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Overclocking my pre-overclocked PC again.

Aleksandrs

Aleksandrs

Aleksandrs

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Joined
14 Jan 2010
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798
Location
Dover, Kent
I bought the Gold Rush 4770k kit off OCUK a few years back

Had a 4770k clocked to 4.4ghz, Asus Z87 Pro, Dark Rock 2 cooler and 16GB Team Group Vulcan Gold 2133Mhz memory (4 sticks of 4GB)

Thing was it was just never stable. When I reached out for help ocuk told me to try a few things but it was never stable. I was told to load optimised defaults, then I got so drawn in with work and everything else I never touched it again and the 24 month help period came and went. My pc was still fairly quick and had stopped bsodding regularly so I left it.

Anyway I was thinking recently I needed a bit more speed and started looking at new parts recently but felt that actually my current PC should be capable of much more.

Currently since setting to default my memory has been running at 1333mhz, and my turbo is at 3.9ghz for the last couple of years.

I'm a complete OCing luddite, hence buying the pre-clocked pack. I tried using AI Suite 3 yesterday and did an auto tune thing and it set my turbo to around 4.3Ghz and had memory back to 2133mhz. Thing is, it just kept crashing. Even though under apparently what this was once shipped with. I did some Prime95 tests and it was sending my temps into the 80s almost instantly too. (Case is a Define C btw, 2 AF140s in the front, single stock Define 120mm fan exhaust). My temps now as I'm sitting here just with Discord, Chrome and Steam open (No games) are bouncing around the mid 30s. My room temp is currently around 24c. It's like this sort of temp or higher all year round.

Anyone any good ideas? Shouldn't my memory at least be running 2133mhz? Maybe it would help if I had a bit more cooling (Saying that I had trouble back when I used a Define R4)? I'm just trying to go for near silent but fast usage. Quite hard to get that balance going.
 
Don't use AI Suite would be my recommendation- do your overclock in the BIOS.

Try this:
*Set your RAM to whatever speed it's rated for- probably 2133 if that's what you had it on before- but enabling XMP should set it to this anyway- and find Digi and Analog IO voltage, set for +0.150 offset voltage

*Set the CPU ratio to 44, set a manual vcore of 1.28v. Don't forget to hit Enter after entering the values!

*Set the Ring/Cache ratio to 39x, set a manual Ring/Cache voltage of 1.180v

*Set System Agent voltage with a +0.250 offset.

*Enter CPU setup menu, enable load-line calibration (LLC) at a mid-level.

*Enable PLL overvoltage. Pretty sure Haswell boards had this, and I enabled it.

*Find power-phase control, set to optimized or extreme.

*In the 'monitor' tab, run your mobo's fan calibration utility, set to silent or standard profile once it's done.

*Hit F10, save and exit.

These settings were good for 4.5GHz on my 4770K. It sounds like you may not be overly familiar with BIOS OCing, but don't panic, it's not that difficult!
It's a lot more reliable than using Windows apps.
 
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DoneADougalOnSofa said:
If this is stable (which it darn well ought to be), you can probably try lowering the vcore 0.01 at a time to keep the temps down. Mine could do 4.4 at 1.22v, but it took 1.28 for 4.5.
Click to expand...

Well I've just been trying this out. I couldn't see how to set LLC to mid or how to set power phase control. Otherwise though i threw in your suggested settings, and after just 30 seconds of prime95 at those settings I was going into the 90s in terms of temps. I tried knocking down voltage but then it started bsoding almost instantly on prime95.

Ive knocked the multiplier down to 42 and vcore to 1.225v to try and come up with a compromise overclock. running prime95 on that and temps around low 80s and no instant crashing yet. But yeah I could not get it to 4.4ghz at any comfortable level. I didn't push it at those settings as once it threw it into the 90s I stopped stress testing it

Edit: still running prime95 at 42x 1.225v. self test 8k just passed. At least this is far more stable than the ai suite auto overclock I did. Temps hit max 83c so far.

Edit: 15k test passed, temps now sitting around 80. Wondering if I could get away putting voltage down a bit from here...

Edit: Appears to be running stable. Having fan on silent setting on Fan Xpert throws me into the mid 80s during stress testing. Might try 1.21v vcore and see how that runs.

Edit: yeah bsod at 1.21v. putting to 1.22v see how that sits
 
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Given up and loaded defaults again. Issues noticed included a failure on blend test on test 6 on prime95. Getting bsod for click watchdog timeout, and also computer suddenly grinding to a halt, cursor lagging, inputs not registering and beeping sound coming from speakers.

This is just giving me so much of a headache I'm about ready to just buy a whole new computer to try get some more power.

Edit: okay I reloaded defaults for CPU but kept the xmp settings for the memory to run as it apparently should. Got bsod. Pretty sure memory is where the fault lies.
 
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Run memtest to confirm the issue is with your memory. Your cpu should easily do 4.3 all core and 4.4 with more voltage. 4.5 is no guarantee but should still be achievable with enough voltage.
 
Try reseating your memory and also while it is out blow out any dust. I suddenly started getting strange crashes and this solved it, I am guessing it got knocked or was not in properly in the first place.

You can also reduce temps by blasting the dust out of the case with a can of compressed air. My old machine had enough dust to add well over 10c to cpu temps :eek:
 
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Why not set it to stand to make sure it all works and go from there, 80 seems very hot, is your CPU fan actually running and/or plugged in the right socket?
 
Is you cooler making correct contact with CPU or maybe the TIM is not doing its job. Either of these could have been causing issues from the start.
It may be time to remove the cooler ensure it fits correctly and replace the TIM .
Otherwise with those temps at those low clocks and voltages I would seriously consider getting a better cooler.
You will also have to accept that if you want it silent you are immediately limiting your overclock capability.
 
I just looked up a few pages about the 4770k and temps it might hit with prime95.

Those temps don't seem too high if you are running the latest version / p95avx.
 
Distracted said:
I just looked up a few pages about the 4770k and temps it might hit with prime95.

Those temps don't seem too high if you are running the latest version / p95avx.
Click to expand...

I was using p95v294b8. Just found an old copy of p95v277 in a folder so might test that in a minute. Is there perhaps a more recommended version?

Still I found even just upping my memory back to what it is meant to be without doing any OCing to the CPU, I was still getting bsods just under general use, so I'm gonna find a usb stick to run memtest and see if that picks up anything with my memory sticks, before going back and trying to clock cpu again.

Will try figure that out then try OCing again and seeing if temps are better with a different version of Prime95, then perhaps look into re-timming the cooler.

As for balancing silence with overclocking, I don't mind a bit of noise. When I was doing the tests earlier my cpu fan was going full whack and sounded like a jet engine. Running a silent fan profile knocked my temps up like 3-4c under stress testing, but at those temps it was still making the fan pretty audible to try and keep temps from danger levels.
 
Sorry, busy few days, only just checked back here.. Sorry that didn't work for you, although it seems there may be other issues...
Might be worth checking the RAM is in the correct slots (if you have ever removed it since you've had the PC)- slots A2 and B2, which should be the light-coloured ones. A1 and B1 are only used if using 4 sticks. It'll usually work in these slots, but can cause some issues.

I'd agree with others on the temps too, might be time to reseat the cooler with some fresh paste, or possibly upgrade.

Also, Prime95 absolutely rags the chip- you'll never hit those sorts of temps in normal use, so take them with a pinch of salt!
 
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