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

[Max3]

correct. I was willing to spend the extra £ and take the easy option so to speak.

I'm just surprised it's not stable for you to use off the bat. Where is it bsoding? As soon as windows loads up?

You can lower the CPU ratio down to 45 or 44 to see if that helps.

 

[Stop It Rawr]

How do

I've received my brand spanking new PC today (thanks to ocuk) But, now i'm frequently getting the dreaded BSOD . I just wanted to check that my bios settings are in order or is there any adjustments i can amend to make my system a bit more stable? At this stage i'm happy enough to give up the Mhz for more of a reliable system. I'm still trying to get my head around this new tech and would be grateful for any assistance.

By mixmasteral21 at 2011-01-15

here is a break down of my spec:-

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz Sandybridge overclocked to 4.60GHz
MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Power Supply: Corsair TX 750W
Cooler: Corsair H70 CPU Cooler
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 Graphics Card

thanks

Is the BSOD the dreaded "Uncorrectable Hardware Error" or is it something else?

If it is the aforementioned then the likely cause is undervoltage. The ironic thing is that OCUK would have likely Prime/OCCT/IBT tested that rig at 4.6Ghz using an effective 1.35v VCore and it would pass, but randomly at idle it would BSOD, something they would not have detected most likely.

Try setting the speed to 4.4Ghz by downing the multi to 44x, if it does the trick, the CPU requires more (In my case 1.38ish) to reach 4.6Ghz, whether that is worth it, or you reckon is worth a RMA claim (As it was sold as 4.6Ghz stable at the settings provided) is up to you.

Of course Gibbo has stated that the OC bundles are now at 4.4Ghz for this very reason I reckon, so while you should be covered at the sold speeds, I wouldn't be too shocked if you were advised by OCUK to down the speed a bit to be safe.

 

[mixmasteral21]

I'm just surprised it's not stable for you to use off the bat. Where is it bsoding? As soon as windows loads up?

You can lower the CPU ratio down to 45 or 44 to see if that helps.

same here. It has bsod 8 times now, mostly when i'm not stressing the hardware out even when it's idle.

thanks for the starting point.

 

[Max3]

ohh idle bsoding that's interesting. I think someone or a few mentioned something about this in here.

 

[mixmasteral21]

thanks for the info stop it rawr.

now that you mention it there was a folder on the desktop with various stability applications that were used to test the system. The only hardware that i've installed manually was another disk and a 6950 for xfire. I will certainly try downing the multi to 44x first to see what effect that has. 4.4ghz is still much quicker than my old 2.8 e6600!

 

[mixmasteral21]

ok, changed the multi from 46 to 44.
left machine on over night for eight hours and it's not BSOD yet.

 

[Stop It Rawr]

ok, changed the multi from 46 to 44.
left machine on over night for eight hours and it's not BSOD yet.

Then it looks like undervoltage at 4.6ghz was your issue then.

Out of interest, what does CPU-Z report your voltage as being currently? On my i5 2500k while 4.6Ghz requires 1.38v+, 4.4Ghz only needs 1.3v, considerably reducing power draw and giving temps a good drop too.

Of course if you're stable do not worry too much, but if you're feeling brave it may be worth reducing VCore by a notch or two. If it BSOD's simply up the voltage back up a notch.

 

[DBT85]

That is handy, but if you don't at least keep an eye on it when first setting your clock i'd imagine you could be in trouble. IE. if you just went into the bios, set the clock to 5ghz i'm sure it would boot and probably play games just fine. But it could well be sticking a lot more through it that we believe is safe.

As long as you have check that the max voltage is within limits then running on auto should be fine.

I believe there is an option to run offset voltage which also allows you to have the benefits of both worlds but i've not fiddled!

Further to this i've just a wee test.

Leaving everything on either Auto or Extreme and only fixing the Multi and the bclk I ran a couple of very small tests.

Booting at 4.5 was fine, but under load the vcore went up from my usual 1.31v to 1.45v (cpuz reporting)

Booting at 5.0ghz was fine but within seconds of getting into windows the Asus tools gave me a warning that i was at 1.57vcore! Needless to say I shut it down.

At 4.5ghz those extra 0.14volts just aren't needed but leaving it on auto will supply them. That meant higher temps and a higher TDP than if i'd set it myself at 1.31v.

It seems that the boards are capable of setting things up to boot at whatever multi you choose if you leave it on auto. But if you are going to do that please keep a very close eye on your vcore.

 

[nlel1975]

Further to this i've just a wee test.

Leaving everything on either Auto or Extreme and only fixing the Multi and the bclk I ran a couple of very small tests.

Booting at 4.5 was fine, but under load the vcore went up from my usual 1.31v to 1.45v (cpuz reporting)

Booting at 5.0ghz was fine but within seconds of getting into windows the Asus tools gave me a warning that i was at 1.57vcore! Needless to say I shut it down.

At 4.5ghz those extra 0.14volts just aren't needed but leaving it on auto will supply them. That meant higher temps and a higher TDP than if i'd set it myself at 1.31v.

It seems that the boards are capable of setting things up to boot at whatever multi you choose if you leave it on auto. But if you are going to do that please keep a very close eye on your vcore.

That is different to my results, everything on auto except BCLK, Multi

4ghz 1.240v auto set
4.3ghz 1.280v auto set
4.5ghz 1.3v auto set
4.6ghz 1.35 auto set
4.7ghz 1.392 auto set
4.8ghz 1.42 auto set

So for me auto volts works brilliant giving me just enough volts to be stable. Also I had installed my Akasa Venom CPU fan the wrong side of the heatpipe, its now in the proper position to the right of it near the RAM, temps have dropped 2C so now only 70C at 4.6ghz! The Akasa Venom knocked 20C off my temps!

 

[Revolution6000]

Is it normal to have a core running much hotter than the others? I've got a core that is running like 8-10c higher than the others, though occasionally they run at the same temps. I've reapplied the paste and reset the heatsink and it's still the same.

 

[girbot]

Is it normal to have a core running much hotter than the others? I've got a core that is running like 8-10c higher than the others, though occasionally they run at the same temps. I've reapplied the paste and reset the heatsink and it's still the same.

I have noticed this as well...

 

[Max3]

I've seen a lot of people with the variation in core temps so I think we can assume it's alright.

 

[Max3]

has anyone updated the bios within windows? I've misplaced my only flash drive but I'm worried about bad flashes when performed in windows.

 

[MTWest]

has anyone updated the bios within windows? I've misplaced my only flash drive but I'm worried about bad flashes when performed in windows.

Super easy to do mate. Just download the ROM file from Asus and then in the AI Suite just select it and it'll flash within the app... reboot and you'll have the new BIOS Did this both times to upgrade to 1003 and now the 1053 Beta.

 

[SimonMaltby]

has anyone updated the bios within windows? I've misplaced my only flash drive but I'm worried about bad flashes when performed in windows.

I did a flash from windows without issue on the Asus. would not find the bios files using the auto internet lookup, but updated from a file that I manually downloaded. The Asus Bios update is better and can read from my hard drives for the bios file anyway.

 

[nlel1975]

I did a flash from windows without issue on the Asus. would not find the bios files using the auto internet lookup, but updated from a file that I manually downloaded. The Asus Bios update is better and can read from my hard drives for the bios file anyway.

One caveat, I ran into a problem whereby if you try to run the BIOS rom from an NTFS formatted drive you get an error something along the lines of "the selected file is not an EFI Bios" you therefore have to run it from a FAT partition.

This is if you try to do it from within the EFI as I did, I have not used the Windows overclocking tools at all so far.

 

[MTWest]

Max I notice you're running 1600mhz ram.... do you get boot up issues? So when you initially boot up the board memory warning light would light up but if you just reset then it loads fine, although it then thinks that your overclocking has failed and ask you to go into the bios?

 

[Max3]

I haven't run into that problem - so far it's pretty much been plug and play. These xms3 even seem to pass 8hours of prime blend at just 1.5v.

 

[DrSteve]

That is different to my results, everything on auto except BCLK, Multi

4ghz 1.240v auto set
4.3ghz 1.280v auto set
4.5ghz 1.3v auto set
4.6ghz 1.35 auto set
4.7ghz 1.392 auto set
4.8ghz 1.42 auto set

So for me auto volts works brilliant giving me just enough volts to be stable. Also I had installed my Akasa Venom CPU fan the wrong side of the heatpipe, its now in the proper position to the right of it near the RAM, temps have dropped 2C so now only 70C at 4.6ghz! The Akasa Venom knocked 20C off my temps!

That's interesting to know. Must try it on the MSI board to see what happens. I like that fact that I can leave on EIST etc when overclocking and the chip throttles back down to 1600 when idle. It's just a pity that vcore stays up where it was set in the bios. 1.32v for a 1600 clock is a bit of overkill!

 

[Max3]

phew... the bios update went smoothly within windows Let's see if this has change my oc in any way