Core i7/X58 Overclocking Thread

[poupouxios]

Well, the jury is still out on this, intel says - some where (I do not know where) not to exceed 1.65v but then there's the intel electrical spec - see below - not sure what to believe. I try to stay below 1.65, a lot of folks are going by the rule of keeping memory volts within 0.5v of qpi/vtt. So if your qpi/vtt is 1.35v, you want to keep your memory volts to leas than or equal to 1.85v. I know of no one that had fried their cpu (yet).

OK thanks! I will wait to take and the other 2x1gb of my ram and i will try that what you said me! I don't understand this! Why cpuz says that my ocz until 667mhz can go? And in everest it shows me that my ram are 1333! And i have 5gb install and vista shows 4gb!

[anzial]

unclewebb, thanks for the info. TBH, I don't use realtemp to watch my processor speed, only temps, but it does report it correctly when I'm oc'ing. I was only curious why there was such a discrepancy b/n CPU tweaker and cpuz, hence my theory.

poupouxios, you are not running 32-bit windows by any chance, do you?

[poupouxios]

unclewebb, thanks for the info. TBH, I don't use realtemp to watch my processor speed, only temps, but it does report it correctly when I'm oc'ing. I was only curious why there was such a discrepancy b/n CPU tweaker and cpuz, hence my theory.

poupouxios, you are not running 32-bit windows by any chance, do you?

No, i know the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit! You can have in 32 bit 2^32 bytes ram and in 64bit you can have 2^64 bytes ram! Now i don't understand why is doing this! I think is something i have to do in BIOS of Asus P6T Deluxe..

[anzial]

Well, I dunno, I'm running vists 64 bit and all 6gb of my memory show up. I did run the same thing with Asus and had no problems either. There might be a setting in bios, yeah, forgot exactly what it is, look under cpu menu

[technut36]

I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me what would be the best motherboard for ocing 920. I currently have ud3p with q9550, the ud3p is very easy to oc and its very stable also it is very cheap.

What mobo would be best for ocing with

good stability,
good price,
easiness for ocing.

Thank you mates, cheers.

[SteveRo]

OK thanks! I will wait to take and the other 2x1gb of my ram and i will try that what you said me! I don't understand this! Why cpuz says that my ocz until 667mhz can go? And in everest it shows me that my ram are 1333! And i have 5gb install and vista shows 4gb!

Poup - I think I have seen this before - I don't know why everest does not match cpuz - what I trust is cpuz memory screen.

[SteveRo]

I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me what would be the best motherboard for ocing 920. I currently have ud3p with q9550, the ud3p is very easy to oc and its very stable also it is very cheap.

What mobo would be best for ocing with

good stability,
good price,
easiness for ocing.

Thank you mates, cheers.

I am partial to the gigabyte boards - I have the extreme.
Based on what I have seen, I think the UD5 is just as good as the extreme for less $!. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128362

[poupouxios]

Asus P6T Deluxe supports 1800 mhz ram? Because in some places i read it supports in others no!

[anzial]

I was able to put my oc'ed i7 to sleep a few times with no issues. The fans/pumps don't shut down, though so maybe it doesn't go to sleep completely. I have all power-saving features disabled though.

[Damien]

system in sig, can't seem to get my g.skill pi ddr3-1600 to do it's rated speeds no matter what i try. even 760mhz is working fine, but 800 = no go...not to mention my chip doesnt seem to be doing so good either in the overclocking department ;\ only got 3.8 stable on 1.36v so far, 4ghz blue screens up to 1.43v. haven't really messed with qpi voltage at all, tried up to 1.25v. the guys with UD5 are doing like 1.4v qpi but i have a UD3 x58 so i don't know if that applies or not.

[technut36]

I am partial to the gigabyte boards - I have the extreme.
Based on what I have seen, I think the UD5 is just as good as the extreme for less $!. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128362

thanks bud

[Damien]

kind of a double post in a way but i've tried a bit more here..

new build is in sig, i'm out of ideas here. I've tried leaving all memory settings at auto, manually set 8-8-8-21 (rated speeds), tried lower cpu clock, 1.64v on ram, 1.45v on qpi/vtt, etc... i just can't figure this out. no matter what, anything higher than 1520 results in it just sitting there with a blank screen when trying to boot then shuts down, comes back up and it had to set memory back to default, which makes it 1066 on my board i believe

1520 appears to be working with no issues, but this is really hindering me from trying to get a 4ghz stable clock down because that requires 1600mhz

anyone have any ideas?

i noticed in cpu-z that my SPD for 1600mhz is coming up as 2T...is this true? I was under the impression ddr3 can run 1T..i havent even tried 2T

[Chicken Patty]

Guys, got a questions

My RAM at default is designed to run at 1333 MHz. Right now it is running at 1524 MHz. What can I do to increase RAM stability without lowering the divider from 2:8 to 2:6??

I know that is my problem going from 4.0 GHz to 4.1 GHz because I wont boot like this. I drop my divider and it goes into windows and is stable for a long time, then it'll just take a slight bump in voltage to stable out the system. But ram seems to be holding me back in this case.

ANy remedies to this other than dropping the divider?

My DRAM voltage is 1.66v right now.

[anzial]

What can I do to increase RAM instability without lowering the divider from 2:8 to 2:6??

I think you already succeeded at that

IMHO, you might wanna try bumping QPI/PLL voltage as it also might be related the IMC being a little unstable at high overclocks

[Chicken Patty]

I think you already succeeded at that

IMHO, you might wanna try bumping QPI/PLL voltage as it also might be related the IMC being a little unstable at high overclocks

Woops lol. Thanks for pointing that out bro

what do you suggest QPI is at default of 1.1v and VTT is at 1.25v

[Utnorris]

I had to underclock my Corsair ram to get stability. They are running at 1200 instead of 1600, however they are only rated at 1333, so I didn't expect much. Also, if you check out the EVGA forums, a lot of people are having issues with Corsair non-dominator ram with the EVGA board. I am planning on getting the Mushkin 1600 ram when I get some more money.

[Chicken Patty]

I had to underclock my Corsair ram to get stability. They are running at 1200 instead of 1600, however they are only rated at 1333, so I didn't expect much. Also, if you check out the EVGA forums, a lot of people are having issues with Corsair non-dominator ram with the EVGA board. I am planning on getting the Mushkin 1600 ram when I get some more money.

Thanks for your post.
I am probably getting some PI Blacks next week. How do you think those would do?

[Anth Seebel]

anyone seen some 3842A922 results around ?

[SteveRo]

kind of a double post in a way but i've tried a bit more here..

new build is in sig, i'm out of ideas here. I've tried leaving all memory settings at auto, manually set 8-8-8-21 (rated speeds), tried lower cpu clock, 1.64v on ram, 1.45v on qpi/vtt, etc... i just can't figure this out. no matter what, anything higher than 1520 results in it just sitting there with a blank screen when trying to boot then shuts down, comes back up and it had to set memory back to default, which makes it 1066 on my board i believe

1520 appears to be working with no issues, but this is really hindering me from trying to get a 4ghz stable clock down because that requires 1600mhz

anyone have any ideas?

i noticed in cpu-z that my SPD for 1600mhz is coming up as 2T...is this true? I was under the impression ddr3 can run 1T..i havent even tried 2T

Damien - I do not run 2gb strips, others do and some have reported problems.
I have similar gskill memory as you but the 3x1gb (2k) and they work great.
One thing I noticed when setting the bios to use xmp - gskill has the xmp set to run the qpi/vtt all the way up at 1.5 to 1.55v!
So - 1st question - have you tried with xmp on?
Then 2nd question - have you tried with high qpi and mem v - for testing and even over night - 1.55 qpi and 1.84v memory v will not hurt you.
I would recommend that you keep qpi and mem v within .5 volt of each other.

[eva2000]

Alot of modules quote their rated timings at 2T and not 1T so read the fine print on manufacturers' websites

Just doing some quick Super Pi 32M tests to see how this 2nd i7 920 cpu does in terms of raw cpu overclocks and to my surprise it handles like my 1st i7 920 even down to it's max Hyperthreading enabled Super Pi 32M ceiling being under 4500Mhz. On air cooling, anything over 4500Mhz will reboot part way through Super Pi 32M with HT enabled. Need to disable HT to pass Super Pi 32M at >4500Mhz speeds.

Max 32M

• @4359Mhz HT enabled at 1.456v
• @4468Mhz HT enabled at 1.488v
• @4536Mhz HT Disabled at 1.536v

Haven't pushed it higher than 1.536v vcore yet.

System specs

• Intel Core i7 920 3836A756 #2
• Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme + LGA1366 Bolt Thru kit + 2x 120x38mm Scythe UltraKaze 2000rpm 87cfm fans in push/pull
• DFI LP UT X58-T3EH8 R.A51 - 01/23 beta bios
• 512MB Inno3D 8800GT OC Edition
• Ram cooling: 3x 60x25mm Sunon 23.5cfm Maglev fans
• 750GB Samsung SATAII
• Pioneer DVD-RW
• 1KW Corsair HX1000 psu
• WinXP Pro SP3 full nLite updated hotfixes / Windows 7 beta dual boot

[Damien]

Damien - I do not run 2gb strips, others do and some have reported problems.
I have similar gskill memory as you but the 3x1gb (2k) and they work great.
One thing I noticed when setting the bios to use xmp - gskill has the xmp set to run the qpi/vtt all the way up at 1.5 to 1.55v!
So - 1st question - have you tried with xmp on?
Then 2nd question - have you tried with high qpi and mem v - for testing and even over night - 1.55 qpi and 1.84v memory v will not hurt you.
I would recommend that you keep qpi and mem v within .5 volt of each other.

i'm not sure what you mean when you say 2gb strips. im assuming ram modules?

anyway, your advice helped a bit. my qpi/vtt is one voltage setting and the highest it can go is 1.495v, so I set it to that. set my ram to 1.66v and my cpu pll to 1.9v.

booted at 798mhz just fine, farther than I got before. Except...only 2 sticks are showing up? check the Screenshot. CPU-Z looks good but everest and windows are reporting 4gb... i think something needs RMA'd here or i'm really just missing something. I want to think it's the advanced ram timings that I need to mess with but I have no idea what to even consider making them..

ALSO, I'm not so sure everest and windows are reporting wrong, because the bios splash clearly said 4gb checked out. it also said 2gb checked out on a few reboots. going back to stock settings, it shows 6gb checked out and everest and windows both showed 6gb as well.

[SteveRo]

Thanks for your post.
I am probably getting some PI Blacks next week. How do you think those would do?

Pi blacks working out fine for me so far -

[SteveRo]

Wow eva - some excellent numbers!

[SteveRo]

i'm not sure what you mean when you say 2gb strips. im assuming ram modules?

anyway, your advice helped a bit. my qpi/vtt is one voltage setting and the highest it can go is 1.495v, so I set it to that. set my ram to 1.66v and my cpu pll to 1.9v.

booted at 798mhz just fine, farther than I got before. Except...only 2 sticks are showing up? check the Screenshot. CPU-Z looks good but everest and windows are reporting 4gb... i think something needs RMA'd here or i'm really just missing something. I want to think it's the advanced ram timings that I need to mess with but I have no idea what to even consider making them..

ALSO, I'm not so sure everest and windows are reporting wrong, because the bios splash clearly said 4gb checked out. it also said 2gb checked out on a few reboots. going back to stock settings, it shows 6gb checked out and everest and windows both showed 6gb as well.

Download and run memtest.
The version I have runs from a CD.
If that check's out - you should be fine.

[rge]

SteveRo can you run your 2000 rated mem easier using higher multis and lower bclk's? Reason I am asking, trying to see if just my cpu, my ram or what. My OCZ 3x2gb 7,7,7 1600 I can run at 2100mhz 8,8,8 (12mem multi x175bclk) with 1.6qpi/vtt and 1.96DRAM for benching spi, etc without issue. However running mem at 10x202, I cant even boot (tried uncore 20 and 21). I can run 21x200, mem 10x200 2000 mhz but barely stable. Going to 201 and no boot, no matter what even trying much higher vtt, dram qpi pLL, even tried raising everything...different timings, taking outside in cold...no go. I dont know if it is because I have to crank my volts way up to run at 2000 to begin with and just cant handle anymore...curious how low voltage ie mem rated 2000 behaves...maybe it is just harder on mem controller? and my cpu cant handle it.