~~~~~IMPORTANT SANDYBRIDGE OC INFO: Voltages & OC Guide!!~~~~~

OcUK Staff
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
38,206
Location
OcUK HQ
Hi there


Right guys myself and our technical guys have spent the entire weekend and this morning in discussions with Intel regarding the alarming amount of reports of Sandybridge CPU's dying and have been conducting our own testing as have Intel to find out what is a definite no no.


Sandybridge maximum safe voltages

Core Voltage - Not recommended too exceed 1.38v, doing so could kill the CPU, we therefor recommend a range of 1.325-1.350v if overclocking.
Memory Voltage - Intel recommend 1.50v plus/minus 5% which means upto 1.58v is the safe recommended limit. In our testing we have found 1.65v has caused no issues.
BCLK Base Clock - This is strictly a NO, anyone using base clock overclocking could/will cause damange to CPU/Mainboard.
PLL Voltage - Do not exceed 1.9v!!



Processor - Basically we recommend customers not to exceed 1.35v to play it safe, all our bundles are set at 1.3250v or lower, any competitors offering bundles above 4.6GHz you should be enquiring as to what voltage they are using as we believe anything over 1.38v will limit CPU lifespan and anything over 1.42v will likely kill the CPU or severely limit its lifespan.

Memory - Intel recommend 1.50v plus/minus 5% which means 1.60v is the ideal safe maximum, but we have found in our testing all 1.65v memory is fine. We have also found most new 1.65v like Corsair XMS3 will run at its rated timings with just 1.50-1.55v which is well within Intel specifications. So people upgrading to Sandybridge you can still use your old DDR3, but we do recommend you run it at 1.60v or less. We are shipping most of our bundles which feature Corsair XMS at 1.50v-1.55v at rated timings. We've also discussed with Asus and MSI regarding voltages for memory and they also confirm in their testing 1.65v caused no issues with reliability.

Base Clock - To put it simple if you value the life of your components, do not overclock using base clock! (Set manually to 100)

PLL Voltage - Again do not exceed 1.9v!


These are just guidelines we recommend you follow, if you want to push more voltage through your CPU's then just be aware they could die on you. Your warranty is un-affected and we will honor any CPU's that die, we just won't ask questions as to how you killed them. ;)

Not all CPU's are as fragile as others, we have experimented upto 1.50v Vcore and 1.70v memory and had zero issues with reliability, so it seems some of fine when pushing hard. :)
 
Associate
Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
1,922
the sandybridge has one clock gen on the cpu, and it cant lock the pci bus etc, so if you raise that, then everything runs out of spec. so ide/sata controler, pci bus, that sort of thing). so its like when i came in to overclocking with duron/athlon launch, p3 era. wasnt worth the bother trying to run a non spec fsb really so was 100 or 133.

its the opposite of the last few generations of multiplier locked but fsb unlimited cpu's/mobos
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Mar 2009
Posts
5,712
Hold on ocuk, what if someone try to kill the cpu and ingorne your warning, and just kill the cpu and sent it back to ocuk to exchange a new cpu and the person will know what is the highest vcore did kill it off. I think it down to customer's own responsibility really. But that's a good warning advice! I just hope no ones is not abused the cpu to be kiled off because some's will do, some's won't do it.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Aug 2008
Posts
4,131
Location
Birmingham
Looks like good old fashioned customer service to me, this is a slightly new way of overclocking as well, and as intel now release K series for overclocking, they have to expect that they are going to get pushed hard.. They should have hit this in their testing though IMHO, pretty basic stuff really and im surprised they seem to have dropped the ball here.
 
Associate
Joined
20 Feb 2003
Posts
1,035
Location
cornwall
Hey Gibbo,

Firstly thanks for the information, I was holding off ordering a SB until finding out what was killing them. The fact that you'll honour the warranty if it does go pop has swayed me to order from you even though theres a few quid in it.

Questions for you -

Have you managed to kill any of the cpu's so far? What voltage or settings caused this? And finally - tell me its worth changing my i5 to one.......... pleaaaaaaaaaaase!

Thanks ;)
 
OcUK Staff
OP
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
38,206
Location
OcUK HQ
Hey Gibbo,

Firstly thanks for the information, I was holding off ordering a SB until finding out what was killing them. The fact that you'll honour the warranty if it does go pop has swayed me to order from you even though theres a few quid in it.

Questions for you -

Have you managed to kill any of the cpu's so far? What voltage or settings caused this? And finally - tell me its worth changing my i5 to one.......... pleaaaaaaaaaaase!

Thanks ;)

We've killed none yet.

The instant no no seems to be BCLK that seems to kill them real quick, hence why its advisable to manually set it too 100MHz.
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Dec 2005
Posts
12,488
Location
Bath
Good on OcUK on coming out with this :cool:. Also good on OcUK for the warranty thing. Though given the name "Overclockers" and the selling of K-chips you would kinda hope they'd be alright with it!


Interesting about the memory, it has really put me off then on buying 1.65v memory!
It's made me think twice that's for sure!

Call me thick/careless/whatever but in the past I've alway just looked on the memory box (or manufactures website) and bashed the stated timings and voltage into BIOS, without thinking if my CPU can take that memory voltage!

Obviously for CPU overclocking I've started at stock vcore and worked the way up (to either the safe limit or my coolings limit) but yeah for RAM I've always just typed in what the manufacturer rated it to without thinking about it at all!
 
OcUK Staff
OP
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
38,206
Location
OcUK HQ
Good on OcUK on coming out with this :cool:. Also good on OcUK for the warranty thing. Though given the name "Overclockers" and the selling of K-chips you would kinda hope they'd be alright with it!



It's made me think twice that's for sure!

Call me thick/careless/whatever but in the past I've alway just looked on the memory box (or manufactures website) and bashed the stated timings and voltage into BIOS, without thinking if my CPU can take that memory voltage!

Obviously for CPU overclocking I've started at stock vcore and worked the way up (to either the safe limit or my coolings limit) but yeah for RAM I've always just typed in what the manufacturer rated it to without thinking about it at all!

If you want actual approved memory Corsair Vengeance is certified. :)

However we are finding Corsair XMS3 to also operate fine at rated speeds with just 1.50v in our testing. :)

However I shall expand the OcUK Dual Channel range to incorporate more 1.50v default options, but also remember the GeIL as well which we have in stock is rated 1.50-1.60v and works well with Sandybridge too.
 
OcUK Staff
OP
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
38,206
Location
OcUK HQ
I don't suppose you've tested any 2x4gb corsair dominator kits on sandybridge?

Just sold my spare set of XMS3 yesterday :(

No sorry as those kits are older IC's, but they were failed C8 units, so at C9 they will operate sub 1.60v which is fine for Sandybridge, but not quite sure about 1.50v.

The XMS3 however is proving excellent in our testing today, so far stable at 1.40v at rated timings.
 
Back
Top Bottom