Overclocking Adventure!

[themattman]

Hey all,

I recently bought an EP45-UD3P motherboard and plugged my Q9450 into it. I want to see how far I can go with the processor. Currently I am at 3.6Ghz, but prime 95 throws errors after 20 minutes or so. I could use some advice with the voltage settings near the bottom.

I will post the settings shortly.

Thanks for any help!

( I coped below from another post and changed the values. Some on the bottom left (near the text) may be slightly off.)

******Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.)******

Robust Graphics Booster.........................[ Auto ]
CPU Clock Ratio.................................[ 8 ]
Fine CPU Clock Ratio............................[ + 0.0 ]
CPU Frequency 3.6GHz............................[ 450 x 8.0 ]

******Clock Chip Control******

CPU Host Clock Control..........................[ Enabled ]
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz)........................[ 450 ]
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz).....................[ 100 ]
C.I.A 2 [Disabled]

******Advanced Clock Control******

CPU Clock Drive.................................[ 800mv ]
PCI Express Clock Drive.........................[ 900mv ]
CPU Clock Skew..................................[ 0ps ]
MCH Clock Skew..................................[ 0ps ]

******DRAM Performance Control******

Performance Enhance.............................[Standard]
(G) MCH Frequency Latch.........................[ AUTO]
System Memory Multipler.........................[ 2.00D]
Memory Frequency 800............................[ 900]
DRAM Timing Selectable..........................[ Manual]

CAS Latency Time................................[ 5]
tRCD............................................[ 5]
tRP.............................................[ 5]
tRAS............................................[ 15 ]

******Advanced Timing Control******

tRRD............................................[ 3 ]
tWTR............................................[ 3 ]
tWR.............................................[ 6 ]
tRFC............................................[ 52 ]
tRTP............................................[ 3 ]
Command Rate (cmd)..............................[ 0 ]

******Channel A Timing Settings******

Static tRead Value ...............[ 9 ]
tRD Phase0 Adjustment ................[ Auto ]
tRD Phase1 Adjustment ................[ Auto ]
tRD Phase2 Adjustment ................[ Auto ]
tRD Phase3 Adjustment ................[ Auto ]

tRD 2rd (Differnt Rank) ................[ Auto ]
tWR 2wr (Differnt Rank) ................[ Auto ]
tWR 2rd (Differnt Rank) ................[ Auto ]
tRD 2wr (Same/Difft Rank) ................[ Auto ]

Dimm 1 Clock Skew Control.......................[ Auto ]
Dimm 2 Clock Skew Control.......................[ Auto ]
DDR Write Training..............................[ Auto ]

******Channel A Driving Settings******

Drive Strength Profile..........................[ 800MHZ ]
Data Driving Pull Up Level......................[ Auto ]
cmd Driving Pull Up Level.......................[ Auto ]
ctrl Driving Pull Up Level......................[ Auto ]
clk Driving Pull Up Level.......................[ Auto ]

Data Driving Pull Down Level....................[ Auto ]
cmd Driving Pull Down Level.....................[ Auto ]
ctrl Driving Pull Down Level....................[ Auto ]
clk Driving Pull Down Level.....................[ Auto ]

******Channel B Timing Settings******

Static tRead Value ...............[ 9 ]
tRD Phase0 Adjustment ................[ Auto ]
tRD Phase1 Adjustment ................[ Auto ]
tRD Phase2 Adjustment ................[ Auto ]
tRD Phase3 Adjustment ................[ Auto ]

tRD 2rd (Differnt Rank) ................[ Auto ]
tWR 2wr (Differnt Rank) ................[ Auto ]
tWR 2rd (Differnt Rank) ................[ Auto ]
tRD 2wr (Same/Difft Rank)................[ Auto ]

Dimm 1 Clock Skew Control.......................[ Auto ]
Dimm 2 Clock Skew Control.......................[ Auto ]
DDR Write Training..............................[ Auto ]

******Channel B Driving Settings******

Drive Strength Profile..........................[800MHZ]
Data Driving Pull Up Level......................[ Auto ]
cmd Driving Pull Up Level.......................[ Auto ]
ctrl Driving Pull Up Level......................[ Auto ]
clk Driving Pull Up Level.......................[ Auto ]

Data Driving Pull Down Level....................[ Auto ]
cmd Driving Pull Down Level.....................[ Auto ]
ctrl Driving Pull Down Level....................[ Auto ]
clk Driving Pull Down Level.....................[ Auto ]

******Motherboard Voltage Control******

Load-Line Calibration...........................[ disable ]
CPU Vcore [ 1.21250 ]...................[ 1.40000V ]
CPU Termination [ 1.20 ]...................[ AUTO ]
CPU PLL [ 1.50 ]...................[ AUTO ]
CPU Reference [ 0.760 ]...................[ AUTO ]

MCH Core [ 1.100 ]...................[ 1.200V]
MCH Reference [ 0.760 ]...................[ AUTO ]
MCH/DRAM Refernce [ 0.900 ]...................[ AUTO]
ICH I/O [ 1.500 ]...................[ AUTO ]
ICH Core [ 1.100 ]...................[ AUTO]

DRAM Voltage [ 1.800 ]...................[ AUTO]
DRAM Termination [ 0.900 ]...................[ AUTO]
Channel A Ref [ 0.900 ]...................[ AUTO]
Channel B Ref [ 0.900 ]...................[ AUTO]

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

Please tell us what type and quantity of RAM you have. To start, up the MCH voltage by two notches, and set CPU Termination to 1.35v. Also set CPU PLL to 1.5v manually, Auto usually overvolts too much.

[themattman]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

I use 4(2x2) gigs of Mushkin ddr2-800 and 4(2x2) gigs of patriot ddr2-1066. I've tested all 8 gigs in memtest and passed at ddr2-900.

I will try your suggestions, thanks!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

Yay another 8 gig overclocker, welcome to the club! Try those settings and see what you get.

PS. Anyone know why the smileys aren't working?

[themattman]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

I have my MCH set at 1.3v. What is the max safe temp for this?

What does CPU termination/PLL voltage mean?

I backed down the FSB to 425 and ran prime 95. One core threw an error at 2 hours but the other 3 are going strong.

Any recommendations?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

No idea about the MCH temperature, check the Intel site for specs. Common sense says that it shouldn't exceed 65C, but i believe it isn't even close to that. Mine sits around 45C and it's overvolted to the max.

CPU Termination aka FSB voltage is VTT. Long explanation: System Bus Input Supply Voltage, often referenced as FSB termination voltage (VFSB or VTT) is the voltage the FSB is running on. Logic levels on the FSB are relative to this voltage. Higher VTT results in higher logic levels and thus a better signal to noise ratio -> better stability. For 45nm CPUs you should NOT exceed 1.45v VTT, AnandTech fried a quad with 1.55v.

PLL voltage is the power supply of the CPU's voltage control chip. Increasing it allows for higher overclocks with lower Vcore as the PLL gets more accurate, but it's a tiny little thingy so if you set it too high and it blows bye bye mobo.

If only one core failed, try more VTT, as long as you're under 1.45v. That usually fixes it.

[themattman]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

Hmm, it looks like 2 more cores threw an error around the 9 hour mark. I'm running the cpu at 1.4v with a 1.3v MCH, could it possibly be another area that needs to fine tuning to get the pc stable?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

Did you try increasing VTT yet?

[themattman]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

I increased the VTT to 1.5v

I ran Prime 95 and I just got an error on only one core after 7 hours. It looks like I am getting better.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

That looks alright, but you're already in the danger zone with that VTT. Don't go any higher - as a matter of fact see if you can go lower. And at least to me, 7 hours of Prime is considered stable, unless you're doing renders, HD video encoding or something else that takes a crapload of time and CPU.

Drop the VTT a bit and see if it's stable in Intel Burn Test.

[themattman]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

I actually meant to say PLL was 1.5v and VTT was 1.4v.

I keep getting errors with P95 at 3.6, but so far I haven't have the PC freeze up on me. I'm going to wait and see how long I can go without freezing at 3.6.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

It might not ever freeze but give you other nasties, so try to get it stable. For now leave PLL and VTT where they are and give it a bit more Vcore.

[themattman]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

How high can I set the vcore in the BIOS and still be safe?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

How high can I set the vcore in the BIOS and still be safe?

That depends on your CPU, Cooler, and Temps. And of course the actual voltage you are getting, shown in CPU-z. 1.45-1.5 actual depending on temps would be safe

I Agree w/ Th3_uN1Qu3 1.4-1.5 Vtt is not needed at all, 1.35 or so should take you to 533+ FSB and you are not even close. For 450-500 FSB I would suggest 1.3-1.35 Vtt

And PLL Manually set to 1.5-1.58, no more

[themattman]

Re: Overclocking Adventure!

Just for some general information, I have:

Intel Q9450
Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 lapped
Antec 900 Case