Core I3 540 Overclocking Difficulty

[Sexy Red]

Heyy

System is as follows

Core i3 540
MSI P55 GD80
4GB Corsair 1333 Cas 9
Antec TPU New 500W
VTX HD6950 2GB

Basically, i cant get any overclock stable on it. It always fails on the 3rd run of ibt at maximum

Settings are
CPU @ 3.5GHz - loads at 67 ish
153 BCLK
1.2V VTT Voltage
1.32v CPU Voltage - 1.3v load
Ram 1224 MHz, stock timing and volts
QPI - 5500mhz (stock is 5800)

I isolated the motherboard by changing the bclk and leaving everything else at stock, was fine for 10 runs at 180bclk with 1.2v on the vtt or so. Then i increased ram and QPI and was fine. As soon as cpu frequency goes up it errors on the 3rd run QQ

Any ideas?
It doesnt need more votls does it? My last i3 did 4GHz at 1.24/1.25v

Cheers

xxx

 

[Sexy Red]

Ok just tried, 4GHz at the same voltage, failed 3rd run again

I tried, everything stock or underclocked, but raised bclk by 7mhz, and cpu clock to 3200mhz

It failed on the 3rd run again? wtf am i missing here

 

[mzs_biteme]

It's been a few since I had the 540, but for what it's worth, here are some pics from my OC experiences with it... Nice CPU for sure...