***The Official Core i5 Overclocking Thread***

[F2kSel]

You can drop the vcore and test again.
Leave the memory at 6x and find out how much vcore your chip needs to run prime stable.
Also use IBT, set to high, minimum of 20 runs.
Intel Burn Test.
Do not be surprised if you fail this test at Prime stable settings.

Anyways when you are stable with the memory at 6x, increase to 8x.
Likely you will start to see errors again, increase VTT until they go away.
Start at 1,275 and go up or down from there as necessary.
Also you can increase memory voltage to 1.640, don't exceed that though.

Don't panic too much if your bios shows the VTT voltage as pink, just dont go into the red.
If you get as far as 1.335 and you aren't stable with the memory at 8x give up and back it down to 6x.
Also you might have performance settings of Standard, Turbo and Extreme, try Standard if Turbo is default.

Thanks, as it turns out it still failed on core3 and my vcore is 1.36v previously 1.34. Mem was still x6.

I did ring OC_UK this morning and are sending out a new bios with new profiles so I'll try those first.

For some reason I can't run IBT it just won't start.

 

[Khrest]

I'm just about to assemble an OC i5 @ 4Ghz bundle and I find it slightly worrying that F2kSel has stability issues. I assumed OC did a lengthy stress test before sending these bundles out and the whole point of buying it was, for me at least, to remove this sort of tweakage...

Anybody from OC able to comment about what tests the bundles actually have, as there was no paperwork in the box at all to confirm what they had done, nor how to access the profiles in the bios.

 

[Aydon]

Aydon
If you stress test at your current OC you better have the Fire Brigade on standby

heheh - yep. Ran an OCCZ at 3800 MHz and hit 99 deg. But with a 5750 graphics card in it, it plays Modern Warfare 2 at 1920x1050 without stuttering even at stock CPU so this is just to see what I can boot Windows into

Would be nice to get 4.5GHz but 190 Bus failed boot so will need to tweak it a little. Only got No-brand RAM as well so don't think that will take much more than stock 1333 Mhz.

Still very impressed at the chip!

 

[PCZ]

Prime95 Blend

 

[str4nger]

I bought OC bundle as well because i wanted to have selected sample that will run 4GHz with no problem. Im dissapointed because it failed prime95 in 15 min ! and it failed p95 in 3-15min every time i run it. My manual tweaking gave me stable prime95 for 1-3h ... but i cant do 4GHz REALLY stable. allways core #2 fails (counting from 0 to 3). used vtt up to 1,4V / cpu core up to 1,4V / cpu pll up to 1,86V / all LLC settings ... and i cannot get it stabe at 4GHz no matter 191x20 + turbo (21x) or 20x200 without turbo and all power saving settings disabled. now i see that im not the only one that bought this bundle and got it unstable.

 

[Khrest]

If mine does not do 4ghz stable with only minor adjustments at most then the whole bundle will be going back under Sale of Goods. I always buy from OCuk but they are as bound by the law when it comes to describing a product as any other supplier.

I assumed they prime them in a case environment for 4-6 hours before shipping, but I'm not so sure now.

 

[str4nger]

IMO it should do 4GHz stable even without that minor adjustments you are talking about because its bundle that contains everything that you must set up to overclock the CPU (and whats related directly to cpu oc) and that should be tested and achieved stable parameters wont change while all pieces of that bundle stays together.

what ive got (and F2kSel) is clearly unprofessional approach.
and that is probably a result of a bad testing procedures

thats my opinion

 

[Spazzfish]

Quick thing i'm pondering over. I have my I5 clock to 3.8ghz. I run prime blend overnight for 10 hours and is stable max temp 60C. Problem is minimum vcore i can get away with is 1.35. Any less and it's not stable(has always failed on one of the cores when i get up in the morning). 4ghz i couldn't get stable with 1.43vcore, so i decided not to bother pumping any higher for a small increase in performance.
I've noticed many of you getting higher overclocks then me with less voltage. Is there something i'm missing?
I've disabled speedstep, set multi x 20, bclk x 190 put in the normal ram settings which seem fine and left everything else as default.
I don't mind not hitting 4ghz, but i wouldn't mind getting the vcore down more for the overclock im running or am i stuck using 1.35v?

Also forgot

Turbo disabled

Took this screen shot incase it can help

 

[F2kSel]

Well they haven't sent the bios today so another phone call tomorrow.
They only one replied once to my posts in the support forum since Monday and that was just saying try the the other profile (like I hadn't already tried that).

When you consider there is no paper work in the box and the free software was missing (I did manage to get it later after asking) I'm finding the whole process very sloppy.

The reason I went for the bundle was to avoid messing about, If I'd know how it was going to be I'd of put the money to the i7 and tried overclocking it myself.

Sorry I'm starting to rant a bit now.

 

[Khrest]

Well I have built my I5 bundle up on the desk and its prime stable for 30 minutes with temps in the mid 60s (using the H50 stock TIM).

Thats one relief so far anyway...

Can anybody tell me why on boot it says 3.82 ghz with a 20x and then in CPUz it says its 4012 ghz with a 21x? I noticed this in the bios as well with one page saying 4 and the other 3.8?

Also, anybody tell me how I use the profiles? I am a bit scared of pressing F11 or F12 in case it blows away the OCuk settings...

 

[will0812]

Quick question, is it worth getting a retail chip if you plan to use an after market cooler + overclock? Or are you better off going with the OEM as you lose the warrenty anyway i believe?

 

[str4nger]

Well I have built my I5 bundle up on the desk and its prime stable for 30 minutes with temps in the mid 60s (using the H50 stock TIM).

Thats one relief so far anyway...

Can anybody tell me why on boot it says 3.82 ghz with a 20x and then in CPUz it says its 4012 ghz with a 21x? I noticed this in the bios as well with one page saying 4 and the other 3.8?

Also, anybody tell me how I use the profiles? I am a bit scared of pressing F11 or F12 in case it blows away the OCuk settings...

its because it uses 21 multipler for turbo mode. and you probably have it set to 191x20 in the bios and when 21x turbo multi kickss in you get 4GHz

disable turbo mode and set 20x200 if you want

 

[str4nger]

Well they haven't sent the bios today so another phone call tomorrow.
They only one replied once to my posts in the support forum since Monday and that was just saying try the the other profile (like I hadn't already tried that).

When you consider there is no paper work in the box and the free software was missing (I did manage to get it later after asking) I'm finding the whole process very sloppy.

The reason I went for the bundle was to avoid messing about, If I'd know how it was going to be I'd of put the money to the i7 and tried overclocking it myself.

Sorry I'm starting to rant a bit now.

good that they replayed to you ... im still waiting for a replay for my post from 14 dec

english is not my native language and i found difficult sometimes to communicate so i didnt call them yet. i prefer to write because i have more time to think about how the sentences should look like

but clearly something not right is happening here with customer service

 

[Khrest]

its because it uses 21 multipler for turbo mode. and you probably have it set to 191x20 in the bios and when 21x turbo multi kickss in you get 4GHz

disable turbo mode and set 20x200 if you want

Aha, I understand now. Cheers for that, will try 20x200.

One other question if I may; it doesnt seem to drop down to lower clocks when running under idle, I gather from previous threads this is due to speedstep. Can I turn this back on and will it affect my apparent stability if I do so?

Like the other posters, I also did not get Bullguard in my bundle and I'd have to agree about the usually good level of CS going south where OCuks bundles are concerned.

 

[Khrest]

Is there a noobs guide anywhere that explains how all these clocks and ratios interact in the 1156 chipset? I feel as though I have been out of the country for 3 years now I've upgraded to an i5; it all looks Greek to me

 

[str4nger]

Aha, I understand now. Cheers for that, will try 20x200.

One other question if I may; it doesnt seem to drop down to lower clocks when running under idle, I gather from previous threads this is due to speedstep. Can I turn this back on and will it affect my apparent stability if I do so?

Like the other posters, I also did not get Bullguard in my bundle and I'd have to agree about the usually good level of CS going south where OCuks bundles are concerned.

you can enable EIST and C1E and your cpu should drop multi when idle (but still leave turbo mode disabled) ...
use Tmonitor (from CPUID website) to see the clock/multi changes realtime.
It may o may not affect your max overclocking.

ive got my Bullguard with the bundle but that doenst seweet up things with instability.

also for the people with gigabyte p55 - LLC on lvl2 seems to increse stability a lot when trying to reach highest OC (at least for me) im posting this because i see that other people say to leave it disabled for better stability

 

[F2kSel]

Well I've asked for a refund this morning using support forum, can't get through on the phone no bios sent yesterday. The amount of time I've spent phoning and getting engaged tone or just ringing out I could have be learning to OC it myself.

 

[str4nger]

I will probably ask for a CPU exchange i can overclock myself but i want selected sample that will do 4GHz. I hope it will be possible. still no replay in the support forum (posted 14 dec)

 

[Khrest]

On the plus side I note the price of the bundle has gone up by £60 now that its not a this week only, which makes me feel better about the buying experience...

 

[F2kSel]

I got an instant reply when asked for a refund but only telling me that order number is for unpaid or cancelled order. It's says order number on the invoice?