Sandy bridge OC Guide

[TiN_]

Lots of talks there, lets better bench and make scores, rather than talks This will render all happy in their ways.

P.S. comparing "analogue" vs "digital" VRM's is nothing but talks because Intersil, CHIL and Volterra and Richtek and all other syncronous buck SMPS are MIXED-SIGNAL curcuits. They are both worlds. Just one solution differ from another, like Ford card from BMW or from Mercedes. Practice will show us what is best for racing, and what is best for riding city.

[Movieman]

Here is my chime...

This post and others like it for ASRock, MSI, and Gigabyte for new products are basically advertorials. Basically some marketing points that have been delivered by the various manufacturers and some personal experience by the user or users. I have no problems with it and everyone does it. Am I happy about it, not really as I think there is a different way to deliver the message.

The difference with the OP in the UD7 preview/review thread is that he presented marketing statements and/or false assumptions about features on our new boards without actually testing either our board or Gigabyte's board to confirm or deny those statements. As such, it is no longer an advertorial or preview but is considered to be a review. One that is fraught with inaccuracies that were pointed out by Peter and were discussed with the OP. However, he continued to push these false assumptions and so we will respond to them.

I have no issue if the "problems" he described about our new P67 boards were true, we are not perfect, nobody is, but I do have a problem when those statements/assumptions are outright false and the testing methodology is based on reading datasheets or reposting marketing slides. He made assumptions from documents and marketing slides without any scientific testing of the boards to confirm his (gigabyte's marketing message) statements. That is my problem and when it comes down to it, it should be yours also.

Honestly, if he had left ASUS out of this directly or changed his assumptions about our PWM/EFI setup based on sound test methodologies then there would not have been a response even though his assumptions about the capabilities of the Gigabyte PWM are also false in several areas. That eventually would have been brought to light by a reputable website or power user so no response from our end was even required.

I expect some negatives to be mentioned by reputable websites or power users about our boards. As I stated we are not perfect and will address those issues but at least we admit it. In fact we gave a wide variety of press members and enthusiasts the ability to test and comment on our products early on without strings attached. We had a lot of very positive comments and we had comments on areas of improvement that will be addressed in the next product cycle. At least we are open about our intentions and responses, no hidden agendas here unlike others.

bingo13 glad you brough it into your own thread. Gary you never will back off, you tried to PM me my inbox was full i emptied it. I am asking your guy here questions becuase his write up is a ASUS marketing ploy, hey here is a Sandy Bridge OC guide that actually is an ASUS motherboard OC guide/review. Its ok because I have a real OC guide I made myself after a few weeks of testing and more than one chip. It has nothing to do with Gigabyte though. This guy restated ASUS marketing, do you know what I did? i wrote my article then saw the Gigabyte media kit and used them to back me up. Actually no one had anything good to say about what I said, no one said it was wrong either. Here is what happened.

Shamino asked questions I responded, he didn't like when I put down Volterra, becuase he pushed for it in the Classy. But now he works for ASUS so you tried to get him to make me look bad.

Next bingo13 you tried to make me look bad then you made threats, then you made more threats, how do you know I didn't take the board to a university I work at and have it tested? you really have no idea who i am man. But you are right I don't have your board, but I don't think it mattetrs unless Chil totally did a 180 and change digital PWM design. Chil better than Volterra, seems that isn't true, as far as most of the community is concerned, but you are saying transisent responce is better. Well this article says different: http://www.theoverclocker.com/backis...r-Issue-09.pdf

Then a last guy came into the thread and said the way i cam e to my conclusion was wrong, but that either way could be right, and that digital pwm transient responce might be faster by now, which is a real way to say hey there is nothing wrong but it might be different now even though its not i just had to say somthing to make you look bad.

Now you hate that article saying it was written by someone that works at interstill, you , ASUS marketing Manger, were corrected by a very nice member that he was an intern at the time.

Next we move on to does it matter? Hey if transient responce was that important, how come these boards aren't VRD 12 Certified? I see it no where in your marketing, but surly if Gigabyte has it written everywhere you would think it woudl be there for you guys.

Back on topic, "OC Guide" is short of true. you don't need to turn on C1E and EIST, you don't need to lower any of the other voltage, you don't call any OC Turbo short of confusing people. Next lets get to this, a boot into windows is NOT stable don't go raising multiplier. Any overclocker knows you have to test the stability, as yes this chip boots into windows it can run benchmarks, BUT try running Prime 95 or even better intel burn Test to test for stability.

One of three things will happen:
#1 processor will do the Stability test and pass
#2 processor is not do it and give you a blue screen before it is finished
#3 Processor will over heat becuase of its ability to exceed TDP and thus thermal throttle.

Most of these benchmarkers might wanna rerun their benchmarks, as I have a few aircoolers here and some just cannot handle the heat of these processors at load.

just somthing that really bothered me.

Also not every boot into windows is stable, most are 1/2 stable, aka able to run benchmark, but may throttle, or crash.

Can you explain to us why you want to keep on C1E and EIST?

Can you explain to us the question I had about the volterra data sheet?


Now back to my question about you guys taking 8x of lanes and making it x32, isn't this where the NF200 got its bad rep for increasing latency? Also does those switches increase latency?
I guess we gotta wait for a site to bench it against each other. Pity I also have my SLI setup on normal NF200 setup, I am just going to compare it against X58 SLI, if it loses then so be it.

You know what, this retarded 'end-user' forum marketing. A while back I promised myself not to post on this forum anymore, or at least not to get involved in absolute useless debates.

I'll get back to the real OC forums like benchtec, OCA, classicplatforms and ocxtreme to discuss with real hw fanatics. So:

@ S.Bassiri: Nice thread, nice info.

@ SXS112: Nice thread, nice info.

Agendas..Will they never end?
sin0833:
Suggestion? Ignore anything that doesn't effect you..
See the politics behind some of these posts and just smile.
Bingo13:
Smarter to just make your own thread as lets be honest here,people know you work for Asus and see the posts as marketing and attacking a competitor.
Massman:
Nah, I won't say it!

Bottom line guys is right now you have a choice of the Asus board, the Gigabyte, the MSI or the Intel.
Reality is from what I've seen is that the Intel will clock the highest using the multi, the Asus will clock the highest using the BCLK( app108-110 max) the Gigabyte seems to be very good but just a tiny bit behind the Asus and the MSI I haven't seen a thing on yet so I can't comment there.
Now thats my honest opinion from what I've seen and read and I don't have any agenda at all except to find what is the best.
What would I buy myself if I was buying today?
It's a tossup between the GB UD5 and the Asus board but again, I haven't seen the MSI board so they might have a winner also.

[TiN_]

Movieman

There are more board for SB to fire up. EVGA (both classy and non), Asrock, Foxconn etc...

[Movieman]

Movieman

There are more board for SB to fire up. EVGA (both classy and non), Asrock, Foxconn etc...

EVGA isn't ready yet and my personal opinion is I don't include the names Asrock and Foxconn when I think of "good" boards"
Let me clarify that last line.
I've used Asrock boards in surveylance systems I've built and they've held up well but I just don't think of them as top boards with all the bios features we'd find in the GB,Asus,MSI,etc..
Foxconn I've never used but have the same feeling on.

[massman]

dude i couldnt agree more with this. the rest about the other forums i dont agree with, but i do agree that these tactics are bull. this is marketing BS at its very finest.

I'm sorry.

Of course there are more than just a few true hw enthusiasts on this forum but i'm just more and more getting fed up with so-called 'nice' vendors using forums like this to spread marketing and pretend it's true end-user reports.

I've seen what the xs hwbot team is capable of, no doubt the people on that team are true hw people! :-D

[Movieman]

^^
To me the key is for all to come and show their products BUT not to attack the competition.
Just like we see negative campaigns run in politics that turns one's stomach.
Here companies should come, make a thread, show the products and let the end user decide.
BUT when they go into a competitor's thread and dump on his product they lose credibility in my eyes.
Positive not negative marketing is the way to go.

[sin0822]

Now we know why the Intel boards are OCing higher, I was told by someone with the board what the setting is that these other boards do not have. ASUS and GIGABYTE have been contacted by the person withthe Intel board and High OCes, and lucky for him he has no NDA. But he contacted both and told them what the setting is, so hopefully these Multiplier and Chip lock problem will be elivitated. BTW Gigabyte boards can do over 100blck very easily. Even on the Intel boards they take BLCk down for those high OCes with multi.

I think Intel has done this to sell their own boards beyond all, but this is not fair, as it creates and OC monopoly, I think it hurts free trade LOL but that is just me.

i will sit back and laugh mreo though movieman lol thanks for the suggestion.

On the one with the cars, i like my mercedes it rides nice in the city other than it eats gas, but so does ford, i owned a ford a few years back. I really like cadillac though nice ride.

[Leeghoofd]

If the bios engineers can implement the particular setting, then all boards are good to go (I hope :p)

Testing these boards will be a painfull job... not much seperates them for a daily user/clocker/gamer...

You can't leave me here all alone Massman , here in Moviemans laier...

[Movieman]

If the bios engineers can implement the particular setting, then all boards are good to go (I hope :p)

Testing these boards will be a painfull job... not much seperates them for a daily user/clocker/gamer...

You can't leave me here all alone Massman , here in Moviemans layer...

That's Lair..
Agreed, if all implement that setting then all should be pretty equal.

[miahallen]

Testing these boards will be a painfull job...

[_mat_]

Now we know why the Intel boards are OCing higher, I was told by someone with the board what the setting is that these other boards do not have. ASUS and GIGABYTE have been contacted by the person withthe Intel board and High OCes, and lucky for him he has no NDA. But he contacted both and told them what the setting is, so hopefully these Multiplier and Chip lock problem will be elivitated. BTW Gigabyte boards can do over 100blck very easily. Even on the Intel boards they take BLCk down for those high OCes with multi.

I talked to Intel and they gave me something like:

there is not any security preventing a higher overclock. However, there is a new setting in bios 1780 and newer that may help get a bit higher. Set the internal PLL voltage override to enable.

Is that the "feature", that the Intel boards have, but others don't? At least the UD7 and P8P67 Deluxe don't have something like this, even with their latest BIOS.

[zalbard]

Agreed, if all implement that setting then all should be pretty equal.

Should be a question of time, really... Otherwise Intel would piss off too many partners, and this is not reasonable.

[Chri$ch]

yeah, but it sucks short before release... all reviews are written and now it looks like the intel is the best OC board only because they don´t share the info / setting the partners.

@ _mat_

yes its the "Internal PLL voltage override"

[aussie-revhead]

Do you guys expect decent overclocking performance from mid-range motherboards? Do we really need 24 phase power?

Im looking at getting a P8P67 pro, will this do the job with a water cooled 2600K? Would a UD4 offer anything better?

[sin0822]

yeah, but it sucks short before release... all reviews are written and now it looks like the intel is the best OC board only because they don´t share the info / setting the partners.

@ _mat_

yes its the "Internal PLL voltage override"

Yea man Thanks for all your help! i am sure the companies GB and ASUS are greatful! Thanks for helping out the community, I think all boards even the value boards shoudl have this, idk why Intel didn't tell em. hopfully it can be implemented with a simple BIOS flash.

Too bad its not as easy as puching the CPU PLL voltage, even so changing a setting to enabled is easier! lol

-Aussie- nah you don't need all those phases to power any CPU just more phases helps output very clean voltage. I think after looking at my own power coonsumption numbers only 4-8 phases are needed to power these CPUs, but for OCing it seems the more is ussually better, but you have to look at quality, if the boards price scales then there is somthing good, like Gigabyte and Asus boards even MSi in many cases.

What really scares me is all the reform in China over labor laws, I read that its going to push production cost high and that all manufacturers are hit, we will be seeing a 10% increase across the board it seems. Not that reform is bad, people need to live well too.

[aussie-revhead]

Yea man Thanks for all your help! i am sure the companies GB and ASUS are greatful! Thanks for helping out the community, I think all boards even the value boards shoudl have this, idk why Intel didn't tell em. hopfully it can be implemented with a simple BIOS flash..

Not nice Intel, but the other manufacturers will pick this up very quickly.

Too bad its not as easy as puching the CPU PLL voltage, even so changing a setting to enabled is easier! lol.

So true

-Aussie- nah you don't need all those phases to power any CPU just more phases helps output very clean voltage. I think after looking at my own power coonsumption numbers only 4-8 phases are needed to power these CPUs, but for OCing it seems the more is ussually better, but you have to look at quality, if the boards price scales then there is somthing good, like Gigabyte and Asus boards even MSi in many cases..

The other thing that makes prices scale is all the extra pcies and Im not really worried about that atm, so for me its UD4 or 5 but UD5 has big jump in price due to 3x pcie and Im not sure what the Evo offers over the pro, but the deluxe and higher are 50%+ more cost than a pro so the pro looks like the best value atm.

What really scares me is all the reform in China over labor laws, I read that its going to push production cost high and that all manufacturers are hit, we will be seeing a 10% increase across the board it seems. Not that reform is bad, people need to live well too.

The world has been taking advantage of cheaper labour overseas for a long time at the cost of local jobs, its about time these workers reaped some benefits for their work too.

Do we have a confirmed release date for the K series? I read it may be 1.5 weeks after the others, is this true?

[prava]

What really scares me is all the reform in China over labor laws, I read that its going to push production cost high and that all manufacturers are hit, we will be seeing a 10% increase across the board it seems. Not that reform is bad, people need to live well too.

Dont worry. The moment the companies see that there are cheaper places to go they will move their fabs and thats it.

[Smartidiot89]

Nice guide! Although to me Sandy-Bridge clocking seems kinda... dull? Also if it's true that it doesn't scale with cold. Not saying it's bad but this combined with somewhat limited BCLK adjustments doesn't seem to make this a fun overclocking/tweaking platform unless I missed something?

Do we have a confirmed release date for the K series? I read it may be 1.5 weeks after the others, is this true?

I think that s1155 and Sandy-Bridge is to be released during CES which is just in a few days(?) or am I mixing it up with AMD Brazos?

[_mat_]

I think that s1155 and Sandy-Bridge is to be released during CES which is just in a few days(?) or am I mixing it up with AMD Brazos?

The NDA for press was lifted 3 hours ago. But processors are still not allowed to be sold until 9th of january. The Dualcores and some mobiles have to wait until 20th of February.

[massman]

The NDA for press was lifted 3 hours ago. But processors are still not allowed to be sold until 9th of january. The Dualcores and some mobiles have to wait until 20th of February.

Really? The NDA for selling the chips is later than the press NDA

[Johnny87au]

using H-Series intel mobo..

[kroks]

Es :d

[Leeghoofd]

Max Ram divider Johnny87 ? 1333 or does it boot higher ?

[Johnny87au]

Max Ram divider Johnny87 ? 1333 or does it boot higher ?

Not exactly sure tbh mate, It was anands OC.. using a intel based board..

[Pt1t]

I used Intel P67 ... with retail 2600K

Max Cpuz validation on air

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1570133



and 1M sub 7s