EX58-UD5 12GB Corsair XMS3 i7 920

spikey1

spikey1

spikey1

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I've read several forums about overclocking the i7920 with 12GB of ram.
It appears that the extra memory does cause a 'strain' on trhe memomry controller of the i7. (I use the 12gb for VMs before you ask!)
Despite OC stating that their bundel could not be overclocked (and still waiting for a reply to my complaints) I have managed to overclock it myself to some degree. When I'm back in front of my PC I'll post up the settings for others peoples benefits but the basics are as follows.

OC to 3GHz. bclk is set to 150. Multiplyer to 20 and memory set to 1200MHZ.
Turbo boost disabled , virtualisation on.
This seems to be about the limit for me, 3.2GHz does not even boot.
So I've effectively got a 940 for the price of a 920

As I say I'll post details when I get back in front of my PC.
 
Welcome to the forums. I will be very much surprised if 150 is your limit, so don't worry yet.

The main two settings to play with are vcore and qpi voltage. Increasing ram voltage to 1.6 or even 1.66 may be required at some point. I would guess without seeing your bios settings that you need to increase vcore or that your temperatures are far too high. What cooling system are you using?
 
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the reason that we dont do clocks for 12gb of ram is because we cannot consistantly get good clocks with 6 sticks in the board. the amount of clocks we have to do just makes it unfeasable.

if you can push your gear yourself with 12gb of ram then go ahead
 
Ok as promised, I'm posting the full details of my overclocking to date as it might be useful for others with the same setup. Would also welcome any feedback on how it might be made to be faster although stability is the overiding factor.
To recap
EX58-UD5 , 12GB of Corsair XMS3 RAM. Corsair tx850 powersupply. Gainward 8800GTX

CPU clock ratio 20
CPU frequncy 3.0GHZ (150x20)
QPI link speed x36 (5.4GHz)
BCLK 150
Performance Enhance Standard
Extreme memory profile disabled
System memory multiplyer 8.0
memory frequncy 1200
Profile DDR Voltage 1.5v
Profile QPI coltage 1.1.75
intel turbo boost disabled
Cpu all cores enabled
Multithreading enabled
C1e enabled
c3/c6/c7 disabled
Thgermal monitor enabled
EIST function enabled
Virtualistion technology enabled
Bi directional prochot enabled
Uncore frequency 2400<Hz
PIC frequency auto
CPU Vcore 1.4v
QPI/VTT voltage 1.515v

If I've not mentioned a particular setting, its at its default.

The info I'v picked up on from various forums are that extra memory puts a strain on overclocking. Althiough the board supports 1600MHz memory, the memory controller in the 920 is only officially supported at a max of 1066MHz

at the moment, 3GHz is stable but the maximum I can get. If I bump up to say 3.2GHz, then the system fails to boot. By that I mena that it starts to power up and then after ahbout 5 seconds, powers down and reboots and generally keeps doing that until I clear the CMOS.

I should be happy as with this overclock , I've effectively got a 940 for the price of a 920.
 
You really should not need 1.4v for a 3GHz O/C!!!!! Way too much, even with the supposedly problematic 12GB of RAM. You should not really go much higher than 1.35 without watercooling - even that is ridiculous for 3GHz. Obviously lower QPI/VTT accordingly also.

I suggest: set DRAM Voltage to 1.65 and then try O/C'ing again, with CPU VCORE @ 1.25 & QPI VTT @ 1.285. You really will need to tinker to get those volts down though because your temps will be awful at present.
 
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It does take a lot of time and effect to use 12GB; you need to work on getting your voltages lower.

I found that I could run at default settings with my memory @1600MHz, but came unstable when I started to O/C.

I decided if I could not reach full speed on memory with a O/C, I would play with the timings I first went to 7,7,7,21 and that was stable 18hours + with prime 95.

Now moving onto 6,6,6,17, 1T stable 27hours + with prime 95.

Only once I was stable I then enable the settings CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E), CPU Thermal Monitor, CPU EIST Function and Bi-Directional PROCHOT

I did find that if I was using IOH core set to 1.20v, I had problems in reaching 4Ghz. I found that once I dropped to 1.180v (now 1.160v) I was stable.

I can do 20x200 and 21x200 as well but I need over 1.4v on the Vcore to do so.

I found that 19x211 was better as I can run on lower Vcore.

Here is my bios template for the Gigabyte EX58 – UD5 at 4.0Ghz (19X211) with 12 GB (F7 bios), this may help you.

The settings below are in the MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T) section of the BIOS.

Advanced CPU Features:-
CPU Clock Ratio - 19x
Intel (R) Turbo Boost Tech. - Disabled
CPU Cores Enabled - All
CPU Multi-Threading - Enabled
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) - Disabled
C3/C6/C7 State Support - Disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor - Disabled
CPU EIST Function - Disabled
Virtualization Technology - Enabled
Bi-Directional PROCHOT - Disabled

QPI Link Speed - x36

Uncore & QPI Features:-
QPI Link Speed - x36
Uncore Frequency - x13
Isochronous Support - Enabled

Base Clock (BCLK) Control - Enabled
BCLK Frequency (Mhz) - 211

Advanced Clock Control:-
Base Clock (BCLK) Control - Enabled
BCLK Frequency (Mhz) - 211
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) - 100
C.I.A.2 - Disabled
CPU Clock Drive - 800mv
PCI Express Clock Drive - 900mv
CPU Clock Skew - 100ps
IOH Clock Skew - 0ps

Performance Enhance - Standard
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.) - Disabled
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) - 6.0
Memory Frequency – 1266 MHz
DRAM Timing Schedule (SPD) - Manual

**The following 5 options need setting for each stick of ram and are dependent on your ram**
CAS Latency Time - 6
tRCD - 6
tRP - 6
tRAS - 17
Command Rate (CMD) – 1

Advanced DRAM Features:-
I changed Row Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC) to 88, The rest are left on Auto

Load-Line Calibration - Enabled
CPU Vcore - 1.32500v
QPI/Vtt Voltage - 1.295v
IOH Core - 1.160v
DRAM Voltage - 1.60v
Advanced Voltage Control:- **Rest of settings in here on Auto**
 
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Thanks all for you input on this.
Well I've put in the values suggested and it intially look promising.The system booted but stopped at the windows logo at the boot up stage. So i rebooted and the system started to boot up again but this time it was in slow motion. I also noticed the bclk had changed from 211 to 213 so thought perhaps I had entered in a wrong figure so rebooted again. This time the system was displaying a 4.25 GHz clock speed - so though something was going wrong here!
So i've dropped down the speed to 3.8GHz , upped the uncore frequency to x2 plus one and upped the DRAM voltage to 1.64 V and so far its looking good. I'm runing a combination os prime95 and sp2004 to give it a bit of bashing but seems stable so far.
Forog to mention that he cooler I@m using is a Noctua NU12P which seems to dwarf the motherboard.
Whilst I'm typing ths out Sp2004 is running and the system tempreture is displayed as 44C and the CPU is also peaking at 46C. This seems to compare favourably with the Gygabyte overclocking guide that takes a 920 up to 4GHz (with 6Gb of ram though) where 53C was regarded as low. Not sure what tempretures are regarded as good or not though.
So I'm impressed with this, whilst the 'magic' 4GHz would have been desireable, I'm happy to stick with 3.8Ghgz . Perhaps with more tinkering a little more might be got out of this.
Thanks for you help on this. If anyone wants the full list of setting I've set, happy to list out.
 
Just to check, you've taken the vcore and qpi down considerably from your initial settings? 1.5V on the qpi is getting into the region of processors dying.

PCI express frequency should be set to 100 or just over, your board may do this automatically. Life will be a lot easier if you set the ram multiplier to x6.
 
spikey1 said:
Thanks all for you input on this.
Well I've put in the values suggested and it intially look promising.The system booted but stopped at the windows logo at the boot up stage. So i rebooted and the system started to boot up again but this time it was in slow motion. I also noticed the bclk had changed from 211 to 213 so thought perhaps I had entered in a wrong figure so rebooted again. This time the system was displaying a 4.25 GHz clock speed - so though something was going wrong here!
So i've dropped down the speed to 3.8GHz , upped the uncore frequency to x2 plus one and upped the DRAM voltage to 1.64 V and so far its looking good. I'm runing a combination os prime95 and sp2004 to give it a bit of bashing but seems stable so far.
Forog to mention that he cooler I@m using is a Noctua NU12P which seems to dwarf the motherboard.
Whilst I'm typing ths out Sp2004 is running and the system tempreture is displayed as 44C and the CPU is also peaking at 46C. This seems to compare favourably with the Gygabyte overclocking guide that takes a 920 up to 4GHz (with 6Gb of ram though) where 53C was regarded as low. Not sure what tempretures are regarded as good or not though.
So I'm impressed with this, whilst the 'magic' 4GHz would have been desireable, I'm happy to stick with 3.8Ghgz . Perhaps with more tinkering a little more might be got out of this.
Thanks for you help on this. If anyone wants the full list of setting I've set, happy to list out.
Click to expand...

The bios template I posted was a guide to help you, 3.8Ghz is very good O/C with 12GB

Mine Uncore Frequency was x13 not 14, just check my BIOS values and memory timings was 6,6,6,17

What voltages are you using now?
 
OK, with a stable system running at 3.8Ghz, these are the settings applied.
CPU Clok ratio 19x
QPI Link speed x36 (7.2GHz)
Baseclock 200
Performance Enhance - standard
XMP disabled
System memory multiplyer SPD - 6.0
Memory frequency - 1200MHz
intel turbo boost - disabled
Cpu cores enabled - all
CPU multithreading - enabled
C1e , C3/c6/c7, thermal, EIST and PROCHOT all disabled
Virtualization - enabled.
Uncore freqency x13 (2600MHz)
Isochronous supprot - enabled
PCI frequency - 100
CIAZ -disabled
CPU clockdrive 800Mv
PIC Express clock drive 900Mc
CPU cliock skew 100ps
IOH clock skew 0ps
DRAM timin schedule selectable - manual
then on all 3 channels set as follows
CAS Latency time 6
tRCD 6
tRP 6
tRAS 19
Command rate 1

Local-line calibration - disabled
CPU Vcore 1.325V
QPI/VTT coltage 1.295v
IOH Core 1.16V
DRAM Voltage 1.640v

everthing else is as at default / auto

so as you can see Vcore and QPI freqency is down.

So its stable so far so am pleased with this. As ai say I'm sure with some more time and effort put into it, a little more might be squeased out of it, maybe hitting 4GHZ - who knows?
This is certianly better than I was expecting as it seems a lot of forums suggest that 12GB of ram (or probably more precisle having all 6 banks of memory filled ) would be difficult if not impossible.
Certianly learnt a lot about this and thanks to those who replied back with suggestions.
the heatsink by Noctua also seems to be doing the job. I was quite surprised at the size of it when I received it and when fitted to the system board with 2 fans , it turned out to be quite difficlt to get some of the power cables in on the board , in the end I took the heat sink off and fitted the baord and cables and ten put the heat sink on - which is probably the best way anyway. you learn the hardway!
In WIN7x 64, if you're interested, I get a 7.6 for CPU and 7.6 for RAM on the OS benchmark.
 
I could get 4.0 on mine, but found that after 3.7 the volts needed to go up by big chunks for marginal boosts. FWIW, mine is running at 121*175 @ 1.2VCORE

(Edit: Turbo On)
 
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