New Build GA-EP45-DS3 + Q9550

[NimrodAUS]

This weekend is it. Im going to put the XMS2-800 RAM in the Q9550 Rig and up The FSB to 400 and see what happens in prime. (Using non raided HDD setup) Im sure it the ram holding this overclock back some how. Anyway. Question. Would 1 X NVIDIA GTX275 be better then my 2 X ATI HD4850's? Better for say Crysis or ARMA or anything really. I know I cant SLI two of them on either board I think.. WHich sucks but yeah Just found one going cheap.

[Psycho101]

NVidia does have an edge in Crysis compared to ATI, but over all you won't see much, if any difference. Two 4850's in a game using Crossfire and up to 4xAA should beat a GTX 285 in FPS.

You're right, no SLI for you. Only available on NVidia based Core 2 boards and X58/P55.

[marsey99]

not sure if its breach of forum rules to talk about the hows but there are ways to get sli on x38/48 and p35/45 boards with 2 pcie slots by using hacked drivers.

[NimrodAUS]

Yeah I have hurd about stuff like this. Enabling SLI on Cross-fire boards I have seen around. Didnt something like that happen with the X58 boards at one stage then Gigabyte just decided to release it themselves?

Hey Psycho when did you get a SSD? Have I been sleeping? Hows that going for you?

[Kruk]

Hello! I'm new here :) and I have simple question: What would you do with Q9550, E0 with CPU Vid 1.1 in sense of OC? I would like someting save for every day use which will not lower life of CPU?

THANK YOU!

[NimrodAUS]

Kruk Sorry for my late reply, things have been a little hecktic for me. a Q9550 with a low VID of 1.1 should theroretically overclock good on lower voltage. There has been a debate about VID's and what not I just set the volts at the stock voltage for that model chip and go from there. If you can get it stable at stock then lower the volts and still be stable then its a joy joy time for you. Depending on what RAM you have is how I would start to look at how to overclock it. Im a fan of 1:1 FSB:RAM ratios with 400mhz fsb vs 800mhz ram. I might be living in the past but yeah. Start by posting a full system specs list of ur build.

[NimrodAUS]

Well Theres nothing like a broken collar bone to really give me some time to play around with computers. Ive been at home all week, mind you the start of the week I was quiet Ill also, which is doubly not fun when you have a busted freaking collar bone. Yes Yes Bloody motorbikes. But hey I wasnt on my bike I was on a stupid QUAD so Ive most avoided the told ya so crap from my wife.
Anyway

Today I was bored and thought I would once and for all get this overclocking business sorted. First thing I did was take the 800mhz corsair out of the other system and put it with the Q9550, cause I know that that ram loves 400mhz fsb. Sure enough withing seconds @ 3.4ghz= 400X8.5 it hard locked the system. rebooted bump the vcore to 1.3 same thing. then I nudged up PCI-E +0.10V, FSB + 0.10v MCH + 0.05v and tried again and presto its prime stable for 1hour tested. I need to narror which increase actually did something so Im going to just change one volt at a time this time. Unfortunatly I might have to go into work and do a computer thing so Im not going to get the chance right now. But hey atleast thats progress. Ill also put the 1066 G'skill back in as im confident that Ive narrowed it out of the problem. Typing with one hand is really crap.

The other system E8500 + Ep45-DS3 is wicked. I basically just upped the FSB to 400mhz so its 9.5X400=3.8ghz, all volts are stock manually set and pci-e is 100mhz thats about all I changed and its 24hours prime stable.
Happy times. Will try and have more resualts soon.

[Kruk]

Originally Posted by NimrodAUS

Kruk Sorry for my late reply, things have been a little hecktic for me. a Q9550 with a low VID of 1.1 should theroretically overclock good on lower voltage. There has been a debate about VID's and what not I just set the volts at the stock voltage for that model chip and go from there. If you can get it stable at stock then lower the volts and still be stable then its a joy joy time for you. Depending on what RAM you have is how I would start to look at how to overclock it. Im a fan of 1:1 FSB:RAM ratios with 400mhz fsb vs 800mhz ram. I might be living in the past but yeah. Start by posting a full system specs list of ur build.

Hello NimrodAUS. So, my Q9550 is working now 3.54Ghz, with 417FSB (to make RAM go 1000Mhz), with 1.18 Vcore, ram 1000Mhz 2.0V (can be 1.9V but it's rated 2.0 so why not ;) ). System stable and no any trouble. Temperature of CPU idle 22C :) (I use Easy Tune, since RealTemp is NOT showing true temps!?).

Do you think this is safe for like 10 years ;). I don't won't to touch my comp for looooong time. Truly! I'm getting old

I think I will not go more, no need any more ;). This computer is truly super fast! Coding of my videos is amazingly fast in comparison to Core 2 Duo 1.8...

My mobo is GA-G33M-DS2R "old" good Gigabyte, this mobo is the best I ever had ;).

[Psycho101]

Hey Psycho when did you get a SSD? Have I been sleeping? Hows that going for you?

Going great. I'd recommend the upgrade to anyone. It's probably the best performance upgrade you can make after making sure you have sufficient (2GB+) RAM.

[NimrodAUS]

Well those SSD are sure looking nice. Now I have a new problem. I have discovered that my Q9550 system is not stable even at stock speeds. So Ive tried MCH +0.5v with no luck. Must have BSOD on me when I was out and restarted my system. Trying now with MCH+0.5v and FSB + 0.1v. do you think these are ok to run everyday kinda thing. If that doesnt work I will up the PCI-E +0.1v as well and see what happens. Is this recommemded?