Need for speed with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 CPU

[hat]

4.5GHz seems insane for these chips. I have a Q6600 that I can get to 3.6, but not much higher... not stable, anyway.

 

[storm-chaser]

4.5GHz seems insane for these chips. I have a Q6600 that I can get to 3.6, but not much higher... not stable, anyway.

I know! I am amazed that I got 4.5 without much trouble at all... just added voltage in the right places and BOOM she can really fly.

Very impressed with the Core 2 Quad line... definitely my second favorite behind the Phenom II

 

[hat]

What are the right places? I tried with my q6600, wouldn't do more than 3.6 stable, though it probably could with the right settings...

 

[storm-chaser]

What are the right places? I tried with my q6600, wouldn't do more than 3.6 stable, though it probably could with the right settings...

-FSB to 500
-CPU Core to 1.55v
-NB to 1.4v
-LLC enabled
-FSB strap to 400 / DDR3 1500 = 833Mhz(x2) @ 500Mhz FSB
-Mem voltage to 1.70 @ 7-8-7-20 timings
-AI tuner set to 09
-temps are good with my Thermalright Ultra 120 extreme

BTW the Q9650 is a far superior piece relative to the Q6600. The Q6600 is good for about 3.6 as you mentioned. Basically the same processor as a QX6850, just with a jacked up FSB setting and unlocked multi which is just about useless unless you LOWER the FSB down to 800. That was the only way I could get 4.0Ghz out of my QX6850 (with high multi setting) but for the most part, I run 3.5 for 24/7 use. The real legend in the QX6850/Q6600 department is Agent007, talk to him if you want to go faster...

 

[rockit00]

Great job with that Q9650. I used to toy around with the Xeon versions back then. X3360 and X3380 on the X38 and X48 chipset boards. Never tried the X3370/ Q9650 equivalent though. Man that P45 chipset was a Beast!

 

[Tomgang]

Original i wanted a q6600 back in 2007, but because of some finacial problems i had to drop it and wait 2 years more. At that time core 2 quad had reach its life span for sale.

And that is why i today now is on x58 and starte out with a i7 920. If not for the problem cause me to loss money back then i would had been on a Q6600 and not X58.

Would you mind share some benchmark of that cpu at 4.5 -4.6 ghz. Like cinebench r15.

 

[storm-chaser]

Would you mind sharing some benchmarks of that cpu at 4.5 -4.6 ghz. Like cinebench r15.

I can't find the screenshot I took right now and I'm out of town... but it ran 499 on Cinebench r15 @ 4.5Ghz. Ill post the screenshot when I get back home.

 

[phill]

I'm currently trying to find a few 775 motherboards and maybe some CPUs to keep hold of.. I'd previously had a QX9650 a long time ago, but I've been told that the Q9650's where a better buy.. Sadly multi locked but as proven with a decent motherboard and a good CPU a good overclock was not impossible

Thanks for the thread! I might have to stop coming here if all I want to do is go spend money on more hardware!! :lol:

 

[freeagent]

I have a Rampage Formula that was able to run my old e8600 at 550fsb 24/7, and 600 for benching.. (maybe more, ram wouldn't go faster) I sold that e8600 to get a x3360 thinking I could just run a high fsb. Nope maxes out at 471fsb for 4000mhz. I'm still bummed about it, and it was about 10 years ago lol.

Edit:

I benched that e8600 at 48-4900mhz in the summer air cooled with an ultra 120 extreme. I miss that cpu still.

 

[storm-chaser]

I have a Rampage Formula that was able to run my old e8600 at 550fsb 24/7, and 600 for benching.. (maybe more, ram wouldn't go faster) I sold that e8600 to get a x3360 thinking I could just run a high fsb. Nope maxes out at 471fsb for 4000mhz. I'm still bummed about it, and it was about 10 years ago lol.

Edit:

I benched that e8600 at 48-4900mhz in the summer air cooled with an ultra 120 extreme. I miss that cpu still.

Sounds about right and exactly what I've been doing as of late. Buying trading and selling chips to find something better. I still kick myself for selling my Q9550, but that act inspired me to purchase another LGA 775 benching board and get back in the game so I guess it all worked out alright. And I have another 40+ CPUs coming soon so there is no end in sight. Going to have a good bit of fun binning all of those

As for the E8600, yes, I have one and I love it. Picked it up for 8 bucks on ebay (just a few months ago). I feel like the Rampage Formula could push it faster (at least in the FSB dept) because I can only get about 4.8Ghz out of it. Although, my Asus P5Q3 does okay for itself, as seen here with the quad core.

And for wanting to run the high FSB, yes, one observation I've noticed is that the Core 2 Duo line can sometimes have "dead spots" in the FSB. For example, my Q9650 maxed out at 479FSB, any higher and the system wouldnt post. But if I bumped it up to 485, the overclock stability was somehow restored and all was well (and that allowed me to push it even further). I have found this to be the case with multiple CPUs from the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad lineup, makes for an interesting quirk. So in this case, instead of stopping at 479, I can actually go 510 on the FSB for max performance.

 

[Gorstak]

Nice. I barely got 4 ghz on my Q6600 with mirror polish and water cooling.

 

[storm-chaser]

I've recently spent some additional time tuning my Q9650 so for clarity sake I wanted to post some of the updates.
-Reduced clock speed from 4.5 to 4.3Ghz for 24/7 rock solid stability
-Switched from the 400Mhz strap to the 266Mhz strap (gets rid of that annoying speed bug when using the 3:5 DRAM ratio)
-Went from 09 to 07 on the common performance level (that shaved off ~2-3ns in latency)
-Starting to adjust secondary memory timings, see below for details

Here are my secondary timings, I've been instructed to increase the first setting from 8 to 11 in hopes of running higher memory clocks on this platform. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[agent_x007]

Try lower tRFC (Refresh Cylcle Time).
This will get you few %, BUT going too far will destabilise RAM on current settings.

 

[storm-chaser]

Try lower tRFC (Refresh Cylcle Time).
This will get you few %, BUT going too far will destabilise RAM on current settings.

I've tried to go lower with memset but 72 appears to be the minimum limit (the next setting is 60 clocks so its big drop)

Here is my memset configuration (ideally, I'd like to run the 200Mhz strap at the 1600Mhz RAM setting, however I dont know if this possible given my hardware configuration):

 

[agent_x007]

For lowest Strap at high DRAM frequency you need X38/X48 chipset (same goes for Command Rate 1T) and pretty hefty NB Voltage, also Strap is connected to Performance level.