OC'ing Q9450

[Zuwie]

When overclocking the FSB when do you need to start worrying about the northbridge temps? I'm basically a noob at OC'ing, I havent done it since the old school Duron 600's that would go well over 1ghz. I have a Q9450 running at 3ghz, 375*8 (highest I could get it running stable w/out any voltage increases, failed prime95 after 30 minutes at 3.2ghz) . My dram is running at 470mhz 5-5-5-15 (ocz reaper 1066 2x1024mb, Abit IP35 Pro board). Idle temps are ~32C and ~41c under load, stock heatsink (RealTemp) and antec 900 case. Any advice on overclocking or tweaking my settings? Id prefer not to increase the voltages

 

[shadowthor]

you probably need to increase vcore if you intend to overclock higher.

 

[FatFunkey]

also make sure your using Core Temp or Evernest to get the temp of the cores not what the motherboard says...

 

[erocker]

You probablly won't have to worry about NB temps untill you start putting over 1.5V's into it. For 400fsb try 1.45v on the NB and 1.3-1.35v's on the processor. It also depends on how well your processor overclocks. I'm seeing people need 1.5+v's to get 3.7ghz on q9450's! You should be able to run your ram at 1066mhz at 400fsb as well. But you should use RealTemp to read the cores. What kind of cooling are you using on your CPU?

 

[Zuwie]

The temps I listed were using RealTemp, CoreTemp is obviously 10C higher. And I'm just using the stock heatsink, I was going to get a Tuniq Tower or something but I don't really see the need with the temps I have atm. The Antec 900 has very good airflow, I also added a 120MM fan on the side. So my case has 4 120MM fans and 1 200MM fan

 

[zipz0p]

If you don't increase voltages somewhere, you won't be able to get a higher overclock. Then again, your heat should be quite manageable without any overvolting. Incidentally, erocker's ideas of 1.5V on the Q9450 is not a good one. You shouldn't really go over about 1.35V with the 45nm Intels, unless you want to degrade the lifespan of the processor significantly.