Overclocking my system

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18 Jun 2009
Posts
292
Firstly, here's my current build:

i7 920 D0 with a Noctua NH-U12P cooler
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P Mobo
6GB OCZ Gold 1600MHz DDR3 (Tri Channel 3x2GB)
620W Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
XFX Radeon HD 4890 XXX
Antec 902 Case

I had a look in my bios and it seems that my memory is running at 1066Mhz even though they are rated at 1600Mhz, when I increase the motherboards 'multiplier' so that the reading is 1600Mhz my bios tells me that these settings will damage the parts. Should I put it up to 1600Mhz?

Regarding the CPU, my current temp.s are 30-40 idle and 50-60 on a Prime95 torture test (Temps depend on how hot it is that day). Am I going to be able to OC my CPU to 3.5Ghz fairly easily?

I've had a look at my bios and I can't seem to work how I would even go about overclocking. After posting this I'm going to take some pictures of the options, so BRB :)

EDIT:
Ok so here is the place where (I assume) I would go about overclocking:

DSC00685.jpg





Here are the 'Advanced Options':

DSC00686.jpg


My thinking is to change the multiplier for the memory so that I'm getting their speed at 1600Mhz, then slowly (in steps of 5/10Mhz) increasing the base clock, doing a Prime95 stability test each time until I get to 3.5Ghz, is that the right way to go about doing this?

Thanks for your time :)
 
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bump - cause i'm running a similar setup (gigabyte UD5) and would like to know whether I should 'up' the memory to the rated 1333mhz and correct timings cause like this chap, it's defaulting to 1066mhz.

Anyone?
 
If you set the ram so that it runs at 1600mhz then increase the bsck you'll swiftly be running it over 1600mhz. For Kasc I recommend the x8 multiplier, for Pallaris the x6. This ensures that your ram will be fine up to 200 bsck.

Simple questions first. @Pallaris, if you aren't overclocking leave the ram at whatever speed it's running at now. The difference in performance between 1066 and 1333mhz at stock speeds is entirely negligible, the only advantage to faster ram comes with overclocking.

@Kasc:
QPI link speed to x36
Uncore to x16
Ram multiplier to x8
Ram voltage to 1.64, timings to whatever the ram has written on it. I would turn XMP off as it messes around with other settings.

Set qpi/vtt and vcore to whatever starting values you fancy. 1.2 for each is probably a good start, if this isn't stable then start from 1.25 on each. By all means try lower starting ones if temperatures are nasty. These are the main two to adjust when the system loses stability. Going up in notches of 5 is a good plan, prime will take ages but get the job done. Intel burn test for 15 or 20 passes at maximum memory achieves much the same thing but a lot quicker, so I prefer it for intermediate stability testing.

3.5ghz shouldn't be much hassle, it'll probably do that without adjusting voltages. 4ghz is the median overclock for these chips. Enjoy :)
 
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