Overclocking III – Quad-Core Q6600 at 3.30 GHz
We hit our Core 2 Quad Q6600’s limit after reaching a very respectable overclock of 37.5%. On the downside, we had to increase the core voltage even further in order to reach this speed. In the end, our CPU was being fed a core voltage that was 0.1500 Volts over its stock setting of 1.3125 V to ensure its stability.
Compared to the E6750, there are four cores running at overclocked speeds in our system now. However, we will have to wait for the performance analysis to determine whether that also equals better value for money.
| CPU Frequency | 3.30 GHz (+37.5 %) |
| FSB | 367 MHz (1468 QDR) |
| Core Voltage | 1,46250 Volt |
| Memory Multiplier | 2.40x |
| Memory Frequency | DDR2-881 (441 MHz) |
| Memory Latency | CL 4.0-4-4-12 |
Reaching a higher frequency than 3.30 GHz was completely out of the question. We would have had to raise the voltage to a point that would in all likelihood have damaged our CPU.
We can’t really recommend running a 65 nm processor at a voltage this high anyway, since we can’t rule out the possibility that the cores could be damaged beyond repair over the course of time due to electron migration. Simply put, you run the risk that the conducting paths inside the CPU could literally be ablated and thus destroyed by ion migration. The upshot is that one day, the computer suddenly shuts down and will never start up again with that CPU. We only ran our CPU at these speeds for a short while to determine its performance at these settings. On the other hand, some models may very well run at such high speeds without even needing the slightest core voltage tweak.
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so what you just said, is the newer stuff is better
i dont know why they take 10 pages to show what can be said in 1 page + a few graphs
On top of that Crysis is meant to be very cpu dependant and prefers 4 cores - it's the way things are going
Hmm, if they'd have gone for a different motherboard they could have gotten the q6600 to 3.6 on air.
Dunno if you have a duff chip or mobo. I have a Q6600 and exactly the same cooler and I can do 3.41 GHz at stock voltage on a Gigabyte 965P-DS3P.
"Its stock clock speed is 2.4 GHz, which it operates at using a comparatively low core voltage of 1.3125 Volts – the lowest core voltage available for this chip"
Wrong my Q6600 is 1.26V although it runs slightly higher in practice.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums [...] s/Quad.jpg
I guess this shows how OC'ing can vary depending on luck. Even hand picking the best S numbers is no guarantee. A bit of luck (unless you have deep pockets) can be key.
Fortunately for myself, my Q6600 is 1.28v core, and hits 3.6GHz with only slight bump.
Indeed electron migration is a significant issue at high Vcore but realistically most of us overclocking are probably running 6-12 month cycles on our hardware (at least from my experience) and the cost of killing a mid range part every year against taking a top end part is still more cost effective.
That's given only one CPU in the past 15 that I've OC'd have failed (possibly luck?) on me and that was due to a faulty voltage regulator on my motherboard
Very nice review/test. Highly informative. I was gonna buy a 6850 or a quad core but now im just gonna grab the low cost msi board and a 6750 and spent my cash elsewhere.
question, you end up recommending the MSI motherboard, but the test system states that you used the gigabyte for the test. Will i be able to get the same clocking abilities with the MSI?