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Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:09 pm
by Welch
http://alumar.hubpages.com/hub/Get-more ... Core-Q6600

Is this "mod" for real... They tape off 2 contacts on the Q6600 raising the FSB from 1066 to 1333 which brings the original 2.4ghz CPU to 3.0 :|? I've got an Optiplex 755 sitting here and I'm seriously considering trying this. Obviously there is a chance that might particular processor has a core or two that wont like those speeds and may be unstable... But worst case scenario I un-tape the sucker and no real harm done.

I never really messed with the Q6600 CPUs and found this to be a very unconventional way to "OC" a machine. None the less if it can be done and stable without overheating and raise the FSB to 1333 for ram, I'm down. Any comments?

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:31 pm
by Walkintarget
3.0 ??? Pshhhh, thats nothing for a Q6600 !! Mine's been humming along at 3.5 for 3+ years now. It's being retired very soon for a [email protected], but they are such great quad core chips that they still hold their own against the AMD Phenom II X4 965 CPUs.
You are referring to the standard workaround for any OEM board that does not allow FSB changes in the BIOS. I've used it for a few Biostar or ECS boards and it is entirely reversible. I bought a conductive pen from Radio Shack for $10 to do this as well.

Edit: Added a link to the BSEL mod that shows more FSB settings -> http://www.overclock.net/t/341123/intel-bsel-vid-mod-guide

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:33 pm
by Welch
Yep, I realize it would be reversible since all your doing is breaking contact on two of those... well, contacts :).

Yep, if I were to have this chip on a real board I'd just OC the right way, but its in an OEM board, hence my workaround. So you've had success with this method! Awesome, say no more, I know what I'm going to be doing tonight!

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:57 pm
by bthylafh
Let us know how it works. I've got an old Core 2 sitting around that I might want to try that with.

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:17 pm
by Welch
Sounds like it could be my first video tutorial via youtube :)

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:56 pm
by ChronoReverse
IIRC this does work since all you're doing is making the CPU tell your motherboard it has a different base FSB.

However, unless you have a really cheap motherboard that doesn't support manually specifying the FSB, why would you bother?

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:00 pm
by derFunkenstein
ChronoReverse wrote:
IIRC this does work since all you're doing is making the CPU tell your motherboard it has a different base FSB.

However, unless you have a really cheap motherboard that doesn't support manually specifying the FSB, why would you bother?

That's what I'm thinking. Just set the FSB at 1333 and see if it boots.

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:03 pm
by Welch
ChronoReverse wrote:
IIRC this does work since all you're doing is making the CPU tell your motherboard it has a different base FSB.

However, unless you have a really cheap motherboard that doesn't support manually specifying the FSB, why would you bother?


Because... I have a cheap motherboard that doesn't support manually specifying the FSB :).

Its a Dell Optiplex 755, no FSB options.

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:34 pm
by Walkintarget
Sounds like fun, and quite do-able ! http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19184504/19307490.aspx

Looking forward to your successful followup posts. :wink:

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:16 am
by Mr. Bamboo Head
wonder if it would work on a pentium e2140? got it in a g41 board but i cant push it past 1066 no matter what the voltage :/

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:31 am
by Welch
Well if your chip is just not capable of those speeds, its an issue with the actual chip and your likely just going to receive a post beep and black screen from this mod. This mod is more targeted towards chips/motherboards that are locked down from OEMs. Somehow I don't think that will work for you. However If this attempt goes good I do want to try something similar on an Intel E2220 that I've got sitting in an HP proprietary motherboard. If I could push that little thing from its modest 2.4 up to something like 2.8 or 3.0, then I'm down!

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 7:40 am
by vargis14
Looking forward to looking at results.Before and after benches please.

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:07 am
by Welch
I will be going out and getting that conductive pen today. Anyone have requests as far as benchies goes?

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:15 am
by Walkintarget
Welch wrote:
I will be going out and getting that conductive pen today.


Dunno how good your eyes are, but at my age I highly value a magnifying glass for checking my pen work as well. Nice thing about the pen is you can scrape it off with a fingernail if it goes wrong.

I've modded an e2140, 2180 and a 5200. The best OC's came from the 2140 and 2180, as they easily ran the 1066fsb at stock voltages on stock cooling. I'd always recommend a Cooler Master 212+ for additional cooling (assuming you have the room for this big HSF). They are super cheap at under $20, and they wick off any extra heat that the overclock may produce (not much on any of the chips that I modded).

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:57 am
by Jigar
Already done that and i had even posted it on TR.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=74850

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:59 am
by Jigar
Welch wrote:
I will be going out and getting that conductive pen today. Anyone have requests as far as benchies goes?


Try the pen mod only if the tap mod is unsuccessful.

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:20 am
by thegleek
Jigar wrote:
Already done that and i had even posted it on TR.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=74850

lol jigar ftw with the 2 year old thread that's the exact same thing discussed in this one!

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:12 am
by allreadydead
On my previous system, my Q6600 ran @3.6 [email protected]. The system wasn't stable under full load @3.6 GHz due it needed a VCore about 1.525V and I wasn't willing to above 1.5V. So, I used it with 400 MHz FSB and 8x multiplier for most of the time, resulting 3.2 [email protected] Vcore.

I had;
- Q6600 G0 with TT Big Typhoon cooler
- Gigabyte P35C-DS3R V2.0
- 4x 2 GB G-SKILL CL5 DDR2-800 RAM

I doubt tape work is neccessary, nor worthy to overclock that CPU.

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:20 am
by derFunkenstein
Mr. Bamboo Head wrote:
wonder if it would work on a pentium e2140? got it in a g41 board but i cant push it past 1066 no matter what the voltage :/

Well you're talking about a stripped down Conroe that was probably binned in some way. Going from 1.6GHz to 2.13GHz is a pretty big jump, percentage-wise. 33% is a really excellent overclock. I had an E2160 that would do 333 for a 3GHz clock speed with a slight voltage bump, but it was a very rare find.

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:31 am
by Mr. Bamboo Head
derFunkenstein wrote:
Mr. Bamboo Head wrote:
wonder if it would work on a pentium e2140? got it in a g41 board but i cant push it past 1066 no matter what the voltage :/

Well you're talking about a stripped down Conroe that was probably binned in some way. Going from 1.6GHz to 2.13GHz is a pretty big jump, percentage-wise. 33% is a really excellent overclock. I had an E2160 that would do 333 for a 3GHz clock speed with a slight voltage bump, but it was a very rare find.

ya i suppose. thing is, it seems to be fsb limited; even with multi at 6 i can't get it any higher :S it's a shuttle xpc board with fairly limited overclocking options. that and my expectations for a c2d may be a bit high; my c2q xeon went from 2.13 to 3.6 with ease (could get stable at 3.75 with large voltage jump)

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:25 pm
by derFunkenstein
Mr. Bamboo Head wrote:
ya i suppose. thing is, it seems to be fsb limited; even with multi at 6 i can't get it any higher :S it's a shuttle xpc board with fairly limited overclocking options. that and my expectations for a c2d may be a bit high; my c2q xeon went from 2.13 to 3.6 with ease (could get stable at 3.75 with large voltage jump)

I guess that's possible, too. Double-checking the supported FSBs on the chipset, 1333 is supported, but ya it's always possible the chip can't handle that bus.

Re: Q6600 Mod... for real?

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:34 am
by Jigar
thegleek wrote:
Jigar wrote:
Already done that and i had even posted it on TR.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=74850

lol jigar ftw with the 2 year old thread that's the exact same thing discussed in this one!


BSEL mod is boon to the people who have mobo's without overclocking features example intel mobo. In past, lot of my friends who had Dell systems with Q6600 did BSEL mod, which in the end helped them prolong their upgrade cycle.