Q9450 OC / Temps / Settings

[Cob]

Well after three days of of testing, my Q9450 is only stable at 440x8 in my X38 Maximus.

This is the same chip that's stable at 475x8 in my IP35-Pro.

[REVHEAD]

Well after three days of of testing, my Q9450 is only stable at 440x8 in my X38 Maximus.

This is the same chip that's stable at 475x8 in my IP35-Pro.

You are very lucky I cant even get mine stable past 375 fsb.

[jas420221]

Well after three days of of testing, my Q9450 is only stable at 440x8 in my X38 Maximus.

This is the same chip that's stable at 475x8 in my IP35-Pro.

Thats about the same results I had with X38 but with a e8400... I could get x.xGhz stable with x.xxV then I 'upgraded to 780i and it took less votlage to get stable...

interesting.

[AquaRelliux]

You are very lucky I cant even get mine stable past 375 fsb.

That is all crap talk tbh. I run mine at 450x8 24/7 and it does easy 500 fsb if I really push it to the limit. I have a Maximus X38 mobo modded with rampage 0403 bios.

[ChaosMinionX]

440mhz FSB seems to be about the normal "wall" if you will on Asus boards currently, this has to be a BIOS issue when DFI/Gigabyte users have had varied success in breaking this barrier, usually they have problems with 475, not 450 FSB.

[STEvil]

Pretty obvious is a bios issue to me.

Been running 444mhz perfectly stable for a while now. 450 can get to the windows loading screen and thats it. 449 will load windows but crash eventually. I bet 447 or 448 might be perfectly fine.

P5K-DLX, 1.25v nb (voltage doesnt help anything)

[003]

440mhz FSB seems to be about the normal "wall" if you will on Asus boards currently, this has to be a BIOS issue when DFI/Gigabyte users have had varied success in breaking this barrier, usually they have problems with 475, not 450 FSB.

I can get 484fsb * 8 stable on my rampage formula, although it has the annoying LLC issue, and this requires 1.55v CPU, 1.67vnb and 1.4vtt

[adrencg]

Well, it required 1.45v vCore, 1.5v VTT, 1.6v PLL, and 1.7v NB. I couldn't do much aside from doing a quick SuperPI 1M and a validate link.
3.80GHz requires 1.344v idle and 1.312v load for me. It's rock solid from then on at 3.80GHz, though, so I guess this is my golden state.

Do you think it's possible that my RAM is keeping from breaking through my 400 fsb wall? No matter what I do(voltages, etc) I cannot go past 404.

I keep hearing about so many running their q9450 at 3.6 and above, but I'm stuck at 3.2ghz.

My ram is Corsair xms2 (4 x 2 GB). I've even tried removing 2 sticks.

[REVHEAD]

That is all crap talk tbh. I run mine at 450x8 24/7 and it does easy 500 fsb if I really push it to the limit. I have a Maximus X38 mobo modded with rampage 0403 bios.

Ok i am just full of it then? maybe I am just making it up for no reason? Pfft

Howabout some constructive posting like ,oh I can get mine stable @ set MHZ and actually give us some Bios settings that we can try instead, this is a feedback thread and if you have some good feedback then please dont be shy sharing your Bios settings.

[AquaRelliux]

Ok i am just full of it then? maybe I am just making it up for no reason? Pfft

Howabout some constructive posting like ,oh I can get mine stable @ set MHZ and actually give us some Bios settings that we can try instead, this is a feedback thread and if you have some good feedback then please dont be shy sharing your Bios settings.

ofc here u go it is posted before on maximus thread but here, btw worth to meantion rampage bios gave me 30 fsb boost.
Also if u are using 2x ramsticks u dont need to go more then 1.5v on the NB I have 4x sticks so that is why I use 1.65v:

Extreme Tweaker
Ai Overclock Tuner : Manual
OC From CPU Level Up : AUTO
CPU Ratio Control : Manual
- Ratio CMOS Setting : 8
FSB Frequency : 450
FSB Strap to North Bridge : 333
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: DDR2-1081
DRAM Command Rate : 2T
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A : advance +250
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B : advance +250
DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS# Latency : 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay : 5
RAS# Precharge : 5
RAS# ActivateTime : 15
RAS# to RAS# Delay : 5
Row Refresh Cycle Time : 55
Write Recovery Time : 6
Read to Precharge Time : 5

Read to Write Delay (S/D) : Auto
Write to Read Delay (S) : Auto
Write to Read Delay (D) : Auto
Read to Read Delay (S) : Auto
Read to Read Delay (D) : Auto
Write to Write Delay (S) : Auto
Write to Write Delay (D) : Auto

Write to PRE Delay : Auto
Read to PRE Delay : Auto
PRE to PRE Delay : Auto
ALL PRE to ACT Delay : Auto
ALL PRE to REF Delay : Auto

DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
Ai Clock Twister : Stronger
Transaction Booster : Manual

Boost lvl: 7

All this here is disabled

CPU Voltage : 1.23750(yes it is stable 100% prime 10 hours and gaming 5 hours with 2x1gb ram it drops to 1.216v load)
CPU PLL Voltage : 1.50
North Bridge Voltage : 1.65
DRAM Voltage : 2.14(Everest says 2.19v)
FSB Termination Voltage : 1.38(Everest says 1.28 is this accurate btw? I heard 1.4v could kill it and I dont want that)
South Bridge Voltage : 1.50
Loadline Calibration : Enabled
CPU GTL Reference : Auto(Tried 0.67x but crashed in boot then and I heard before u should leave this on auto for 45nm cpus)
North Bridge GTL Reference : 0.67X
DDR2 Channel A REF Voltage : DDR2-REF
DDR2 Channel B REF Voltage : DDR2-REF
DDR2 Controller REF Voltage : DDR2-REF
SB 1.5V Voltage : 1.5

CPU Spread Spectrum : Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum : Disabled

[Zucker2k]

I dunno where you have been for the past 2 months.... but X38 does not clock 45nm Quads worth a damn either... most Maximus Formula's are stuck at 440mhz FSB regardless of BIOS. I have gone through 3 chips, 2 X3350's and 1 Q9450 and all of them got stuck in the 440's regardless of voltage (and I am watercooled).

The only boards I have seen worth a damn is G35 (P5E VM HDMI), 790i, *some* X38 boards mostly from DFI/Gigabyte have clocked 45nm even over 3600mhz. And of course its emerging that X48 / Rampage Formula (real one, not flashed) is clocking them all the way to 480mhz FSB.

So all that being said I dont know where you get your info that X38 is any better at clocking 45nm Quads over P35. And dualcore I doubt is any different between X38/P35 its probably about the same hitting 4ghz area on the 8400's.

Sorry to bust your theory, there are too many people on this forum with x38/x48 pushing 45nm cpus to their limits. Some P965 boards, especially the asus commando is the wolfie king. The G33/G35 chipset has proven quite good with quads, x38/x38 are good with all cpus. I cannot say much for everybody, but I can definiely say so for my self and others I've noticed.

Some nice fsb with 4x2GB Ram



G.Skill 4x2GB DDR2 1000 rams pushed to DDR2 1066 with E8400 @ 8x533.



Pushing my wolfie. See sig. for Max Validated shot.



Q9450 @ 8x475 on Max Formula and 4x2GB of Ram, running at this setting right now as I type.



Some priming action from earlier....

[Khaotic]

>>>>> Makes me want one.......

Looks like I should be able to achieve at least 3.6 - 3.8 on my eVGA 780i.

Microcenter has someon the shelf for $299.99

[truehighroller]

I have one from there and my board is a GA-EX38-DQ6 and I can get 465X 8 for a little while and the damn chipset starts to over heat. If I had water on everything I would be set for the 470 or more easy.

[ChaosMinionX]

Sorry to bust your theory, there are too many people on this forum with x38/x48 pushing 45nm cpus to their limits. Some P965 boards, especially the asus commando is the wolfie king. The G33/G35 chipset has proven quite good with quads, x38/x38 are good with all cpus. I cannot say much for everybody, but I can definiely say so for my self and others I've noticed.

Some nice fsb with 4x2GB Ram

Sorry to burst yours, I said Quad core 45nm.

So all that being said I dont know where you get your info that X38 is any better at clocking 45nm Quads over P35. And dualcore I doubt is any different between X38/P35 its probably about the same hitting 4ghz area on the 8400's.

Almost all 8400's have hit 4ghz+ on every board.... it is the Quadcore X3350/Q9450 that have had the least amount of success... X38 for most boards have been capped at 440mhz. There have been limited success in getting a Maximus (x38) over 440mhz.... and I see that your screenshot has a Rampage Formula... is that flashed or a true rampage? Because if its a true rampage I already said they seem to be going over 450mhz with ease.

EDIT: And unless im visiting the wrong XtremeSystems, I havent seen a whole lot of success being reported with what I stated in my original post.

[Zucker2k]

Sorry to burst yours, I said Quad core 45nm.



Almost all 8400's have hit 4ghz+ on every board.... it is the Quadcore X3350/Q9450 that have had the least amount of success... X38 for most boards have been capped at 440mhz. There have been limited success in getting a Maximus (x38) over 440mhz.... and I see that your screenshot has a Rampage Formula... is that flashed or a true rampage? Because if its a true rampage I already said they seem to be going over 450mhz with ease.

EDIT: And unless im visiting the wrong XtremeSystems, I havent seen a whole lot of success being reported with what I stated in my original post.

Obviously you don't know what you said in your own post. I quoted you and bolded it so go back and check. Also, my board is a Maximus as is obvious from the X38 in the screenies

Oh, I'm doing this with 4x2GB too.... go figure!

[WFO]

Sorry to burst yours, I said Quad core 45nm.



Almost all 8400's have hit 4ghz+ on every board.... it is the Quadcore X3350/Q9450 that have had the least amount of success... X38 for most boards have been capped at 440mhz. There have been limited success in getting a Maximus (x38) over 440mhz.... and I see that your screenshot has a Rampage Formula... is that flashed or a true rampage? Because if its a true rampage I already said they seem to be going over 450mhz with ease.

EDIT: And unless im visiting the wrong XtremeSystems, I havent seen a whole lot of success being reported with what I stated in my original post.

My 9450 Maximus Ramage definitely has the 440 FSB wall. It's currently running 336 and it took 1.37vcore and 1.38 fsb vtt to get it there.

My 9450 in a Maximus Formula hit 3.6 easy at lower volts. I haven't had a chance to push farther. Hopefully I'll get to play some more this weekend.

[lowtcell]

My P5E + Q9550 can boot to windows @ 440 FSB with NB set to 1.73v and crashes soon after. Anything bellow that locks up after post. Vcore is @ 1.38 and increasing that does not seem to do a thing. Max stable FSB is 435 and lowering multi doesn't help.

[RPM666]

I'm still trying to break 500 FSB on my BoneTrail, anyone with the DX38BT passed 500 FSB yet?

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=369776

That is my highest overclock to date...

[The Nemesis]

I've had my Q9450 in a few boards now, Evga 750i SLI FTW, Asus P5K-VM, P5E-VM HDMI, & DFI P35 LT.

EVGA 750i SLI FTW

Max Prime stable thus far,



Max OccT



Max 3DMark06



Max CPU-Z




P5E-VM HDMI

Haven't done prime or OCCT testing yet.

Max CPUZ



Max 3DMark06



P5K-VM

This board would run 3DMark06 @ 450FSB. Prime was stable @ 425, but not 435 or above. This board has no voltage adjustments to northbridge which I suspect is the reason for topping out @ 42SB prime stable. The P5E-VM needed 1.52v set in bios on northbridge to get 450 stable.




DFI LP LT P35

Frakking nightmare. good to about 400-420FSB all auto after I think you need to tweak gtl's which are different that 65nm quads.

[Isaac MM]

What FSB do you people can get on air?

[The Nemesis]

What FSB do you people can get on air?

Air or water made no difference for me. All water did was make the temps look nicer while benching. I got the same results. @ 450FSB 3.6Ghz my chip needs 1.28v-1.30v to remain prime stable and I think I can even lower that. It's the board's chipsets that get stressed and require voltage bumps after 420-440FSB. Then GTL settings kick in and when you don't have them available it takes vtt and vcore to push farther. I never adjusted the gtl settings on the evga or the dfi that's this weekends project. Since the P5E-VM HDMI doesn't have gtl settings and pushed the chip farther I believe once I find the right combination on the dfi or evga I can lower the required vcore & vtt to acheive the same clocks. It seems clocking the Q9450 requires time, patience and perhaps and extra board or two to know your hitting a FSB wall and not a cpu wall.

[STEvil]

I think I need a P5E-VM HDMI..

[The Nemesis]

I think I need a P5E-VM HDMI..

The #2 pencil vdroop mod is a must. I had to set 1.4625v in bios to get 1.432 idle which droops to 1.404v @ load prior to mod. Now I set 1.425v bios for 1.408v idle 1.412 load. I'm gonna to some prime testing now. My board is on the testation with a 120mm fan pointed @ northbridge. I will be trying to stablize 475FSB because the northbrige and pll voltages needed to hit achieve it are more reasonable and should be okay in normal enclosed operation.

[LUCI5R]

EDIT: And unless im visiting the wrong XtremeSystems, I havent seen a whole lot of success being reported with what I stated in my original post.

Not being an expert on this issue at all, and just from a regular user standpoint - One thing I'll have to back Chaos upon is that - While doing my research on which board to get (considering my budget/performance), I found out enormous amount of threads on the P5K-E, more importantly, P35 chipset, for OC'ing and performance otherwise. It just kept popping up as exteremly recommended, Unless I need Crossfire - which I didn't. There are posts here were people have out right written that if you need Crossfire, go with X38/X48; No Crossfire, go with P35. And that's what I did.

I'm getting my Q9450 today. UPS is showing "Out for delivery". Today & Tomorrow I'll be setting up the system, configuring software etc. ... by this weekend I should start my first attempt at OC'ing. I'm really just looking for 3.3Ghz - 3.6Ghz. If i can hit any of that, I'll be a happy camper.

[ChaosMinionX]

Obviously you don't know what you said in your own post. I quoted you and bolded it so go back and check. Also, my board is a Maximus as is obvious from the X38 in the screenies

Oh, I'm doing this with 4x2GB too.... go figure!

So all that being said I dont know where you get your info that X38 is any better at clocking 45nm Quads over P35. And dualcore I doubt is any different between X38/P35 its probably about the same hitting 4ghz area on the 8400's.

Is what I said..... I dunno what your citing from that, because it clearly says 45nm Quads, and it says there isn't much difference being reported between X38 and P35 overclocking of 45nm chips... If you would like to show me a link saying otherwise,then sure I will take the time to look at it, but what you showed in your few screen shots even say Rampage Formula in CPU-Z except for one.

This is actually the only screenshot that doesn't say "Rampage Formula"

So the point that you either have a flashed BIOS to Rampage or have an actual Rampage, doesnt really validate anything you've said about Maximus. The Flashed BIOS in rare cases gave better FSB with 45nm quads, and in some cases I saw a "true" Rampage Formula give all the way up to a 480mhz FSB.

I havent seen too much with Dualcore 45nms since the hot thing to have/play with is Quadcore.

And the fact you keep bringing up 4x2GB RAM is pretty moot point as well, since all that takes to get stable is increased NB/Mem controller, maybe tuned timings/settings and dram voltage depending on what kinda overclock your working with.... I could say im working on 4x2GB too, it really doesnt mean anything about 45nm clocking, so I dunno why you keep bringing it up like its an accomplishment or rarity to see on X38.

I see this DDR2 1000 "pushed" to 1066.... considering thats not really that far away its not really anything to claim performance from, or that its increased overclocking prowess to get. (still at a loss as to what you mean by this 4x2GB posting)

Also I think you may of misconstrued what I was saying when I said X38 doesnt clock any better than P35... You seem to think I said they werent good at it...when I said 45nm Dualcores will probably hit about the same on either platform in the 4ghz mark, we all know they can do high FSB.... If you would better explain what you quoted the end of my original post for, I could probably better serve you in terms of a conversation.