i7 oc virgin - where to start?

Greebo · 20 Sep 2010 at 08:37

Okay, finally upgraded from my q9650 to the following:

i7 950 cpu
Asus P6X58D-E
Corsair XMS3 8-8-8-24 1600Mhz.

Now I have set the cpu the 1.25v, the funny VTT/QDI thing to 1.3v, memory to 1.65v and currently have it running at 4.008Ghz prime stable with memory set to 1600Mhz but currently on 24 x 167.

So where do I go from here please? Do I adjust the QDI speed things? What voltages should I avoid? Which do I leave on auto and which should always be set manually?

And why does my i7 not have a VID? Has this been dropped?

If somebody can give me some pointers or link me to a good i7 overclocking guide, I would appreciate it.

My aim is for 4.4Ghz 24/7 use and as high as I can go just for the crack.

Thanks

Sayso · 20 Sep 2010 at 09:57

what are the temps like? it seems you have plenty of headroom with the voltages.

Greebo · 20 Sep 2010 at 10:09

Will check again tonight as I can't remember but it's well watercooled on a thick triple rad with san ace fans so not hot at all

w3bbo · 20 Sep 2010 at 17:25

Set the QPI between 1.3-1.35 to begin with. Some boards (Gigabyte and Asus especially) overvolt this to silly levels when left on auto. Intel recommend a max of 1.35 but since when do we listen to Intels recommendations eh? a lot of folk will not know that there QPI is actually way over the top (1.5 - 1.8!) so best to set this manually to be on the safe side. You may find that you need more or maybe less than this and it is key to stability along with vcore.

Set you QPI ratio to x36

Set your uncore to x16-x17 (this should always equal double your memory mhz) e.g 1600mhz memory should have an uncore value of 3200+

You have plenty of room for adjustment with the chip you have so have a play around with the multi vs baseclock but try and keep your memory at stock level until you find your most stable overclock on the CPU.

Good luck

Greebo · 20 Sep 2010 at 18:22

Thanks for that Rich, it's all new stuff to me coming from s775.

Yes, I noticed my wonderful Asus board set the QPI to 1.8v if I left it on auto :eek:

so I have changed that to 1.3v for the moment.

Equally Asus auto vcore wanted 1.4v for 4Ghz but perfectly stable at 1.25v and not tried how low I can go yet.

I presume the QPI voltage is crucial to a good overclock perhaps even more than vcore from what I have read so far?

If you can't get your unicore to exactly 3200 am I right from your 3200+ that slightly over is better than slightly under?

So I don;t need to concern myself with skews and offset voltages and GTLrefs and all the grief I needed to get my q9650 to 4.9Ghz with the i7 or will there be weird things to do to get stability once I get to the extremes?

Everything else okay on auto I presume (at least for now?)

setter · 20 Sep 2010 at 18:26

Uncore should be 2 x ram speed but +1 over is fine, (this is how my board always sets it). Qpi is pretty important for stability, i had a few issues with qpi at 1.300, one notch above and things got a lot better, 1.25 vcore for 4ghz is pretty nice Greebo.

w3bbo · 20 Sep 2010 at 18:30

Greebo said:
I presume the QPI voltage is crucial to a good overclock perhaps even more than vcore from what I have read so far?

If you can't get your unicore to exactly 3200 am I right from your 3200+ that slightly over is better than slightly under?

So I don;t need to concern myself with skews and offset voltages and GTLrefs and all the grief I needed to get my q9650 to 4.9Ghz with the i7 or will there be weird things to do to get stability once I get to the extremes?

Everything else okay on auto I presume (at least for now?)

Yup, QPI is very important for stability.

Over is fine for uncore but if you set your memory divider to x8 and uncore to x16 the frequencies should be double one another. Either way a little over double is fine.

Leave everything else on auto apart from vdimm which should be around 1.65v.

Once you reach the speed you are looking for you can set about lowering the voltages a little such as cpu pll and qpi pll.

Greebo · 20 Sep 2010 at 18:31

Thanks setter. The batch of 950's that ocuk had on special all seem to be good clockers and lowish voltages from what I've read. I know somebody whose running his at 4.4Ghz for 24/7 and he reckons 4.6 wasn't that hard to acheive.

Fingers crossed for my little cpu.

Any simple guide anywhere to explain all this QPI malarky and the relationship between other settings and stability with overclocks please?

Biglunn · 20 Sep 2010 at 19:09

Hi Greebo! Apart from my XMS memory being C9, my new setup is the same as yours

Just like you, I have moved from Core 2 Quad, and I have to say that my head hurts a little trying to understand this!

I would appreciate it if you could post your problems, and show what settings work for you

I have had a look at various guides, and I think this one seems the best http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...7&board_id=1&model=P6T Deluxe&page=1&count=66. Im just not brave enough to try anything!

Bubo · 20 Sep 2010 at 20:48

Can those in the know tell me if the Asus P6X58D-E is touted as a good board for overclocking compared to say the Asus Rampage II Extreme, which was reccomended in a similar overclocking thread recently? Similar to OP I am considering getting a 950 i7 and some 1600MHz ram to go with it and would want bewteen 4.0 and 4.2 GHz without any hassle.

Greebo · 28 Sep 2010 at 19:28

Bubo said:
Can those in the know tell me if the Asus P6X58D-E is touted as a good board for overclocking compared to say the Asus Rampage II Extreme, which was reccomended in a similar overclocking thread recently? Similar to OP I am considering getting a 950 i7 and some 1600MHz ram to go with it and would want bewteen 4.0 and 4.2 GHz without any hassle.

I can say that 4Ghz was a brezze by just altering 2 things and is rock stable so can't fault the Asus board.