Overclocking Q6600

[Adhmuz]

Well being such a popular CPU I'm fairly certain this wont be an extremely hard question to answer. Thus far I've been running it @ 3.0 GHz at 1.20 - 1.18 volts, temps of 35c idle and 60c when running Prime95. All has been running well for a good solid 3 months without a single issue. The time has come to try and achieve a higher overclock. Why you ask, well why not, I've already hit 3.33 GHz, 1.33 - 1.28 volts (that's my droop happening) The ideal is 45c but here is the crazy part, I hit 88c after 5 minutes of Prime95 risking doing some kind of damage I stop Prime immediately and temps drop instantly almost 25 degrees my CPU cooler is an ancient chunk of Aluminum with a copper core which would be better used as a weapon (Thermaltake BluOrb2) Now then I am fairly confident I will be able to get it to 3.6 GHz with adequate voltage fine tuning which I am willing to do but before I can actually do so I need a new CPU cooling device. From some quick research I know that my CPU is pumping out a solid 150 watts of thermal energy something my aging BluOrb just can't handle. What would be the absolute best solution to cool this sucker down, both liquid and air cooling would be perfectly acceptable solutions to my little dilemma.

All help and Info is greatly appreciated, Thanks.

Note: Attached is a pictures of my temps and the fluctuation problem.

 

[LinkedKube]

Well a liquid cooling kit would offer the best thermal transfer, for air you should consider a thermalrite cooler.

 

[Adhmuz]

Liquid cooling is kinda what I'm swaying towards, in the next few days I'll be buying myself a new case that will allow for more options in that department as well. Going for the Cooler Master Storm Sniper, long name but IMO it looks pretty cool and has some neat features on the inside. Now should I go for a kit such as what Thermaltake sells, something like what CoolIT sells or should I go for broke and just put together my own setup which I am more than capable of doing and would allow for further upgrade more easily.

 

[EXCellR8]

What type of thermal are you using? Arctic Silver or like a TX-2? Good thermal compound is just as important as the cooler itself. You may want to look into buying a tube of high-performance thermal to go with a new CPU cooler, there are a few good choices out there...

On a side note, I am using a Swiftech Liquid Cooling kit on my Q6600. I use a 1.35vcore and get around 35c idle and ~45-50c full load @ 3.2Ghz. The case is only a Mid and it's a single radiator setup so those temps are actually a little high, but I've been using these settings for months w/o any problems at all, stable. Just something to look at...

 

[LinkedKube]

Dont go with the coolit units, Ihave had a coolit unit, and im currently on a water setup i put together myself. You'll enjoy putting a kit together for the first time, just make sure you read up on it.

 

[Adhmuz]

What type of thermal are you using? Arctic Silver or like a TX-2?

Yes actually I am using Arctic Silver 5, and I tried resiting it and it had no effect, I'm fairly confident I know how to get a good thermal contact. Followed the instruction on the site. On my old P4 this thing had it idling at room temperature and it never got above 35c.

As for water cooling, where would be a good place to buy all the parts I need and at the best price, also its so very hard to pick a CPU water block. Any suggestions there?

 

[LinkedKube]

Gtx Z waterblock is the best for a waterblock, you can i recomend shopping at frozencpu or sidewinderpc.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

You do know that AS5 has a "break-in" time of 200 hours?

Also, what are you using to monitor temps? Have you tried monitoring the temps with multiple programs?

 

[Adhmuz]

Well thus far I have been using Everest, but I have cross checked with multiple programs to see if the temps are right, which they appear to be. Unless they are all wrong in which case I'm kinda out of luck on that. The last time I changed my thermal paste is well over 200 hours ago but when I bought my Arctic Silver was almost a year ago. Could the past just be getting too old? It still has the same consistency it has had since I've bought it, I do have to mix it a little before use but besides that I think its okay.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

What is the distance to TjMax as displayed in CoreTemp and RealTemp? That is what you should be watching, aside from the actual temps.

 

[Adhmuz]

Real Temp shows me each individual core ranging from 35c to 39c my TJ Max ranges from 65 to 61, I'm assuming that would mean my max core temp would be 100 degrees Celsius (35 + 65 = 100) when stressing the highest one of my cores reached was 90c and a TJ Max of 10 again indicating a possible Max temperature of 100 Celsius. This seems a little extreme and I would think that it could shorten the life expectancy of my CPU therefore until I have a more adequate cooling solution I will remain at my 3.0 GHz clock. It seems either my cooler just can't handle the added heat or my CPU is putting out a much greater amount of heat to gain just another 0.33 GHz of clock, if this trend follows then at 3.6 GHz I will be putting out a mother load of heat.

 

[redk]

Just wondering, what stepping is the Q6600?
The G0, or the B3?
I'm surprised nobody asked.

 

[EXCellR8]

It's a G0... temps would be higher if it was the B3.

 

[Adhmuz]

Yup its a G0, this is also suppose to help when overclocking from what I understand.

 

[EXCellR8]

Yup its a G0, this is also suppose to help when overclocking from what I understand.

Yes, the G0 version of the chip usually produces the best overclocking results. However, every chip is different so the results vary. It also has a LOT to do with the platform in which you are overclocking on (i.e. the motherboard chipset).

 

[Adhmuz]

Motherboard happens to be 780i based which I know is not as good with overclocking as say the Intel counter part. But I should be able to figure something out once I start building my liquid cooling setup, liquid cool the chipset if needed.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Have you tried giving the NB a little more juice? That is, if it isn't too hot already.

 

[EXCellR8]

You should be able to get a decent result with the nvidia-based board, but yes the Intel boards are generally better suited, especially when it comes to quads. The absolute best choices for overclocking a Q6600 would be either a P45 or X48 chipset board, but I've seen impressive results with 600 and 700 series nvidia boards as well.

 

[Adhmuz]

I did try giving the north bridge more juice which actually help with the stability, ran prime for 5 minutes before my CPU temps scared me into stopping the stress test. I had it at 1.4v but I read on other forums that its safe up to 1.5v as long as you give it proper cooling. My motherboard temperature readout didn't exceed 40c but was pretty close. I also think I'm going to have to tweak more then just my north bridge from the looks of things to get above 3.33 like I had it. It seemed stable then I left for 2 minutes came back, clicked on the start menu and it crashed, BSOD at least not just a random shut down or reboot which sometimes happens.

P.S. New case is so sweet. now to start looking into buying my liquid cooling setup, gonna have to wait till next pay unfortunately.