hitman Posted October 31, 2008 Posted October 31, 2008 Im looking at upgrading my cpu. Thing is, I have a small problem with my Q6600, I think... It no longer overclocks past 2.4ghz. The highest Ive had it was at 3.2ghz for a few days at best. It started to get degraded really fast as I kept blue screening for a while. Ran Prime95 and found that 2 cores failed past 2.6ghz overclocking a few months ago. It ran stable since then until today, since Ive been having some hardware issues. I pulled my case apart to clean some of the ghost turds out of it. My coolant reservoir was half empty (6 months since I built this thing), filled it up and rebooted. I had a bad checksum after I cleaned it out. I found out that I could boot up at 2.65ghz without clocking my memory to its intended operating range. I couldnt if I clocked my memory up from its FSB 800 (my motherboard default) to my memories default FSB 1066. However, since 2.6ghz isnt really an overclock, I just knocked it back down to 2.4ghz and clocked my ram to its supposed manufactured default FSB. Now given that my motherboard is an MSI P7N Platinum with a native FSB of 1066, and the aforementioned CPU problem, is it feasible to upgrade my CPU to a Q9450 (1333 FSB native) without changing the motherboard? Ive already went thru 3 motherboards this year and I really REALLY dont want to swap it out again...and this one happens to be one of the better ones Ive ever owned. Please note my sys specs in sig.
leafer Posted October 31, 2008 Posted October 31, 2008 Hitman, Are you old mobos compatible with Duo Core? If so are they just sitting there collecting dust and if so, would you like to sell one of them, and a Duo Core CPU if you have one, to me for a reasonable price? ED have been taking my money since 1995. :P
hitman Posted October 31, 2008 Author Posted October 31, 2008 Sorry...I no longer have them. They were junk.
leafer Posted October 31, 2008 Posted October 31, 2008 k. thanks ED have been taking my money since 1995. :P
qrazi Posted October 31, 2008 Posted October 31, 2008 Your motherboard seems to support 1333MHz CPU's all the way up to the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (MSI CPU Support website). nVidia also has 1333MHz FSB support in its features sheet: nVidia 750i SLI specs. That your overclocking is going worse and worse could be caused by several things. It is possible that your PSU isn't up to the task anymore. It is possible that the overclocking has worn down your motherboard. And as you mentioned yourself, it is possible that the CPU is just not overclocking well anymore. I'd try and swap PSU's, CPU's and mobo's if possible. Would be a shame if you buy a new CPU and it turns out that wasn't the problem to start with. MSI 870A-G54, AMD Phenom II X2 555 @Phenom II X4 B55 BE, 3.2 GHz quad-core, Asus EAH4870 DK/HTDI/512MD5, OCZ Gold Edition DDR3 1333MHz 4GB Kit Low-Voltage. Budget = Cheap = Good :D
hitman Posted October 31, 2008 Author Posted October 31, 2008 Id rather not pull the PSU out of this thing. It took nearly 2 hours to pull out, and even if it wasnt up to the task anymore, it just means that it better be under warranty. Its 1200w, and so far I havent even taken it above 850w peak output. Ill have to find a way to test each individual first, but Im fairly certain the CPU is going bad.
qrazi Posted October 31, 2008 Posted October 31, 2008 It is indeed not likely that a relatively young, a-brand, high-end PSU is failing on you like this. But then again, the same sort of goes for the CPU. I have had a situation that sounds like your with my old Athlon XP system. Used to overclock that as well, but after a few months I could reach certain clockspeeds anymore. Turned out to be the PSU. It could still take the standard clockspeeds, and a slight overclock, but any higher and all I got was reboots. MSI 870A-G54, AMD Phenom II X2 555 @Phenom II X4 B55 BE, 3.2 GHz quad-core, Asus EAH4870 DK/HTDI/512MD5, OCZ Gold Edition DDR3 1333MHz 4GB Kit Low-Voltage. Budget = Cheap = Good :D
hitman Posted October 31, 2008 Author Posted October 31, 2008 (edited) Well Im not getting any reboots, Im just getting no bootup after overclocking. Ive stress tested my CPU with Prime95 and Ive always had 2 bad cores past 2.7ghz. Its never really overclocked very well...and it was a cheap processor at the time I bought it. Ill test the PSU before I buy a new CPU though...but replacing the PSU isnt an option. Id rather throw the whole tower away because that was the tightest fit Ive ever had...and my tower is definately NOT small. Not to mention that its a 300 dollar unit that weighs 15 lbs...I will say I havent had much problems overclocking anything else. Come to think of it now, Ive had this chip on 2 other boards, it never really overclocked well on them either. My P5N-E wouldnt take it above 2.6ghz. Ill test the PSU first...I can pretty much guarantee its not the problem. Edited October 31, 2008 by hitman
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