Overclocking woes

S

safehaven

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
217
So, I built the following system a couple of years ago:

Intel Core i5-4690K CPU
Asus Z97-A Intel Z97 Motherboard
2 x Kingston HyperX Blu KHX1600C10D3B1/8G 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
Samsung 840 Evo Series 250GB SSD
XFX TS Series XFX TS 550W PSU
Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Case
Cooler Master Seidon 120V Liquid Cooling System

I have never been able to overclock it and get it to run stable. More to the point, if I change any setting in the BIOS, no matter how minute, my CPU temps will skyrocket and I will get a BSOD within minutes. For instance, just trying to increase the clock speed by .1ghz will run the cores at +20 degrees from stock. Likewise, increasing voltage by 0.1V will do the same.

Any ideas why this may be happening? I know I have not given a lot of specifics. I am hoping someone can point me in a general direction of where to begin looking for the problem.
 
What are your temperatures on stock? Is the cooler mounted properly? How are you overclocking? There are many settings that sort of automate voltage adjustment etc., if some of them are on they may overshoot any reasonable values and got o a way too high a voltage.
 
Koween said:
What are your temperatures on stock? Is the cooler mounted properly? How are you overclocking? There are many settings that sort of automate voltage adjustment etc., if some of them are on they may overshoot any reasonable values and got o a way too high a voltage.
Click to expand...

So I tried again to get some numbers.

Default Bios settings, the cores run at about 27-30 at idle and 79-83 at Prime95 load.
Changing only the Vcore from stock 0.993 to 0.995, the cores idle at 33-36 and instant BSOD at Prime95 load.

In fact, with the slight Vcore modification, I get a BSOD even firing up an internet browser.

There is a 6 degree increase in core temp at idle with such a minimal adjustment.
 
If you're setting a fixed Vcore of 0.995 of course it's going to crash on load it's not enough voltage. Under load the Vcore should be around 1.10 to 1.15 or so stock. Vcore changes with CPU load and 0.995 just isn't enough for full load. With my 4770K idle Vcore is around 0.12 to 0.20 and full load is 1.232v.
You're definitely missing or misunderstanding some settings.
 
Perhaps your heatsink is not seated properly.

I had a i7 920 that got fried from an accidental water cooling leak. At stock settings temps shot up to throttle levels (85+) with little load. Your processer could just be defective.
 
MrGreg62 said:
If you're setting a fixed Vcore of 0.995 of course it's going to crash on load it's not enough voltage. Under load the Vcore should be around 1.10 to 1.15 or so stock. Vcore changes with CPU load and 0.995 just isn't enough for full load. With my 4770K idle Vcore is around 0.12 to 0.20 and full load is 1.232v.
You're definitely missing or misunderstanding some settings.
Click to expand...

It think it is a good bet that I am misunderstanding something. I could OC on Award BIOS with not issue whatsoever. It made sense to me. I just cannot figure out the UEFI BIOS.

So, when I adjust voltage, I am setting controls to manual and assigning a fixed value. Instead of manual, should I be using adaptive? Instead of setting a fixed value, should I be using offset?
 
I'll check and see if I can download a manual for that m/b tommorrow and see what sense I can make of it. And yes it's definitely a different art to overclocking with a newer system.
If you haven't already give the review of the motherboard that [H] did of that board when it came out and see if that helps any.
Introduction - ASUS Z97-A LGA 1150 Motherboard Review
 
MrGreg62 said:
I'll check and see if I can download a manual for that m/b tommorrow and see what sense I can make of it. And yes it's definitely a different art to overclocking with a newer system.
If you haven't already give the review of the motherboard that [H] did of that board when it came out and see if that helps any.
Introduction - ASUS Z97-A LGA 1150 Motherboard Review
Click to expand...

That'd be awesome.

Just out of curiosity, in stock form, is 82c too hot under full load?
 
safehaven said:
That'd be awesome.

Just out of curiosity, in stock form, is 82c too hot under full load?
Click to expand...
With the cooler you mentioned in the original post it does seem rather high. Having said that if the only thing you're using to test load is Prime95 you should be advised that in standard form it doesn't play nice with Haswell cpu's. Try using Asus RealBench instead.
 
MrGreg62 said:
With the cooler you mentioned in the original post it does seem rather high. Having said that if the only thing you're using to test load is Prime95 you should be advised that in standard form it doesn't play nice with Haswell cpu's. Try using Asus RealBench instead.
Click to expand...

Will do. Good to know.

I think I have been out of the OC game for too long. So many new things.
 
If you are setting a fixed value then it's probably too high for idle CPU clocks and too low for load clocks. There are things like "adaptive" or "offset" voltages. I suggest you look for an overclocking guide for your cpu, that would be a good start.
 
Koween said:
If you are setting a fixed value then it's probably too high for idle CPU clocks and too low for load clocks. There are things like "adaptive" or "offset" voltages. I suggest you look for an overclocking guide for your cpu, that would be a good start.
Click to expand...

That makes no sense.
 
I ran RealBench on stock settings and am averaging right at 80c. I'm thinking thats a little warm for stock. I think I will reapply thermal paste and reseat the sink. Then when I figure out what the heck I am doing in the BIOS, I know heat isn't the issue.
 
Good plan change the paste and check the mounting those temps are high for stock clocks with an AIO water cooler. Double check that the fan on the rad is spinning up and make sure the fan and not the pump is connected to the cpu header. Better still your m/b does have 2 cpu headers use them both one for the fan and the other for the pump. I looked over the manual and without having the bios screen in front of me to compare to I'm having trouble figuring out the settings. With all voltage settings on auto just upping the multiplier by one should work. You could even try using the O/C function in the Asus Ai Suite from within windows rather than messing with the BIOS. It probably won't be as high as you could get manually setting everything but should get you started.
 
Some AIO loops are just... Bad. I'm not familiar with that specific model.

As others have said, reseat the thing and stick to offset voltage rather than manual.

What GPU are you running? Anything else in the system you didn't list? I doubt this is a power issue since you are clearly dealing with high temperatures, just trying to narrow it down.
 
So, the water cooler definitely was not seated properly. I had the compound on way too thick. Also, eventhough I had complete coverage on the cpu, the cooler had only made contact on about 90%. Whoops... Live and learn... Won't make that mistake twice.

So now on stock settings, it is idling at 25c average. At 100% load, 44c average. What a difference! Temperature problem definitely solved.

GPU is a Sapphire 7850 1GB. The only other items in my system that are not listed are 500GB HDD, a 1TB HDD, and (2) 4TB HDD.

I am going to try and overclock again. I watched a video and it said what settings to change:

AI Tuner ---> XMP (Didn't understand why not to use Manual)
CPU Core ---> Adjust to desired multiplier
CPU Min ---> Set to same as CPU Core
CPU Max --> Set to same as CPU Core
Core Voltage ---> Adaptive (I think by selecting this, the mobo will adjust voltage as needed???)
Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage ---> The video set this to 1.2. I have absolutely no clue what this setting does or why it was changed?

Do those seem like the appropriate settings to adjust?
 
You can leave min to whatever it started if you like - this just saves power when the system isn't under load, though some swear it makes things unstable. Your choice there really.

Sadly I'm on an older platform than you and haven't kept up with OC methods, so others will have to help with specifics. Your temps were definitely the problem, so just a question of finding the right settings now!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top