Would a GTX 580 improve my current system?

Tommy whats the difference performance wise your getting from the OC? and do you have spec coolers for them?

 

Yeah if you overclock the GTX then you have your 20% difference again. LoL!

 

Before installing the Arctic Freezer 13 Pro, my CPU was running 85/75/75/78 at 100% load for 5 minutes.

With the new cooler, it's running 49/47/45/47 at 100% load for 5 minutes. I think it's save to begin overclocking

Question though. I thought CPU speed was FSB x multiplayer. My FSB is currently 334 and my multiplayer is 6. That puts my speed at 2 GHz, not the 2.83 it us supposed to be. Am I reading something wrong? I'm looking at CPU-Z for this information.

 

well is intel speedstrap or c1E on? that will lower your cpu speed to conserve power.

 

Well I loaded up my BIOS to take a look around. My motherboard has overclocking presets, so I tried to set one of them (basically it levels up my CPU to one that's higher.) After doing that and booting up, my multiplier now reads "8.5" which is what it should be.

Voltage is set to auto. Looks like it's adjusting ocassionally in CPU-Z. Temps at 100% are now:

55/51/49/53 after 10 minutes or so at 100%. Not sure how stable it will be. I'm not sure what I should manually change my voltages to if I were to manually set them.

 

start googling ol chap. never oc'd a 9550...i started on a q9450..

 

I Just blue screened after using prime95 for 5-10 minutes. Google it is!

 

well some guys around here might have a q9550 or rem their settings.

 

I increased the CPU voltage to 1.22. Left north bridge on auto. It's been running stable. Jumped into BC2 to test my FPS. Before OCing, I was getting 43 average (1080p, HBAO on, 8xAA all other settings maxed). I'm now seeing about 52 average. Dips to 48 sometimes, and goes as high as 61. Can't get it higher than 61 though... even if I run up and stare at a wall. Very odd, BC2. Very odd....

 

stock coolers I bought my card way before the custom coolers came out. the performance is phenominal. I dont think I ever ran them stock though. yours oc?

 

you can push the FSB to 400 without touching much to the voltage.
the max reachable without too much trouble is 450, with a good cooler and some overclocking skill you may try 466/475 and even higher with a good mobo. (pushed mine 502mhz on a EP45 on water 1.475v Core 1.35 FSB so you got some margin).

to get it to 450 or more you may need to push the voltages just a bit.

Vcore : 1.4 real ( 1.45 real being the max recommanded safe voltage)
VFsb : 1.3 real (1.35 max recommanded )
VNorth Bridge : depend your stock voltage, but add 0.10 to 0.20.
VSouth Bridge : same, but add 0.05 to 0.10 for good mesure.

make sure your ram voltage is set correctly or even 0.025 higher to make sure.

that should be enought to make it run 450mhz FSB without too much trouble, and depending of your cooling system not hotter than 65°.

next you may try to fiddle to lower those voltage a little, but you shouldn't be able to lower the Vcore/VFsb by much more than 0.05v, may still worth a shot as it'll make u gain some ° and your chip may be a good one who know ^^

and yeah with a Q9550@4ghz your GPU will become quite a bottleneck as it's roughly egal to a I7 920@4ghz, so it'll be time to buy that shiny 580 you wanted

 

These are the settings for an easy oc with the q9550 on my backup rig. This should be used as a reference only, but it may get you started. I'm not sure how the settings reflect on your mb.

3.4 GHz - ASUS P5Q Deluxe - DDR2 800mhz

JumperFree Configuration Settings:

AI Overclock Tuner: Manual
CPU Ratio Setting: 8.5
FSB Strap to North Bridge: AUTO
FSB Frequency: 400
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: 800
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A1: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A2: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B1: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B2: AUTO
DRAM Timing Control: Manual

1st Information:

CAS# Latency: 4
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay: 4
DRAM RAS# Precharge: 4
DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge: 12
RAS# to RAS# Delay : AUTO
Row Refresh Cycle Time: AUTO
Write Recovery Time: AUTO
Read to Precharge Time: AUTO

2nd Information :

READ to WRITE Delay (S/D): AUTO
Write to READ Delay (S): AUTO
WRITE to READ Delay (D): AUTO
READ to READ Delay (S): AUTO
READ to READ Delay (D): AUTO
WRITE to WRITE Delay (S): AUTO
WRITE to WRITE Delay (D): AUTO

3rd Information :

WRITE to PRE Delay: AUTO
READ to PRE Delay: AUTO
PRE to PRE Delay: AUTO
ALL PRE to ACT Delay: AUTO
ALL PRE to REF Delay: AUTO
DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
DRAM Read Training: AUTO
MEM. OC Charger: AUTO
AI Clock Twister: AUTO
AI Transaction Booster: AUTO

CPU Voltage: 1.2000
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (0/2): .630
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (1/3): .670
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.50
FSB Termination Voltage: 1.20
DRAM Voltage: 2.10
NB Voltage: 1.20
NB GTL Reference: 6.30
SBridge Voltage: 1.1
PCIE SATA Voltage: 1.50

Load Line Calibration: Enabled
CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
CPU Clock Skew : AUTO
NB Clock Skew : AUTO
Cpu Margin Enhancement : Optimized

Advance CPU Settings :

CPU Ratio Setting: 8.5
CPU VID: 1.2125
C1E Suppport: Disabled
Max CPUID Value Limit: Disabled
Intel® Virtualization Tech: Disabled
CPU TM Function: Enabled
Execute Disable Bit: Enabled

 

only thing i'd recommend is getting rid of that audigy - that'll be causing a massive bottleneck - they were great cards once, now they're just old hardware.

the output quality of most newish onboards is roughly equivalent to an audigy 2. believe me your onboard will sound much better.

as for performance, everything in your system is running over the PCIe bus except your audigy which is stuck at 33Mhz on PCI.
i finally figured this out with my audigy 2, ditched it, and suddenly everything ran way, way, WAY smoother, and sounded better.

i've got roughly the same sys as you - everything runs like butter.
just replaced my burnt out 8800gtx, and OC'd my Q6600 with a H5O closed loop water cooler - nice, quiet and only 50 bucks.
wont be building a new system until the next gen consoles come out... if they ever do.

also - it was a beta. i do recommend nvidia over ati though. BF3 and Rage being good recent examples.

 

When I change to those settings, my computer fails to boot.

When I reset defaults and change FSB to 400 and ONLY change CPU voltage to 1.2, it boots fine.

Actually, when I disable intel speedstep technology, it fails to boot. I thought that was what you were referring to with "Intel® Virtualization Tech: Disabled." I didn't see that option.

 

Likely best to start a new thread in the Intel section of the forum for help with finding a stable oc. You may want to have a look at the Sticky: Howto: Overclock C2D Quads and C2D Duals by graysky while you’re there; and there are many other great guides on the net.

Overclocking can be a lot of fun but it does take a considerable amount of time and patients.

 

Since you have DDR2-800 RAM modules FSB 400 will be your best shot. That allows up to 3.6 GHz with your cpu set to 8.5 multiplier.

The FSB is "quadpumped" since the Intel Pentium 4. Setting it to 400 MHz will give you 800 MHz RAM speed with RAM divider 2.0 and an effective 1600 MHz FSB bus speed.

I recommend not touching the other BIOS options.