Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

So I bought this decent Gigabyte motherboard and Q9300 quad Core a while back. Without having to spend lots of cash I was hoping to squeeze some more love out of it to help the latest games. I recently upgraded my 8800GT to a GTX260-216, love it!

The motherboard box has big logos on it; how easy it is to overclock. And most websites have revealed taking Core 2 Quads up 500mhz is no big deal even on stock cooling. (I'd like to see 3ghz from my 2.5ghz)

So where am I going wrong? Even using the mboards on-board "OC-for-Dummys" it just locks even at small OC ammounts; won't post. Is it my ram? I bought good DDR2-800 Corsair ram. Do I need to buy ram that is clocked for my desired destination overclock? Like 1200mhz DDR2?

Any help is appreciated. My sig has my specs but my mboard is a Gigabyte EP-35C-DSR.

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

Have you grabbed the newest BIOS? My sisters Gigabyte was an terrible mess until I grabbed the latest BIOS and it's been rock solid since.

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

Yes, it's all up to date.

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

Maybe your ram timings are too tight. Did you set them manually?

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

Take a look here; http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/

Also, make sure your updated BIOS isn't a Beta version.

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

I'll check this out, thanks. But do I need to get faster ram? I want to make sure that's not the issue. I have 800mhz CORSAIR DDR2...and am thinking in order to OC I need to haver faster ram.

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

Remember you have 4GB, loosen timings alot at first.

Also downclock the modules alot at first.

Then keep pushing till you reach a sweetspot.

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

I had stability issues with that board and my e8400, never could get decent stable clocks from the cpu with it. My asus however will take the same cpu to 4ghz.

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

i have a little question
i have a Gigabyte Ga-EX38 DS4 no bios update as of yet bought it together with my Q9450 adn HD4870 well you know.

so is this motherboard a hard case as well if i am to ever OC?

if i do i might get the scythe zipang as it is a very good cooler and fits in my P190 i can´t fit the true since the giant fan inside the side plate :(

so are all gigabyte motherboards har d to deal with compared to asus?

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

Taking a quad to 500 Mhz isn't easy. I've never had one that liked going much over 450Mhz. The Q9300 is not a great clocker because the multiplier is so low.

Also, Gigabyte boards have more vdroop than most boards I've ever used, I stick with ASUS due to the Load Line Calibration feature - and easy pencil mod for vdroop. This eliminates the droop (or drop in vcore) during load which is a huge reason for instability.

You also didn't mention your cooling. I'm using high end custom water and the still one of hardest parts of overclocking a quad is controlling the heat. You might have seen some of the skilled quad overclocking reviews that put forth a misconception that it's easier than it really is. Hitting 500Mhz FSB is no easy feat though.

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

well i guess overklocking a dual core is way easier than a quad?

so a E8600+some P45 ASUS board si the better option to OC?

Re: Please help! E P I C F A I L
 

I had an E0 8600 @ 4.6Ghz, but my Quad @ 3.7Ghz was faster in games that took advantage of more cores, which are alot now. And with GTA IV coming I wasn't about to sacrifice any performance. Rockstar is suggesting a quad for GTA 4. Quad is a better all around CPU, but a dual will let you OC further. Do you want to be better off in the future or just have a bigger e-peen now to flaunt? I opted to go back to the better choice all around than the 4.6Ghz e-peen.

If you are looking for a cheap option to OC that quad...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813131182R