New Sandy Bridge Build - Setup

Muel · 19 Mar 2011 at 13:47

Howdo,

Just been out with my Mum's bloke, bought an i5-2500k, 2x4gb of RAM and a Gigabyte P67A-UD3P-B3.

Probably won't overclock, but we might put a mild one on. Maybe aim for 4.0ghz with a slight voltage increase. (It's a home server so has to be 100% stable, and is an upgrade from an E8400 so will be a big enough speed increase running stock).

I know the BLCK needs to be locked to something to stop it blowing up, but what else should we set up in the BIOS?

Oh, and it'll be running a RAID5 array of F1 320gb hard drives for the time being on the on-board controller, any help setting them up would be greatly appreciated.

Muel · 19 Mar 2011 at 19:54

52 views, no replies....

We've got it built and it's running. Only thing I tried to change in the BIOS was I set the RAM to 1600mhz at 1.65v as the manufacturer specified. Didn't even boot. Any pointers? Not a massive problem but we'd like it to run at the settings it's designed to.

hybrid572 · 19 Mar 2011 at 20:02

Check the Overclocking & Cooling section, there's a sticky on Sandy Bridge overclocking.

What was the RAM set to at stock? Are you sure no cables or anything are shorting on the case?

Baldbloke · 19 Mar 2011 at 20:05

Sandybridge ram for cpu should be rated at 1.5v. Lots of different manufacturers ram will work at 1.5v (or just a bit higher) even though it may be spec'd as 1.65v. My xms3 is spec'd as 1.65v but it runs fine at 1.5v.

As to not booting: Obviously you get to bios. Try setting all defaults. I'm not familiar with your mb but I suspect it will have a "load failsafe defaults" option or something similar. Then take it from there.

Muel · 19 Mar 2011 at 20:13

hybrid572 said:
Check the Overclocking & Cooling section, there's a sticky on Sandy Bridge overclocking.

What was the RAM set to at stock? Are you sure no cables or anything are shorting on the case?

Will do, cheers.

It defaults to 1333mhz at 1.5v, and it's totally stable.

Baldbloke said:
Sandybridge ram for cpu should be rated at 1.5v. Lots of different manufacturers ram will work at 1.5v (or just a bit higher) even though it may be spec'd as 1.65v. My xms3 is spec'd as 1.65v but it runs fine at 1.5v.

As to not booting: Obviously you get to bios. Try setting all defaults. I'm not familiar with your mb but I suspect it will have a "load failsafe defaults" option or something similar. Then take it from there.

This ram isn't Sandy Bridge certified I think. Will try it at 1600mhz at 1.5v though.

It is a Gigabyte dual bios board, so it tries to boot and if the OC is too unstable to boot, it loads the defaults and boots with them, so it's easy to save the OC settings and tweak them.

hybrid572 · 19 Mar 2011 at 20:14

Don't worry about 1600mhz vs 1333. You might be able to get it to run at 1600mhz on 1.5v, but the performance difference is effectively zero, so I wouldn't get in a fuss about it.

Muel · 19 Mar 2011 at 20:54

Same boot failure trying 1600mhz at 1.5v. More than happy to leave it at 1333mhz though.

The limiting factor on this system is definitely not the CPU or RAM, it's the single F3 320gb that it's running on. Will soon have 3 in a RAID 5 array and some time after that an SSD as well.

hybrid572 · 19 Mar 2011 at 20:57

Wouldn't an F3 1TB be cheaper and faster?

matt_griff · 19 Mar 2011 at 20:59

try the ram at 1.55 if not try 1.6

had a simular problem myself changed the voltage to 1.55 and it now is running fine.

Muel · 19 Mar 2011 at 21:07

hybrid572 said:
Wouldn't an F3 1TB be cheaper and faster?

Nope, I have a pair of F3 1tbs myself (no RAID), and the 320gb version seems only slightly slower. However, 3x320gb in RAID 5 is MUCH faster than a single 1tb.

matt_griff said:
try the ram at 1.55 if not try 1.6

had a simular problem myself changed the voltage to 1.55 and it now is running fine.

So unstable it wouldn't boot at 1.5v and 1.65v, but was fine at 1.55v?

To be honest, it's so fast it's never going to be overclocked and the RAM will stay at 1333mhz now.

Anyone got any pointers of things we need to set in the BIOS? I want to make sure we don't run into any BLCK issues and things burning out.

hybrid572 · 19 Mar 2011 at 21:22

SB Overclocking Thread: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18227651

The important bit:

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. (Set manually to 100)
PLL Voltage - Do not exceed 1.9v!!