[email protected] 78C w hyper 212+ How am I doing? Need help finishing OC

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mikelz85

[H]ard|Gawd
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So I'm using a MSI z77a-GD65 and a 3570k cooled by a cooler master hyper 212+. After some work understanding the bios, I managed to get my settings squared away, and am currently at 4.5ghz using the "auto" vcore setting of my motherboard, which seems to set the vcore to 1.24v idle reading in cpu Z with 1.216v load under prime95avx (small FFT) where it appears to be stable. This is the least amount of voltage I was able to use at 4.5ghz, and I haven't pushed for more yet. My MSI "clickbios2" aka windows bios is reading 77C steady. BTW how awesome is it to have a fully functional bios in windows? (having not used it much, it is fully functional, and not buggy?)

I'm an oldschool overclocker, I doubt many here remember me, but this is my first i5/ivy bridge build. I haven't been able to find a good guide that explains all the voltage settings, and believe me, I've looked everywhere. Currently my only non-auto setting is my PLL voltage, which is 1.8 (though I'm not sure this made any difference from auto, just pulled the setting from a guide). As a write and the test has changed lengths, my temps are now ~73C (maybe a fan kicked up, I dunno, it's plugged into the cpu fan header, and I haven't looked at any settings for it (though windows desktop manager did just momentarily error, prime is fine).

My ram is 2x4gb mushkin blackline rated at 8-8-8-24@1600, currently running 8-8-8-24@1800 (default 1.5v). If anyone has any advice for getting this memory OC maxed, let me know. I have no idea if voltage increases will help, and what timings/frequency to shoot for. I just stopped at 1800 cause it was stable, and want to nail the CPU down first.

I'm curious if anyone has any advice for me to max this OC out. I'm still a bit lost with all the motherboard settings, and I've read a ton of posts on alot of forums, most seem to be "I got a decent OC, here's my settings...". I'd like to know what tools I have in my arsenal to blow this OC up.

I do realize the ivy runs warm, that 4.5ghz is about where people start to hit a wall on air, and the hyper 212+ isn't exactly a top notch cooler (though much better than stock). However I'm also hoping the yields have improved, and my brand new chip from newegg will have a little more legroom.

That said, how am I doing? Any advice on how to move forward?

Thanks for reading, been a while since I've posted, excited to be back on here with a project. Also reading about the TIM on the cap, don't really want to touch that mod yet, but seems curious if Intel will do a soft revision (though I don't see why they would...)
 
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So I have another question if anyone can help. I see two main ways of approaching the OC, one is to set the multiplier to auto, set the max core ratio on all cores to 45, and allow the CPU to use speedstep to change the speed dynamically. I liked this because the voltage was also dynamic, with an underclocked idle CPU having a lower vcore.

My problem with this is that when I went to step up to a 46 multi, it didn't even get into windows. I had to set the vcore to manual (1.3) which seems to have the OC stable (cpu Z reading 1.256 load), but results in a vcore of 1.3 even when idle and underclocked.

Is there any setting to increase my "load vcore" for option #1? Or if I'm not able to leave it on auto, am I stuck with a higher idle vcore?

Also, any advice on the ram would be appreciated. From what I've read, I'm better off trying to run tighter timings at 1600 (right now 8-8-8-24 1t), than a higher frequency. I also didn't realize that at 1800, the ram was loosening timings to 10-10-10-28. It would crash on post at 8-8-8-24 @ 1800. What if anything should I do with the voltage to get better results?

Update: I seem to have some issues with speedstep and World of Warcraft. The overclock is stable under prime95, but in wow, even in CPU intensive areas, I noticed the core speeds jump from 4.5ghz to 1.6ghz quite randomly. The vcore is all over the place during this time. With speedstep disabled I have no instability in wow. There's no way to disable speedstep per program, or perhaps increase the limit factors? On my HP touchpad I can control when the CPU is stepped down, etc. I'm wondering if any of the bios settings allow for this?
 
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Hey wow, I can't really help you out but I very recently decided to build a new PC and I'll go with the same exact trio of Mobo-CPU-Heatsink and wanted to try overclocking also. So this thread will be direct help for me also! :D
 
With multiplier set to 45 on each core I would try no more than 1.2v on cpu and lower pll voltage to 1.65. IO voltage around 1.05 should be fine. Leave ram voltage alone.


Your card may be over heating a little too much and lowering your voltage could stabilize it while lowering your temps.
 
Did you get this figured out? You need to find the option for offset voltage if you want to OC using SpeedStep (which is the best way IMO, lower voltage and temps when idle).

You need to find the option in your BIOS for offset voltage. What this does is add (or subtract) voltage from your CPU's "auto" setting. The CPU works by requesting voltage from the motherboard's VRM system based on internal tables that figure out what is required to operate at said frequency (varies by individual CPU, which is why someone else's settings will be different).

For me, I have to add +0.03V in offset voltage to be stable at 4.5GHz on my 3770K.

LLC (load line calibration) is another tool to aid in stability. Vdroop is the (intended) drop in voltage when a CPU is put on full load, this can introduce instability obviously. LLC combats the droops, but can also overshoot and cause idle voltage issues.

Basically it comes down to experimentation.
 
I'm noticing the same issues with my 3570... When I had my 955 be, I never had problems booting, it was either bluescreen or stable, no other weird quirks... This intel overclocking stuff is confuzzin!
 
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