Ok, thanks for clearing that up.

After lapping my cpu-cooler my highest coretemp has yet to pass 75c so I should be well under the max tcase of 71.6 according to your theory =)

I'm under 33% OC, planning on 24/7 longterm and @ 1.33-1.35v (setting 1.35) vcore..

Should be a settings for a moderately longlife setup I'm hoping.. I mean I know q-series is already outdated but I just spent a 150$ on the rampage extreme so gonna milk this pupppy for as long as possible =)

btw, niiiiice rig dude.. i should get some pics of my modest pc too ^^

According to coretemp my tjunction is set to 100

source for intel Tcase is here - http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=35428&processor=Q9650&spec-codes=SLB8W

but what is tcase and how do i know i'm not exceeding it..

Anyway I managed to lap my cooler heatsink with moderate success.. Bios idle temps went from 42,5c - 38,5c

Currently running OCCT linpack test (max memory util.) and 5 mins in the temps haven't exceede 75c.. Although they probably will after an hour.

@ 1.35vcore now, all stable

I'm definetly not confident enough lapping my cpu but heatsink.. :idea: Seems reasonable, and quite an easy task

Thx for the tip

Ok, prime95 5h largeFFT got me to a concerning 80c on core#0, while the rest were at up-to 75max..

This got me thinking.. according to intel, the tcore for q9650 is 75c.. Am I exceeding that at current settings or not? Wth is tcore anyway :D

Maybe I should try to lower the voltage and see if it remains stable, less voltage means less heat right?

Probably going to stay at 4.0, what you said about 4+ seems reasonable and I'm not on a high-end case (chieftec aegis).

Cheers

Rampage Extreme is x48 8)

Right now I've achieved OCCT 1H STABLE! on these settings:

CPU - 1.4v

NB - 1.56397v

DRAM V - 1.64356v

NB GTL Rev - +50mW

DRAM Freq - 1335MHz

All else is Auto

Temps don't go above 71 on OCCT load

Gonna pull an all-nighter prime largeFFT and see if it's stable, then try 4.2 maybe 8)

Any suggestions? The guys at OCC were quite satisfied with current settings..

Thx for all your help anyways, will keep this thread posted

I recommend to set back your RAM to auto until you manage to get your chip stable mate.

Your BSOD is caused by RAM not your cpu anyway, so lets just do one OC at a time. ;)

So basically you are running 444fsb by 9 multi at 1.3650V and one or more cores fail under small FFTs right? What other options you set?

Load line calibration enabled? Fsb voltage raised? Greyfoo-t

I have now reverted back to all Auto, FSB 444

Here are the voltages (Everest):

vCore- 1.38
NB- 1.40
SB- 1.06
CPU VTT- 1.31
CPU PLL- 1.69
DIMM- 1.59-1.61
DIMM VTT- 0.80
At Auto settings DRAM:FSB is 1:1, so DRAM Freq. is 889MHz so timings should be 6-6-6-16 at this freq.

Right now I'm stable enough to use the pc, occt still fails almost instantly after the idle min ends though.. Pretty sure if I ran prime and did a little browsing etc. I would BSOD.

Yesterday, when I was running at 1.365, loadline was disabled, FSB voltage was auto

I've now gotten the cooler mounted well enough that @ 4,0 GHz (unstable so far) the coretemps don't exceed 68 in real life applications, go to max 72 on prime95 largeFFT..

Since i know quite little about OCng I might as well post my OCC thread here too, maybe someone has any ideas.

I did get it booting to win on just a FSB increase to 444 (3994 MHz).. That didn't prove to be very stable though
I then did a little fiddling and wound up with vcore - 1,3650, DRAM Freq 1335MHz (Auto settings pushed it to 860ish) and forced DRAM latencies to default (9-9-9-24), the rest is MB Auto
To my surprise prime95 managed to do a largeFFT test for over an hour stable @ maxtemp 72c for core#0, only when I ran winamp and did minor browsing (whilst the prime95 was running) did I get a BSOD
What's interesting to note also, is that OCCT has always failed with all OC settings I've tried (including the current values, discribed above), prime95 is stable with both small and large FFTs though, that is, until i bsod

So, any ideas?c

Cheers, thx for all your replies

Ok, so I've installed the new rig (rampage extreme, q9650, cnps10x extreme) and I'm having some slight issues with the cpu temps, which is odd since this is supposed to be one of the most powerful cpu-coolers on earth, capable of keeping an overclocked high-end i7 @ below 60.

First when I started up the new system I noticed that core#1 temp was around 60 (in bios, i.e. in total idle) which is absurdly hot for this cooler. So I assumed the thermal grease had not been applied evenly. I then reinstalled the cpu-cooler and got the idle temps down to 40ish.. In load though, core#1 still reports ~55 degrees while the other cores and cpu-general remain at 40ish.. This is really odd in my view.. I do have to note that installing this cooler in rampage extreme is a total pita, since the screws on one side of the cooler are directly underneath the massive 12cm fan..

I know this is minimal information on the situation but does anyone have any suggestions? Why is one core 10c hotter than the other ones? Cooler defect? Uneven thermal paste? Badly tightened screws on one side? i remind you this is all on an unclocked cpu (running @ 3,0Ghz).. I'm kind of unnerved about this since the whole point of the upgrade was to be able to get to 4,0Ghz with good temps.. and if it's reporting 55 on load @ 3,0Ghz, what's it gonna do @ 4,0???

Thanks in advance, feel free to post this problem to overclockers forums, I'm not very much an OC specialist so don't have a lot of connections in this line of stuff =)

did some research. Turns out the performa is a budget minded newer version of the extreme, same design different materials and fan tho.

So where the performa handles, etreme should even surpass http://www.thinkcomputers.org/zalman-cnps10x-performa-cpu-cooler-review/4/

Take a look at the graphs.. Extreme has a 3 degree advantage over the performa, handling an overclocked i7 @ load on 58c. So a Q9650 shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks again for pointing me towards this thing, will get that one instead of the Freezer XTREME

8)

Thanks for the fast replies.

I have the ZALMAN CNPS10X EXTREME (not performa) available in stock at my local resellers at around 63€ .. It is almost twice the money of the XTREME.. But I really am planning on getting 4g stable enough to keep it running 24/7 + high end gaming sessions in between.. So this baby should keep me below 70? Low 60s at load?