Overclocking i7 930

T

twonunpackmule

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 27, 2005
Messages
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Okay, I'm currently trying to maintain a stable 3.8 overclock with my i7 930. I think I hit it, but am trying to figure out a few problems.

My specs are as followed...

i7 930 with Corsair H50 - Stock Fan, new fans on order...
6gb of DDR 3 Corsair XMS RAM
X58A-UD5 rev 2.0
2x 64gb Corsair SSD
2x 1tb Western Digital Blacks
EVGA 460SE 1gb SLi
HAF X PC Case

Anyway, the issues seems that it stumbles a bit before it will POST. The power light blinks a few times and then powers on, with a single normal POST beep. If I go back to stock settings, it does not stumble.

I've read many different things that it could be. Some say it's normal part of the process and that the hardware is just "making sure." It's a safety feature.

I've also read that it could be faulty ram. Or a voltage issue.

I've checked my ram with Memtest and Prime seems to be alright.

I'm currently doing another Prime pass with the start settings at 1280k. I was going to let that run for at least 3 hours.
 
All the gigabyte x58 boards do this on non-stock settings. It's one of the biggest complaints of those boards because of how much time it adds to boot up. Mine does it, it annoys me, but nothing horrible.
 
All IMC's have a variable drift to each memory channel that's determined by several factors. The drift itself is different from chip to chip, and motherboard to motherboard. So there's an approximated range in which tRL is set for each channel.
This is why there are so many issues with the bloomfield and gulftown architectures starting up missing sticks of ram.
The better manufacturers implemented a memory recheck at POST that sets the value to the lowest approximated(best performance), and then the highest approximated(compatibility mode) if not all memory channels are enabled.

This doesn't mean that your memory can't do the specs you have set, just that you need a higher tRL. If you have issues with a dropped channel and upping QPI doesn't solve it, increasing tWR can sometimes affect the tRL settings enough to get all channels detected.

ASUS revealed this with a beta bios for the rampage 3 extreme (0003). It revealed tRL and removed the memory recheck. In the next official bios, instead of providing this feature, they just allow you to disable the memory recheck if you don't need it instead. :(
 
Ok. I just wanted to make sure. It was driving me nuts. I've OCed before, and this is completely new to me. It wasn't the time that it added, but the fact it felt like something was going to break. I tried finding something in the manual but couldn't find it.

I also went Gigabyte because of Hackintosh reasons. Though, I broke my install and I'm way too lazy to fix it. :)
 
Hey...would be interested in your OC results. I'm running a 920 D0 on a UD3R and have just begun overclocking it. So far I've hit 4.0GHz on stock volts or less. Getting beyond 4GHz is proving a challenge however (I think it likes the 1600MHz memory setting and 200MHz BCLCK).
 
ahhh nice, I have a 920 D0, sitting @ 4.2ghz at 1.35v.

I had it on stock V 3.8, but I actually got performance degredation in alot of things, once I upped the juice things started working much better / faster. (I can't go much higher than 4.2 since the multiplier is maxxed out and I Don't think I Can go much past 200 bclock :)

just keep in mind when OCing, I would not get any errors or crashes, but games didn't run as smooth and I always wondering why.
 
I'm currently sitting at a 3.8ghz OC with 1.225 volts. It's going through its 24 Prime run right now.

I had a scare last night when I installed the new Nvidia Beta drivers and found it kept TDRing on me, and would BSOD on restart. I dropped the drivers, and went back to the earlier WHQL drivers. No issues.

Supposedly, the latest driver has been giving people TDR issues. So, I'm not the only one.

Crysis 2 was the only game giving me odd issues. However, even at stock that game gave me issues. So, I said screw it and uninstalled it. :) I would get flickering textures and pop in out the ass. I just chalk that up to crappy drivers.
 
I got my 930 running at 4.3GHz on 1.35v. Temps remain below 70c at load with my Megahalems so i'm happy with it. I also have C1E and speedstep enabled so when my computer idles, it drops down to 2.4GHz at 1.05v.

I have been up to 4.5GHz for benching but that took 1.5v and that's no good for 24/7. Plus its too hot for normal operation with air cooling. I did this in winter in a cold room with the cold air blowing into my case and remain under 80c for the benchmarks.
 
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