G1.Sniper 2 Overclocking guide and Support for Gamers and OC'ers.

[Vivi]

Hey Dudes and gals!





THREAD SECTIONS

#1 Overclocking Guide
#2 Voltage report
#3Game tweaks and tricks (coming soon)





#1 Overclocking Guide

I set up a very basic guide to overclocking the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 2. It's suitable for newbies and the knowlege'd.

I will give any Overclocking support needed regarding this board in this thread. So ask away

Not every system is the same! So it's hard to "fine tweak" a guide.
Remember cooling is important, do not follow this guide with only a stock cooler.

In this situation i will be using a 2600k (applies to 2500k aswel)
and Memory that can run 1866mhz.

Let's get started!

Get in the BIOS! (spam delete key at boot)

Load Optimized defaults, just to clean all the settings.





Now lets enter the motherboard intelligent tweaker, this is where we will be setting all our main settings.





Jump into advanced frequency settings, this is all the CPU related stuff.





Boom! Go straight to 45 multi, just for the purpose of this guide. It's rare that a cpu can't do 4.5ghz so it should be fine. Also set your memory Divider to what your memory is rated at. In MY case 1866.





Now we will have a look at the Advanced CPU Core features. We won't change much but there is a very important setting in here.





Yea that important setting i was talking about.. It's called Interal CPU PLL Overvoltage, and without this you can forget about ever reaching high mhz. Some Cpu's can reach 4.5ghz without this turned on, but it's better for overall overclocking stability to keep it on always. For a 24/7 overclock leave everything else as it is.





Ok! Lets get into memory. Sandybridge memory is very hard to get stable in some cases, so i won't go too hard into this, it will be good to ask questions in this thread on getting your memory propperly overclocked and stable. But i will show you the basics.





RED: Disabled X.M.P. We will manually tune our memory.
GREEN: Select the multiplier of your memory.
YELLOW: Set your Timing selection to "QUICK". So we can change the timings of 1 memory stick and it will be applied to the other.





Now go into the Channel A timings menu.

GREEN: Timings with most effect on performance. Also the timings that cause system instability if too tight.
ORANGE: Timings with less effect on performance but can be lowered quite a bit from stock.

If you are a bit scared just stick to changing the Standard settings to what your memory is rated at. In my case 9-9-9-24 is fine. I would recommend making CMD (right at the bottom) 1.






Last but not least the MOST IMPORTANT THING that makes everything work. Voltage.





RED: Important voltages. 1.35v is safe, for anyone using aftermarket cooler. Multi-step Load Line on level 5 is the best setting. This means you won't lose any volts when the CPU is under Load. 1.35v with level 5 Multi-step will be around 1.4v real voltage, and it will stay 1.4v under load. Memory Voltage on 1.65 or whatever your memory is rated at.
Orange: Not so important, but MAY help for some in some cases. If your memory is unstable increase this voltage to around 1.15v.
GREEN: Not important volts at all. But Having PLL low is better than having it High, might help for temps.





WHEN YOU ARE DONE SAVE YOUR OC SETTINGS TO A PROFILE.
PRESS "F11" WHEN YOU ARE ON THE MAIN BIOS SCREEN.

This is what i acheived with the above settings

Config:

G1.Sniper 2
GTX 580
2600K







Ok that's it, i told you it was basic! Now experiment more yourself and ask questions here if you need help getting it stable.

FAQ:
What voltage is safe ?
Watch your temperature, but for CPU 1.35v and LLC Level 5 is very safe. Memory 1.65 - 1.7v should be ok Depending on how good it scales. Don't just increase volts if it doesnt help your clock or stability.

I am getting blue screens of death?
You are obviously unstable, take it one step at a time. Put your memory on stock speeds (if you have 2133 memory, put it on 1866), and only clock CPU to see if it's CPU instability. And so on. Possibly requires more volts or just can't reach your desired clock.






#2 Voltage Report

From my G1.Sniper 2 Power Check Thread.

If you want to know what voltage output you will get from what you put in the BIOS and what it ACTUALLY is look at the tests below.

Bios vs Multimeter (real)




Pretty damn accurate, memory is spot on.

Next up we have Gigabyte's famous array of LLC (Load Line Calibration) levels.

What is LCC? LLC counters the voltage lost when the CPU go's under load.
So what LLC does it tries to equalise the difference between IDLE and LOAD voltages.

Gigabyte has 10! Levels, this is how they perform.


BIOS SETTINGS

Vcore 1.3
Memory 1.65
VTT / IO 1.10




Very acceptable no LCC result!





























I would not recommend going above LLC6. It will just become more dangerous. So stick to 4 or 5. As stated in my OC guide, cool!