Overclocking with Gigabyte P35C-DS3R and Intel Q6600

Overclocking/Overclocking Tests by KeithSuppe @ 2008-03-27

Overclocking successfully requires a mix of the right components, we take a closer look at the pinnacle of affordability and performance product from Gigabyte, the P35C-DS3R, testing with a Quad Core Q6600 we see how we can fly with a water cooled CPU and some spicy DDR2 memory modules.

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The Almightly BIOS

BIOS F10 Overclocking the Q6600


Madshrimps (c)


Gigabyte chose an Award BIOS and I chose to run our system on the latest BIOS F10 released on 2008/01/04, after trying the others. It's unlikely you'll be reaching a 700(MHz) FSB speed as I highlighted above, however; Gigabyte appeals to the dreamers among us with soldering skills and a few liters of LN2. Often overlooked is the fact the latest BIOS revision is never guaranteed to improve performance prior versions. I describe BIOS flashing as: "The longest 20-sec of your life." And with the ability to flash from the company Server this only adds to the list of things which can go wrong at this vulnerable time. Can give your board serious "Drain Damage" or even cause death during the process. All kidding aside when your board is an early revision the disparity between what latter BIOS revisions fix and your board grows larger.

Madshrimps (c)


Keeping this review on focus, I've eschewed all other BIOS settings except for the MB Intelligent Tweaker. This latest BIOS eliminates the need to use the hidden features keys which is frustrating because you have to exit to the main BIOS screen to enable the hidden features then re-enter M.I.T. screen.F10 provides for you what usually requires the F1 -Shift key combination to bring up the "hidden features" intended primarily for memory adjustments.

Clicking on the right Thumb-Nail below will show the second half of the M.I.T. page. The right TN shows the our first adjustment option for the Robust Graphics Booster.

Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


From left to right the first thumbnail indicates the CPU multipliers available were 6X ~ 9X, CPU Host Frequency from 100(MHz) ~ 700(MHz) ehrm, PCI-Express frequency from 90(MHz) ~ 150(MHz) although this is a setting which should be left as is. The best you'll get from increasing the bus frequency is a damaged VGA card.

Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


In their effort to make overclocking and system tweaking a literal "no brainer" for those whom ultimately just want to increase performance, Gigabyte has adopted few more acronyms. Clicking on the Thumbnails below (left): C.I.A.2. aka CPU Intelligent Accelerator 2 claims to detect processor current fluctuations and responds by increasing or deceasing CPU frequency accordingly to best suit the program. Right thumbnail reveals the Performance Enhance which is a memory related feature.

Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


As far as memory options Award BIOS F10 supprts the the following multipler/dividers:
2.00 (1:1)
2.40 (5:6)
2.50 (4:5)
3.00 (2:3)
3.20 (5:8)
3.33 (3:5)
4.0+ (1:2)
with selectable strapping from 800+ / 1066~ / 1333#.

Strapping values can be seen in the photo below, thumbnails below reveal multipliers.

Madshrimps (c)


Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


My personal philosophy when it comes to overclocking is to avoid overvolting. However for those whom do not mind increasing Vcore the F10 provides 0.90V ~ 2.00V.

Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


For the remainder of the voltage settings an overvolting system is used based off the device default. In the thumnails below from left to right. Beginning with DDR2/DDR3 1/10th volt increments are available from 0.1V ~ 0.7V, PCI-E over-voltage 0.1V ~ 0.3V, FSB 0.1V ~ 0.3V, and (G)MCH (Memory Controller Hub) 0.1V ~ 0.3V.

Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


Onto the Tests...
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Comment from thorgal @ 2008/03/27
Nicely written Keith ! Good thing you linked to Anand : the vdroop article by Kris is one of the best OC articles I've ever come across!

Did you play around with the tRD (static tRead value) setting to try and increase FSB above 445 ? You should also have a look at Kris' follow up article to the vdroop article, and see what's the impact of tRD.

Only pity in the review imho is the fact that DDR3 was not tested at 400x8 as well, then we could have comparable results to DDR2. At 266FSB DDR3 on this board seems slightly faster.
Comment from Massman @ 2008/03/27
Good job, Keith, liked the extensive text and the test

 

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