Overclocking a Q6600 on a EP35C-DS3R Motherboard, please help

[Classic Rock]

Hi guys,

I've never tried to overclock any part of my system before, probably because I have no idea how. But I just bought some new RAM, Gskill 1066mhz, and I thought to myself: If I can get my CPU to 3.2ghz I'll be happy. I just have a small problem, I don't know how to overclock.

I was told that I should try and keep the FSB on the CPU as close as possible to the frequency of the RAM, and that overclocking involves tampering with the FSB of the CPU, so does that mean I will have to overclock the RAM as well?

My system specs are as followsL

CPU: Q6600 at stock settings with a stock cooler (2.4ghz)
Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R
RAM: 4GB Gskill 1066mhz
PSU: 750w Thermaltake Toughpower
GPU: Galaxy 8800GT 512mb at stock settings

Now I thought that I should mention this, When I bought the RAM, I didn't notice much of an increase in performance, so I asked my friend for a bit of help, he suggested that I give the new RAM an extra 0.6 volts of juice because I was running 800mhz RAM before the upgrade which he says runs at 1.8 volts.

I did this and I noticed a marked difference in performance, but he also told me that the latencies should be 5-5-5-15, however when I went into the MIT in the BIOS I noticed that the latencies were 5-7-7-20.

Should I leave them the way they are, or is it better to change them to 5-5-5-15?

Thank you in advance for you help.

 

[raybay]

We need your motherboard brand and model...
Have you performed some Gurgle searchs for overclocking your particular motherboard... are you sure it can be overclocked. What will you use the overclocked system to do.
You are on your way... be patient as you await somebody familiar with your motherboard to get online.

 

[Classic Rock]

Thanks for the quick reply Rabay,

The Motherboard I have is the EP35C-DS3R from Gigabyte, and the main thing I will be using it for is Gaming. I'm kind of addicted to Call of Duty 5 at the moment.

I'm pretty sure that the motherboard can be overclocked as it says so proudly on the box two or three times. By the way, why would it matter if the motherboard can be overclocked or not? I'm after a CPU overclock. Sorry for asking something that's probably commonm knowledge, but I'm new to overclocking.

 

[AndrestheBean]

the motherboard is what the cpu, ram, gpu, etc....

communicate through, so... it plays a big part.

if your motherboard is not overclockable, then no overclocking period.

here is a noob guide to overclocking you cpu.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overclock-quads-duals-guide

but if you want improvement in your gaming you want to overclock your gpu (graphics/video card)

you need a balance of cpu, ram, and the most important in gaming the gpu(graphics/video card)

here is a noob guide to overclock your video card.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1803

PLEASE READ THE WHOLE GUIDE(S) BEFORE TRYING ANYTHING.

 

[Classic Rock]

Thank you for that, I will take a look at those site you mentioned. As for the motherboard, I believe it says that the FSB can be overclocked to 1600mhz, but don't you divide that by four to get...something imporatant?

 

[Tmagic650]

Turn off C1E in the bios. Set the clock divider to 1:1 and up the CPU clock a step at a time. Just increase the Dram voltage if you need to. I have my Q6600 to 3.5GHz and the 667 memory to 870MHz under Vista Home Premium, SP2. Windows 7 Ultimate RC won't let me run past 3.4GHz using the same hardware configuration. It gets BSODs past 3.4GHz

 

[raybay]

Yes. Good board, and lots of possibilities. Read up. You not only need to know the procedures for overclocking and testing, but for returning back to basic status if things go wrong.
I wouldn't expect you can get the answers you need at TechSpot, initially, because you will require more information than can be available in these small posts.
There is information on the Gigabyte site, and found with a Gurgle search for Gigabyte overclocking, that particular board model, and in general. If you are near a magazine store or computer supply store, there are a lot of good magazine-sized guides on what to do.
For instance, www.xicomputer.com "How to Overclock your CPU; www.microsoft.com/Windows "Computer Overclocking"; Book of Overclocking; PC Overclocking, Optimazation & Tuning by Dudometov; Tips, Secrets & Hacks by Karp; CompTIA A+ Complete "Overclocking"; and Build It Yourself - The Ultimate Game PC by Durham
among many others.
Once you have skimmed through some of that material, you are on your weigh.

 

[Tmagic650]

Raybay,
there's no need to go though all this now. These motheboards will protect themselves and automatically go back to safe settings if pushed too far. Just be aware to use a good 3rd party CPU cooler like the ZeroTherm Nirvana and good heatsink covered memory...

 

[AndrestheBean]

Raybay,
Just be aware to use a good 3rd party CPU cooler like the ZeroTherm Nirvana and good heatsink covered memory...

thats what i cant stress enough, if he is using a stock hs, something might go wrong.

 

[Classic Rock]

I was thinking the Coolermaster V8 or something, what do you think?

 

[Tmagic650]

The Coolermaster V8 will work fine... will your memory be heatsinked?

 

[Classic Rock]

Um...should it be? They have a nice looking heatsink on there at the moment, makes the RAM twice as tall as my old dims, but is that enough?

 

[Classic Rock]

Also, could you guys please tell me what you think about my question concerning the RAM latencies?

 

[Tmagic650]

Your RAM should be fine and the latencies have been loosened a bit and their good... Leave them as is for now

 

[Classic Rock]

Thanks Tmagic,

So it's ok that they're 0.6 volts overvolted?

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes that 0.6 is ok... You shouldn't have to increase that

 

[Classic Rock]

Thank you so much to everyone who helped. I really appeciate it.

 

[Tmagic650]

Good luck on th Q6600 overclocking. Does your Gigabyte board have dual bios?

 

[Classic Rock]

Thanks Tmagic,

I'm not too sure about the dual BIOS, I've gone through the little book that came with the motherboard but can't find anything refering to it having a dual BIOS. I'll go onto Gigabyte's product overview page. Why do you ask?