Q6600 Overclocking (1066 or 800 RAM)

[Yaspoon]

Dear jesus that pretty hot temps for a Q6600 46-60 but i guess that cause of overclock mine just sits there at 18-25 (thats in Western australia climate 18-30 degrees)

 

[steeda]

to be honest with all of you guys, he is not going to get 3.6ghz prime stable, period, I have tried everything to get it prime stable and the only thing he can hope to reach prime stable is 3.45ghz, yeah he can get 3.6ghz easy and it will run all day long like mine but it wont be prime stable without 1.7-1.9v, it just takes too much, i guess that why i got a qx9650. If you want 3.6ghz go with it, it will run all day at around 1.52v-1.58v no problems, just dont believe the fact that you can get it prime stable at a decent temp or voltage

 

[DeCrypt]

Iy should be good for that - its a good HSF. Not as good as the thermalright 120 extreme or the ultima with good fans but good enough to o/c the q6600 to 3.6 .

No its not, i tried it and cpu-z showed 74 degrees which if u want your cpu to last over a year is way too much

 

[fourstar77]

I have been building systems and overclocking for several years and just got a Q6600 (G0) to go along with my EVGA 680i SLI board, Swiftech 220 Compact water cooler and 2x1GB OCZ 6400 (OCZ28001024ELGE) and 2x1GB Corsair 6400 (CM2X1024-6400C4) ram.

The best I have been able to do to this point is 2700 Mhz (I am wary of saying "stock" voltage, because it seems stock is a fluid concept here; some say it is 1.3v, some 1.16v, etc.... I think stock on this proc is actually 1.2625, but when I let my voltage auto, CPU-z shows around 1.18v under load, and 1.21v idle). Perhaps I just have a dog of a chip, and there is not much I can do about it, but I wanted to see what you guys think.

I was able to run prime on all 4 cores for 8 hours with no issues at 2700 mhz (temps hit 49 degrees C under full load after 8 hours), and with ram at 400 (800 doubled). When I try to run at 3.2 ghz or 3.6 ghz (fsb at 400x4 and ram at 400x2), the system fails upon entering windows, even after boosting voltage up to 1.5v (i stepped up the voltage to try different levels, up to 1.5v). I am at a bit of a loss here because this cooler is amazing, and keeps temps very low. I am currently at 3 ghz (not yet prime tested) and am idling at 32 degrees C for the hottest core, down to 26 degrees C at the coolest core.

I am looking for any suggestions you might have. The only thing I can think of is:

Getting 2x2gb sticks of ram (either 800 or 1066; not sure if 1066 makes a lot of sense if I am trying to maintain system stability, thus hoping for a 1:1 ratio) as my understanding is that more sticks = greater likelihood of instability (but is this only the case as to overclocking ram, or the system in general??); perhaps mixing the ram is an issue....

It seems that heat is not my problem as I have about 20 more degrees C to go before I am worried about long term stability (over my 2.7 ghz OC), but I am at a bit of a loss. I am willing to purchase some new ram as it would only be 100 - 150$ if that will do it, but I want to know if anyone sees anything crazy going on w/ my setup, or if anyone has any other suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[steeda]

to be quite honest with your, the nvidia motherboards are freaking a pain to overclock, i would seriously go with a p45 or x48 motherboard and you'll get 3.6ghz all day long.

 

[Hezsus]

hi, i have a evga 780i with a q6600 that i can get about 3.4-3.5 with 3.5 is unstable though (i havent changed any voltages and left the ram unlinked. the ram says that it clocks to 4-4-4-12 but i cant seem to get it that low running at 800mhz. the ram is corsair xmls2 6400 2x2gb i was thinking about getting the dominator 8500 ram. i was wondering if this would be of any benifit to me. also my overclock is a cheap entry level watercooling with a mod or 2. any help with clocking my ram or cpu any higher would be apreciated. thanks

 

[Guest]

I got my q6600 overclock to 3.6.... 800mhz 1.1 ram water cooling system.
temps 27c idel.
running prime for 5 hours straight and it is rock stable. 59c temp....... Max Load

 

[nukemaster]

I got my q6600 overclock to 3.6.... 800mhz 1.1 ram water cooling system.
temps 27c idel.
running prime for 5 hours straight and it is rock stable. 59c temp....... Max Load

That is cool and all(farther then I ever pushed my Q6600), but this thread is almost 2 years old.

 

[Guest]

i know this post is prob old as *** but you ppl need to know your computers before geting on here and saying *** some ppl have got the q6600 to 4ghz i run at 3.6 3.7 just fine the old ones are the best some cant some can all depends on when you got it plz stop talking *** about the q6600 it was the best quad core for a really really long time i know this cause i built one

 

[FunkMeister]

I know this thread is ancient but just for those people Googling how to max out their Q6600 I have some info to add.

I recently put a PC together for gaming using some old parts I had stored; a Q6600 & motherboard, 530w PSW, old hard drives and a bag of 800mhz ram that I put into a new case. I upgraded the stock cooler and added a lowish-end modern video card (GeForce GT 740), then looked into overclocking the Q6600 to bring it closer to the GPU's spec so I can play the latest PC games at 30fps with a reasonable level of graphics.

After a couple of days trying out the different overclocking recommendations the most stable I reached was 2835 mhz; keeping the cores at about 40 deg when web browsing and maxing at around 50 deg when gaming. I did achieve a 3,262.5 mhz clock which was stable and ran Prime95 until I got bored testing it (about 30 mins). the temps were a little too high for me; maxing at 62 deg and it often wouldn't get to post after running at stock mhz then loading the 3,262 mhz overclock profile I saved in the bios. If I left it half an hour it would it would load, but that's hardly convenient. Makes me think the heat was an issue and the CPU and NB needed to cool down. Also the fan noise was annoying.



Some of the spec some people will find controversial- I overclocked the ram slightly and also over-volted it by 0.075v to compensate. So, accounting for temperature, fan noise and reliable booting, the 2835 mhz sweetspot I settled with was this:-

Bios settings:-

@2835.5 mhz

x9 multiplier
FSB/ram - 315 (1260) / 420(840) mhz
NB - voltage was left at auto (CPU-Z shows 1.360v)
vCore - 1.300v
ram voltage - 1.875

CPU temps are 40 deg idle and 47-50 deg whilst gaming (also getting some silky smooth frame rates)
Motherboard temp is 39 deg.


PC Spec:-

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (Revision 0G)
Asus P5N32-E SLI
8 gig of DDR2(4 x 2 Gb) - 800 mhz (generic stuff, mixed pairs from 2 different manufacturers)
530w PSU
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO fan

Hope this info helps anyone trying to get the most out of an old Q6600 based PC.