Should I update Bios?

[brewabeer]

I have a:

GA-P35 DS3L mobo with stock Bios
4GB ram at 5-5-5-12 2.1v
Q6600 VID 1.265
Xigamtek 120mm fan

Runs cool enough, but I can't get past 319x9
I've upped the FSB (south bridge?) volts to max .3v
Upped the MCH (north bridge?) volts to max .3v
and ran the Vcore as high as 1.4v

All those and I can't get past 5 mins on prime95 on all cores. rounding errors .5 expcted .4 errors

Oh yeah, OS is Vista Home Premium 64. Would a new Bios let me get more voltage options, or am I just unlucky and not able to OC the cpu for crap?

 

[dark strike1]

You should always have the most up-to-date BIOS to get the most efficient use out of your hardware. The only exception would be that if your having a hardware issue and need to downgrade your BIOS to resolve the hardware issue. Post your temps to see why it may be hanging around 319.

 

[brewabeer]

I think I figured it out, I didn't have the ram in 1:1 mode and I couldn't get enough power to the bridges and/or ram was going faster than rated and having some issues. I read alot more at work today and also picked up on vdrop and vdroop (missed that before). I haven't tested in prime95 extensively, but atm running 400x9 core set to 1.422v in bios and I'm running fine so far. 33c idle and 58c during large torture test in prime95 (ran 15 mins and stopped it). B step with G0 revision on Q6600 cpu so well within tolerances. =)

 

[thirdshiftdj]

why would you max out your northbridge? You don't just go around maxing things out because it wouldn't boot. Only add that if your running a high FSB

 

[brewabeer]

I was following the overcloking guide is why. Failures on all cores the guide increased his northbridge voltage so I tried the same. Now though, after putting ram at 1:1, northbridge, FSB etc. all at normal. only vcore and ram voltage upped. So all is good, this thread can now die.