OCing an x3360 on a Blackops....Getting Nowhere!

[ether.real]

So, I recently moved from a Q6600 to an x3360, in the hopes of a 24/7 4GHz clock.

What has really surprised me is that the x3360, which ran 4GHz on a P45 board, just does not seem to OC well on this board at all. I have tried P02, P05, G32 and G30 BIOSes, but I just cant seem to get much over 425FSB. This, to me, is just not acceptable on a $400 motherboard. I used the same settings as what I had stable on my Q6600 @ 442, but it wont even boot with the Yorkie.

Are the 45nm quads really more difficult to OC than the 65nm quads? I have pushed up all kinds of settings past what I would feel comfortable with in a 24/7 OC.

Any ideas as to what I am missing?

Q6600 Max FSB Settings:

*******Ratio and Clock Setting*******
CPU Clock Ratio Unlock: Enabled
CPU Clock Ratio: 8.0x
Target CPU Core Speed: 3542MHz
CPU Clock (FSB): 442MHz
CPU Clock vs Memory Speed: 1 : 4 CPU333
System Memory Speed: 1768MHz
PCI Express Clock: 100MHz
PCI Clock: 33.6MHz
*******Miscellaneous*******
Auto Detect PCI Clock: Enabled
Spread Spectrum: Disabled
Over Clock Recovery: Enabled


*******Memory Timing Config*******
ECC Scrubbing: Disabled
DRAM Timing Selectable: Manual
CAS Latency Time (tCL): 8T
RAS# to CAS# Delay(tRCD): 8T
RAS# Precharge(tRP): 8T
Precharge Delay (tRAS): 27T
Row Refresh Cycle (tRFC): Auto
Performance Level: L 7
Refresh Period Ratio: x 1
Command Per Clock: 2T
Everything else set to Auto.....

************All Voltage Control***********
*******Affect CPU MHz*******
CPU Voltage Multiplier: x1.000
CPU Voltage Seting: 1.3500V
CPU Target Voltage: 1.3500V
CPU Current Voltage: 1.3288V
CPU Default Voltage: 1.2250V
CPU Vdroop Compensation: Enabled

*******Affect FSB MHz*******
CPU PLL Voltage Setting: 1.508861V
CPU VTT Voltage Setting: 1.35V
CPU GTL Ref: All Default
NB Voltage Setting: 1.563V
NB GTL Ref Voltage: Default
SB Voltage Setting: 1.688V

******Affect Memory MHz*******
DRAM Voltage Setting: 1.955V
All others Default.


*******CPU Feature*******
All disabled except Virtualization and Core Multi-Processing

[saaya]

CPU VTT Voltage Setting: 1.35V
CPU GTL Ref: All Default
actualy vtt is 1.25v REAL with this setting, try 1.45v, and play with the gtl settings and try the settings other people had sucess with, this might get you some extra fsb too. :toast:

[ether.real]

actualy vtt is 1.25v REAL with this setting, try 1.45v, and play with the gtl settings and try the settings other people had sucess with, this might get you some extra fsb too. :toast:

I will try higher VTT. I dont think the GTLs are the issue, since I am using a 6x multi while trying to find the max FSB of this board, so stock vcore should work.

[ether.real]

Are all the VTTs consistently 1.0V off? ie, max 24/7 VTT should be 1.5V on this board?

Also, what would be the maximum safe voltages for NB and SB?

[Slovnaft]

don't worry about SB, NB can go as high as 1.7 on air, I've had some puke at me around 1.75. try around 1.5-1.6.
the X3360 is similar to Q9450 no?
If so VTT around 1.325 to 1.4ish, 1.325 gets me stable at 480fsb.

[ether.real]

I just tried 1.5VTT (1.4V real VTT), 6x multi, 435FSB, 1.56VNB and 1.688VSB....passes memtest but hangs in windows.

Slovnaft, would you mind posting all your settings? I would like to see if I am missing something......

[Slovnaft]

Oh no i meant on a different board i'm not on blackops anymore. VTT is through cpu though.
I've been through a few X48s and had my time with the BOps though, so i'm giving advice from that perspective.

SB has no effect on overclocking, so leave it at stock

[ether.real]

Oh no i meant on a different board i'm not on blackops anymore. VTT is through cpu though.
I've been through a few X48s and had my time with the BOps though, so i'm giving advice from that perspective.

SB has no effect on overclocking, so leave it at stock

Hmm. On the Q6600 the SB volts had a big effect in getting higher FSB. I just did a two hour CMOS reset and swapped out the PSU, so lets see where that gets me.....

[ether.real]

I have definitely confirmed SB volt dependency here. Will not boot at stock SB volts, but at 1.688V I can get in (435FSB). Applying a CPU load means instant hang however.

Another question....has anyone tried OCing via the FSBSEL jumper?

[NCspecV81]

wow I never would have thought SB volts would effect FSB. Thanks for posting that.

[ether.real]

wow I never would have thought SB volts would effect FSB. Thanks for posting that.

NP, it was a tip Peter Kirk, aka Nosfer@tu passed onto me, so the credit goes to him.

I put an extra fan on the SB, so far its now passing prime (only been running 5 min, but still better than before).

I think I will let it prime here for a while, and then try going from 6x back to 8.5x to see if I can make that stable.

[ether.real]

Alright, running 8.5x435, 15 minutes prime stable. We are now officially making progress again. Will try for higher tonight.

[negev]

Can I see your settings please? Ive been trying to get 438 stable on my Q9450

SB -> 1.688 made no difference for me

[Slovnaft]

Maybe it's a Xeon thing?
Anyways, i'll definitely start trying that in the future.

[ether.real]

I am now at 440x8.5....running pretty stable so far, using the settings from this thread:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2789740&postcount=76

[Ryan12]

I am now at 440x8.5....running pretty stable so far, using the settings from this thread:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2789740&postcount=76
Hope your not using the vcore he's using :shocked: lol

[Warboy]

don't worry about SB, NB can go as high as 1.7 on air, I've had some puke at me around 1.75. try around 1.5-1.6.
the X3360 is similar to Q9450 no?
If so VTT around 1.325 to 1.4ish, 1.325 gets me stable at 480fsb.

X3360 = Q9550...

And Xeons overclock just fine.

[ether.real]

Hope your not using the vcore he's using :shocked: lol

Lol, definitely not. I think I am running 1.35V on vcore. 440 is not 100% stable, Large FFTs fails but Small FFTs passes. will be tweaking accordingly.

[ether.real]

Well, I have found my limit. This board requires tons of NB volts to get anywhere. More than I am willing to give, which is a crying shame. I have plenty of cooling on the NB, it never exceeds 47C, but its getting ridiculous how much voltage this NB is taking to push FSB. I topped out at 1.768V, which Aegis was reporting as 1.8V, and even then, Large FFTs and Blend still fail @440FSB. Is this NB all of a sudden under a lot more stress by moving from a Q6600 to an x3360? Is this NB degraded all of a sudden?

[Xello]

Any word from the engineers why the southbridge volts would have an effect on the northbridge clock in this case Saaya?

[negev]

This board is known for needing high NB voltages, have you tried increasing the NB GTL?

[ether.real]

I will give it a shot. Going for 1.718V, +1.

[negev]

Look at Xello's settings posts in "shared bios settings", I need +3 step for 425fsb i think he went up to +5

Actually, thats probably why your vNB is so high - try lowering it to around 1.62 or 1.67 and try adjusting the gtl

[ether.real]

Look at Xello's settings posts in "shared bios settings", I need +3 step for 425fsb i think he went up to +5

Actually, thats probably why your vNB is so high - try lowering it to around 1.62 or 1.67 and try adjusting the gtl

I will look into it. ....

[ether.real]

GTLs have definitely helped. 1.67, +5GTL has got me 30 min stable in @440.

[ether.real]

30 min stable at 445 as well....hawt dawg.....

[ether.real]

Well, 450 doesn't boot, so I am going to call it good at 445 for now, and "finalize" the OC for both CPU and RAM. After that I will keep pushing.

[negev]

Nice one :)

[Slovnaft]

445? nice job!
at 8.5 multi thats what, 3.8?

[negev]

Hey im curious, did you get stability at 438 and if so what were your settings? I've been trying for ages, wondering if maybe theres a gap and 445 might work.. I tried lots of settings for 438 using +3 up to +5 but always failed prime in seconds.

[ether.real]

445 would not run stable with multi @ 8.5, 440 seems to be the max (almost the same as my Q6600).

I have decided to ditch the quad and just ordered and e8600....

[ol'norton]

These were my settings for 450 X 8.5 but only CAS#9
That was early days, I'm sure I could get the voltages down a bit, but I gave up in disgust & are now running my E8500.

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3137/450cas9stablewi9.th.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=450cas9stablewi9.jpg)