New Build GA-EP45-DS3 + Q9550

[NimrodAUS]

Originally Posted by Kruk

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 ;).

If you have your chip at that nice overclock on that low voltage then its better then good. It should last as long if not longer then it was originally intended.

[NimrodAUS]

Ok so I have a wiered one. I put everything back to stock. With the g'Skill 1066 ram. stock but with the vdimm @ 2.1v. errors out on prime in just over an hour, then again within 17 minutes. Back the 1066 off to 800 and things are looking good. So according to the SPD JEDEC# please see attached screen shot, the timmings and **** are all over the place. I was under the impression that its 1066Mhz @ 2.1v 7-7-7-20 were the advertised timmings. Now in the BIOS sometimes and only after a failed post it will display the SPD as 1066 with timmings 5-5-7-18 ? ok so I though were did those come from. Cause every other time on a nice cold boot or anything it says in the BIOS SPD or the Standard for the ram is 800mhz 5-5-5-15. Im confused but I can tell you it doesnt matter how much voltage I give the whole board @ stock CPU speed the ram will not run 1066 and pass prime. but so far 2:30min with no problem @ 2.83ghz 800mhz ram. oh and I lowered the Ram back to 1.8v so yeah yay. I did briefly 2:35min ago try running it @ 3.4ghz 400X8.5 with ram @ 800 but got a hard lock. but I think a little motherboard voltage will help that. Im just trying to get this SOB to run @ stock stable. Wost comes to worst Ill put the corsair back in and run with the settings I had today @ 3.4ghz it was running prime stable for that long with th corsiar 800.. I noticed that especially when i put the PCI-e Voltage up +0.1v my CPU Core temps rose about 5c and started off slightly higher at idle to. I want to avoid raising all these volts if possible. I will narror it out maybe tommorrow if I dont have to go fix this tractor computer. Anyone got any ideas? Oh and I did try the GTLREF thingy I changed the first one from AUTO to Normal but it did nothing. I dont really know what its supposed to do so I just put it back to auto and left it.

[Psycho101]

Not sure about your timings issue. Best to set them manually. 5-5-5-15 is definitely the stock for DDR-1066. Although it says the same timings for DDR-800, these modules should run at 4-4-4-12 DDR-800 without issue, as long as you give them the max voltage needed for 1066, ie 2.1V.

Try some tweaks to multiplier and FSB. Upping the FSB while lowering the multi and using a different RAM multi may let you get 1066. Also, if the board has several straps that let you get 1066, try them all.

I still think you should try the quad in your P45. I bet you'll get to at least 3.8GHz with it. The X48 should also cope OK with your Dual Core. It may be tricky to do the swap with one hand, but it's possible. I built a whole computer once with a broken wrist. Had to vacume the inside after though as I scuffed the plaster on the edges of the case alot.

Definitely get yourself a SSD when you can afford it.Either an Intel drive or one based on an Indilinx controller, like OCZ's vertex or a Crucial M225. The M225's aren't the bargain they used to be though, as soon as they realised they were selling extremely well, they put the price up.

I managed to snag a second Intel 80GB G1 drive off eBay for £110, so I'll have a bit of RAID 0 action going on soon. ~500MB/s read and ~150MB/s write sounds nice to me. Sure, the Intel drives write slower sequentially, but they have 4-5 times the performance than an Indilinx in random 4K writes. Smokin!

[NimrodAUS]

Ok well I think I may have got the Q9550 Stable @ Stock, but the G'Skill is only @ 800. Which I really dont care about that much. Its inline with my ideal 1:1 FSB:RAM ratio I have in mind. So its going ok with 12hours of prime last night with all voltages on normal and the ram was even on 1.8 which is the SPD for 800mhz so yeah. Theres something funny about the ram. Anyway. Just for the fun I changed only the FSB and memory multi to give me 800mhz ram with 3.4ghz CPU and ram prime. It hard locked in a couple of minutes. Ill try again sometime today with adjusting voltages one at a time, now that I have a stable stock that is the best place to start. I know the CPU vcore does not help, so Im hoping that I may just need a little mch or fsb voltage. I dont know how much is too much though for these volts. I feel that because I havent been playing much with this kinda stuff lately that Ive forgotten stuff. Maybe I hit my head harder then then I though. lol.

As for a processor swap. Yes Yes I know that would be the ultamate testing proposal, but let just pretend that I dont have a EP45 cause I really want to get the quad running in the X48. Mind you yesterday when I was having trouble getting it to run stock I was very tempted to put the E8500 back in and be done with it. I probably would have if I could have easily. It was hard enough swapping ram. Damm collar bone is annoying because you cant just put it out of the way, every movement or twist or angle feels bad.

Pshyco, with your Dell screen can you see sorta faint verticle lines accross the whole screen when watching full screen AVI's? any other picture looks perfect just video has these very faint sorta lines. Im wondering if its not my codecs or something.

[Psycho101]

I get those lines too, but only if I use Windows Media player. I switched to VLC and Media Player Classic and don't get them any more.

[NimrodAUS]

Yeah I forgot to mention, that is the case for me also. However I find that WMP believe it or not has a much better very noticably better picture quality. Ill survive. Any Idea on what Step I should take now mate to get this overclock working?

[NimrodAUS]

Well another day another overclock. It seems I have found the secret. It would appear that this X48 board does not like to run 1066mhz ram. Well thats a bit of a statement because I havent tried it with the E8500 or any other 1066 ram but the 1066 G'skill @ 800mhz seems to be the winning combination. Currently im running the Q9550 @ 3.4ghz 400X8.5 with 1.25vcore and only the MCH +0.05v. The G'skill @800mhz with 1.8vdimm. Is MCH +0.05 an exceptable amount. I really dont know what it does but yeah. Im going to spin it with no extra voltage tommorrow. Ill let it keep running prime with the current config overnight and see how it stands. But Im alot more oppomistic about things now seeing that this CPU can actually overclock. Stupid ram. Anyway I dont know why the ram didnt fall over with Memtest but it must be just a cpu + 1066 thing or something.
Now lets talk temps. Currently after 2 hours of prime @ 3.4 its running 58c. Is that a good temp. The otherday when I had volts crank everywhere it got to 64c but It appears that that wont be nessacary. Just want a know of some safe temps. Thanks everyone.

[Psycho101]

Personally anything up to and including 65c is acceptable for Prime95. I don't much care what the temps are running IBT as long as they don't go over ~80c. Absolutely nothing I'll ever do will get the CPU as hot as IBT with the right number of threads manually selected.

If your sensors aren't stuck at lower temps, try calibrating your temp readings. You may find those temps are falsely high. They sound OK, maybe on the high end of normal for the speed and voltage, especially with that Noctua HSF. Real Temp - Documentation

Received my second Intel X25-M today off eBay.... fu*king dead on arrival! The GOON packed it in a standard polythene bag. I could feel the fine hairs on the back of my hand rising with the static as I took it out of the bag. What an idiot!

From the looks of his selling history he doesn't have much of a clue. For example he priced my drive at £110, but sold some X25-E 64GB drives a month ago for £90 each. To put into perspective, the £110 drive is about £180 brand new. The 64Gb X25-E (SLC Flash) is about £500 brand new. Amateur alert!

My Brother's going to the US next week, so I'll get him to pick me one up off of Newegg. Maybe even a 30GB Vertex. I fancy having a play with an Indilinx based drive.

[NimrodAUS]

Ah Man you dont have much luck with Ebay do you. lol. Well I think im on a role. All night I left prime going @ 3.4ghz and no problems. Ill leave it going all day today just to get the 24hour certification. lol Unfortunatly after about the second boot with this chip, first with the NH-U12P attached the sensors are stuck when idle. Pretty dodgy ebay idiot.

[Salty]

MCH +.05?

Clunk tested voltages on the GA-X48T and other x48 mobos. They found a default voltage of 1.25, but also found an undervolt of .2 when manually raised in bios. (They differed with Anandtech who quote 1.45. Intel Tech docs say 1.25. Go figure.) Gigabyte X48T DQ6 Living Review - Page 40 - Clunk's Forums.

Anyway, according to Clunk, you would be running 1.3v MCH. Hell, I couldn't get my 2 x 2GB going at all at first (reboot loop - no post) until went in on 1 stick and set +.2 MCH. If yours boots and runs without that I reckon you're doing well.

Over at X38 MCH Voltage? - Guru3D.com Forums for x38 they suggest adding 0.0315v to MCH for each 33Mhz step up from stock.

I didn't need GTL change till after 444 fsb.

Dunno if that helps, but it's good to see it happening for you with the Quad at last. Sorry to hear about the bike injury.

I think these are the default volt and gtl figures:

DDR2 OverVoltage Control 1.8v
PCI-E OverVoltage Control 1.25v
FSB OverVoltage Control 1.1v 45nm, 1.2v 65nm
(G)MCH OverVoltage Control 1.25v
CPU GTLREF1 Voltage Ratio 67%
CPU GTLREF2 Voltage Ratio 61%
CPU Voltage Control 1.25v 45nm E8500