Why did OcUK set up my system like this?

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Ok, well I recently purchased an overclocked bundle to get a guaranteed overclockable chip. I was obviously going to do the OCing myself and discard its current settings, but it was slightly strange as to how it had been set up.

First of all, the DRAM volts were only just within the 0.5V tolerance to VTT, which was pretty dangerous for the on chip memory controller. Plus, they were over the 1.65v general limit for i7's (probably because of the VTT constriant, however)

Second, the LLC was enabled and on level 2. You could have disabled it, compensated for the vdroop and just had slightly higher idle temps, and saved a 45nm chip a lot of voltage spikes

Third, it was set like 191* 21 multi, whereas 200*20 would have had it at the same frequency, as well as running the DRAMs at the right speed.

Fourth, the temperature and fan failiure guards were disabled, which is worrying.

I don't wish to slam or offend any of the OCuK lab team, you guys probably know something more than me, just wanted some answers, thanks.
 
I assume it's i7 which I am not too familiar with bbut in general I have the following points to make.

1. within 0.5v tolerance is still within tolerance and if that's what's needed to be stable then end of story.

2. There is a huge debate about LLC and it's benifits/disadvantages. Personally I have had better overlcocks with LLC enabled but I understand the theory about it overvolting the cpu with spikes. If it's stable though, don't worry about it.

3. The multi settings does seem weird so no comment on that. 20*200 would be better.

4. I always diasable the temperature and fan failure guards on my system but that's personal choice. It is a worry to see them disabled with a bought system though.
 
Welcome to the forums

20*200 seems to be preferred by gigabyte boards, 21*191 by Asus. There's not much to call between the two in terms of performance.

QPI to vdimm is a tricky thing to optimise. It's either an optimum ratio or an optimum difference, specific to each combination, but it's hard to know which. I'd have expect a difference of about 0.25 to 0.3V though, so who knows. Rjkoneill is probably the chap to speak to.
 
The VTT to DRAM was damn close to 0.5v and a fluctuation could have been dangerous, I think

A gigabyte board was sold with it as part of the bundle, so why was it not set like that? I got the chip to 4.26GHZ stable anyway with 203*21 and put the UnCore in ratio with that to keep everything right

Also, about LLC. Exposing a 45nm chip to voltage spikes will lower its life and potentially melt sockets etc I have heard, so I opted to turn it off. vDroop is there by design.
 
While I agree with you on llc, it's not something to discuss in absolutes. A high idle voltage is also bad for the processor, and judging whether transient spikes or higher idle is more dangerous is borderline impossible. No cpu deaths have been attributed to it yet, but then processors seem to be pretty resilient. LLC isn't going to melt sockets, the most likely thing it'll do is burn out the circuitry delivering power to your processor.

The 0.5V difference is something of a rule of thumb, and I think mostly based on stock qpi being 1.15V and maximum vdimm stated as 1.65V with a few examples of dead chips where the difference between them was greater than this. Intel's own specifications are often, not ignored as such, but assumed to be flexible so it seems strange to worry about breaking an overclockers rule of thumb.

Perhaps your chip just liked x21 more, or maybe the guy overclocking it liked that more. Who knows.
 
Well, my idle volts are about 1.328V, which isnt bad I don't think. Temps only about 3C higher than they came and I also got it to 4.26GHZ

Yeah, LLC isn't categorically going to cause problems, but I disagree with it.

Kinda strange about the fan guard settings too.

You'd have thought someone who was building and testing it would choose the optimal settings for that frequency though, wouldn't you?
 
To be honest I'd have thought they'd find stable settings in the minimum time possible, as the charge per bundle is pretty low and you pay staff by the hour. This is pretty much why I don't buy preoverclocked cpus (graphics cards are a different matter), I know I've got the time required to optimise the settings because my time is free. If it was stable when it turned up, and within sensible values I don't think you can object really.

I turn temperature sensors off too, but am also surprised that they did so. Can't imagine you've tested stabilty in under an hour, so best of luck with your 4.26ghz.
 
Whats the big deal about running 191x21? My UD5 seems to handle that better than the higher BCLK. I understand it runs the ram either slower or outa sync but its really nothing to worry about.. Seems stupid to buy a pre overclocked system to do it yourself anyway.
 
^its not so a big deal, just wondering why they set it to a "worse" setting.
Otherwise he's got a VERY good point at the bios setting of his system.
For new pc users buying one of them, some of those settings are some what "dangerous" to disknowldegde buyers.
 
JonJ678 said:
To be honest I'd have thought they'd find stable settings in the minimum time possible, as the charge per bundle is pretty low and you pay staff by the hour. This is pretty much why I don't buy preoverclocked cpus (graphics cards are a different matter), I know I've got the time required to optimise the settings because my time is free. If it was stable when it turned up, and within sensible values I don't think you can object really.

I turn temperature sensors off too, but am also surprised that they did so. Can't imagine you've tested stabilty in under an hour, so best of luck with your 4.26ghz.
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You've raised a fair point. It took me a few hours of stability testing etc. then getting the volts as low as possible etc, but it doesn't make much sense as you could have done 200*20. Maybe that don't work on all 920s and they had limited time like you said.
 
I mean, it sounds as if they are trying to cater to people who do a lot of performance work or want to show off but don't have the capability to OC, so I doubt many questions like this are raised. Just asking, not meaning any harm here. I am not particularly experienced with overclocking, but I know my way around, so as to speak, and I knew that if I bought this bundle I'd be getting a guaranteed high clocking chip, which is what I wanted. However I hear 920's are very easy to get to 4.0GHZ.
 
miniyazz said:
Other way round, isn't it?
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Could be, I've lost track 2bh. My gigabyte doesn't like x21 but this may well be unusual.

@OP I don't really know why people buy overclocked bundles. I imagine it's to save time in the short term, though as they're likely to need maintenance eventually I'm not sure it makes that much sense. Presumably a few pay for the guaranteed overclock then work on it themselves, but the odds of getting a 920 D0 which is chip limited rather than cooling/motherboard limited seem fairly slim.
 
Bradley8988 said:
Whats the big deal about running 191x21? My UD5 seems to handle that better than the higher BCLK. I understand it runs the ram either slower or outa sync but its really nothing to worry about.. Seems stupid to buy a pre overclocked system to do it yourself anyway.
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My E6600 runs better with an 425x8 multi to get 3.4Ghz, but couldn't get it stable anywhere near the 378x9.

Tried asking OcUK?
 
Hi, I think i probably got the same bundle as you (i7 920 and ud3r?) except mine has come with the bios at default settings. Either i missed something or for some reason the bios has reset. I went for the bundle because I havent OC'd since the q6600 and didn't want to spend ages researching/testing etc. Don't suppose you could give me a headsup on the settings they set it with or should be with to get this at 4ghz? I'll call them tomorrow to ask otherwise but but it'd be nice to get it up and running today. There was thermal pate residue on the cpu so they deffinately tried something!
 
I'll call them tomorrow to ask
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good luck i am still waiting 6 months down the line for the settings to be sent to me. As it goes i dont need them now, done it myself after many days of messing with settings.
 
Mr Fujisawa said:
Hi, I think i probably got the same bundle as you (i7 920 and ud3r?) except mine has come with the bios at default settings. Either i missed something or for some reason the bios has reset. I went for the bundle because I havent OC'd since the q6600 and didn't want to spend ages researching/testing etc. Don't suppose you could give me a headsup on the settings they set it with or should be with to get this at 4ghz? I'll call them tomorrow to ask otherwise but but it'd be nice to get it up and running today. There was thermal pate residue on the cpu so they deffinately tried something!
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You had a look to see if they have saved the settings under a profile in the BIOS ?
 
Mr Fujisawa said:
Hi, I think i probably got the same bundle as you (i7 920 and ud3r?) except mine has come with the bios at default settings. Either i missed something or for some reason the bios has reset. I went for the bundle because I havent OC'd since the q6600 and didn't want to spend ages researching/testing etc. Don't suppose you could give me a headsup on the settings they set it with or should be with to get this at 4ghz? I'll call them tomorrow to ask otherwise but but it'd be nice to get it up and running today. There was thermal pate residue on the cpu so they deffinately tried something!
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That happened to me when I first got it. If you press F12 on the BIOS screen, you can load OcUK's overclock profile.
 
I think if you have this kind of advanced knowledge, you probably aren't going to be happy with an off-the-shelf solution, and should probably be building your own kit.
 
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