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Overclock Help

noteworthy

Gawd
Joined
Jun 6, 2004
Messages
523
Hey guys... I need some help with overclocking.


CPU: i7 920 2.6 ghz stock speed
Mobo: Gigabyte X58-UD5
Ram: Gskill DDR3 2gbx3 kit. 8-8-8-24 timings at auto 1.5 v - actually its 9-9-9-24-2 from 1.5v-1.6v

I wanting something not totally extreme but fast.

I was thinking 3.5 ghz - I had the clk up to 178 for full 6.4 gb/s q speed but will not boot up. Auto settings on voltage and the such. I'm not sure exactly where to set the voltage.

I would like my ram to operate at the 1600 mhz rating and not under such as the 920 uses.


Could I have exact settings for any volt settings/ bus speeds/ multiplier settings?



Thanks


ZALMAN CNPS9900LED 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail

I have the thermaltake armor plus case - 24 mm side fan, 3 120cm fans on vid cards -3 gtx260's, one 140cm fan on intake hdd, 140mm in psu xigmatek 1000w psu sli certified, and one 120cm exaust by cpu fan
 
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first of all do you have an aftermaket cooler that can handle the overclock? the bclk is directly related to your ram speed. bclk x ram divider (2:6, 2:8, 2:10) = ram speed. if you set the bclk to 178 and ram divider to 2:8 then 178 x 8 = 1424. you might not get your ram exactly to 1600. the 6.4gb/s you mentioned is only for the 965 model i think, unless i'm mistaken. for the 920 it should be set to 4.8. you will most likely have to raise the vcore voltage a bit to get the overclock to run. you might also have to manually set the ram voltage.

once we know what kind of cooling you have to determine how high your overclock can possibly reach we can then help a little more.

i also have an evga board so someone with a gigabyte board could probably help a little more since the bios is a little different.
 
You should be able to oc up to 3.5 GHz without needing to raise any voltages. If you need to keep temps low, turn off hyperthreading.
 
like the other reply said, we need to know if your using aftermarket cooling or not. I would not recommend OCing much with the stock cooler. Anyways, most people will say not to use the auto voltage options for the most part in the BIOS settings. I have my cpu voltage and qpi voltage both manually set to 1.35V. YMMV when it comes to voltage some need a lot to reach the 3.5 your trying to reach, while other can use the stock voltage setting. If your looking to get the 6.4 qpi speed, you need the 178 bclk like you said which will let your ram run at 1424 and cpu speed will be 3560. You may have to manually set your ram voltage and timings as well. I don't think you would notice any difference other than benchmarks not being able to run your ram at that speed vs 1600.
 
i posted my cooler info in the post... Actually I thinkthere is an option to run the memory at 1600 and the cpu and a different speed. Just looking for a nice free increase in performance... nothing too crazy.

Funny thing is I'm only using 2 of my 3 gtx 260's.. 3840 x 1024 res codwaw...

E8400 stock speeds - ddr3 mem- dual chan 8 gig triple sli 260's - 65-70 fps.
i7 920 stock speed - ddr3 triplechan 6 gig - 2way sli - 92 fps and it doesn't budge.

My fps was all over the place with my 8400... constant with the i7 920.
plus 20-25 fps and using one less card.
 
i don't know what model ram that is for sure but most of the gskill cas 8 stuff showed voltage settings of 1.6-1.65. look at your specific model and set the voltage manually to what it should be. that isn't one of the more common i7 coolers but it will get the job done. if you want 3.6 here is a rough estimate on settings. anyone with this board and a similar overclock feel free to help.

cpu multiplier 19x with turbo off (if it has turbo)
bclk 190
ram divider 2:8
vcore voltage 1.2
vtt +100 (not sure if gigabyte has this)
qpi frequency should be 4.8

if you are just doing general computing and gaming you can turn off HT to help keep it cooler. these are all rough estimates as i am using a different motherboard and a different overclock. everyone's setups will be a little different. basically find a safe starting point and stress test. if it fails you change some stuff and test again. use linx or prime95 to test and a program such as real temp to monitor your temperatures. under load you should be aiming to keep the core temps under 80C. the lower the better obviously.
 
Was able to boot and use windows - but not very stable - crash bsod in 3d mark vantage
multi 20x
bclk 200
ram 2x+1 1600 mhz default with volt at 1.5 default
vcore volt 1.45
vtt 1.515v - a bit high it seems -
qps was much higher but can't exactly remember...

The only way to have a qpi at 4.8 is to run bclk at 133 or lower the multi and raise the fsb of the cpu. Therefor added voltage is needed for vtt for stability. I was thinking something along the lines of 3.6 ghz.


Lots of settings with this board but the bootup problem is really annoying. I have the F5 bios release. Stock settings it seems to be fine but when running the higher ram clock it power cycles a couple of times.

Just interested in anyone else with this mobo/cpu/ram and their luck.
I need to back down the settings and try agian.
 
i guess i just don't understand gigabyte then. but multi 20x and bclk 200 is 20 x 200 = 4.0. thats a pretty high overclock. vcore of 1.45 is pretty high too. i have mine at 1.33 for a 4.0 overclock. i'm not sure about the ram setting you're saying but check what gskill says the ram voltage should be...1.5v sounds too low. hopefully somebody with a gigabyte board can step in and help because i don't seem to know this bios at all.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225

Ram shows 1.5-1.6v supported... 1600 stock

I have a nice case.. thermaltake armor plus.

Thinking of trying the 4 ghz setting with 1.33-1.35 v setting on vcore. I could push the ram up to 1.6 and be in specs of manufacturer but it is rated at 1600 with 1.5.

What about vtt? If I'm pushing the qpi that high I have to add voltage.. is 1.515v way too high? The pdf on overclockign the x58-ud5 extreme version shows this setting for a 4.0 overclock.

I just have the ud5 version.. not extreme..
 
Quick Update

Running the system at following

clk - 200
cpu multi 19

3.8 ghz

lowest qpi setting
exactly 3200 -mhz uncore - double of ram setting at 1600

vcore - 1.4 - was getting bsod error 124 until I got it up higher - booted fine at 1.24v but will not prime until around 1.4v

qpi/vtt set at 1.315

ram v - 1.6v

timings - gskill triple channel kit
9
9
9
24
2

So far stable in prime for last 20 minutes... while I type this. will keep you updated.


One thing I noticed
Going from 20x multi to 19x has helped temps on cpu by 5-8C - Yes the chip is running slower but 200mhz is really nothing in the big scheme of things.

Load temp - realteam 3.0
76 74 74 72

TJ Distance
24 26 26 28


Idle at 38C

I know I could probably squeeze more out of this setup but I really want it to not push the limits of temp and volts. Using the Zalman 9000led cooler - 12C drop over stock cooler at idle


thoughts?
 
i think it seems fine. i'm not familiar with the vtt voltages tho so i can't comment on that. do you have HT on or off? those temps are fine but they will go up a little higher after a few hours of prime so be sure to keep an eye on it. i tested mine for 6 hours on prime blend but some people run theirs up to 24+ hours. any reason you are running cas 9 on the ram instead of 8? since you're at stock 1600 speed the 8 timings should work.
 
i was incorrect initially on the ram timings.. its 9 not 8


HT is enabled
Turbo disabled



Reading intel's spec sheet on voltages - pdf file
max rating is 1.55 on vcore
max rating is 1.35 on qpi/vtt

I should be good as far as not overvolting too much
 
if you turn off HT your temps will drop a decent amount. it sounds like there are few programs that utilize HT so if you don't run any of those programs it would probably be worth disabling because your temps will probably hit 80 after a few hours.
 
To test my OC I jumped from 1.25v to 1.4v vcore.... lowering a bit now to test. 1.35v atm - load temps have dropped about 7-8C
 
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