overclocking DELL XPS 420 to 3.1GHZ WITH VID-Vcore-Vdroop pencil volt mod set at 1.25V

[Gopala]

Hello friends, recently I bought a new Dell XPS 420 with intel Q6600 processor. And now I am planning to overclock my system but have some doubts regarding it. I just wanted to know whether it is possible to overclock this Q6600 processor beyond 3.1/3.2 GHz, if yes then how did you do the volt mod with VID-Vcore-Vdroop pencil. Can anyone help me out please; I am not an expert with computer hardware.

Heard that after we go beyond 3.1 GHz, there some kind of stability issue being faced in the machine is it true?

[V.V.S. Kambli]

Yeah it did happened with me, had the same model and when I overclocked beyond 3.1GHz while approaching 350 FSB speeds, x9 mult. I actually used a RMClock in order to disable EIST and C1E and run Max performance.
Also I am bought from 2.99 to 3.11 GHz on 2-PAG by SetFSB. Also my memset do not work properly as the MCHBAR is locked away. My configurations are:

• PSU - Antec 750 watt modular
• RAM - 4x1 GB 5-5-5-18 DDR2 RAM PC6400 which is running at 420 MHz
• Processor – intel Core 2 Q6600

Is it possible for me to increase volts without creating any problem with vdroop if my VID is stable at 1.25 v via RMClock?

[Delisa]

For your kind information, by using Core 2 series or any other later version we need not have to disable the Vdroop so therefore the only variable left for me was my VID. I recently did the VID 1.45 mod using the silver ink pen and other more electronical tape. Had a great experience, I guess I was supposed to put up more ink on it. I must say that it was really very thin though it doesn’t appear to be.

I basically followed up a mod guide which I got on web and applied those mods to all LGA 775 chips. But RMClock, CPU-Z, Core Temp, and Everest, all of them were reporting 1.25v which is supposed to be accurate. I guess I should try doing the 1.4v mod or else before inking I should thickening the ink and making it shorter by blocking using a tape.

[Kabilan]

Same thing, I too wanted to tape mod for getting my Dell XPS 420 from 2.4GHz to 3.0GHz and then SetFSB in order to just get up to 3.2GHz or possibly anything more than that but should get stable at a point.

Actually in my case I got it correctly and also run 3DMark and other thing which did work well but then when I ran applications like FSX or Maxon Cinema 4D I encounters a random BSDs. Wanted to plan for a voltage mods but somewhere I am bit afraid to do so.

I do have a XPS 8300 with an I7 Sandy Bridge, before this I managed to get the XPS 8300 with I7 2600, 12Gb of memory and a 1Tb hard disk for some reasonable price. All was possible due to using different customize links on Dell’s UK XPS page.

[chitti r]

Can anyone help me out please; I am not an expert with computer hardwares.

If you are really not so expert with computer hardwaring then how come you will be able to perform overclocking and volt mod? Anyways I would better suggest you to first know about as the technical aspects related to the overclocking and voltmod, I mean it is necessary for you to first know the basic requirement for doing a VID volt mod such as the requirements and needs:

• Conductive ink pen or copper tape
• Electrical tape
• Patience

[Arima]

The main requirement of performing a mod is when you are unable to overclock from your BIOS or if you need to go beyond the expected limits. Suppose if you have a gigabyte motherboard and if you motherboard is able to overclock your CPU from the BIOS then you might probably not require a VID mod, and for the motherboard which does not have any overclocking settings obviously need a mod and it’s the best and the simplest way of overclocking a processor.

Other than this even if your motherboard BIOS is facing some kind of difficulty with the overclocking then surely mod is the best way to increase the CPU speed.

[Ves]

Currently I am trying to work on downclocking the Ram to be 1:1 with the FSB, however I wanted to try 333 with different timings and see whether it helps me with the overclocking or not.
Using a SPDTool, the MCHBAR is locked on XPS 420 X38 chipset so I am not sure whether it limits the Ram editing timings like the one with SPDTool. As according to the CPU-Z shows I have a #1 and #2 in my G Skills, and I am somehow able to change the JEDEC profile #2 from 400 MHz to 333 MHz but the issue is that the CPU-Z still shows me that the RAM is running at 400 MHz.
Currently the only value I am trying to change is the "SDRAM Cycle time at Maximum Supported CAS Latency", wanted to change it from 2.5 ns 400 MHz to 3 ns 333 MHz.

[Loverface]

At certain point I will surely try out the VID mod and then try out 1.4 or 1.35. I guess the silver ink may lose which creates the problem or also maybe an extra pin connected can be the cause, better blocking off with the tap could help out.

I recently installed the 4x2GB DDR2 @ 800 MHz 5-5-5-15 G Skill RAM and the most interesting thing to be noticed is that there were no OC increase with 1 of 4 sticks installed or 2 of 4 in dual channels. I generally use a FPU Julia test from Everest and believe it as the most intensive CPU OC stability test, though it didn’t run more than half a minute. I think if that test causes an Everest crash or a blue screen definitely the games are bound to be crashed as well.

Even though it takes more than 20 minutes in a game I personally believe that 10 MHz lower is perfectly stable so therefore that benckmark is very much fine in order to tell me my stability. As 10 MHZ slower than a crashing FPU Julia test always look like 10 MHz slower than a BF3 crash.