Overclocking Q9550

[beagrie07]

So I'm looking at a possible overclock for my Q9550 2.83GHz, I'm not looking at a max overclock however, I'm looking for 3.00GHz if possible

So, I've never overclocked a CPU before in BIOS and need some help, can i get some help overclocking it? I've tried other links elsewhere but its always going to vary what clocks you see.

Thanks

 

[scrooge]

i just got the Q9550 3 days ago and this thing R O C K S ...
out of the box i set it at 400 x 8.5 (3.4ghz) and voltage at 1.125 . ran the prime95 test for 12 hours no errors.
moved it up to (3.6ghz) same voltage 12 hours no errors . ( 3.7ghz) same voltage 12 hours no errors.
i'm testing it at (3.82 ghz) right now but i had to up the voltage to 1.18 and it's 4 hours and looking good.
take small steps and keep a eye on your temps and you should get a verygood overclock out of it....

View attachment 132280


scrooge

 

[beagrie07]

Cool, I'll probably have a look into it all tomorrow, I'll post back again if I have any problems, cheers

 

[Everlong]

i just got the Q9550 3 days ago and this thing R O C K S ...
out of the box i set it at 400 x 8.5 (3.4ghz) and voltage at 1.125 . ran the prime95 test for 12 hours no errors.
moved it up to (3.6ghz) same voltage 12 hours no errors . ( 3.7ghz) same voltage 12 hours no errors.
i'm testing it at (3.82 ghz) right now but i had to up the voltage to 1.18 and it's 4 hours and looking good.
take small steps and keep a eye on your temps and you should get a verygood overclock out of it....

View attachment 132280


scrooge

That's a nice CPU you have there then. I had to increase the voltage a bit more than what you have to get 3.6 running smoothly. Anything lower and I'd get lock ups every so often. Not tried for 3.8.

3GHz is easy to reach really. You can get that with virtually no effort. Just increase the FSB a bit and away you go.

 

[pparks1]

I'm running my Q9550 at 3.2Ghz by increasing the FSB from 333Mhz with an 8.5x multiplier to 400mhz with an 8.0x multiplier. Didn't have to touch the cpu voltages one bit. And with the stock intel cooler my temps only rose about 1 degree from this modest overclock. I never even bothered to try to take this CPU any higher, as it ran stable and cool at 3.2Ghz.

This also worked very well for my RAM, as I'm running DDR2-800 Crucial and it's at 800 exactly with a 400Mhz FSB...thus I have a 1:1 with the cpu and memory.

 

[smarteyeball]

3GHz is easy to reach really. You can get that with virtually no effort. Just increase the FSB a bit and away you go.

3Ghz is an absolute walk in the park.


3.2, as mentioned is fine on stock cooling.

3-4ghz - 3.6ghz is also pretty easy but voltage and RAM tweaking may be necessary. Aftermarket cooling can also become a concern.

After that it comes down to your cooling, mobo or chip.

My Q9550 could not get stable past 3.79ghz - at 3.8 - 4.2ghz it would POST/load windows but was completely unstable no matter what.

In my case I had a high VID chip (took a lot of volts) and a flaky motherboard.


BTW, You wouldn't notice any difference @ 3ghz

 

[beagrie07]

BTW, You wouldn't notice any difference @ 3ghz

Hmm, perhaps 3.4GHz is better fit then? Also I'm sure that my cooling is fine, its an Antec 900 so got a few fans going including the 200mm top fan. Moved some cables round the other day to to help air flow.

 

[beagrie07]

Hey

It seems i've overclocked my CPU to 3.40GHz, I'm not entirely sure on what the next step is? I suppose i'm testing for stability using Prime95?

Also heres a couple screens of what the comp says, do they seem ok? I've noticed the clock speed doesn't go all the way to 3.4GHz even though thats what wndows says its running at :/ Thanks in advance

 

[beagrie07]

I've noticed the clock speed doesn't go all the way to 3.4GHz even though thats what wndows says its running at :/ Thanks in advance

I've sorted that, just disabled C1E Support. Windows says that its running at 3.40GHz but CPU-Z doesn't go over 3.2, which one should I trust here? lol

Thanks

 

[Everlong]

I've noticed the clock speed doesn't go all the way to 3.4GHz even though thats what wndows says its running at :/ Thanks in advance

I've sorted that, just disabled C1E Support. Windows says that its running at 3.40GHz but CPU-Z doesn't go over 3.2, which one should I trust here? lol

Thanks

Try disabling EIST (Intel SpeedStep) in BIOS as well.

 

[beagrie07]

I've noticed the clock speed doesn't go all the way to 3.4GHz even though thats what wndows says its running at :/ Thanks in advance

I've sorted that, just disabled C1E Support. Windows says that its running at 3.40GHz but CPU-Z doesn't go over 3.2, which one should I trust here? lol

Thanks

Try disabling EIST (Intel SpeedStep) in BIOS as well.

It doesn't have the option for SpeedStep after I've overclocked it, it did before. I assume its disabled

 

[beagrie07]

The temperatures when Windows starts are in the 49C to 60C area, is this normal? idle temperatures are around 33C - 40C.

 

[smarteyeball]

It doesn't have the option for SpeedStep after I've overclocked it, it did before. I assume its disabled

Some mobos will automatically do that.

The temperatures when Windows starts are in the 49C to 60C area, is this normal? idle temperatures are around 33C - 40C.

Idle temps are fine. So are the load temps, but I wouldn't like to go any higher for extended periods of time.


You can always attempt to lower your vcore (CPU voltage) to reduce heat. Re-test until stable.


Although I'd trust what CPU-Z says (when @ load) over what Windows reports for clock speeds.

What does your BIOS report the clock speed as when you first turn the PC on?

 

[beagrie07]

What does your BIOS report the clock speed as when you first turn the PC on?

BIOS says 3.21GHz, decided to lower the clock too. Something else, when I power on my computer, it powers up, powers down with a couple of second gap before it powers up again, is there a way to fix this or?

Cheers

 

[pparks1]

What does your BIOS report the clock speed as when you first turn the PC on?

BIOS says 3.21GHz, decided to lower the clock too. Something else, when I power on my computer, it powers up, powers down with a couple of second gap before it powers up again, is there a way to fix this or?

Cheers

Gigabyte boards will do that when you make a significant enough change in the BIOS. In addition, they will do that and resort to the second BIOS if there is something configured bad enough that the machine won't run.

If you are changing settings and experience this on the first boot after the change...don't worry about it. It has to cut power to the CPU and such to actually make the change. If it happens on each and every boot and you haven't been making changing in the BIOS, then you might have an issue.

 

[beagrie07]

I only changed a couple of options in BIOS, I didn't tweak any voltages. I think I just changed the FSB frequency and the ratio, plus turned off C1E support and SpeedStep (Which disabled anyway)

 

[pparks1]

I've started to play around with my Q9550 a little bit more. I was running it at 3.2ghz, up from 2.83, by using a 400FSB with 8.0 multiplier. I ran with idle temps of 31,27,32,34 across 4 cores (with RealTemp 3.6 and CoreTemp64), and max temps with Prime95 running of 68,62,67 and 67. Mind you, this is with the stock Intel cooler, an Antec P182 case with 3 x 120mm fans all set at their LOWEST setting.

One thing that I hadn't done much with was change my vcore to my CPU. It was set to AUTO which on my Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R turns out to be 1.2500V volts.

So, I started to experiment with actually lowering the vcore just a bit to drop my temps. Since my temps dropped and I stayed stable by dropping my vcore down to 1.125V..I decided to see what would happen if I increased by multiplier from 8.0 to 8.5...thus bringing my CPU from 3.2Ghz to 3.4Ghz. At 1.125v, I couldn't run Prime95 stable.....but it seems that I can at 1.175V or 1.200V.

At 1.175 running at 3.4Ghz, I'm idling at 30,28,31,34 with max temps of 65,59,64,64.

I'm currently testing 1.150V at 3.4Ghz to see if I can run stable. My ambient temps in my basement are about 19C.

I've always been quite happy with this Q9550 chip and Intel Stock cooler.

 

[Wishmaster]

Pretty low voltages and decent temps for a stock HS.


Is that 1.15 at load? If so, you have quite a bit of room to work with.

1.175 is good anyway for 400FSB.

Looks like only thing really holding back from much higher FSB speeds is the cooler itself. It seems to be doing a good job ATM though.

9550/9650s are great chips IMHO.

 

[pparks1]

Is that 1.15 at load? If so, you have quite a bit of room to work with.

At 1.15, my 4th worker threw a rounding error....so I'm not going to run there.

1.175 is good anyway for 400FSB.

This seems to be my sweet spot and where I plan to keep things. It's running just fine at 3.4Ghz here, at 1.175V and is cooler now then it used to be when i was running 3.2Ghz at 1.250V.

Looks like only thing really holding back from much higher FSB speeds is the cooler itself. It seems to be doing a good job ATM though.

My RAM is likely holding me back too, as I'm running Corsair DDR2 800 RAM in this box. With a 400FSB, I'm sitting at a 1:1 cpu:mem ratio.

While I have considering numerous times of replacing my stock cooler with a CM 212+, I spent so much time wiring my case, and I don't have a back access panel to put on a new cooler, so I would have to pull the mobo to change the cooler. And since my temps aren't an issue, I cannot be bothered to have to redo my wiring for a few degree drop in temp.

9550/9650s are great chips IMHO.

Yep, no need to replace it yet. It handles everything I throw at it with ease. And considering it's 2 years old now, that makes me quite happy. And the chip was only $219 when I bought it.