I know you're the go to guy for Q6600 atm and I have just successfully OC'd my Q6600 1.25VID to 3.2ghz on.......A 650i!

I know, I can't believe it either.

I just finished Prime95 for 24hours(pics included) with max temp of 65, 65, 60, 60 this was when my room got 78 degrees today because it was 98 degrees today outside(not the usual). The temps were 57,57,53,53 99% of the time(idle at 31,34,31,28).

Specs-

Q6600 2.4 @ 3.2(vid-1.25) GO
650 MSI P6N Sli Platinum bios1.6
DDr2 Patriot 6400 800mhz 5-5-5-16-21-2T
620watt Aero PSU
Arctic cooling freezer 7 pro

FSB-1422x9
Mem-800mhz
vcore-+.05 (1.3 total) 1.28 idle CPUID, 1.24 load CPUID
vram- 1.85(+.05)
FSB VTT- +16%(1.392)(1.2stock+16%)
NB-stock voltage
SB-stock voltage

I had to use this VTT to get stable, even at 3.0ghz I had to use the same VTT. Without it prime would fail within a few minutes, something to do with the terribadness of 650i's and Quads as you know. How do you feel about 1.4v on my FSB VTT with 65nm CPU? I assume this will decrease longevity of the chip and that you obviously can't guess how detrimental, but I was hoping you could tell me if this is safe usage for the next 2-3 years of use of this chip. I use my computer for gaming mostly, nothing too strenuous and it's usually powered on about 8-12 hours a day(no 24/7 use)

Thanks in advance, I know you have a ton of experience with these chips, so wanted to get your blessing before I continued at this FSB VTT.

Couldn't get my pics uploaded atm, will post them in a bit.

ps. Anyone else feel free to throw in their opinion, just read a ton of Lupiron's post on OC'ing Q6600s.

::Chuckles.:: Nice! VTT can be used to counter a condition known as ringback. Ringback is basically feedback of energy after your chip is switched from a logical low to a high. An extra device in the chip always pulls the voltage up to VTT for a single cycle, helping it instantly swap from a low logic to a high logic, and this causes a certain amount of resonance, ringback!

1.40 isn't all that bad, However, it means that the pull up device will always pull the voltage up to 1.4000 VTT, Voltage termination, each and every time your chip enters a high logic state.

In other words, so much for what you thought was 1.3000 in the bios.

Try this, change the CPU VREF from x67 or x69 to x63 and up the VCore voltage one more notch and lower the VTT to 1.3000 and re test for a while. The simple fact that your VTT is under or equal to your Bios VCore setting will prolong the life of your chip a bit more. Or its like you are using 1.4000 half the time anyways. And your chip swaps between states like a few million times a second, lol! So thats 1.4000 a few million times a second.

3.0 Ghz is alot of cycles per second!

Other than that, excellent OC on that board, they are haters of quads! You have a decent VID chip, and it can do alot more than you are making it do, so I would say it should last quite a while.

I would like to see the rest of your settings. I plan on just buying a 750i, I think, and messing with it, the price is kinda weak, so why not? And there is a new 780i to replace the striker and p5n-t.

The P5N-72-T

Gonna peep that board out and then get one, i think!

Maybe those damn boards are noisy inside? That would explain VTT correcting for it. They are an old chip set. Hmm.. thats an interesting though.

Good luck with it!

--Lupi

Thanks for the quick response. How exactly would I go about changing the CPU VREF ? I'm not a noob to OC'ing but never heard of it before tbh. So basically when my CPU's doing anything it's pushing it's vcore to 1.4 because the VTT is 1.4, I see now. So once I know how to change the VREF I should put the vcore to 1.325 and the VTT to 1.3, got it.

Let me know about changing the VREF never seen it in the bios.

Thanks again Lupiron-

Hmm, it may look like CPU GTL VREF, thats the usual long title. It should be in the Bios, but if its not there, that also helps explain why people have trouble with these boards!

VTT and VCore are separate things with the exception that they both draw power from the same thing. While your power for opporational use may be 1.3000 Max, the chip will still receive 1.4000 a few million times a second, depending on what yer computing!

VTT is very complex, and as you can see, I am normally tight lipped about it.
And it may not be an option on the older boards.

I say you first try 1.3500 in the Bios, with a 1.3000 VTT and see if the vdrop and droop are the cause first. Dont be sacred of a lil voltage!

And since those boards have that large but not HUGE VDrop and droop combo. .06. That means you have to manually adjust for it. This is not uncommon on NVidia chipsets.

I believe they have a un spoken contract with intel, that they will use the MAXIMUM spec VDroop and drop on their boards, to try and make OCing harder. The primary companies are hating on the fact that people Over clock!

if the VCore jump helps, you can then go down a notch at a time until you reach an area where the 1.3000 VTT and higher VCore balance out.

Hopefully!

--Lupi

So you're saying my 24hour prime test was just wasted! =P

Jk

I'll give it the higher vcore a try, but I've messed with it before with little luck. I'll post back in a little

Thanks again-

JUst test for a while, you said it instantly fails, so you'll know whithin an hour of testing, I would guess.

All of my stability testing starts with just primes 1st test, its 17 mins long or so. Once I get my comp to pass that, I know I am "close" Because the transition from test 1 to test 2 of the small FFTs seems to put a huge drain, that vanishes for an hour, and then comes back. Watch CPUz. Mine jiggles a bit from, say, 1.504 to 1.496 and back and forth until the first test ends, then it hits the 1.496 for a min, and evens off at 1.504, showing less drain. And stays there for about an hour before one of the tests decides to use more power...

Once you find the prime stable 30 mins area, thats when you test next time you go out for a few hours, or go to bed!

8 hours of prime is more than enough for stability, because you will NEVER see that much usage in any day to day activity!

You'll note that though there are many ways to get your chip to display 100% frequency usage, only a rare few can cause the "drain" as well, for looped lev 2 computations, or lev 1 even.

--Lupi

Well this has definitely helped. I put it to 1.35vcore 1.3vtt and although temperatures jumped up to 68,68,65,65 it seems much more stable than when I tried before with a lower VTT. I'll let this run for a little then try to back down on the vcore maybe get it closer to 1.325. I have to say though, don't like my temps this high, but maybe I can reduce it a bit.

Core 2 failed at 16mins with 1.35vcore 1.3vtt. It passed the first prime test, then failed shortly there after.

Temps hit 68-69 so not really wanting to up the vcore more. Notice on the first test, vcore was 1.288, next test said 1.296.

You have the second worse VID chip, that means only 1 other chip, the 1.3250 VIDs start with more VCore than yours.

That blows, yes, but remember, 65c is a Guide line that people share as a safe point. At 65 c they can attribute little to the chips destruction! That doesnt mean that 70c will make it blow up! Hell, I couldn't get one to blow up at 1.8125 in the Bios, and 80+ cores Idle. Booted into vista fine.

And at 100+ c TCase your comp will shut down anyways, no matter what! No way to disable that safety feature. You may be able to disable the other two thermal protection measures, but not that one! Highest I have seen a chip was 116c TCase, so, feel free to imagine what the cores were flaming at!

Guidelines are just that.

What I do is re test with just windows performance thingie. It then assigns you a windows rating? Thats a good sign of where your temps will go when using for daily junk. If windows cant use it... lots of things running on windows cant use enough juice to get huge temps. (Except testing junk, which loads instructions directly into the chips on die memory, looping it at 100% power and drain.)

To be honest, I would recommend using VCore first, and VTT last, until your VCore is over VTT. But you can use VTT and gref to balance out VCore as well. Its an interesting thing, that VTT and vref.

The only time I have found it useful is at high or low ends of the chips range. As in, VTT and vref could be used to under clock your chip better, and can be used to over clock it when its already at the extreme end of stability and voltage and speed.

As in, its good for like 50Mhz more. or less. At 3.7 or higher, a 50Mhz gain is phenomenal! So save it for then, and the chances are that by the time you need it, the VCore is gonna be over what you set the VTT at!

--Lupi

Its a fine balance! I know it. And since I cant test on the board, hehe! Its all together possible that the chipset is noisy!

I say play with the VCore a bit, anyways, and see if it causes stability. That way you know. Then you can get back to the best performing settings you have found! Add 1 more notch and see if it gets to 30 mins, or at least past that same area where it failed!

You need to explore and see why its failing. If strengthening the VCore power helps, thats a good idea that VTT isnt the only thing that gets stability.

Lots of trial and error! Its boring, and you may not like the temps, but remember that intel classifies 75c and warm, and 80-85 as HOT! (cores.)

--Lupi

My vid's 1.25, thought it was a decent VID considering ive seen ranges from 1.2-1.325.

Not sure what to do here, if I increase the vcore more, it's not really worth the overclock imo. As for Gref I don't have that in my bios(msi bios sucks btw). Maybe I just need to swap out my board for a p35 or something. If the 1.4VTT is going to cause me problems later I may just scrap it, doesn't seem like it's worth the trouble of having a high vcore just to reach 3.2 when I could get a 150 dollar board and get 3.2 on a tad more than stock voltages instead of this horrible board.

Eeep, wrong post, lol! for the VID, yapping with someone that has a 1.3125!

The VTT thing wont damage your chip. Its just that you could prolly find stability with a higher VCore, though it will be lower than 1.4000 in the Bios!

Your chip is just fine, I have a 1.25000 that I got to 3.8 right at 1.5000 volts!

As far as I can tell from intels policies, the voltage range doesnt do much to the life of the chip. Their warranty covers .85-1.50 volts. The warranty becomes void when you add cpu cycles as well. (Over clock.) So I would say that the little bit of accelerated death would not be noticeable, hehe!

--Lupi

Well, I could go on upping the vcore until I found a stable clock, but I honestly think I'd rather just take my 3.2 at 1.4VTT if you believe it won't cause any damage. I'd rather keep lower temps, makes me feel better =P. I really appreciate all the help, I'll update in a little.

Thanks a ton-

Liderc