50 at idle with a Tuniq?? I thought the 45nm ran cooler than the 65nm... Did you apply the thermal compound on the CPU? Also, did you tighten the Tuniq all the way? You are barely breaking 3100MHz, which is very low for your CPU.
In the BIOS, make sure you manually set the RAM multiplier. Try these settings for 3400MHz:
Robust VGA: Leave it alone (don't know what this does)
Multiplier: 8.5
CPU Frequency: 3400 MHz (changes automatically
----------------------
CPU Host Frequency: 400
PCI express: 100 MHz
CIA2: Disabled
----------------------
DRAM Performance: Standard
XMP: Disabled
MCH: 400 MHz
System Multiplier: 2.00B
Frequency: 800MHz
Timing: set to Manual, then Read you RAM specs to set timing
-----------------------
vCore: Set it to the stock value (no auto)
Terminate Voltage: (stock)
CPU PLL: (stock)
CPU Ref: (stock)
-------------------------
MCH Core: (stock)
MCH Ref: Stock
MCH DRAM: Stock
ICH I/O: Stock
ICH Core: Stock
----------------------
DRAM Voltage: Read your RAM specs and set voltage
Also, access your Advanced BIOS features and do the following:
C1E: Disabled
C2/C2E: Disabled
C4: Disabled
CPU Thermal: Enabled
CPU EIST: Disabled
Virtual something: Disabled
Note that I am using a UD3P motherboard and a different CPU, so I do not know what default settings (voltage really) are for you or which settings you can tweak. However, this should get you to boot at 3.4GHz if you have a good CPU. If you can boot up, then you can work on 4GHz which should be very possible.
Thanks for the settings, I'll give that a try. I still have a few cards up my sleeve, but I don't for see floodgates opening.
As far as temps, Ive read that these smaller chips (45nm) actually run warmer, and are more sensitive(should be kept cooler), maybe thats why 6600 chips over clock so much better. I don't know, I thought they ran cooler and could handle more when I placed my order and I had done a fair bit of research, I guess I should have done a full due diligence. Anyway, my reasons could be a higher then normal ambient tempt, not sure what it is, but its rather warm to me. Or maybe damage, either from installation, or just faulty from the get go. Ive also read that temps aren't accurate until the 50's on these chips, that could have something to do with it.
Vista had a few hiccups for a while, repeatedly rebooting and not even getting to post, then just going back to normal. Updating somehow?
Somewhere between updating drivers and re updating, some things are starting to work, like css and portal. HL2 starts but never finishes loading, the menu never comes up the comp just freezes.
About the only thing Vista has impressed me with is after all the crashes something poped up with suggestions to fix the problems, they actually got around to doing something with all that data, WOW! A few updates later and some things actually was fixed. Unfortunely one thing it suggested was backing stuff up saying memory could be bad, Ill have to test all 8 gigs of my ram, that could be causing the instability:( About the only thing that could open floodgates, and I truly hope thats not the problem.
