Pushing my i7 990X further

[Darkasantion]

Hello all,

Currently I’m running a custom build watercooled PC with the following hardware inside it:

Intel i7 990X@3.47Ghz, Watercooled
EVGA X58 Classified 3, Watercooled
3x2GB Corsair Dominator GT 1866Mhz@9-9-9-24
OCZ Revodrive 3 X2 240GB
Creative Titanium HD
2xHD6970 in Crossfire@1020/1400
Enermax Revo85+ 1250Watt

The water first runs trough the 2 GPU’s, then cools the X58 and then the CPU, before going into a big XSPC 360 Rad, followed by a big XSPC 240 Rad, and then the reservoir and pump.

I’ve pushed the PC as hard as I could and been running it at those speeds for quite a while now, but it keeps itching to push even further so that’s why I’ve come here, in order to ask for advice to push the PC even further, if possible…

It’s running on these settings right now:

Multi: x29
BClock: 160.6 Mhz
Vcore: 1.452V@Load
QPI: 3854.7Mhz
DDR3: 963.7@9-9-9-24@1.70V (Stock is 933Mhz@9-9-9-24@1.65V)
NB: 2891.1Mhz

Voltages:
Vcore in BIOS: 1.45000V
IOH/ICH I/O Voltage: 1.525V
ICH Vcore: 1.2V
QPI PLL Vcore: 1.125V
IOH PLL Vcore: 1.815V
CPU PLL Vcore: 1.815V
IOH Vcore: 1.125V
CPU VTT Voltage: 1.375V
DRAM Voltage: 1.70V

And the advice is seek is the following:
1. How much would I gain if I could push my NB towards ~4000Mhz? Alot or won’t it make a huge difference? Also, in order to clock the NB higher, which setting(s) do I need to tweak, because as soon as I go beyond 1,5x Memory clocks it won’t boot atm….
2. PCI-E is running at 102Mhz, would I gain something by going another 1~2Mhz faster or is that waisted time/effort?
3. Is it a good idea to put some more volts trough the PCI-E bus, considering I have my soundcard, my SDD and both GPU’s running on it?
4. How much would I gain by having memory with higher speeds and/or lower latencies? For example, +2100Mhz @8-8-8-20 orso.
5. How much would I gain if I would increase my BClock any further? Right now the limit seems to be around 166Mhz, but I’m guessing that’s the memory holding me back, or the chip going beyond 4.75GHz without enough volts.
6. Is it a good idea to lower my multi towards 28 or lower and start pushing my BClock more, while also pusing the QPI/NB higher, with the memory staying around 950Mhz? Or wouldn’t I gain alot there?

Some questions are a bit basic, I realize that, but I’m really keen on finding out where I possible could gain a bit more of performance(if possible) or if there have been area’s where I’ve been lacking/underperforming in terms of pushing things towards the max.

[TheSandman]

Seriously using 1.45V for x29? strike that thought you were at 3.47 not 4.6,

You need 1.375V on CPU VTT on those? I am surprised you couldnt get them stable at 1.25V-1.3 . I wouldnt even cross 1.3 QPI/DRAM or CPU VTT or QPI V (depending on your board company) with a gulftown.\

I had 980x where I had Corsair GT 12gb (4gbx3) where I could get them stable at 1.22V QPI/DRAM (CPU VTT) @ 2021

Answer 1) Maybe, youll need to increase your IOH V if you want your uncored higher than 1.5x , IOH V I was running at 1.28V for the last 2 years. I never really tweeked with it for than like 1.55X

2) I never saw much of gain increase PCI -E , except it caused havok with my Intel RAID card.
3) No, that pain in the rear. Not sure whys behind why you want to.
4) CAS (within reason is better ), however you can only OC memory to certain point. Real world apps are really limited by tweaking your memory. Unless the year I have gone the world has changed radically.
5) You could change the DRAM:FSB ratio and lower the memory speed and increase the CPU until you reach 1833 again.
6) If anyone can clarify DRAM:FSB significance on a CoreI7 love to hear it. Honestly I ran multiple times at 51x at 100fsb =5100 x 1.45V. Never had any issue except when I tried it at 26x 196 I had to use more Cpu V to obtain the same speed. So I use Multipler exclusively on extreme editions

Seriously they need change CPU Z validator where it show all the v values + Linx passed.


Oh ya: Rampage IV extreme users . If you hook your android phone (namely rezound) to your USB to charge and reboot. It will stall on reboot until you remove the device.