Vista - CPU OC Wall?

If you have hit a wall, you won't know for sure being timid. Your chip can safely handle up to 1.5 volts according to Intel. Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q6600 - SLACR

It's possible you have? If you can't squeeze out any more stable gains at 1.5 then perhaps you are indeed at that core's limit... or, maybe you've just got one that wants all 1.5 volts?

You have very good cooling with the Tuniq, so I would not worry about heat; athought always keep an eye on it. As far as electromigration is concerned, well, a) you're not above spec yet so there's no need to worry, and b) I don't get the impression you're keeping this chip for ~10 years. The guys who overvolt their chips within 8-10 months are the ones who're really pushing a lot of vcore into them; vcore well beyond spec for extended periods of time.

Yes, if you decide to push 1.6 volts into the core for more than just a quick suicide run then yeah, I'd worry, but not as long as you're playing around within spec.

btw, gunther... how'd you like Utah?

I am willing to play some, but probably over tomorrow - I don't mind blowing out the CPU as it will be an excuse to get what I really wanted in the first place :P

BTW, in my first post, the third pic is without C1E - and I just ran CPU-Z and it shows the same numbers, including VID.

I haven't tried any higher than 1.5 and it continues to draw only what it needs, it seems....But I wonder if there is more to it than that....I need to research more options and stuff, like HPET timer and such and whether there really is a benefit to turning it off or not.

In otehr news, I had repeated System_Service_Exception errors over the last 4 days - usually in ntdll.dll but once or twice in win2k.sys, so I thoguh tthat my malware testing of MBAM in my virtual XP machine had been mistakenly done in Vista x64 - causei ti sure acted like an infection from hell.

I formatted and reinstalled x64, and was still getting it - turns out I had enabled an option in the BIOS that allows for a resetting of the ESCD (?) and I thought it was like my old mobo - it would reset once and then change back to disabled - nope.

I finally perused all settings and that one was still enabled - disabled it and now the macine has been stable for 12+ hours.

I also wonder if I should attempt to OC with only 2 GB RAM installed, and get it stable, and see if the 2 versus 4 is causing me problems only at higher speeds, whereas at stcok and low OCs I don't have a problem with dual DIMMs....

I'm sure you could push it a little higher with only 2GB, but since you wouldn't use the system like that, there's no real point, right? You'd only be beating yourself up... what good is knowing a cpu clocks high if it can't clock high in your configuration of choice?

You're speeds are within the average range for 65nm quads; you just didn't happen to get "lucky", and OC'ing really does take a bit of luck. If you're not shipped the "right" chip, there's nothing you can do about it.

is the x9 the highest multi on a q6600 ...?

i think the q6700 has the x10
but according to cpuz 1.45v is about as far as you wanna be after vdroop.
do you have ''load line calibration''...? this will eliminate vdroop & possibly give you the boost needed for slightly higher clocks

do you have the latest bios...?
once you get to this point of your OC there aint much else to try
without thinking about WC setups

Better cooling isn't the answer. It's not heat that kills cpu's fast, it's volts. The Tuniq is plenty.

volts produce heat.....? so whats your point

to get higher clocks he needs more volts which in turn produce more heat
a WC setup would allow him to push more voltage while dissipating more heat

& the tuniq is not the be all & end all of air cooling, yes its big
but it wont do any better @ 1.5v than a cheaper one
its a quad too so its swallowing even more than a dualie would.

C1E Enabled



C1E Disabled

My point is that heat isn't what kills a cpu quickly. The cpu in question can handle up to 70C. More importantly, it shuts itself off if it gets too hot. Yes, more volts generate more heat; however, the Tuniq is one of the best air coolers out there and yes, it's much better than "a cheaper one": AnandTech: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme: Is More Better? But again, heat, per se, isn't a problem, it's volts. A cpu on water being over-volted has a much greater potential to suffer the quick death that alot of over-volted cpu's suffer.

My point, is that the price of the water cooling unit would not justify the gains since he's already near the limits of safe voltage on air and doing just fine. The only thing water would do, aside from cost a lot, is to give a false sense of security that you could safely over-volt the cpu... and this just isn't true.

No, I was wondering if I should try it and see if the 2 vs 4 makes a difference or not - if it won't OC at 2 either then it is not a problem with the MCP....

I also saw in that link you provided about the thermalright Ultra 120 where they had their MCP voltage a lot higher than I have mine - I wonder if that is the problem? At the eVGA forums there are more than a few posts about how to mod the mobo by using a small 60mm x 20 / 25 mm fan to replace the cheap little one that comes with the motherboard. I have thought about doing that too, but the voltages I listed in another forum post here were all the 'highest voltages still listed as green, IOW safe, voltages to use when adjusting voltages manually." I suppose I'll have to make the mod first, but it is a pretty sure bet that, regardless of all the other people having issues with the 7xx series of mobos, I am not, not in the standard / traditional sense of having to use a single DIMM for installation, etc. However, it may be the mobo itself that is holding me back as well.

I kinda want to upgrade to the 780 FTW version, but I don't have the money right now....

No, the C2Q 6600 has a max multiplier of 9, and the mobo allows me to use 6-9 as possible multipliers.

Dropping the multiplier to 8 and bumping the FSB seems to give me the same results - anything above 3.2 and it goes bananas. However, I haven't tried using scaled multipliers and OCing the RAM, and I wonder if that *also* may be the problem, as I ma running the RAM as stock (advertised) settings.

And how! That link you provided makes me want ot go out and buy a Scythe S-FLex fan - but I don't see any that have LEDs built in

The point is that, if you look at my temps, I am *way* below normal temps for a 33% OC. Look at locoeng's post - his temps are a lot higher than mine *at a standard, non overclocked speed*. My Tuniq is keeping it well cooled - going from 3.2 to 3.6 will not appreciably increase my temps, not to the point of failure. If I am running high 30s to low 40s at 33% OC, then a 50% OC (taking me to 3.6) should only bump me up no more than 10deg *max* per core - and that would still be lower than locoeng's temps at idle at stock clocks.

The electricity voltage produces heat as a side by-product, but that is not what kills electronics (unless you encounter a short, which thereby increases that heat output dramatically past what is considered 'normal' and can cause failures) - as Fumz said, it is the over volting itself. The components in the cores are designed to run at a specific voltage, and over volting them *will* cause problems in the long run - maybe not noticeable problems, but problems nonetheless.

Try taking a light bulb rated at 1.25-1.75 volts and connecting a 9V battery to it and see what happens. It will blow out the filament directly because of the voltage being applied.