You cant OC higher than 3.0Ghz? Thats something wrong. Either the RAM timing is off, or the voltage is off. Cause you should be able to clock at least 3.30Ghz. Are you running a full 4GB of ram?, if you are, reduce it to 2GB. Now at the OC settings, set everything to stock value, but increase the cpu voltage up 2 notches. I think it will be like 1.75v or something...

As for the ram clocking, by default it should be auto. So something like 6-6-6-18, or 5-5-5-12 should be right... Im just assuming, not going to be like that... Leave it at stock

Clock ratio to memory, leave it on auto. Dont set it to 1:1 or 3:2. It basically adjust the timing for the data to process from the CPU to the RAM, vice versa. Thats where things get unstable.

You may want to play with that setting.

__________________
Xbox 360 - 2 Games - 2 Controllers - 120GB Elite - Dead
PS3 - 23 BD Games - 13 PSN Games - 9 Controllers - 320GB - Alive
Wii - 6 Games - 4 Wiimotes - Alive
PC - Overkill - 3DMark06 [13896]- God like :]

Gaming Generations | XnogarD Production - Soon!!!

I can OC to 3.25, I can't seem to do it without my temps getting too high at 100% load. There might still be something wrong with how the HSF is mounted, maybe the wiring or the fan setup. I have spent a lot of time, energy, and research reworking my setup. All I have to show for it is a lot of curses and a sore fist.

I don't think it's the HSF, I have a decent one and I think it's mounted right. It does "wobble" a bit, but the design is top heavy and it is definitely secured firmly to the backplate and mobo. I think it has to do with my PC being elevated and the hot air just not having anywhere to go because of the elevation. Problem is I really don't have a place to put my tower at ground level, so I haven't tested that hypothesis.

Iono, I've looked into a lot of things, to each with no success. There are so many variables, right now I'm putting OC on hold.

Thanks for the advice, I might have a go with the settings this weekend.

__________________

i don't know if you have figured this out or not, but your thermal paste has to "burn in" before it really starts cooling like its suppose to. and to go from the reg of the Q67000 to 3.25 is a LOT so you might want to drop the ocing a little, maybe down to 3 and see what it does

All week my PC has been wonky, I cleared the CMOS, my HDD was coming back with errors which were recovered through checkdisk, and I pulled out two sticks of RAM. Then installing Windows was giving me headaches with files not copying to the HDD during install. I'm not really sure what happened. I think it went something like my bios was corrupted, my HDD had some bad sectors, and after clearing the CMOS my RAM with four sticks was not volted right. It seems to be working now after reinstalling Windows like 8 times, setting my RAM to the right voltage, and expermenting with ACHI, RAID, and bios settings. Hopefully the anamolies stop, I've been sooo busy with work that I really haven't taken time to relax.

Kam warned me about ACHI, I wonder if using it in the first place was the source of troubles or it was some combo of factors.

__________________

Whats the current settings you have in the BIOS?

Give me the basic info like:

Ram clocking, voltage, and clock ratio (5:4, 1:1, etc)
CPU bus speed, voltage
What is enable or disabled (ACHI, RAID, etc)

Best thing to do is, to remove the BIOS battery for a good 10 seconds. So it clears everything 100%.

Best thing to do, if you redo everything. Reset the bios, install windows on a non-raid setup, and no OCing. Once windows is installed, let it run for a good 3-6 hours to see if there are any issues. Just use it regularly, but dont do any benchmarking or stress test yet. Install PC Wizard or Everest to see the stock temp. If its low (below 50C), then it should be fine. You can install your daily used applications and etc. Run with that setup for a few weeks, to confirm its stable. If it is unstable, like choking, freezes or BSOD. You may have a bad HDD, bad SATA cable, bad RAM or bad Mobo. Sometimes, some harddrive have write delays, because the transfer speed from the mobo, thru the rams, to the harddrive are disorted. And it can cause BSOD or a freeze. For now, give that a try...

But only do it if you do plan to start all over.

__________________
Xbox 360 - 2 Games - 2 Controllers - 120GB Elite - Dead
PS3 - 23 BD Games - 13 PSN Games - 9 Controllers - 320GB - Alive
Wii - 6 Games - 4 Wiimotes - Alive
PC - Overkill - 3DMark06 [13896]- God like :]

Gaming Generations | XnogarD Production - Soon!!!

RAM is 5-5-5-15 @1000Mhz

RAM Voltage is 2.1v

4GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 PC8500

XP Pro SP3

FSB=300x10 (12% OC)

vcore is stock (1.3250)

NB=+.025v from stock

RAID/ACHI are disabled.

The temps for the cores were in the high 50's at stock last night. I did some research and noticed my CPU driver was MS CPU instead of ACPI. I reseated the HSF, applied AS5/OC Freeze and alternated between my Xigmatek HDT93 and Arctic Freezer Pro 7. The issue was the MS Multiprocessor bios, I reformatted and went with ACPI and the heat issues went back to normal, stock cores at 40-45C with Tcase at 36C. Seems stable for now.

I was deathly afraid my mobo or CPU was going. Hopefully I get a good run of stability with this sucker.

__________________