Help-Overclocking Q9550...not happening.

I've been trying to OC my Q9550 for a week, no luck. System seems to run fine, but Prime95, IntelBurnTest, Memtest86 always fail. I want them to work!

I've tried upping and downing voltages on the CPU/RAM, different multiplier settings and FSB settings, bumping up the RAM frequency too...just can't get it to work! Overclocking my e8500 was a breeze....this thing is driving me nuts. I just want a 3.4 to 3.6 speed stable. Setup is below. It's all on air cooling.

 

hmm,strange, id say its your mobo, i had a P5N32-E SLI and it was the biggest POS on the planet at overclocking, in fact i blew 2 of them. I had no problem getting to 4Ghz on my Asus P5K P35 mobo though,

Either that or you have a bad stepping or CPU, E0 is the best for overclocking

 

try upping the volts on the fsb to 1.45V if you havent already. quads add more stress to the FSB.

 

ill just add to that, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES set the FSB above 1.45v, as it will destroy your chip after a few months,1.4v is safer if you can.

 

I was able to get up to 3.8Ghz relatively easy, what stepping do you have?

 

Thanks for the replies...I set my FSB to 1800mhz and RAM freq to 900mhz with a 8x multiplier with stock voltages and it was able to run a full memtest86 test successfully....but after a restart and running Prime95, the system hung and rebooted...lame.

My CPU VTT and PLL voltages...do those need to be changed? I have the same voltage settings from the e8500 I had just replaced...also my FSB or NB voltage is 1.2...all the way to 1.45? Seems like a big jump. Ya, I think this mobo is a POS when it comes to OC'ing.

oh...and it's an E0 stepping...

 

CPU VTT and PLL voltages. are different for quads.

quads need more of both to be stable, specially FSBT . try 1.4 and if you're ok, try lowering s bit.

I found the hard way, that raising PLL on mky chip, I could reach the same cpu spped with better volts on FSBT and vcore.

 

1.4 seems high for a E0 stepping since i am currently running mine with 1.25625V with load line calibration enabled.

Try working your way with with voltages slowly, i would start with about 1.25V first and work my way up, and also enable load line calibration. Also are you able to unlink your ram from your cpu fsb because it makes ocing much easier, but you can only do it with nvidia chipsets.

 

Ok...Just ran Prime95 for 30 min...still running fine...usually it crashes and my computer restarts after a few minutes...so this is good...all I did was increase my NB voltage from 1.2v to 1.3v...here's all my BIOS settings:

Voltage Menu:
CPU Voltage - 1.26250v
CPU PLL Voltage - 1.50v
CPU VTT Voltage - 1.20v
Memory Voltage - 1.8v
NB Core Voltage - 1.3v (1.2v stock)
SB Core Voltage - 1.5v
1.2V HT Voltage - 1.2v

CPU GTL_REF Ratio - Auto

Overclock Menu:
CPU Internal Thermal Control - Disabled
Limit CPUID MaxVal - Disabled
Enhanced C1 (C1E) - Disabled
CPU C State Capability - Disabled
Execute Disable Bit - Enabled
Virtulization Technology - Enabled
CPU Multiplier - 8.0
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep(tm) Tech - Disabled
LDT Frequency - 5x

FSB & Memory Config
FSB - Memory Clock Mode - Unlinked
FSB (QDR), Mhz - 1800
MEM (DDR), Mhz - 800

AI Tweaker
Loadline Calibration - Disabled
NVIDIA GPU Ex - Disabled
ES Selection - Disabled

 

CPU Voltage - 1.3v
Loadline Calibration - Enable

and that should be you done

 

LLC Enable...I heard that can be dangerous? CPU-Z is reading my Core Voltage @ 1.168v...vdroop?

I really need to up the CPU Voltage to 1.3? It's been running prime95 for about an hour now...stable...and cores only hitting 52 C max...not too bad huh?

 

No its not dangerous

and yeah thats cause of vdroop you should enable it even that on its own will get you stable.

and yeah temps seem fine.

 

So if it's stable as it is now...with my NB set to .1 V over default...is it in my best interest to keep LLC off? As it keeps the CPU voltage lower, thus keeping temps lower?

 

How do I find out the proper VTT and PLL voltages for this Q9550? Is it going to cause any problems to run it at the lowest voltage setting that my BIOS allows?

 

Vtt shouldnt exceed 1.35, and pll shouldnt exceed 1.5, or else your risk damaging your cpu.

 

Every set i've had

its always been on but if its stable then just keep it off.

 

PLL can be set to 1.6 for 24/7 use without issue

 

Ok...I just turned LLC on and kept VTT @ 1.2 and PLL @ 1.5...ran Prime95 for 11 hours...stable...passed the Memtest86 and IntelBurnTest as well...I think I'm good...The only thing LLC did was bump my Vcore reading in BIOS to 1.28 vs 1.24.

Just the + .1v on the NB seemed to helped the most...I'm such a noob.

 

Ugh...I'm starting to get BSODs, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGE_AREA is one of the common ones...when I go back to stock clocks and voltages, no problems...maybe need to up the frequency on the RAM? Or get some faster sticks? Mine run @ 800Mhz, 1.8v.

 

If you are running RAM at 4-4-4-12 CL4 then put 2.0v in it or try loosen timings t0 5-5-5-15 CL5.

Also, it's a good idea to run RAM 1:1 with the CPU , if you don't do so already.