FSB Wall? Q6600 w/ 680i LT

[jerreece]

Hey all Wondering if some of the folks with a bit more technical knowledge than I have can help out. I've been running my Q6600 (G0, VID= 1.325 🙁 ) @ 3.2Ghz (1425FSB) w/ 1.425V (CPU-Z = 1.39V) for a few months now.

Having upgraded to the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 (love it!) and successfully calibrated my SpeedFan I thought I'd give a shot at seeing where my OC ceiling is on my chip.

So far:

Have tried FSB @ 1600 (3.6Ghz), 1560 (3.5Ghz), and 3.4Ghz.

Have tried setting Vcore as high as 1.5V in BIOS (Vdroop lowers this of course) for all three speeds.

My RAM has EPP Timings of 4-4-4-12 @ 2.1V @ 800Mhz.

Have tried reducing timings to factory 5-5-5-18 @ 1.9V @ 800Mhz.

Have Tried setting FSB Voltage in BIOS to 1.5 (stock/Auto has always been 1.4V)

SpeedStep, EIST, C1E are all off.

Although I have my CPU/RAM "Unlinked" and am manually setting CPU FSB & RAM separately, my RAM speed DOES change a few Mhz as I adjust my FSB.

I can boot into Windows Vista 64 fine. However, within 3-4 seconds of starting up Prime 95 I get a BSOD (and Windows begins dumping memory to disk) before my system reboots.

I'm accustomed to seeing unstable CPU OC's cause a solid freeze, or sudden reboot. Am I still having memory related crashes here? Any input? Unfortunately, due to past purchases and pricing, I'm running 4x 1GB DDR2 DIMMs (I know this isn't great 😉).

Wondering if anyone else has experience with Quad Cores on this lowly 680i LT motherboard that can help me out. Not like I really NEED to go beyond 3.2Ghz at this point, but I'd love to see how far I can get.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: OOPS!! TypO big time on my 3.6Ghz vs 6Ghz. Sorry guys

 

[richardscott]

lol where do i begin? your on a 680i chipset isnt great, second 4x1gb of 6400 ram isnt great.

for a fsb of 1600mhz and a mem speed of 800mhz.

okay try a vcore of 1.5v and a fsbv of 1.5 also. and try 2.1v for mem but keep it linked to fsb always it is more stable. im not sure of mch voltage but for my 650i i needed 1.7v for a high oc and a fan on the north bridge.

 

[brendano257]

For one thing the 680i isn't the best, I haven't gotten 4Ghz stable on my XFX 780i for a E8400, and 1.5V is rather excessive to start with.....atleast for 45nm's 1.375 is when it starts to potentially cause damage w/o proper heat control, I can only imagine what 1.5v can do even if heat it moderately controlled. 3.6 Is the highest I've seen as an achievable OC for the Q6600 anyway, that is a 50% overclock which is rather insane in itself.

Also trying to run a 2.4Ghz chip at 6ghz or more than DOUBLE the original speed could have instantly done extreme damage to the CPU, even 4Ghz is pushing it very far with a Q6600, OC'ing should only be done in small increments starting at the base clock, or a number you know is achievable.

I've also heard that early BIOS rev's on the 680i series refused to overclock any quad cores, so of course with updates it can, but I would doubt the stability of it.

 

[jerreece]

Yeah the 680i boards aren't very reliable for OC'ing, especially with Quads. My first 680i board wouldnt' OC a single Mhz 😉

It eventually died and was replaced under warranty. This new one OC'd to 3.2Ghz stable without any work! It was pretty dang easy actually. But so far it won't go any higher.

And yes, I somehow managed to type 1600FSB (6Ghz) instead of 3.6Ghz. talk about a big typo. 😉

 

[teamlosigp]

I have a 680ilt board the same as u, i have not touched the nb or fsb or mcp vlts at all im at 3.7ghz (9x445) In the bios the cpu is set at 1.49 volts i believe. I ran into the same prob as u awhile back, when i had my fsb and mem unlinked i couldn't hit 3.3ghz even with like 1.55vlts (in the bios) However when i linked the fsb and mem i was able to push the quad obviously way farther.(oh btw i also have a Q6600)