Maximus Extreme + Zalman GT1000 tri-loop setup - picture heavy

[polar bear]

I always thought those cases were really sharp. I like the lines of it, and thick AL construction. Really nice job, and great chip you have there.

congrats on a great build, very sharp.

andyc

Hey, thanx! Glad you like it. It's a thoroughly made case yes, very sturdy, very sleek. Nice clean lines all around, no gimmick, no BS. I've been very happy with it since the day I got it - it replaced a Tt Armor.

[polar bear]

Decided to try to solve my stability issues and first go for overall system stability - as this might be the root of the 3D instability and ATI driver error messages.

So just to demonstrate that system is not stable at all with some screenies.

First I roll back to BIOS 0904 - the "safe" bios if there's any such thing lol...

Then I change to 1:1 ratio for mem at auto timings ie FSB450 => mem 900. At the same time NB goes from 1,61 to 1,71 lol (been fine temp wise so feel I can do this - heck I'm desparate so if I fry the board at least I'll be done with it...) FSB termination goes up to 1,60 (last "yellow" setting before red lol). Leave DRAM at 2.06. SB on auto, same with SB 1.5V. FSB450*8. Vcore still on 1.6. CPU PLL 1.70.

Idle temps:
CPU 56
NB 33
SB 32

Now for some OCCT...

Test Completed - Stable ! but cannot access the system as it is completely unresponsive - this happened from around 51 mins (1 hr test)



Notice artifacts on taskbar as well as missing values in everest sidebar...



Then back to "stock" settings with FSB267*9=2400 but with voltages from above ie totally maxed out. Cannot really run 1:1 here (534 lol) so decide to go for 2:1 ie 1069.



Then volts back to stock. System is unresponsive towards the end of OCCT 1hr again (no screenie). At least system is dead stable at 2400 but some voltage tweaking compared to stock is necessary - oh well I dont think the board is faulty at least then...

Now for some FSB testing with multiplier at 6x. Set following voltages for this:

Vcore = 1.43125
CPU PLL = 1.60
NB = 1.73 (last yellow before red)
DRAM = 2.06
FSB term = 1.60 (last yellow before red)
SB and SB 1.5 = auto

First out is FSB 475 with DRAM 951 (1:1)

[polar bear]

Nope. Same thing, fails after 50 mins or so. Well, looks like I have narrowed this down to a FSB stability issue, guess we can agree on that. Problem is, I'm not comfortable with upping NB/FSB volts any higher than this.

One crazy thought - could it be that running everest in the background is interfering with the OCCT stress test? The only stable run so far (9h 41m) has been with only OCCT running - no other apps incl AVG suite, no internet connection. Will try another run with only OCCT. 1 hr is good enough initially before I shoot for 12 hrs finally when things are looking brighter.

[polar bear]

Well, seems that might have done it - 1hr stable, no BS this time around. Hence in the future I'll ditch that everest monitoring in the background - it's only complicating matters further.



As for FSB 500, system freezes during vista load. Tried with different combinations of mem (1002MHz, 1201) and maxing out on the volts (CPU PLL 1.70, NB 1.73, FSB 1.60) but no luck so far. Well, that's okay, as I probably wont be needing that high FSB with my Q6600 anyway as I dont think it's capable of much more than my existing 4050MHz OC.

So now I'm all set to increase multiplier to see if I can reach stability with higher CPU clocks...

First one out is FSB 333*9=3000MHz with DRAM=1066. Leaving Vcore at 1.60 for these tests initially, other volts as stated above.

[polar bear]

So far so good.



Next up is FSB 400*9=3600 with mem @ 961.

[polar bear]

Next up is FSB 450*9=4050 @ mem 900MHz

[polar bear]

That run was fairly short lived, this is what happened after maybe 5 secs lol:



Increasing Vcore from 1.60 to 1.65 and during post i get this: "CPU Over Voltage Error! Press F1 to Resume"

Pressing F1 and vista load starts (guess it was some sort of "warning" msg) and a new OCCT run crashes in same way.

Think I will stay below 1.6 on the Vcore, dont really have balls to go any higher, temp wise its not good either with more than 60C on idle... So let's see how high I can get using 1.6V in terms of OCCT 1hr stability, then 3DMark06 stability. Finally I will increase DRAM, hopefully to 1800, tighten the timings, reduce the voltages... perhaps after all I might end up with a decent system, who knows!

Next up FSB 425*9=3825 with mem @ 850.



Next shooting for FSB 435*9 = 3915 with mem @ 871

Same story here. Guess I could try out FSB 430 but feeling too lazy lol anyway I actually dont care about the extra 45MHz on the CPU.

So that's for max OCCT 1hr stable: FSB 425*9=3825. Will have to change mem settings though.

Now onto the highest benching clock. I'll go right for the "jugular" with 4150=461*9 with mem @ 1845 and 8-8-8-26-2T.

Right. Well that results in BSOD during vista load lol. Changing to DDR3 @ 1476 and crossing fingers. Nope. Increasing Vcore to 1.65. Nope. Running 1:1 mem timings ie 923. Nope. Vcore at 1.70 - seems to get a bit further during vista boot then reebots - probably due to excessive heat lol.

I know that I've been successful in getting to FSB 475 with NB 1.73 and FSB term 1.60 so no point changing these for a lower FSB.

So I will have to face it - 4050MHz is max for benching, could probably get little higher for vista boot and perhaps a 1M super-pi run though. For OCCT stability 3825MHz semms to be the absolute max for my Q6600 as I can't really raise the Vcore beyond 1.60 due to temperature limitations.

To optimize for benching then - set FSB 450*9=4050 with mem @ 1801 at 7-7-7-20-1T. Booting into vista with idle temps as follows:

CPU = 62 for hottest core
NB = 38
SB = 36

Now for 3DMark06.