OC Q9450

[csflame4]

Ive been working on my Q9450 for awhile now, lots of ppl on this forum have been helping me with it. My CPU doesnt seem to want to go any higher than 3.2 with everything set to auto, it wont even pass prime 95 if I set the ram to 1066, which it what it is supposed to be running at anyways. It will only pass if the ram is set to auto. I still leave the ram at auto, 1:1 with the fsb, and just raise the fsb, it doesnt want to go higher. I usually get a BSOD and it says a clock interupt has occered within the secondary processor, so does that just mean the 2nd core doesnt want to OC any higher? ive even set the vcore up to 1.33 at 425 FSB, it will boot, but whenever I run something that makes the CPU work, I get the BSOD. It will run perfectly stable at 400 fsb and ram at auto, but I want to go higher. My cooling is good, any ideas what the problem may be?

 

[shadowthor]

can you list system specs, like mobo, etc?

 

[csflame4]

ASUS rampage formula X48 mobo
Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066 ram

 

[bigbruver]

Corsair Dominator 1066 requires 2.1v to run at 1066. With your settings on auto, it may not be supplying enough voltage. Try manually setting that. I don't think it's a vcore issue if it runs stable at ddr6400.

 

[csflame4]

Ok ill set it to 2.1, what about the CPU though?

 

[bigbruver]

If it was ok on auto, leave it there for starters, after you get it stable where you want it, you can try bringing it down to the lowest stable voltage. Auto settings usually set it a little higher than necessary.

 

[csflame4]

it seems as if no matter how high I set the vcore if the fsb is at 425 or higher, the BSOD will tell me that core 2 has failed

 

[csflame4]

can anyone help?

 

[wickedsnow]

csflame, I too have a q9450 on an asus mobo. I run 8 gigs of corsair dom ram at 1066.

I use a thermaltake 760i bigwater and with prime95 running for over 5+ hours. I get about 55c max temp.

I too have been trying to get past the 3.2ghz barrier. This is what i have done.

I left everything on auto, set the fsb to 400 and ran prime95 for 4 hours. Perfect.

Then, I kept bumping down the voltage until cores started to fail, then i scaled back up until i got no errors. I currently rest at 1.25 volts on the Vcore right now.

However, my NBvoltage (northbridge) needed to be upped from stock/auto for my OC to remain stable. My 3.2 overclock is stable at 1.44 volts on the NB (I'm currently trying to lower it with some testing.)

With your ram, auto normally does the trick, but sometimes you have to manually set your ram voltage to ensure it's getting the right amount.

Try this.........

Unlink your FSB and ram and in your settings, run a 400fsb and stock ram or 1066 in your case.

Leave your ram unlinked until your overclock is stable for 4 hours. (with prime95)

Next, try 1800fsb setting (it's 3.6ghz), and up the voltage to the max rated of 1.36 only to test for a post, then go back into the bios and lower it one voltage setting at a time until it doesnt post. (to save time, it would help if your save an oc profile in your asus bios)

Once it doesnt post, reset your bios and go up 2 voltage settings above your last post to ensure enough voltage is there when put under a load.

Run prime95. If your get cores failing, up your NB voltage from 1.44 (or whatever you have it at) .2 at a time until prime 95 passes 4 hours.

If you reach 1.54 volts on your NB and you still get errors, de-clock it back to 1600fsb setting (400fsb actual) whatever stable voltage it ran at with 3.2ghz OC and do the same with your NB voltage.

At that point, either you just got bad luck and didn't get a great OCing cpu, or your bios/mobo is limiting you. Believe me, I'm still working on a stable 3.6ghz OC myself with a similar setup, and despite booting and playing games good, prime95 still fails in under 2 hours time. I'm still working at it!!!

I hope in some small way this information helps you. Remember 2 things, anything beyond 1.54 volts on your NB voltage is asking for it to fry, and same with 1.36 volts on your cpu. Unless you want to fry your system, or make it last only a year, don't go over those voltages regardless of cooling.

I'll keep you posted on my status for my attempted 3.6 overclock considering we run almost the same rig.

lastly, as for your ram, less latency is better for games than higher throughput (raw clockspeed) get your cpu to a stable OC first, then try lowering your ram timings to say..... 4-4-4-15, or 5-5-5-15 and be happy with that. I run x4 2 gig corsair domi ram myself and i have heard that anything beyond 1200mhz just takes too much voltage, and you have to losen your timings way too much to keep it stable. Just not worth it.

Have a good day man! Let me know how it works out for ya!

 

[csflame4]

Ok thanks alot for all that info, 1 thing though, if I set the ram at 1066, it will fail prime95 with everything at auto, except its at 400 fsb and the ram voltage is at 2.1, so should I just leave the ram at 1:1 and then start the OC?

 

[csflame4]

Well it wouldnt post at 3.6 with the vcore set to 1.3625. I set it to 425 FSB and it will post, here are my voltages, btw, I left the vcore at 1.3625, this is what the hardware moniter says in my bios.
CPU voltage: 1.328(im guessing it will be at 1.3625 on full load?)
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.58
FSB Termination Voltage: 1.36-1.376
Dram Voltage: 1.95
NB Voltage: 1.6-1.61
SB Voltage: 1.05

Im going to go lower the NB voltage, but 1 thing, everything is set to auto except the CPU voltage, would it set the NB voltage higher than what it can take even if its set tp auto?


EDIT:
Well I got a BSOD while running prime95 when it was set to 425 FSB with the same voltages stated above, I have now put it back to the stable point at 400 FSB. IT was again the 2nd core that was stated in the BSOD, looks liek I have a chip that doesnt want to go past 3.2. What I dont get is that how can it run stable with everything on auto at 400fsb, but cant run 200Mhz higher at max voltage.

I just now thought of this, what if I set the multiplier to 6.0 and set the fsb to 535 to run at the same Ghz, but just with way higher fsb. Would that work? just an idea to get more speed since it wont go past 3.2Ghz. Or would leaving it were it is now and adjust the ram timings be better?

 

[wickedsnow]

Sorry for the delayed reply, I've been working.

Anyway, I have a few questions.

If you got it stable at 3.2ghz, what were your NB and Vcore voltages and temps at?

You have to use that as a base to OC more.It should not take you tons more voltage just to goto 3.6ghz from 3.2. Because each system is different, It will take some trial and error on your part. But again, we have similar systems. Maybe asus limits the FSB.

SO lets assume you get 3.2ghz at 1.25 vcore and 1.44 NB like me.

If i wanted to test it at 3.6, I would up the voltage to the max of the NB and vcore to the max of 1.6NB and 1.36 on the Vcore just to test for post. I do see that you mentioned you did that already, but you made a few mistakes.

Don't change the PLL, SB, or Dram voltage. Only the NB and Vcore.

Your ram runs at 2.1 volts, anything less and it will not post. And, if it's not running stable, try running it at 2.2 and/or 2.3 volts. With your heatsinks being as good as they are, they will be just fine .

Don't change the multiplier at all. Higher multiplier settings make OCing easier, not harder. FSB OC makes things harder.

Do this, run your ram at 2.2volts, cpu at 1.36 volts, and NB at 1.6 volts. Leave everything else on auto, and change no other bios settings, it should post. If it doesn't, run it at 3.2ghz and live with it until you get a different mobo.

If it does work, then after it posts, keep lowering the voltage on the (NB and Vcore)(not ram) only 1 setting at a time, until you get no post. Then reset the bios, and go up 2 voltages settings to ensure you have enough voltage and run prime95. Do all that and keep me posted. I'll check back in to this post tommorrow at 9am california time.

 

[csflame4]

i was just posting what the hardware moniter said. All I changed was the vcore and fsb. Ill try it again by setting the NB voltage and ram voltage this time.

 

[csflame4]

Wouldnt post, got a BSOD on the secondary processor again. Looks like I got back luck with this chip

EDIT: well since the cpu clock wont go any higher and stay stable, how should I start with overclocking the ram. I already have the timings set to 4 4 4 4 15 like you said to do earlier.

 

[warcry]

My q9450 can only hit 3.4, anything beyond that is very unstable, my $90 motherboard is to blame for that.
What is your ram set to at the moment, from what i recall, with the cpu+ram linked, at 425 you can still select 1066? that should be fine.

 

[csflame4]

ram is at auto, so its running at 800, it doesnt run stable if I set it to 1066, so I think ide have to up the voltage for it to run stable at that. Mine wont even run at 425 either, 400 is as high as it will go

EDIT:

This is what I got my ram to now, it is running stable now, it wouldt post of I set the ram timings at 4-4-4-15