The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

A lot of 1066 memory will run at or just below its rated speed but not much above it, however just because your overclock is failing doesn't mean that the memory is at fault. Even if your memory doesn't hit rated speed it should be able to get somewhere in the ball bark, say 1000. You either have another piece of hardware interfering with your attempts or bad modules.


I just ordered a Q9550 EO stepping processor and I intend to overclock it with Corsair Dominator 1066 memory on a P5Q Pro board and I am quite certain that I will hit at least the rated memory speed of 1066 and a little more.

 

Sophocles,
I got my Dominator 1066 memory to run at 1080 when I was at 3.8GHz with the new E6750 at stock timings of 5-5-5-15 at less than the stock voltage of 2.1v. You won't believe this though!



That's redice's memory at 3.0GHz with a Q9550 @3.0GHz. 1130MHz! I don't know what he's using yet other than it's 2x2GB 1066 memory. I'll have to ask him.

Russ

 

Is it really that odd for RAM to run at 1100+? I know I've gotten my 2x2GB Dominator 1066 stable in that range and I'm not experienced enough to do something fancy lol. If I have time I'll mess around with it this weekend and see how far I can push it.

 

eparker89,
Considering 1130MHz is around a 41% memory overclock, it's not exactly common. Better binned chips I guess! The luck of the draw! It doesn't take anything fancy, just exceptionally good chips!

Russ

 

I ran my 2X2 Gb dominator modules well over 1100 for several months without errors before backing it down. Even now they are running at 1087. I lowered the speed to remove the fans.

 

I don't use the fans with my dominators and can't get them to run at 1080mhz (but that could be because it means using a 1700mhz FSB on an 1066mhz strap), but they run cool as ice compared to my old four sticks of XMS2 (38ºC vs 67ºC)

 

Sam,
Mine barely ran warm, even while stress testing. I found the computer ran beat at 3.55GHz, with the memory at exactly 1066 on a 1775MHz fsb! I underclocked the memory to 950MHz at 3.8GHz, by setting the memory multi to 2.0. I would have gone further as I think I would have had no problem getting it to run at 4.0GHz, as it only required 1.44v to get to 3.8! I now know better than to exceed 1.50v with the E6750! LOL!!

Russ

 

Ah, but where's the fun in 3.55Ghz? lol

 

That was my selling speed! LOL!! 3.8GHz was easy! I feel with the memory, that running 1066 memory underclocked was better than trying to OC regular 800MHz memory higher, because you have no recourse if it doesn't. I would have gone higher, but once I got notified that it was definitely sold, I set it back to 3.55GHz! I'm wasn't about to tempt fate!

Russ

 

Sam, it could be your chipset that is crashing and not your RAM. Even lowered my front side bus is at 1740.2 and my memory speed as reported by CPU-Z is 543.8 which is almost 1088. I was going to purchase some PC1150 but common sense reminded me that the difference in performance wasn't worth the expense. I decided to save the money for another quad build instead and ordered a Q9550 EO Stepping.

 

Maybe that's true, but either way, if I drop the memory speed I can raise the CPU speed higher.

 

Once I've achieved high enough processor speed where the laws of diminishing returns sets in then I focus on the best that I can get from my memory. A wide front side bus and high memory speed is especially important with a quad core.

 

455 is the absolute limit of X38 for a Quad, and 2.0 or 2.5x only on the memory basically means 910mhz memory speed.

 

The P45 chipset can exceed 500 Mhz FSB which might explain the differences. I'll know more about what I'm going to get when I complete my new build. I really needed and extra quad system for BD reencoding and testing because the files takes so long even with a really fast system. I'd considered going with an i7 build but the costs would have been much higher since I have some parts in supply already. TankGuys sell guaranteed Q9550 EO stepping processors with some mediocre RAM for $299. I already have a folding rig with a pair of Dominators so I figured to swap the mediocre stuff with it for the new build.

 

Indeed it can, though I have seen several people brick wall on it with Quads at 505.

 

Sophocles

your Q9550 will be E0 stepping.Thats where i got my Q9550 from and it was E0 stepping and i also see that the price has dropped.(O well you can't have everything at a lower price)

 

The E0s are becoming more and more prevalent these days. Fortunately I got lucky and found one when they were rare, for a mere £5 more than they were to buy normally.

 

Yes it is in fact an EO stepping which is why I purchased it from TankGuys. They've always been good with acquiring and guaranteeing the best stepping processors. In fact the last time I checked the still had wome Q6600 GO stepping processors in stock.

 

Q6600s have been exlusively G0 in the UK for donkey's. I didn't think B3s were still made...

 

The B3 stepping processors had flooded the market so that they are still floating around in large numbers. One can order a Q6600 from a site such as Newegg but you are still rolling dice. TankGuys always guarantees their steppings which is worth $5 or $10 for the comfort of knowing what one gets.

The same can be said of Q9550's. The market is so flooded with C1 stepping processors that one really takes a chance ordering them without a Guarantee which as you know is why I went with the Q9650 for my first quad build.