Trying to get to 4GHz - some concerns

didgemaster

didgemaster

didgemaster

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Taunton, Somerset
I am trying to get a stable overclock of 4GHz but it seems that I am having to use quite a lot of voltage and I am no ware near stable yet. I have been seeing a lot of 4GHz stable overclocks that use a lot less voltage than I am currently using

Kit:
I7 920
Gigabyte x58-ud5
OCZ Obsidian 6GB
Corsair H50 + 2 x Apache fans
Corsair HX850 PSU
3 x nVidia GTS250 (Asus Dark Night)

Below are my settings, please can you take a look and see what I might be doing wrong

CPU CLOCK RATIO [19 X]
Intel® Turbo boost Tech [Enabled]
CPU Cores Enabled [All]
CPU Multi-Treading [Enabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) [Disabled]
C3/c5/c7 state support [Disabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor [Disabled]
CPU EIST Function [Disabled]
Virtualization Technology [Enabled]
Bi-Directional PROCHOT [Disabled]


QPI Link Speed [x36]
Uncore Frequency [x16]
Isochronous Support [Enabled]



BCLK Frequency (Mhz) [191]
PCI Express [Auto]
C.I.A.2 [Disabled]

CPU Clock Drive [ 800mV]
PCI Express Clock Drive [ 900mV]
CPU Clock Skew [ 0ps]
IOH Clock Skew [ 0ps]


Performance Enhance [Turbo]
System Memory Multiplier [8.0]

DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) [Auto]

Load-Line Calibration [Enabled]


CPU Vcore [1.31875V]
QPI/Vtt Voltage [1.315V]
IOH Core [Auto]
DRAM [1.640V]
CPU PLL [1.800V]
 
1.3V vcore and qpi is pretty standard, which bits are you worried about?

I really, really hope you're working from stable, minimum voltage settings at 3.8ghz and not jumping straight in at 4ghz. You have to increase in small steps or there is no way of knowing which voltage needs to be increased/decreased to find stability.
 
JonJ678 said:
1.3V vcore and qpi is pretty standard, which bits are you worried about?

I really, really hope you're working from stable, minimum voltage settings at 3.8ghz and not jumping straight in at 4ghz. You have to increase in small steps or there is no way of knowing which voltage needs to be increased/decreased to find stability.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply

I shall go back to 3.8GHz and get that stable first

Forgot to mention Windows 7 64bit
 
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OK now I don't know what to do I have the same settings as above but the

BCLK 181
CPU Vcore [1.4000V]
QPI/Vtt Voltage [1.335V]
IOH Core [Auto]
DRAM [1.660V]
CPU PLL [1.840V]

3.8GHz and its not stable with this amount of Voltage!?
 
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Stop pushing more voltage for the time being. I suggest you drop to stock settings, set voltages to the various defaults, then overclock for as far as you can while stable, without changing voltages.

Then you push bsck up enough for it to stop being stable, and start playing with voltages to bring it back. Then repeat.

There are quicker ways, such as setting 200x20, 1.35V and hoping for the best, but they leave you in a position where you don't know which settings are causing the problem. I much prefer the slow approach, tend to do a few hundred mhz each weekend for a couple of months.

That said though, what temperature are you running at? Also these two
CPU Clock Drive [ 800mV]
PCI Express Clock Drive [ 900mV]
Do you need these settings to improve stability? I've not had to touch either at 200x20
 
didgemaster said:
OK now I don't know what to do I have the same settings as above but the

BCLK 181
CPU Vcore [1.4000V]
QPI/Vtt Voltage [1.335V]
IOH Core [Auto]
DRAM [1.660V]
CPU PLL [1.840V]

3.8GHz and its not stable with this amount of Voltage!?
Click to expand...

Bad bad bad. Don't stick the CPU Vcore that high. Maximum is 1.375V for i7.

Trying the slow approach tends to give the best results has Jon said. And that CPU PLL seems quite high also. Mine is only on 1.3V. Unless I dropped it. Can't remember now :(

Overclocking i7 is a bit more of an art, than Core 2 Duo I found. But it's worth taking slowly.
 
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JonJ678 said:
That said though, what temperature are you running at? Also these two
CPU Clock Drive [ 800mV]
PCI Express Clock Drive [ 900mV]
Do you need these settings to improve stability? I've not had to touch either at 200x20
Click to expand...

Temperature never went above 70 c and I have not played around with
CPU Clock Drive or the PCI Express Clock Drive
 
Although not ideal to use other people settings try these mate see how you do and report back, as said slow steady is good but i remember how fustrating it was getting stable

BCLK 191
Turbo : On
CPU Vcore [1.3250V]
QPI/Vtt Voltage [1.3V]
IOH Core [Auto]
DRAM [1.660V]
CPU PLL [1.3V]
CPU Clock Skew [ 100ps]
PCIE freq 101

Other setting as you have said
 
BigBruiserAl said:
Although not ideal to use other people settings try these mate see how you do and report back, as said slow steady is good but i remember how fustrating it was getting stable

BCLK 191
Turbo : On
CPU Vcore [1.3250V]
QPI/Vtt Voltage [1.3V]
IOH Core [Auto]
DRAM [1.660V]
CPU PLL [1.3V]
CPU Clock Skew [ 100ps]
PCIE freq 101

Other setting as you have said
Click to expand...

Will try these although I can not do 1.3 on the vcore 1.295/1.315 I will try both
 
Blue screens on both QPI voltages

same error as always for the blue screens:

MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
0x0000001A

I can't get a stable overclock for more than 8 mins 20 secs
 
Just checking in before going to work

I will change the setting to standard

Also I haven't mentioned that I have a RAID 5 array running from the motherboard - would it be worth overclocking with just 1 drive and/or removing 2 of the 3 gpus?
 
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hey,

just a quick question what is the stock volts of your chip?

try putting your PCI express to 101 not auto.

put your base clock to 190 rather than 191 can sometimes make a small difference.

then try dropping your memory multi to 6 and see if it then becomes stable
and input the latencies of your memory rather than putting them on auto.

see if this helps
 
OK people this has now turned from a quest to find 4 GHz to finding the faulty part

At stock i.e. optimum setting in BIOS the system is not stable it lasts 20 mins on prime 95 before falling over! guess I should have tried this first. I have tested the memory with memtest x86 V4.0 @ 1600MHz the timings were left on auto and were 10-9-9-22 and it passed a full test. I have 1 GPU attached and no RAID array. What should I use to test the CPU?

I also can not get easytune 6 to run any ideas?
 
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