BSOD when OC core i7 920

Z

ZCommander

n00b
Joined
Mar 31, 2009
Messages
25
Greetings all,

I'm not new to overclocking but new to overclocking a core i7
Recently I've been trying to overclock my Ci7 920, My goal was a 3.8GHz with my ci7 batch 3841A, but seems that I fail all the time, the last attempt made me complete 11 hours of Prime95 but on the 12th hour it gave me BSOD.

here are my settings at that attempt :

Advanced CPU Features:
CPU Clock Ratio ................................ [19x]
Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech .................. [Disabled]
CPU Cores Enabled ............................ [All]
CPU Multi Threading .......................... [Enabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) ................... [Disabled]
C3/C6/C7 State Support .................... [Disabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor ......................... [Disabled]
CPU EIST Function ............................ [Disabled]
Virtualization Technology ................... [Disabled]
Bi-Directional PROCHOT ..................... [Disabled]

Uncore & QPI Features:
QPI Link Speed .............................. x36
Uncore Frequency .......................... (17)
Isonchronous Frequency ..................[Enabled]

Standard Clock Control:
Base Clock (BCLK) Control ................ [Enabled]
BCLK Frequency (MHz) .....................[200]
PCI Express Frequency (MHz) ........... [100]
C.I.A.2 [Disabled]
Advanced Clock Control:
CPU Clock Drive ..............................[700mV]
PCI Express Clock Drive ................... [700mV]
CPU Clock Skew ............................. [0ps]
IOH Clock Skew ............................. [0ps]

Advanced DRAM Features:
Performance Enhance ...................... [Turbo]
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P) ......... [Disabled]
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) ........ [8.0]
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) .......... [Auto]
Channel A + B + C
Channel A Timing Settings:
##Channel A Standard Timing Control##
CAS Latency Time ......................
tRCD .......................................
tRP .........................................
tRAS .......................................
##Channel A Advanced Timing Control##
tRC ........................................ (Should be = tRAS + tRP or above for stability)
tRRD .......................................
tWTR ......................................
tWR ........................................
tWTP .......................................
tWL ........................................ (tWTP Must = tWR + tWL + 4)
tRFC .......................................
tRTP .......................................
tFAW ......................................
Command Rate (CMD) ................
##Channel A Misc Timing Control##
Round Trip Latency ...................

Advanced Voltage Control:
CPU
Load Line Calibration ................. [Disabled]
CPU Vcore ...............................[1.34]
QPI/VTT Voltage 1.150v ............[1.39]
CPU PLL 1.800v .......................[Auto]
MCH/ICH
PCIE 1.500v ...........................[Auto for all]
QPI PLL 1.100v .......................
IOH Core 1.100v .....................
ICH I/O 1.500v .......................
ICH Core 1.1v ........................
DRAM
DRAM Voltage 1.500v ..............[1.66]
DRAM Termination 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-A Data VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-B Data VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-C Data VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-A Address VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-B Address VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]
Ch-C Address VRef. 0.750v [AUTO]

The specs are :

EX58-Extreme
Ci7 920
OCZ intel extreme 3x2GB DDR3 1600
4780X2
Xfi-Fitality
Cooler Master V8
2x120mm Thermaltake Cyclo fans
1x120mm Zalman fan
Thermaltake Spedo case
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200 (going to change it next month seems to be the cause of the no boot problem)

At 3.8 with the above BIOS setting the maximum Temp. is 78 after 11 hours of prime95 but most of the time it will be at 68-71 c.
 
To be completely honest, I would just test it with Intel Burn Test. If it does 5-10 passes successfully, just use the system. If it BSODs, then we go back to the drawing board. Testing it with Prime95 is not always necessary and takes much too long, especially when you're working with lots of variables in BIOS and are trying to determine which need to be tweaked.

Also, you have uncore frequency as (17). What exactly is that? Shouldn't it be something like 3200 MHz for DDR3 1600?
 
Maybe you've hit the CPUs limit. I cannot get my CPU stable at anything over 3.6 no matter what I try. I have use a 1.325v core just to get 3.6

Plus those temps you are getting a load at not bad for the i7. @3.6 mine sits around 37-40c idle and 66-70c under load.
 
PC_User said:
To be completely honest, I would just test it with Intel Burn Test. If it does 5-10 passes successfully, just use the system. If it BSODs, then we go back to the drawing board. Testing it with Prime95 is not always necessary and takes much too long, especially when you're working with lots of variables in BIOS and are trying to determine which need to be tweaked.

Also, you have uncore frequency as (17). What exactly is that? Shouldn't it be something like 3200 MHz for DDR3 1600?
Click to expand...

Yes Uncore frequancy as 17 is one step abpve the 3200MHz.
 
ZCommander said:
Yes Uncore frequancy as 17 is one step abpve the 3200MHz.
Click to expand...

Uncore frequency should be twice as much as the ram multiplier, so if your ram multiplier is 8x, uncore frequency should be 16x. If ram is running at 1600 MHz, for example, then Uncore frequency should be 3200 MHz. This could be why its not stable.

Test for at least 5 passes with Intel Burn Test and let us know.
 
Got the same batch as you on my i7 3841A and I got hughe problem getting my CPU over 3.6. But at 3.6 its rock stable, 48h+ prime stable and this is with 1.32 vcore. My temps with noctua is approx 75 after 24 h of prime 95 so yours should be ok.
 
Gobitenq said:
Got the same batch as you on my i7 3841A and I got hughe problem getting my CPU over 3.6. But at 3.6 its rock stable, 48h+ prime stable and this is with 1.32 vcore. My temps with noctua is approx 75 after 24 h of prime 95 so yours should be ok.
Click to expand...

What's the voltage of your QPI? Are you running it at 200 bclck?
 
ZCommander said:
Would love if you guys can state your BIOS settings at running at 3.8 and 3.6 :D
Click to expand...

CPU Frequency = 3.60 GHz
CPU Multiplier = 19x
BCLK = 200x
QPI Link = x36
Uncore Frequency = 3200 MHz
Performance Enhance = Standard
Hyper Threading = ON
Memory Multiplier = 8x
CPU Vcore = 1.2750v (1.25v in CPU-Z)
QPI/VTT Voltage = 1.30
DRAM = 1.54
Ram timings manually set to 9-9-9-24.

Hope this helps.
 
PC_User said:
Uncore frequency should be twice as much as the ram multiplier, so if your ram multiplier is 8x, uncore frequency should be 16x. If ram is running at 1600 MHz, for example, then Uncore frequency should be 3200 MHz. This could be why its not stable.

Test for at least 5 passes with Intel Burn Test and let us know.
Click to expand...

Uncore should be 8:9 with QPI, and never less than 2x the ram speed. The reason it has to be 2x or more the ram speed is because any less and it exceeds the memory bandwidth of the processor and this causes instability problems.

So if you have a bclk of 200 and a qpi of 36x you have 36x200=7.2 GTs at double data rate, divide by 2 = 3600mhz QPI

So at 8:9 ratio we want 3200mhz uncore regardless if your ram multiplier is x6 or x8.

However with some processors stability will be improved by jumping up to 3400 mhz (x17) uncore when running ram at 1600 mhz just because you are running right at the limit with 3200mhz uncore.
 
Last edited:
ZCommander said:
Greetings all,

I'm not new to overclocking but new to overclocking a core i7
Recently I've been trying to overclock my Ci7 920, My goal was a 3.8GHz with my ci7 batch 3841A, but seems that I fail all the time, the last attempt made me complete 11 hours of Prime95 but on the 12th hour it gave me BSOD.
Click to expand...

Bump cpu pll up to 1.88, probably needs more vcore as well 1.34 in bios is only like 1.28 or so actual.
 
Last edited:
I got a 3841 batch. Was easy to overclock.

Right now its running at 3.8ghz with 19x 200.

1.30125 Vcore (Edited: thx PC_User)
QPI 1.3 (or something close.. )
DRAM 1.6
IOH 1.2

8x Memory
17x Uncore (Had to clear CMOS with only 2x memory multiplier, not sure if this was cause though)

Ran stable Prime95 Small FTT 19 hours and Blend 19 hours as well. Tried Intel Burn Test but it doesn't seem to work with Hyperthreading. It would pass multiple tests where I would get BSOD immediately running anything else.

Edit: Temperature wise, after running prime95 for those long hours, it reached temps of low 80's, was averaging mid to high 70's. It get's pretty hot in my room during the day though, whether or not the comp is running.
 
Last edited:
Ya that's Bios setting. CPUZ shows like 1.27 but don't quote me on that as I'm at work right now and am not positive.

Hyperthreading is enabled, Turbo is turned off. Most if not all power saving options are turned off. That DRAM performance thingy is still set to Turbo mode.

Also I gotta add my rig to my sig.

Gigabyte x58-ud3r (non-SLI edition)
i7 920
6gb GSkill 1600 rated for 1.6 voltage.
 
bluehaze013 said:
Thats because intel burn test doesn't work with hyperthreading lol It only loads the cores 50% for some odd reason. You need to use Prime or Orthos.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's the main reason Prime95 is my stability testing software. I shutter at the thought of an unstable system. As much as I like overclocking I'll sacrifice a few Mhz for stability.

I get 3.6 on my 920 rock stable. Anything higher and I get problems. My 920 was bought shortly after the release so it's from an early batch (3838A672).
 
I forgot to mention that I ran occt for an hour with no errors and 10 passes of Intel burn test again with no errors.

Today I pumped the voltage up a little and will try Prime 95 tonight.
For me a 12 hour Prime95 is enough.
 
3 hours of OCCT with Hyperthreading enabled and 10 passes of intel burn test.
No errors so far @ 3.82GHz!

Sweet!.

Untitled.jpg
 
I'm curious zcommander if yours is stable running prime95 torture test for a couple hours.

edit: or even 3dmark03. Cause certain loads tend to cause mine to fail at 3.8
 
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