** Official ** Gigabyte UD3 P45 Series -- EP45-UD3 / EP45-UD3R / EP45-UD3P

[Xavior]

Hi guys, I'd appreciate some input on getting the Q6600 stable. I'm new to overclocking Intel, came from AMD64 X2 NF4.

Mobo is EP45-UD3 on latest F8 bios. Basically I got the Q6600 stable on 335x9, vcore 1.2v (1.168v CPU-Z) with standard voltage settings. I've kept the memory settings on auto all the time.

The above settings are proven stable. Just a couple of notches up though and I start getting failures in Prime95.

******Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.)******
 
Robust Graphics Booster.........................[ Auto     ]
CPU Clock Ratio.................................[ 9        ]
Fine CPU Clock Ratio............................[ + 0.0    ]
CPU Frequency 3.12GHz............................[ 347 x 9.0]
 
******Clock Chip Control******
 
CPU Host Clock Control..........................[ Enabled  ]
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz)........................[ 347      ]
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz).....................[ 100      ]
C.I.A 2.........................................[ Disabled ]
 
******Advanced Clock Control******
 
CPU Clock Drive.................................[  700mv   ]
PCI Express Clock Drive.........................[  700mv   ]
CPU Clock Skew..................................[ 0ps     ]
MCH Clock Skew..................................[ 0ps    ]
 
******DRAM Performance Control******
 
Performance Enhance.............................[   Turbo   ]
(G) MCH Frequency Latch.........................[ Auto     ]
System Memory Multipler.........................[  Auto    ]
Memory Frequency 800...........................[ 1041     ]
DRAM Timing Selectable..........................[ Auto   ]
 
CAS Latency Time................................[ 4       ]
tRCD............................................[ 4       ]
tRP.............................................[ 4       ]
tRAS............................................[ 15      ]
 
******Motherboard Voltage Control******
 
Load-Line Calibration...........................[ Enabled ]
CPU Vcore         [ 1.25    ]...................[ 1.23750 ]
CPU Termination   [ 1.20    ]...................[ 1.20   ]
CPU PLL           [ 1.50    ]...................[ 1.50   ]
CPU Reference     [ 0.760   ]...................[ Auto ]
 
MCH Core          [ 1.100   ]...................[ 1.200   ]
MCH Reference     [ 0.760   ]...................[ Auto   ]
MCH/DRAM Refernce [ 0.900   ]...................[ Auto   ]
ICH I/O           [ 1.500   ]...................[ 1.5   ]
ICH Core          [ 1.100   ]...................[ 1.1   ]
 
DRAM Voltage      [ 1.800   ]...................[ Auto  ]
DRAM Termination  [ 0.900   ]...................[ 0.910   ]
Channel A Ref     [ 0.900   ]...................[ 0.910   ]
Channel B Ref     [ 0.900   ]...................[ 0.910   ]

******Advanced BIOS Features******
 
Limit CPUID Max to 3............................[ Disabled ]
No-Execute memory Protect.......................[ Disabled ]
CPU Enhance Halt (CIE)..........................[ Disabled ]
C2/C2E State Support............................[ Disabled ]
C4/C4E State Support............................[ Disabled ]
CPU Thermal Monitor.............................[ Disabled ]
CPU EIST Function...............................[ Disabled ]
Virtualization Technology.......................[ Disabled ]

I've kept PLL and reference voltages on standard during testing. Changes were mostly done to Vcore, CPU Termination and MCH Core. I used http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=147164 as a guideline.

Here's what I've gone through so far during testing:

Run 1 - VCore
Increasing Vcore, the rest stock.

DRAM 1.8v
ICH 1.1v
MCH core 1.1v
Termination 1.2v

Prime95:

Vcore 1.20v core 3 fail ~ 3 min
core 2 fail ~ 6 min

Vcore 1.2125 core 0 fail ~ 2 min
core 1 fail ~ 5 min
core 3 fail ~ 6 min

Vcore 1.2250 core 2 fail ~ 7 min
core 1 fail ~ 8 min

Vcore 1.2375 core 0 fail ~ 2 min
core 2 fail ~ 4 min

My conclusion: No benefits from increasing Vcore

-----------------------------------------------------

Run 2 - MCH Core
Increasing MCH Core, stock voltages except Vcore

DRAM 1.8v
ICH Core 1.1v
Termination 1.2v
Vcore 1.2375

Prime95

MCH 1,16 core 3 fail ~ 6 min

MCH 1,20 core 0 fail ~ 19 min

MCH 1,22 core 1 fail ~ 2 min
core 3 fail ~ 3 min

Possible 1.2v ''sweet spot''?

-----------------------------------------------------

Run 3 - CPU Termination
Increasing CPU Termination, lowered MCH back to 1.2v (best result on previous run)

DRAM 1.8v
ICH Core 1.1v
MCH Core 1.20v
Vcore 1.2375v

Prime95

VTT 1.22v core 2 fail ~ 3 min

VTT 1.24v core 2 fail ~ 1 min

My conclusion: Possibly no benefits from increasing CPU Termination now

-----------------------------------------------------

Run 4 - Vcore again

DRAM 1.8v
ICH Core 1.1v
MCH Core 1.2v
Termination 1.2v

Vcore 1.2375v core 0 fail ~ 2 min
core 3 fail ~ 2 min

Vcore 1.30v core 3 fail ~ 3 min

Conclusion: Again no benefit from increasing Vcore, Vcore 1.2375 run here had same settings as MCH Core 1.2v run in Run 2, but significantly shorter despite that. (19 minutes vs 2 minutes)

-----------------------------------------------------

So I'm pretty much running out of ideas, unless you guys can point me a little in the right direction, such as playing with PLL and Reference voltages. Also, is it okay to leave memory timings and divider on auto for now?