? is it basically just a volt mod? also, will this help with the vdroop?
> 
> thanks for such a detailed post!!! i will give it a try and let you know if it works.



It'll tell the mobo to boot up on a 333 fsb strap rather than a 266 fsb strap.  In theory the timings of the nb will be looser to allow a greater overclock.  And no it's doesn't fix the vdroop problem.  Are you sure the load temps are below 120 F?


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## cdawall (Oct 9, 2007)

vdroop fix







			
				ineedaname on XS said:
			
		

> Wooooooot after staring at the damn mobo pics for hours I decided to try my own vdroop pencil mod and BANG its confirmed working.
> I did about 3 strokes where the green line is with a 4B pencil and now there is 0 droop.
> 
> Sorry 4 the bad quality pic, it was taken with a camera phone



http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=134100


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 9, 2007)

so if i do both of the above mentioned fixes, i should be able to OC a little better and not run into the vdroop problem anymore? does that mean i don't have to set the vcore so high to offset the vdroop, cause if i dropped the voltage the temps would drop for sure.


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## kwchang007 (Oct 9, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> so if i do both of the above mentioned fixes, i should be able to OC a little better and not run into the vdroop problem anymore? does that mean i don't have to set the vcore so high to offset the vdroop, cause if i dropped the voltage the temps would drop for sure.



Well , you should be able to overclock more, but there are no guarantees in overclocking.


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 9, 2007)

not to sound stupid or anything but, i just draw on that resistor with a pencil? how much?


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## mk_ln (Oct 9, 2007)

usually a pencil mod only requires a couple of strokes, iirc.


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 9, 2007)

im guessing it would be best to turn off the computer first? i know, yet another stupid question.


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## mk_ln (Oct 9, 2007)

yes, turn the computer off


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 10, 2007)

ok RESULTS: a success!!! pencil mod works. i was seeing a .13v droop before and now im seeing a .016v droop. if i did a little more would the vdroop dissappeer completely?

now for the pin mod... what and where do i get the apparatus used to do the pin mod in the above mentioned pics? i imagine it's like a pen with some conductive ink. right? would the electronics store be the best place to look, or could i find it at home depot?


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## kwchang007 (Oct 10, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> ok RESULTS: a success!!! pencil mod works. i was seeing a .13v droop before and now im seeing a .016v droop. if i did a little more would the vdroop dissappeer completely?
> 
> now for the pin mod... what and where do i get the apparatus used to do the pin mod in the above mentioned pics? i imagine it's like a pen with some conductive ink. right? would the electronics store be the best place to look, or could i find it at home depot?



Yeah, a conductive pen...someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a pencil works?  Well not for permanent use, but for testing....I think.  If you want the conductive pen, try radioshack, then online.


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 10, 2007)

i noticed after the pencil mod, cpu core temps are about 10 degrees higher. i haven't raised the voltage at all. how hot is to hot? do you go by core temp or cpu temp? 

core temps are ~110-125 degrees F
cpu temps range ~81-90 degrees F

are these typical temps?


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## kwchang007 (Oct 10, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> i noticed after the pencil mod, cpu core temps are about 10 degrees higher. i haven't raised the voltage at all. how hot is to hot? do you go by core temp or cpu temp?
> 
> core temps are ~110-125 degrees F
> cpu temps range ~81-90 degrees F
> ...



That's within reasonable limits, about 52 C.  Max for a cpu ranges from 55 C to 65 C depending on who you ask.  Just to give you a range in F, that's 131 F-149 F.


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## panchoman (Oct 10, 2007)

kwchang007 said:


> Yeah, a conductive pen...someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a pencil works?  Well not for permanent use, but for testing....I think.  If you want the conductive pen, try radioshack, then online.



pencil probably wont work, you need some thing thats made to be conductive, something such as pencils and as5 are conduct too poorly to complete the bridge. you'll need either a conductive pen or conductive paint(can be found in a auto shop, comes with the rear window defroster kits). and radioshack and stuff for the pen. if you screw up, some nail polish remover should get it off.


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 10, 2007)

ok, back to the OC'ing....
it ABSOLUTELY will NOT boot into windows at anything higher than 1333. i've tried dropping the multi to 8 and still i can not get it to boot into windows with anything higher than a 1333mhz FSB. WTF is going on here? i've also tried it on a different board based on the p35 chipset and it still wont load into windows at anything higher than a 1333 fsb no matter the multi.(5x,6x,7x,8x,9x all tried). this S*** is really P***ing me off
should i return for another cpu?


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## panchoman (Oct 10, 2007)

uh.. 1333 fsb times your 9x multiplier would mean that your cpu would be forced to run at 10g+, of course it wont boot.. are you talking about the 1333 strap mod?


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 10, 2007)

333x9 boot's into windows but locks up after 5-10min
333x8 boot's into windows but locks up after 15-20min
334x9 wont boot into windows at all
334x8 wont boot into windows at all
340x9/8/7/6/5 no post at all

this quad can G0 f**k itself


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## panchoman (Oct 10, 2007)

you have instability with either your mobo or your ram, wanna tell me little bit about your ram when you're at 333 x9?


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 10, 2007)

ram is OCZ sli edition 1066mhz 2x1gig sticks. i run them unlinked at 1066mhz and i've also tried 800mhz both at stock timings (5-5-5-15-2t for 1066)(4-4-4-12-2t for 800)

does that help any?

if i add a little more led to the pencil mod could i eliminate the vdroop all together? what voltage should the vcore be set to? i've got it at 1.475v in the bios but in windows i get 1.376v idle and 1.36v under load.

thanks again.


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## gR3iF (Oct 10, 2007)

Let the ram run linked to the cpu.
Normally you can go higher then 333 fsb wise.
So something youre doing is completly wrong.


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## panchoman (Oct 10, 2007)

i think we should save ram ocing for later, we should get the cpu oced first. fit, you have motherboard instability then. try uping all mobo voltages up to the next voltage avaliable (up the northbridge, southbridge, fsb termination, etc. etc. dont touch gpu, cpu, or ram volts)


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## Deleted member 24505 (Oct 10, 2007)

have a read of this,it may help-

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=157561


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## kwchang007 (Oct 10, 2007)

Do you have the newest bios version for your mobo?  It seems like a bios problem because 333 should be pretty attainable at standard/close to standard voltages.


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## panchoman (Oct 10, 2007)

kwchang007 said:


> Do you have the newest bios version for your mobo?  It seems like a bios problem because 333 should be pretty attainable at standard/close to standard voltages.



never thought of that, it could be possible.


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 10, 2007)

i've finaly got it stable at 3.6ghz.  i had to link the ram at 5:4, and set the vcore @1.5v in the bios to achieve 1.47 volts. all benchmarks runs flawlessly with no errors/no freezing. 3dmark06 score is 21378. i'm still working on OC'ing it a little more.

thanks everyone for your help.


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## kwchang007 (Oct 10, 2007)

fitseries3 said:


> i've finaly got it stable at 3.6ghz.  i had to link the ram at 5:4, and set the vcore @1.5v in the bios to achieve 1.47 volts. all benchmarks runs flawlessly with no errors/no freezing. 3dmark06 score is 21378. i'm still working on OC'ing it a little more.
> 
> thanks everyone for your help.



Congrats


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## gR3iF (Oct 11, 2007)

Prime stable?

If not check otherwise you wont have so much fun for long time.


Btw np on the linked unlinked thing. I noticed this before with my own p5nesli it wont let me boot with anything higher then 360fsb@ dual core that can do a 3.6 on water.


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## panchoman (Oct 11, 2007)

how are your temps?


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 11, 2007)

it's been up and running 36hours now.... prime stable overnight..... temps: 25c-32c
vcore at 1.47v, ram at 1200mhz 5-5-5-15-2t.


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## panchoman (Oct 11, 2007)

you're getting 25-32C using prime? damn, try for 4.0, should get it easy


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## giorgos th. (Oct 11, 2007)

with what tool do you monitor temps?
what is yor room temp?


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