Project: Blue on Black

[Bolas]

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1189371

[ACEkombatkiwi]

Congrats on a very impressive build bro, you have put alot of thought into your system.
I would love to get my hands on a 980x.
Have you thought about joining the XS World Community Grid team that CPU would be good for 40k - 50k points per day.
Also you QPI speed is below stock 3200Mhz what is it at if you leave the multi to auto with the 160 bus speed.

[Bolas]

Congrats on a very impressive build bro, you have put alot of thought into your system.
I would love to get my hands on a 980x.
Have you thought about joining the XS World Community Grid team that CPU would be good for 40k - 50k points per day.
Also you QPI speed is below stock 3200Mhz what is it at if you leave the multi to auto with the 160 bus speed.

I used the Gigabyte "Smart 6" tool to overclock, I am still very new to overclocking so not sure really what to mess with on the BIOS at all. The only thing I've changed myself is the memory, I changed it from XMP disabled to XMP enabled, and then after I used the Smart6 tool to OC, it crashed the system, and I checked the BIOS and saw that the 12 GB of memory was trying to go at 1920 MHz and it's only rated for 1600 MHz, so I backed off the multiplier from auto to 10 so that it'd boot. Not sure if I did that wrong or what, like I said, I'm very new to this.

Not sure what you're suggesting that I try, actually.

[Bolas]

I did manage to hack my load screen using the "Face Wizard" tool. I now have the following load screen instead of default.

http://evildagmarx.deviantart.com/ar...-31337-8276301

The only problem? I would like to change back to default sometimes, and I do not have that file, so not sure how to do so, LOL.

[ACEkombatkiwi]

Hi firstly uninstall that gigabyte utility reboot and go into your bios goto page 41 of your manual set
*CPU Clock Ratio to 30
*go in to advance CPU features disable CPU enhanced halt c1e, CPU thermal monitor, virtualization technology
*go back base clock control set it to auto
*performance enhance set it to standard
*go to the bottom of the page set the cpu vcore to 1.25v
*run a stability test if it fails raise the cpu vcore up 0.025v increments untill complete stability has been reached

the beauty of owning an extreme edition cpu so easy to overclock

[Bolas]

* go back base clock control set it to auto

auto was not an option. BCLK was left at 133. I could increase it if needed though.

I'm trying that out now, we'll see how it goes. Looks like it has made it through the post and is loading windows now... doh nope, crashes while loading windows.

Clearing CMOS and trying again.

[Bolas]

think i should have cleared cmos after uninstalling the "smart6" utility.... trying it again.

[HaNoom]

Looking Good i like your system.
i like 800D but in Thailand not agent for sell this case and very expensive if import

[Bolas]

Looking Good i like your system.
i like 800D but in Thailand not agent for sell this case and very expensive if import

Thank you, very kind of you to say that. Hopefully someone will sell them there soon.

[Armitage]

Glad to see it is up and running after the problems.
(Also I just read that i spelled "heat" wrong twice. It's weird considering I usually read what I type. I dunno how I did that twice).

Your temps look really good. I think mine starts up at around 32c. I have a 920 though. I'd help with OC but I am more familiar with 920/eVGA so it would be hard to throw out some tips.

[ACEkombatkiwi]

Hi no it shouldn't matter about clearing the cmos how are you getting along

[Bolas]

Hi no it shouldn't matter about clearing the cmos how are you getting along

I went out of town on business and set it back to stock speeds so that I wouldn't have to worry about my wife using it while I was gone.

I'm thinking that what I'll do is bump one thing up slightly every night before I go to bed, then run a stress test overnight and check the results in the morning. That way, I think I'll have the best chance of optimizing the results.

I suppose I could also use some "design of experiments" techniques to optimize.

I really just need to read up more on overclocking, I think.

[Bolas]

Ok, so I get back from my business trip, ready to try some overclocking... and after a week powered off, my computer won't boot. And won't install windows. I have to format the SSD drive in order to do a fresh install of Windows 7. Which now means I have to reinstall everything. Considering I spent hours getting it just the way I wanted it last time, that's a bit annoying. Also, my 90 day trial of Norton Internet Security has now suddenly shrunk to a 30 day trial, bleah.

I seem to be having problems with my hard drives. Both the SSD and the data drive. Wonder what's causing that. I currently don't have the data drive plugged in or configured at all in case that was jacking things up. I'll probably end up doing a full format on that as well. Since it's a new system, there isn't really anything on it at all that I need to keep. Still, it's a bit annoying and frustrating.

[ohms]

Nice to see your build is complete. You gotta love those Obsidian 800D's but man they are huge. The sleeving turned out real nice and the blue with the black was a nice touch on matching up the case and motherboard.

congrats on your build

Looking forward to seeing that 980X overclock.

[klataa]

U have a great build! Grats! what r your Ambient temps?

[Bolas]

Just had a successful burn test for stability of my first solid over-clock. Temps never went over 53 degrees Celsius for any core. Only a 4 GHz overclock, but I'm thrilled because I'm completely new to this and don't really know what I'm doing LOL.

[Bolas]

New high overclock.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1208752

[Bolas]

Found a good guide for how to overclock core i7 for noobs. I'm following it and it seems pretty good so far. I'll post the things I tried and results once I am further along in the process. Currently working on finding the max BCLK.

http://www.overclockers.com/3-step-g...core-i3-i5-i7/

[Bolas]

Methodically checking BCLK and Vtt.

Leave uncore on auto
Set mult to 17x
set QPI ratio to 36x
leave VCore on auto
set mem mult to 6x

This should have the effect of isolating BCLK as it relates to Vtt, at least to some extent. Now I'll test BCLK and see what VTT gives a stable BCLK for each level.

BCLK Vtt Result
150 1.22 OK
160 1.22 OK
170 1.22 Fail hard
170 1.24 Fail medium
170 1.26 Fail soft
170 1.28 OK
180 1.28 Fail hard
180 1.30 Fail medium
180 1.32 Fail medium
180 1.34 OK
190 1.34 Fail hard
190 1.36 Fail medium
190 1.38 Fail medium
190 1.40 Fail medium

So without jacking with the uncore, it looks like my max BCLK is between 180 and 190. That means... time to mess with the uncore.

With the mem mult at 6x, changing the uncore mult to 12x gives FAIL FAIL FAIL. Had to reset CMOS and redo everything in the BIOS from scratch. Forgot the consequences, did it again, and fail again. Another full CMOS reset and redo of the BIOS.

So let's bump up the mem mult to 8x and that gives a memory frequency a little closer to rated specs. Trying the uncore at 16x, twice the mem multiplier.

BCLK Vtt Result
180 1.34 OK
182 1.34 OK

Hmm... maybe I should drop down one notch on the uncore, to 15x mult. let's test that.

BCLK Vtt Result
184 1.34 OK

Maybe with the uncore at 15x, I can go up bigger chunks of BCLK at a time. Let's try 190.

BCLK Vtt Result
190 1.34 OK

I should mention that when I say "fail hard" I mean it doesn't boot into windows, "fail medium" means that it boots into windows but crashes on the very first pass of Linx, and "fail soft" means crashes somewhere between the 2nd and 20th runs of Linx at 512 MB.

Testing higher BCLK's, still with 8x mem and 15x uncore.

BCLK Vtt Result
200 1.34 OK
210 1.34 OK

That's over what I want to end up with for BCLK, since my memory is rated for timings of 1600 MHz and that's a nice 8x multiple of 200. So let's see if I can go with lower Vtt now that I fiddled with the uncore clock.

BCLK Vtt Result
200 1.32 OK
200 1.30 OK... but saw something wonky upon trying to enter bios again. Maybe I need to go back to higher voltage or test longer?
200 1.28 OK

At this point, I'm a little leery. Did fiddling with the uncore make a difference between a max BCLK of 170 when the Vtt was at 1.28V and a max BCLK of 200+? Looks like it did. I'm comfortable with a Vtt of 1.34 volts or lower, and with a BCLK of 200 or higher, so looks like the system can handle that OK. I'll need to do some extended stability testing to see exactly what voltage is required for long term stability of BCLK 200, but I don't have time to do that tonight, so I'll move on to testing a different parameter. At this point, with my memory at 1600 MHz and the rest set using XMP profile 1, I'm done with BCLK and with memory, only the multiplier and the core voltage remain to be dealt with.

[Bolas]

Next, I'll try lowering the IoH voltage, to see if that will be stable at lower values.

BCLK Vtt IoH Core Result
200 1.30 1.12 OK

Looks like I didn't have to use the 1.3V for IoH Core that the guide recommended. I'll test out the default 1.1V sometime, but for now it's time for bed. So I'll do an extended burn at these values to see if it's stable for longer than 3 minutes.

Multiplier 17x
VCore auto
QPI 36x
Mem 8x
Uncore 15x
BCLK 200
Vtt 1.3V
IoH Core 1.12V

Next time I have some free time to overclock (probably not until next week) I will start working on the cpu multiplier and the Vcore to see how those interact given the values I've picked for BCLK, Memory mult, uncore, Vtt, and IoH.

One more thing... temperatures. Idle temps between 21 and 31 degrees C, and load temps between 49 and 54 degrees C, with these settings.

[Wezly]

Thank you

[Bolas]

I realize that bumping an entire multiple is too big of a jump to really make much progress in understanding my system, so I'm going to back off the memory timings and start working on slowly bumping up the VCore while raising the BCLK to see how much of a frequency I can get. I back off the memory timings to the lower setting so that my memory won't be causing any problems while I fiddle with the VCore and BCLK (at least hopefully).

CPU Mult 25x
Mem Mult 8x
Uncore 15x
VTT 1.34V

I know from past testing that with an uncore mult of 15x and a VTT of 1.34, the BCLK will be stable all the way up to 210, so I don't have to worry that this will be causing any problems as I fiddle with the VCore and slowly increase the BCLK.

BCLK VCore Result
162 1.3375 OK
164 1.3375 OK
166 1.3375 Fail med
166 1.35 Fail soft
166 1.3625 OK

At this point, my QPI link speed seems to be getting up there a bit high. I forgot to lower the QPI clock ratio, so I drop that from x44 to x36.

BCLK VCore Result
168 1.3625 fail soft
168 1.375 fail soft
168 1.3875 OK
170 1.3875 fail soft
170 1.4 fail soft

So I've hit my voltage limit of 1.4V and no stable 4.25GHz OC, so it looks like without further tweaking to something, 4.2GHz will be my limit for this chip. Now I'll see if I can optimize the mult and BCLK for a 4.2GHz OC, and try to get the memory timings up a bit without jacking everything.

[Bolas]

I'll see if dropping the BCLK and increasing the cpu mult will help me make some progress. Setting the QPI mult back to 44x, the BCLK control to "disabled", the mem mult to 10x, the uncore to 19x, the VTT to 1.34, and the VCore to 1.3875 and playing with the cpu mult gives:

CPU Mult Result
30x OK
31x OK
32x fail med

Note that CPU-Z was showing that the BCLK was at 135, even though it showed as 133 in BIOS with BCLK control disabled. I guess my computer wanted to overclock itself a bit or something.

So now I turn back on BCLK control and try again. Let's see if I can lower VCore a bit with the 31x cpu mult and the 133 BCLK. I go for 1.3625 and the result is OK. Time to start stepping up the BCLK again to see what I can get with a higher mult. Leaving CPU mult set at 31x gives:

BCLK VCore Result
133 1.3625 OK
135 1.3625 fail med
135 1.375 fail soft
135 1.3875 OK
136 1.3875 OK
137 1.3875 fail soft
137 1.4 OK
138 1.4 fail soft

Hit the voltage limit again. Looks like 31 x 137 is my best OC with this chip, about 4.247 GHz. I think I'll try to optimize with voltage a bit below the max and see if I can bump up the memory, uncore, and qpi timings a bit. Dropping to 31 x 136 and VCore of 1.3875, I'll now start tinkering with the other timings.

[Bolas]

I'm now going to fiddle with a few other things. Leaving the cpu mult at 31x, setting the BCLK to 136, the Vcore to 1.3875, the VTT to 1.34, I'll muck with the other timings.

Memory mult gets a bump from 10x to 12x. Uncore goes from 19x to 22x. QPI gets a bump from 44x to 48x. This puts me at 4.21GHz cpu speed, 1632 MHz memory speed (a bit over the rated 1600 MHz, but I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best), 6.52 GHz QPI link speed, 2992 MHz Uncore frequency. Let's see if this even boots up or not.

It boots. CPU-Z shows 4216.9 MHz for CPU frequency, 31x multiplier, 136 bus speed, 3265 MHz QPI link, 816 memory speed... but... it fails on pass #2 of Linx. Hmm... let's try changing the uncore frequency a bit.

[Bolas]

I wonder if the memory is jacking things up? Maybe with a lower BCLK and a higher mult I could come in just under the rated memory frequency and do better. I'll bump the cpu mult to 32x and drop the BCLK to 130 and try that. Mem mult is at 12, giving a memory frequency of 1560 MHz. QPI clock ratio is at 48x, giving a QPI link speed of 6.24 GHz. Uncore is at 24x, giving an uncore frequency of 3120 MHz. VTT at 1.34. VCore at 1.3875.

That passed! Yay. Now to inch up the BCLK again and see if I can do better.

Bumping BCLK up to 131 and rebooting... 4.192 MHz, 32 x 131, let's see how it goes... doh, failed on pass #18 of Linx. Wonder if it's due to an odd number for BCLK and I should try an even one? I'm out of time for tonight, so I'll have to try it another time.