Striker pwns EVGA with Q6600 G0

[my87csx481]

has anybody reached the 4Ghz yet with the Q6600 and Striker Extreme?

I'm still running stable @ 3.825Ghz
Really satisfied with the Striker, unlike a lot of other people

What did you set for Vcore in BIOS? What was it real?

Can you please post your BIOS settings using the template? (either in this thread or pm)

Thanks a lot.

[Leeghoofd]

He didn't reach it but is trying to get there... he's stuck at 3.825Mhz... 9 x 425FSB

[kup]

He didn't reach it but is trying to get there... he's stuck at 3.825Mhz... 9 x 425FSB

has anybody reached the 4Ghz yet with the Q6600 and Striker Extreme?

I'm still running stable @ 3.825Ghz
Really satisfied with the Striker, unlike a lot of other people

This is exactly where I got stuck on my Striker with this Quad. The FSB holes seem to prevent going much higher and lowering the multiplier for me just revealed more holes, thus limiting the FSB further.

[my87csx481]

Sorry, sorry.

My fault for not being clear.

I was looking for the 9 x 425 settings Not 4.0....I wish my striker/cpu could do it....maybe 790i

Edit: Or maybe 780i....I'm with you though Akuma2000....I wanna do this too:

Oh menn.. hearing that makes me want to upgrade my PC again :P -snip
-snip Maybe I also buy a 780i motherboard and QX9650 CPU so I upgrade my PC good :P

Ah what the heck, when thinking about it, I also want the Geforce 9800X2 lol

[Leeghoofd]

Evga 780i did 450 FSB with my QX9650 at 10 multi no worries there.. though being heavily penalised with ram bandwithloss due to another strap... seems same on 790i too at the moment... Nvidia chips love tight ram timings while Intel chipsets prefer high speeds...

For my old Striker 1301 bios was very lovely with the Q6600 but I only ran 8x as my B3 CPU in those days got very hot...never had the chance to get a GO going on it

Below are Linflas settings... make sure you extra cool the NB otherwise you will run into trouble for sure... always make sure with a quad that you run FSB and ram in 1:1 and loosen timings to gain stability and to decrease laod on the NB...

AI Tuning: Manual
Nvidia GPU Ex: Disabled
LinkBoost: Disabled

FSB - Memory Clock Mode: Unlinked
x FSB - Memory Raio: N/A
FSB (QDR), Mhz: 1700 (means 425FSB)
Actual FSB (QDR), Mhz: 1700
MEM (DDR), Mhz: 850 (means 425Mhz speeds)
Actual MEM (DDR), Mhz: 850

Vcore Voltage: 1.6
Memory Voltage: depending on ya ram
1.2v HT Voltage:1.6
NB Core Voltage:1.45
SB Core Voltage:1.6
CPU VTT Voltage:1.55
DDRII Controller Ref Voltage:AUTO
DDRII Channel A Ref Voltage:AUTO
DDRII Channel B Ref Voltage:AUTO

tCL (CAS Latency): 5
tRCD: 5
tRP: 5
tRAS: 15
Command Per Clock (CMD): 2 clock (2T)

Advance Memory Settings
tRRD: AUTO
tRC: AUTO
tWR: AUTO
tWTR: AUTO
tREF: AUTO
tRD: AUTO
tRFC: AUTO
Async Latency: AUTO

CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
MCP PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
SATA Spread Spectrum: Disabled
LDT Spread Spectrum: Disabled

CPU Internal Thermal Control: Disabled
Limit CPUID MaxVal: Disabled
Enhanced C1 (C1E): Disabled
Execute Disable Bit: Disabled
Virtualization Technology: Disabled
Enhanced Intel Speedstep Tech: Disabled
LDT Frequency: 5x

PCIEX16_1 Frequency (Mhz): 100
PCIEX16_2 Frequency (Mhz): 100
PCIEX16_3 Frequency (Mhz): 100
SPP<->MCP Ref Clock, Mhz: 200

[Akuma2000]

Yes, I'm using Linflas' settings, posted above by Leeghoofd.

I'm using a Thermochill 120.3 to cool my CPU (D-Tek Fuzion), NB and mosfets (EK).
Q6600 G0 is idle at 40 celcius. Load around 60.

Very satisfied and everything runs smooth.
Also very happy with the G.Skill 2x2GB 1000Mhz, which is underclocked to 850.

Guess that's really the "magic setup" for the Striker


But it's a shame, I can't get it over 4Ghz

[my87csx481]

Thanks Leeghoofd.

Yes, I'm using Linflas' settings, posted above by Leeghoofd.

I'm using a Thermochill 120.3 to cool my CPU (D-Tek Fuzion), NB and mosfets (EK).
Q6600 G0 is idle at 40 celcius. Load around 60.

Very satisfied and everything runs smooth.
Also very happy with the G.Skill 2x2GB 1000Mhz, which is underclocked to 850.

Guess that's really the "magic setup" for the Striker


But it's a shame, I can't get it over 4Ghz

Thanks.

I didn't get a chance to try in last night....hopefully tonight.

You used 1301 BIOS?

[Leeghoofd]

Yep 1301, never had the chance to try 1503 bios... I got a striker on the way from a friend ( thx Gizmo ) he got fed up with it.
I hope to bring it back to live with a quad and some modded cooling... I'll keep ya posted what the baord does... but he tried almost everything known to mankind to get it working... maybe I don't succeed either...

[coo-coo-clocker]

I banged my head against my first striker (C2D though, not quad) for months.
Eventually came to my senses and RMA'd. The replacement board has been great. I'm not a hot shot yet, so haven't tried anything crazy with my simple aircooling setup. IIRC, I was able to crank E6850 to 3.8 (425x9) very easily, although the vcore was up there...not something I wanted to run 24x7.

[Akuma2000]

I'm using BIOS version 1303 by the way.
It worked also very stable for me, so I didn't try 1301.

[my87csx481]

Thanks Akuma2000. 1303 seems best for me too....but my vcore overvolts what is set in bios....at some point....cus it used to be lower than what I set (when I was around 300 - 333 x 9....@ maybe 1.35 - 1.4 vcore....don't remember voltage).

I finally got into Windows @ 425 x 9 @ almost 1.7vcore in bios (I don't even want to know what it was real). Started priming and core temp showed 75C on hottest core and then locked up (or rebooted) a few minutes later. This was after I gradually went up in vcore from where I was for 450 x 8. Had a hard time getting to windows screen at first.

I never lapped this cpu yet. I only half @$$ed lapped the heatsink (i'm on air). I didn't go any further. Back at 450 x 8....for now. Gonna break it down and lap this weekend....maybe pick up a 780i too.

[Leeghoofd]

there's a new 1504 bios now... no words on changelog yet...

[NeoGeo333]

people on the asus forum says that the 1504 bios is horrible and some cant even downgrade back to older bios. for me 1301 and 1303 are the best. Using 1301 and no problem at all.

[andymg350]

yeah i had this problem as i decided to try out this new bios to see if it was any different from the others and i couldn't downgrade, in EZflash or with Asus update so i had a quick look through the thread i found the bios in and found it could be done in dos so i booted into dos and use awdflash to get it to work.

[strauclair]

I am awaiting shipment of 2 new Gigabyte GeForce 9800 GX2 and plan on running them SLi. I have read a lot and it seems that with Vista64, installing even 1 could be difficult so any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks

[ryanwhite123]

Hi guys, I have just been reading through quite a few of the pages on this forum as im really struggling to get my striker and q6600 past the 3ghz milestone. I hope you arent all sick of people like myself coming to the forum and asking for help. This is my first post in this forum so a big hello to everyone!

Anyway, any help would be really appreciated as i have almost gotten to the point where i will give up.

My specs:

Striker Extreme 1303
Q6600 g0
4 x 1gb XMS2 800mhz ram
2 x 8800gt SLI
150gb Raptor
500gb WD Caviar
580w Hiper PSU
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU cooler
All wrapped up in an Antec Nine Hundred

I have heard people say that 4 x 1gb sticks of ram is awful for OC'ing on the striker so im using 2 at the moment until i get this sorted. What do people think? are 4 x 1gb bad or is it okay? Or would a 2x2gb setup be much better?

The settings that im using are Linflas' settings for 3.6ghz but it keeps freezing up on me on the windows loading screen.

AI Tuning: Manual
Nvidia GPU Ex: Disabled
LinkBoost: Disabled
CPU Multi 8
FSB - Memory Clock Mode: Unlinked
x FSB - Memory Raio: N/A
FSB (QDR), Mhz: 1800
Actual FSB (QDR), Mhz: 1800
MEM (DDR), Mhz: 900
Actual MEM (DDR), Mhz: 900
Vcore Voltage:1.525 for actual of 1.42
Memory Voltage:2.05
1.2v HT Voltage:1.7
NB Core Voltage:1.5
SB Core Voltage:1.65
CPU VTT Voltage:1.4
DDRII Controller Ref Voltage: auto
DDRII Channel A Ref Voltage: auto
DDRII Channel B Ref Voltage: auto

tCL (CAS Latency): 4
tRCD: 4
tRP: 4
tRAS:12
Command Per Clock (CMD): 2


Advance Memory Settings
tRRD: AUTO
tRC: AUTO
tWR: AUTO
tWTR: AUTO
tREF: AUTO
tRD: AUTO
tRFC: AUTO
Async Latency: AUTO

CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
MCP PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
SATA Spread Spectrum: Disabled
LDT Spread Spectrum: Disabled

CPU Internal Thermal Control: Disabled
Limit CPUID MaxVal: Disabled
Enhanced C1 (C1E): Disabled
Execute Disable Bit: Disabled
Virtualization Technology: Disabled
Enhanced Intel Speedstep Tech: Disabled
LDT Frequency: 4x

PCIEX16_1 Frequency (Mhz): 100
PCIEX16_2 Frequency (Mhz): 100
PCIEX16_3 Frequency (Mhz): 100
SPP<->MCP Ref Clock, Mhz: 200

The only thing i have changed is the ram, to 2.1 instead of 2.05.


Thanks in advance for any help!


Ryan

[nugzo]

Hi ryan. Welcome. These forums are here to help you. no one will ever get mad at u asking for help (well they shouldn't anyways :p ). Have you removed the stock heat pipes and replaced the TIM? You may be over heating. drop your 1.2 from 1.7 to 1.5 and maybe lower your SB some. Definitely replace the stock Thermal interface material on the NB and SB with some Arctic ceramic or silver. if you don't have ceramic, be very careful though with the silver because it is conductive. On the VR's ( around the CPU) just inspect the tape to make sure it is making good contact. You don't want silver or ceramic there. Maybe change your memory to 5-5-5-15 for testing. I never had issues with 4x1gb so once you get past whatever is holding you back now, the 4gb shouldnt be an issue at all. What are your CPU temps like in the bios? Good luck!

[Leeghoofd]

Indeed most Strikers that went well were modified with aftermarket cooling...The NB heats up the heatpipe too quickly, adding extra heat to the other components too...

Are you sure 1.42 Vcore is enough for your CPU for 3.6Ghz ops ? also adding more CPU VTT helped with mine...

If 3.6 remains a no go, you can try eg 425 (if it isn't a FSB hole) with 8 multi to give ya 3.4Ghz, always keep ram in sync with FSB with the quads and don't push timings... so keep them relaxed at all times...

My max on my Striker was 3.4Ghz... with the stock heatpipe with added fans... now with the wolfdale even 475FSB is no issue with the aftermarket cooling and 2 x 2Gb dimms...

I've tested 1501 too with the yorkfield ( infact 1503 and 1601 too) and that gave good results too as 400FSB was bootable... but SLI was messed up with that release...

Keep us posted what gives man...

[Pellepel]

Mine just died, CPU Init for the 2nd time. I fixed it the first time, but the second time is a no go. I'm fed up and moving on. Looking at some 780i's right now.

I've tried so many settings and it just wouldn't work. I've tried Linflas's and a few others from different sites, however I am able to boot and browse windows at 3.8 (Linflas's setting) but when primed all hell breaks loose.

My temps are fine, and everything is water cooled (cpu,mosfet, nb, sb,). I've tried 3.8, 3.6, 3.4, 3.3, 3.2. Temps were normal, but they all failed after 5-15 mines of small FFT Prime. All Priming conclude to the same result, the computer just shuts off automatically...

I thought about it being heat issue, but everything is water cooled! I checked every block and they're all secured. I'm not sure what else to suspect power supply? I feel like that's a long shot...

[ryanwhite123]

Hi ryan. Welcome. These forums are here to help you. no one will ever get mad at u asking for help (well they shouldn't anyways :p ). Have you removed the stock heat pipes and replaced the TIM? You may be over heating. drop your 1.2 from 1.7 to 1.5 and maybe lower your SB some. Definitely replace the stock Thermal interface material on the NB and SB with some Arctic ceramic or silver. if you don't have ceramic, be very careful though with the silver because it is conductive. On the VR's ( around the CPU) just inspect the tape to make sure it is making good contact. You don't want silver or ceramic there. Maybe change your memory to 5-5-5-15 for testing. I never had issues with 4x1gb so once you get past whatever is holding you back now, the 4gb shouldnt be an issue at all. What are your CPU temps like in the bios? Good luck!

Hi Nuzgo, thanks for the warm welcome and the speedy reply! Now, down to business.

I havent removed the stock heat pipes, or the TIM? whatever that is?

I purchased the MB back in november, and i was considering watercooling the entire system, north bridge, south bridge, cpu, 2 x gpu etc until i saw how much it cost. I would rather buy a whole new motherboard than spend that much watercooling. Im considering selling my pc and building another one over the next few months so i doubt it would be worth finding a non water cooling solution until then. Im currently looking at the intel x48 boards and i want to go ati 4870 crossfire instead of my current 8800gt sli.

The new system looks like its going to cost about £1400 but i might just leave it until next year if i can get this striker sorted. If i do keep this board though, what cooling solutions would you recommend for it? Im pretty concerned about the heat of the south bridge, the one with the republic of gamers black logo on.

Anyway if i touch it then i immediately burn myself, the damn thing must be hitting about 130 degrees C. Even so though, that feels about the same temperature as when my pc isnt overclocked! Surely it shouldnt be getting that hot though? If i do keep this board, and thats purely based on this overclocking succes, which heatsinks would you recommend that i replace the stock with?

Im also experiencing some freezeups in the bios, could the overheating be related to this? And im sick of these damn USB Init errors, i keep having to unplug my pc for half an hour seeing as the clear cmos button doesnt seem to do much. There seems to be so many things that can go wrong with this board. So many things to hold me back aswell, which makes this overclocking very time consuming.

As for my temps though, after about 15 mins in the bios they hover around the high 40's. Thats with my tuniq tower on lowest rpm to keep it quiet.

I have lowered my 1.2 option to 1.5 and my sb to 1.60 and its failing to get past the bios screen due to many of USB init errors. Is there any solution to this? it seems that every time i touch the bios settings, i get this error when i start up. After 30 mins of problem solving i get about one chance to try a new setting before im out of action again.

Right, booted up with the new settings and the windows loading screen doesnt come up.

BTW, as leeghoofd pointed out, my vcore in my bios is 1.525. I only put the 'actual' bit in the description of my settings above as i copied it directly from linflas' post. I just presumed thats what showed up in windows?

Attempt 2:

Vcore at 1.5, SB reduced to 1.55. USB INIT errors. After 11 unplugs, resetting cmos etc i have managed to get it to boot. Now im into windows hooray!

Maybe Not it has reset my settings to 2.4ghz. I really thought that was it! Restarted my pc and then im back with more USB init errors. Is this something to do with the settings im using? or maybe the bios version? 1303.

[ryanwhite123]

Indeed most Strikers that went well were modified with aftermarket cooling...The NB heats up the heatpipe too quickly, adding extra heat to the other components too...

Are you sure 1.42 Vcore is enough for your CPU for 3.6Ghz ops ? also adding more CPU VTT helped with mine...

If 3.6 remains a no go, you can try eg 425 (if it isn't a FSB hole) with 8 multi to give ya 3.4Ghz, always keep ram in sync with FSB with the quads and don't push timings... so keep them relaxed at all times...

My max on my Striker was 3.4Ghz... with the stock heatpipe with added fans... now with the wolfdale even 475FSB is no issue with the aftermarket cooling and 2 x 2Gb dimms...

I've tested 1501 too with the yorkfield ( infact 1503 and 1601 too) and that gave good results too as 400FSB was bootable... but SLI was messed up with that release...

Keep us posted what gives man...

Hi leghoofd! Thanks for the reply!

My bios vcore is 1.525, sorry for any confusion. I have just tried changing it, see my reply to Nuzga.

What would you recommend for after market cooling for my MB then? Im using a tuniq tower 120 for my q6600.

It seems that tonight i am having really bad luck with usb init error messages so its taking me forever to change any settings as i can hardly get into the bios.

I really want to try and nail this 3.6 before retreating to anything lower

Why do you need to keep the ram in sync with the cpu though? does it make the system more stable? atm im running my ram at 900mhz as my fsb is 1800mhz. Im also using 555 15 timings until i get this sorted.

[ryanwhite123]

Now im getting the MP INIT error! this motherboard seems really fragile.

Ryan

[Pellepel]

Now im getting the MP INIT error! this motherboard seems really fragile.

Ryan

Never heard that one before, I did have MEM init once, but anyways good luck with the OC. I never got it to stable pass 3.0GHz.

[ryanwhite123]

Never heard that one before, I did have MEM init once, but anyways good luck with the OC. I never got it to stable pass 3.0GHz.

Try the 1504 bios! its amazing! I have spent months trying to overclock my pc past 3ghz, and i done it straight away with the settings below on this new bios version. Watch out though, the heat output is huge!

Let me know if it works.

Ryan

[ryanwhite123]

gettin! after 5 hours of messing about with settings i decided to flash to the latest bios version 1504, despite what people have said about the past few recent updates. And i managed to get 3.4ghz straight away using linflas settings! For some reason though it shows up as 3.83 under my computer? but in cpu z its only 3.4ghz. Which is still much better than i had before!


AI Tuning: Manual
Nvidia GPU Ex: Disabled
LinkBoost: Disabled

FSB - Memory Clock Mode: Unlinked
x FSB - Memory Raio: N/A
FSB (QDR), Mhz: 1700 (means 425FSB)
Actual FSB (QDR), Mhz: 1700
MEM (DDR), Mhz: 850 (means 425Mhz speeds)
Actual MEM (DDR), Mhz: 850

Vcore Voltage: 1.6
Memory Voltage: depending on ya ram
1.2v HT Voltage:1.6
NB Core Voltage:1.45
SB Core Voltage:1.6
CPU VTT Voltage:1.55
DDRII Controller Ref Voltage:AUTO
DDRII Channel A Ref Voltage:AUTO
DDRII Channel B Ref Voltage:AUTO

tCL (CAS Latency): 5
tRCD: 5
tRP: 5
tRAS: 15
Command Per Clock (CMD): 2 clock (2T)

Advance Memory Settings
tRRD: AUTO
tRC: AUTO
tWR: AUTO
tWTR: AUTO
tREF: AUTO
tRD: AUTO
tRFC: AUTO
Async Latency: AUTO

CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
MCP PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
SATA Spread Spectrum: Disabled
LDT Spread Spectrum: Disabled

CPU Internal Thermal Control: Disabled
Limit CPUID MaxVal: Disabled
Enhanced C1 (C1E): Disabled
Execute Disable Bit: Disabled
Virtualization Technology: Disabled
Enhanced Intel Speedstep Tech: Disabled
LDT Frequency: 5x

PCIEX16_1 Frequency (Mhz): 100
PCIEX16_2 Frequency (Mhz): 100
PCIEX16_3 Frequency (Mhz): 100
SPP<->MCP Ref Clock, Mhz: 200


BTW, does anyone think that 1.6vcore could be too high? will it give off more heat etc ?


*update* i have just tried out the 3.6 linflas settings and i managed to get into windows fine, but it just froze up. Im going to get some sleep now though as its 4:30am. Im not sure if i can make a 3.6 stable on air and stock heat sink on the motherboard? What do people think?


Thanks, Ryan