How to overclock 3930K on GA-X79-UD3.

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yorkman

Weaksauce
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Jan 29, 2009
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I was wondering if someone has good experience overclocking, especially on this mobo and cpu.

For the life of me I can't get it to overclock, at all! Stock speed is 3.20 GHz...with turbo boost on by default it goes to 3.50 GHz...if I go beyond that it fails to post. I've read others able to go at least 4.5 GHz...by simply changing the multiplier from the default 32 to 45, leaving the rest on Auto. You can see a youtube video of that and a couple of reviews, one of them being the 3960X but they're almost the same if you read up and compare them. In terms of overclocking them, apparently they're identical. And two of them did it on the Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 mobo which I was able to snag up for $260. The Sabretooth, Rampage, etc. are all like $400-450...not worth it in my opinion.

I have an 860W PSU (tried another one too). Corsair H80 cooler, 650D Corsair case and an old EN9600GT PCI-E 2.0 video card. Strangely, the video card causes Windows 7 x64 to freeze within seconds of logging in if its inserted into any of the PCI-E x16 3.0 slots so I have to use it in the PCI-E x8 slot for it to work properly. I guess it's not 100% backward compatible. Lastly, G.SKILL F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL ram (4x4 GB) CL-9-9-9-24 @ 1.5V. The mobo detects it as 11-11-11-28 for some reason but even if I manually specify the correct timings it makes no difference.

I've tried exchanging the mobo and ram already but same problem. Also, I tried overclocking using the gigabyte ET utility and selecting one of the preset optinos 1) 4 GHz, 2) 4.2 GHz 3) 4.4 GHz...it won't post with 4 GHz. Tried updating the bios firmware too from F3 to F4 (latest).

I'm wondering if the video card is not allowing me to overclock, being about 3-4 yrs old (though no issue on my Q6600 system oc'd to 3.60 GHz).

I got it as high as 3.67 GHz but that's the absolute max (I increased BCLK to 105...it won't post at 106. Increasing the voltage on the ram or cpu doesn't help me at all.

My temps are fine...25 at idle, 45 at full load. Any ideas?! I still have about a week or so to return/exchange any parts...but 5-15% restocking if I just return....5% on exchange if there's nothing wrong.

P.S. Ignore my signature...I'm not updating it until I've been able to overclock the 3930K to at least 4.5 GHz.
 
Try manually setting voltages and manually setting the multipliers, just bump up the multi 1x at a time till it isnt stable, then bump up the voltage by the smallest increment till its stable, then repeat
 
lilfiend said:
Try manually setting voltages and manually setting the multipliers, just bump up the multi 1x at a time till it isnt stable, then bump up the voltage by the smallest increment till its stable, then repeat
Click to expand...

Thats the way to do it with all of the new x79 stuff right? Dont have to worry about the bclk anymore.
 
Is it stable stock as in past prime 95 all night? My 3930 does 4.8 at 1.385v or 5 at 1.43 but that's to much vcore for my liking. What's your vcore?
 
As soon as I bump up the multiplier, even if just by one, it won't post! So, if I change it from 32x to just 33 it won't post anymore and I have to clear the cmos.

Today however, I bought the sabertooth...one of them is going back and I think it'll be the gigabyte.

I find the sabertooth less user friendly though. Too many options all over the place. Does anyone have this oc'd on this board and can help me?
 
tunatime said:
Is it stable stock as in past prime 95 all night? My 3930 does 4.8 at 1.385v or 5 at 1.43 but that's to much vcore for my liking. What's your vcore?
Click to expand...

Ok. I changed motherboards. I now have the Sabertooth x79 and things are MUCH better. It took me a while but I finally figured out how to OC on this board. I didn't realize that the speed shown at the post (4000MHz in my case) is not the real cpu speed. I went into windows & fired up CPU-Z and to my surprise I saw 4600MHz and the correct multiplier. So I guess that's the speed with turbo enabled?

Anyway. I still have to tweak it. So far under load the temps are mostly 67C to 69C, except for core #4 at 61C and core #6 at 73C and the fan at full blast on the H80. Friggin' noisy so I'm thinking of exchanging it for the H100. It's not much quiter but at least it's cooler by about 3-4 degrees according to anand's review.

All this at a vcore of 1.44V so that's what I have to try and tweak down. Target is to keep it under 1.40V for 24x7 full load.

I am returning the gigabyte garbage for the 2nd and final time. Not only did it not overclock at all, but it also would NOT work stable in windows with my Asus EN9600GT video card when used in any of the PCI-E x16 slots. Tested this on both boards with latest bios. Only in the PCI-E x8 slots did it work fine. The Sabertooth didn't have this problem at all.

I read somewhere you remounted the cooler to improve your temps. Did you do anything special or different when you remounted it? Did you perhaps apply a thinner coat of thermal paste on the cpu the 2nd time around? I'm curious if I have the same problem.

Btw, what mobo, cooler and thermal paste do you use anyway??
 
mb is and asrock extreme 4, cooler is a ek supreme hf wb, for paste i used mx-4 and instead of the dot in the middle i been using for ages i used 2 vertical lines and that lowered me temps a few but what lowered me temps form 70c load to uper50 low 60 was getting all the air out my block. right now running prime95 my temps are hottest core is 54 coolest core is 43c nfc why 2 run 10C hotter then the others though. this is at 1.375vcore 4.8ghz at 5 i hit low 60s but didn't like putting 1.425vcore in to it.
 
tunatime said:
mb is and asrock extreme 4, cooler is a ek supreme hf wb, for paste i used mx-4 and instead of the dot in the middle i been using for ages i used 2 vertical lines and that lowered me temps a few but what lowered me temps form 70c load to uper50 low 60 was getting all the air out my block. right now running prime95 my temps are hottest core is 54 coolest core is 43c nfc why 2 run 10C hotter then the others though. this is at 1.375vcore 4.8ghz at 5 i hit low 60s but didn't like putting 1.425vcore in to it.
Click to expand...

And how did you "get all the air out of your block?" That's a significant reduction in temps. Hard to believe almost. I wonder if that's something I can do with the H80 cooler...or H100 I plan on getting instead. I use the same thermal paste at least :-/

I have only one that runs 10C cooler than the rest. I wish I could get low 60s on 1.375V and still hit 4.8 GHz...I'd even be ok with 1.425V if low 60s is all you get. But like you, and since I'd be using this absolutely 24x7 I too would prefer 1.4 or less.

Not familiar with your cooler. Looked at a quick review and looks good but apparently doesn't come with some fittings? I looked online but all I see are EK water blocks mostly so it doesn't look like fittings is all that's missing. How much do these fittings cost and where do you get them? I doubt it's even available here in Toronto. Looks like it only costs about $80 while my H80 cost @ $100 CDN. And who knows how it even compares to the H80 or H100. The Apogee mentioned I guess is the king but does it come with everything I'd need?
 
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i have the clear top block and the top about 1/8 of the block was dry and fill of air and no mater what i did i couldn't get that air out so i drained my block and when i turned on my pumps the whole block filled up and my flow rate was much much better. you need more then a block you need a pump, a radiator, the block and reservoir and some tube and a hand fill of fittings which are cheep. as for the h80 and 100 they are closed systems whit out a reservoir so idk if theirs anyway to bleed the air out. i used to have and h50 i modded changed the tubes and added a little reservoir out of cooper and it lowered my temps a few c that was my first "water cooled" pc. if you want more info about water cooling go look in the water cooling part of the cooling forums theirs some good info in there
 
Strange. I run my GA-X79-UD5 at stock vcore (1.270v) and changed the multi to 40, also with an H80 with speed set at lowest manual setting (0.75 whatever units per temp C, about 850 RPMS at idle, very quiet). As stable as a rock. I did have a problem once that I think was memory or IMC related, it locked up, so then I turned the memory tuning from 'turbo' to 'standard' and never saw another lock up. Memory is 1600 Corsair Vengeance 4x4GBs which by default runs at 1333 but at XMP profile 1 runs at 1600.
 
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