Q6600 Won't OC. Period.

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X DarthMonkey X

X DarthMonkey X

Posts: 76   +0
Okay, it's been a while since I've posted a problem, and I hope I can communicate it properly lol.

The Hardware:
-=Mobo1: Gigabyte EP43-DS3L
-=Mobo2: Abit FP-IN9 Fatal1ty
-=CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q6600
-=GPU: ATi Radeon HD4850
-=RAM: 4GB OCZ DDR6400
-=PSU: 620W (Forgot brand... I'll add it if I remember)

More Detail
-=Chipset1: Intel P45 (Gigabyte board)
-=Chipset2: nVIDIA 650 (Abit Fatal1ty board)
-=OS: Windows Vista Ultimate x64
-=Cooling: Zalman 9700NT / Tagan El Diablo (Frigga-huge fan on the site =D)

The Issue At Hand
Well, it's pretty simple. I can't get it to boot overclocked... not at all - on either of these boards, each of which has been touted for easy overclocking (on a budget).

I'm not a newbie to Overclocking... but I AM a newbie to overclocking Intel chips (A previous AMD Fanboy). I've been told, and have always assumed, that it's the same idea.

I gave up a month ago when it just didn't work, but now it just sits there, with that giant Zalman and the 360mm case fan doing nothing but look cool (Which they do excellently).

What I've already tried pretty much comprises what's worked for me in the past; raise the clock speed in increments, raise voltages marginally, and/or lower the clock and raise the multiplier. Every time, no matter how minimal the change was, my computer failed to post, but instead beeps violently (yes, violently) on both boards, forcing me to clear the cmos and start over (Thankfully, the Gigabyte does this automatically)

Is it possible my chip may just be non-OC-able for some odd reason? The NV650 BIOS menu said it was unlocked (or something like that. Remember, it was over a month ago).

Any help would be appreciated.

The Short (and mandatory silly) Version

Meh Q6600 runs great at 2.4GHz, but phailzors at 2.41GHz. Not kidding. a speed increase of 10MHz causes BIOS beeps and I gotta clear the cmos.
 
Have you tried disabling C1E, or does your BIOS even support that? Make sure you've unlinked the FSB and RAM speeds, that would cause some problems for sure. On my board, I have my Q6600 at a solid 3Ghz on 1.25 vcore, so don't push the volts up too far. You could try dropping the multiplier and pushing the FSB speed up.
 
On stock volts I have mine running 2.7GHz overclocked via nTune of all things, the ram oc'ed up as well with no problem at all. With the nVidia board you could try the same thing, go to their site and download the latest nTune software/driver pack. Give it a try it wont hurt, at least I don't think it will...
 
But I like the Gigabyte board =(. Haha, I'll try that if all else fails. I'll repost with the results tonight after i get home from work.
 
Just to be clear, is your board the EP43-DS3L or the EP45-DS3L? Because it is the P45 board that is the better OCer.

Anyways, you should disable C1E in the BIOS and then try.
 
Adhmuz said:
On stock volts I have mine running 2.7GHz overclocked via nTune of all things, the ram oc'ed up as well with no problem at all. With the nVidia board you could try the same thing, go to their site and download the latest nTune software/driver pack. Give it a try it wont hurt, at least I don't think it will...
Click to expand...

Running a P5N-D as well. If I may ask, how stable is your overclock with the Q6600? I've been running mine at 3Ghz with this board and so far so good. I ran Orthos for 15min no problems so I'm thinking I might be all set, but time will tell. I heard some success with the whole dropped multiplier thing too. I forget where I saw this but someone raised the FSB on this board to 1600 and ran the Q6600 at 3.2Ghz. I'm not gonna get greedy and try it but that's pretty good for an nVidia board if you ask me.
 
the Q6600 OCs VERY well
i have mine running at 3.5Ghz
35i9jiq.jpg


with this £20 cooler: (akasa AK-965)
akasaAK965_pspc.jpg


which i REALLY recommend to get btw (it keeps my CPU at lower temps than stock fan did at stock settings)

3464a6a.png
 
The cpu itself overclocks very well it's just a matter of what board you are running it on; Intel chipsets have better stability with these chips over nvidia.
 
Well wootz you did luck out and got the G0 revision, it has a slightly more stable over clocking potential vs the B0, and to answer EXCellR8's question I have it at 2.7GHz all the time, ran everest's built in stress test over night with no problems peeks at 55 degrees C which is hot I find, am just using a Blue ORB so I can't expect much idles bellow 40C. When I get faster RAM and a new PSU I'll push it to at least 3.0, I'm really pushing my little 470 watt'er.
 
^^Try using a better thermal compound like Arctic Cooling MX-2 or the new OCZ Freeze Extreme stuff. That should bring those temps down some. There are a few really good coolers for the Q6600 out there if you want to upgrade, but I would try a better compound first. I am running 4GB of OCZ PC6400 and I haven't had any problems with my current overclock. The sticks are dirt cheap and are designed for overclocking and SLI, highly recommend them.
 
Im already using Arctic Silver 5, was going to get the OCZ stuff but my local tech shop didn't have any, eventually I'm going to step up to liquid cooling. And I'm looking at Corsair's Dominator series RAM 4GB of 1066, I'm a little low on cash at the moment.
 
Instead of getting expensive 1066MHz RAM, try getting 1000MHz RAM instead. G.SKILL kits at that frequency are pretty cheap and will allow you the same OC headroom as 1066MHz RAM.
 
Where can I find said RAM at such amazingly low prices, my local tech shop doesn't carry G.Skill sadly, my next bet would be an online retailer which isn't such a bad option either. This has also gone way off topic in a way although this is still regarding overclocking a Q6600.
 
Okay, C1E Disabled, and I followed the guide located here too, but still no dice. It won't post. At all, even under very minor overclocking, no matter what the multiplier/clock.

I also tried that while leaving the RAM alone.

As I stated in my first post, the Gigabyte board is EP43-DS3L, not EP45-DS3L. I hope we can figure this out, cause i'm lost.
 
One thing I noted on my last build was when it came to overclocking I could not do so with my RAM in dual channel mode something with it being very cheap RAM, maybe try with one stick at a time, I've never used OCZ RAM but it may be the problem
 
Sometimes having 4 dimms in your motherboard does hender your motherboard stable for overclocking. That's why I kept 2G in my board instead of 4, my p35 board wasnt having it.
 
Hmm, I am running 4x1GB OCZ dimms on my board... are you trying to overclock the RAM too? I would think that everything would remain stable, regardless of memory capacity, if the FSB speed and DRAM was unlinked in BIOS. Perhaps changing the command rate to 2T would fix the problem; check the voltage rating for the modules.
 
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