Need for speed with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 CPU

[storm-chaser]

Do you think 5.0Ghz is feasible? Air cooling with a Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme. Motherboard: Asus P5Q3. 8GB kit of G.skill Ripjaws 1600 CL7.

Here is my best effort so far. Not super familiar with this board so I'm a little in the dark. So far, at 4.5Ghz, my temps still seem good. I'm seeing low 80s at idle and mid 130s under load.

 

[DR4G00N]

Do you think 5.0Ghz is feasible? Air cooling with a Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme.

On a Core 2 that'll be a big no unless your using sub-zero water cooling or a single stage phase change cooler at least. Plus most quads will not do too far past 500 FSB usually.

I'm seeing low 80s at idle and mid 130s under load.

I hope your talking Fahrenheit and not Celsius.

 

[Tomgang]

With the voltage al ready above 1.5 volt, i would not reccomend trying out 5 ghz.

And as al ready told, i hope the temp are Fahrenheit. If celsius you stop right now and go back to lower clock, cause if celsius you are litterly burning the life out of that cpu. Intel cpu's shut not opperate at temp above 80 degree celsius and volt is also dangerously high already.

my advise: dont go higher, infact lower your oc until its stable at max 1.4 volt if you want the cpu to last a while longer.

 

[INSTG8R]

I hope your talking Fahrenheit and not Celsius

Right?

 

[Final_Fighter]

if your going to be pushing this setup hard you should add some fans to cool the boards chipset and power phases. 1.5v is about as high as you should take that chip. if i had the other parts of the board cooled really well then i would probably run 1.55v as max. this is assuming the temps really are floating around 130F. something else to consider is the board you are trying to oc on is about 10 years old and pc components do break down. keeping the setup as cool as possible is a must.

good luck and keep us posted. its always interesting to see how far people can push these setups.

 

[storm-chaser]

Right?

Yes sir! All good we are talking in degrees F.

And yes, currently stuck with my vcore @ 1.512 if I want to keep this O/C stable. I don't want to go back down to 1.4v I have lots of core 2 quad chips they are plentiful and cheap so it's not the end of the world if I pop this one. That being said, I don't think harm will come to this CPU so long as I keep it cool. Like F_F said lots of fans are a must. I have a small fan on VRMs and another fan on my NB. Another 120mm exhaust fan as well. Other overclock specifications include:

AI tuner set to manual
9.0 clock multiplier
502Mhz FSB
FSB Strap = 400
DRAM RATIO
1.5125 vcore
DRAM set to 1.68v
NB set to 1.4v
SB set to 1.4v (seemed to help stability but maybe not required?)
LLC set to enable

New OC with 502 Mhz FSB:

 

[Tomgang]

Yes sir! All good we are talking in degrees F.

And yes, currently stuck with my vcore @ 1.512 if I want to keep this O/C stable. I don't want to go back down to 1.4v I have lots of core 2 quad chips they are plentiful and cheap so it's not the end of the world if I pop this one. That being said, I don't think harm will come to this CPU so long as I keep it cool. Like F_F said lots of fans are a must. I have a small fan on VRMs and another fan on my NB. Another 120mm exhaust fan as well. Other overclock specifications include:

AI tuner set to manual
9.0 clock multiplier
502Mhz FSB
FSB Strap = 400
DRAM RATIO
1.5125 vcore
DRAM set to 1.68v
NB set to 1.4v
SB set to 1.4v (seemed to help stability but maybe not required?)
LLC set to enable

New OC with 502 Mhz FSB:
View attachment 108821
View attachment 108822

That is already a great overclock for a air cooled core 2 quad cpu.

I have also got some great oc results on air, but that is on x58 cpu's. My current i7 980x can go to 4.75 ghz at 1.55 volt air cooled.

Keep us updated as you progress your oc.

 

[storm-chaser]

Overclock is not 100% stable yet. I'm having trouble with a couple benchmarks within the AIDA64 Suite. I've been playing around with the FSB strap. Someone explained this as gears in a transmission but I'm still having trouble defining it in my own overclocks. Don't know exactly what to do with it short of it not being able to post at the 266Mhz strap. I am currently set to 333mhz strap which brought my memory speed down to 754Mhz, although we are still getting pretty good bandwidth in the memory department:

 

[agent_x007]

To be more exact : "Strap" determines what Performance Level you can run. Lower is better (because it's kinda like timing).
With lower strap, you can try lowering your AI Transaction Booster value (ie. Performance Level).
Also, is tRAS at 25 really needed for ~1500MHz frequency ?

 

[27MaD]

OP , why don't u give the Pentium dual core E6500K a shot? , it's unlocked.

 

[storm-chaser]

OP , why don't u give the Pentium dual core E6500K a shot? , it's unlocked.

The Wolfdale chips have been done before... I've run and benched the E7500 (although it's locked). Plus, the E6500 only has 2MB Level 2 cache.

Agent 007, I am currently not using the AI Transaction Booster at all. It's just left alone in the BIOS.

 

[agent_x007]

Auto setting, ok.
Like I said, you MAY be able to go lower.
However, with 4x DIMMs, it might not be possible (or stable at your current NB Voltage).

 

[storm-chaser]

What do you recommend for TRAS @ 1500Mhz ? Please explain a little bit more here.

Also note we only have two DIMMS not four. NB voltage bumped up to 1.46 for this one (and a bump in CPU core as well)

 

[agent_x007]

Oh, that's good (two sticks)
tRAS is usually around 24 or less for 1600MHz. I don't see why you would increase it unless system wasn't stable...
Sure it's fractions of percent difference, BUT it's still something.
I would try 18, if unstable 21 if stable trying 20.
24 value should be stable regardless.

 

[Fleurious]

Only managed 3.65GHz on my q9550, although stable from day 1 and still in use. 5GHz and stable, even on a faster model, seems like quite a reach.

Mine was a C1 not the E0 stepping though.

 

[storm-chaser]

Here we are approaching the 4.6Ghz barrier.... (will fix memory timings on my next reboot) - System appears to be stable with the NB bump to 1.46 as noted above.

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

On Socket 775 500FSB+ is really hard to get without Liquid Nitrogen. A cheaper route would be to get a QX with unlocked multiplier.

 

[kastriot]

I think it's a good hoby if this makes you happy so enjoy experimenting with vintage cpu

 

[27MaD]

I've run and benched the E7500 (although it's locked)

What was the highest frequency u reached with the E7500? I'm using the E7600.

 

[storm-chaser]

What was the highest frequency u reached with the E7500? I'm using the E7600.

I reached somewhere around 4.5Ghz don't recall exactly what I hit. I actually have an E7500 inbound with different stepping for perhaps better results.

 

[agent_x007]

@27MaD Here's out last topic : LINK.

 

[27MaD]

I reached somewhere around 4.5Ghz don't recall exactly what I hit. I actually have an E7500 inbound with different stepping for perhaps better results.

I can reach 4.0 GHz with my shitty board but with decreasing the memory frequency , which gives so much stuttering in games.

 

[storm-chaser]

And highest clock speed CPUZ validation... I think I will settle for this. Daily use probably dial it back to 4.5Ghz.

I can reach 4.0 GHz with my shitty board but with decreasing the memory frequency , which gives so much stuttering in games.

You are kinda sending the thread off topic. Also please keep your language PG rated. Thanks!

 

[storm-chaser]

So I dialed it back to 4.5Ghz for the time being and I'm happy with the result.
Specs include:
Thermalright Ultra 120mm extreme cooler
Thermaltake TR2 550W PSU
Intel DC 3500 80GB SSD
Asus P5Q3 motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB memory kit (DDR3 1600 CL7)

 

[storm-chaser]

Well, I'm back at it.
CPU multi down to 8.0 and FSB up to 510... so far so good. Will post some screenshots up later.