Another newbee struggling to overclock LGA 1366 i7 920 0n ASUS P6T

First, here is what I have:
ASUS P6T (Latest BIOS)
Intell i7 920 LGA 1366
Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme - 1366
OCZ Platinum 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC12800) Tripple Channel
Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2/EPS12V 2.91 SLI ready
XFX GTX 260
WD 250 SATA HD
WIN VISTA 32bit
Rosewill R5601-BK Dual 120mm Fans ATX Mid Tower case

I am a Newbee to overclocking. I have tried to overclock my CPU many different ways in the BIOS, as I have read in different places to do. Got Zip, Nada. Always says overclocking failed. Have to go back to base settings to boot up. Don't know what to do. Trying to get up to 3.7 or 3.8, if possible. Any help appreciated. Never overclocked before, so please use small, easy to understand words of instruction. Thank you!

Take small steps, and increase voltage.

Here's what I did, exactly, in BIOS identical to yours: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=595403



_____________________
Intel i7 920 [211] BCLK x 19 = 4.0 GHz @ [1.4000] CPU Voltage & [1.35000] QPI/DRAM Uncore Voltage, Batch 3836A394
3 x 1GB G.SKIL DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) [DDR3-1691MHz] 10-10-10-24 @ 1.64 DRAM Bus Voltage
ASUS P6T Deluxe v.1 [LGA 1366 Intel X58] BIOS 1102
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT with 120mm Scythe S-Flex F fan
ASUS EAH4850 TOP Radeon HD 4850 512MB @ 680 MHz GPU & 2100 MHz Memory
Antec nine hundred case, two front 120mm fans, one back 120mm Fan, one top 200mm fan
Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W

c627627, I tried everything the way you wrote you had your's set. My CPU speed decreased and I again got the: overclocking failed, reset everything message.

All right. Overclocking should be gradual, those were my final overclock settings, but just the process of you reading some of it might give you an idea of terms to get you started.


You have the same heatsink I do, your power supply is slightly better than mine and your RAM is better than mine so more than likely your CPU may not be able to do 4 GHz at those voltage settings but you should be able to get a decent overclock out of your system.


Let's look at some of my settings and see where we can lower them to start you off. My BCLK Frequency [211] is somewhat unusually high, this would need to be lowered drastically, to start things off.

CPU Ratio Setting [19] was set becasue of my high BCLK. Remember that BCLK x CPU Ratio Setting = Frequency in MHz. So you're likely end up with a lower BCLK and a CPU RATIO setting of 20, which is the max for your CPU.


My DRAM Frequency [DDR3-1691MHz] is an overclock for my RAM but your RAM should do 1600's easily, so you're fine there.

CPU Voltage [1.40000] is already somewhat high. It should allow for a lower BCLK x 20.


The other settings we'll probably look at to fine tune your overclock but let's see where you BCLK initial limitations are first so get cooking on that .



_____________________
Intel i7 920 [211] BCLK x 19 = 4.0 GHz @ [1.4000] CPU Voltage & [1.35000] QPI/DRAM Uncore Voltage, Batch 3836A394
3 x 1GB G.SKIL DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) [DDR3-1691MHz] 10-10-10-24 @ 1.64 DRAM Bus Voltage
ASUS P6T Deluxe v.1 [LGA 1366 Intel X58] BIOS 1102
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT with 120mm Scythe S-Flex F fan
ASUS EAH4850 TOP Radeon HD 4850 512MB @ 680 MHz GPU & 2100 MHz Memory
Antec nine hundred case, two front 120mm fans, one back 120mm Fan, one top 200mm fan
Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W

c627627 - First of all I thank you for trying to help me with this. I appreciate it very much.
I tried what you said to do, but it is still a no go. No matter what I do, i get a: overclocking failed message when computer starts again. After I change AI settings and save bios, comp does not try to restart. Get blue screen for a while, then monitor turns off. I have to shut comp off and restart, so I can see overclocking failed message. Don't know what is wrong.

We need to make sure you didn't change anything you forgot about so reset your BIOS.

Then lower your multiplier significantly then increase the BCLK, let's see where your BCLK limitations are first.

As I said, I know nothing about overclocking really. Can you tell me what settings I should start out with please? Nothing I have tried has worked at all so far. Thank you.

Yeah. Usually it's a good idea to do some readin' first but sure: Reset the BIOS first to return it to factory state, just in case you changed something you shouldn't have in BIOS. So go to Bios > Exit > Load Setup Defaults.



CPU Ratio setting x BCLK = MHz frequency

CPU Ratio setting is locked at maximum 20
So depending on how high the BCLK can go + increasing voltage = overclock.


So before overclocking, put the CPU Ratio Setting really low and try to find out how high you can increase BCLK. Once we find out how high you can go with BCLK we can start overclocking.

I did read up on things, but the i7 seems to be different than previous Intell chips. I had no trouble overclocking my dual core cpu and it works fine. This one is a pain in the a--.
I set multiplier to 14 and BCLK will post at 167. When I go to 168, blue screen and failed to overclock sign is back.

Perhaps the chip's OC potential is limited. I got lucky on the other end of the spectrum, my chip booted at 220 and I stopped there, then reduced it back and even had to lower the multiplier because of it.

You could do 3.2 GHz at 20x166, then see if voltage and other settings could get you a little higher but if the chip can only do 167 max, sometimes it's just bad luck of the draw.



_____________________
Intel i7 920 [211] BCLK x 19 = 4.0 GHz @ [1.4000] CPU Voltage & [1.35000] QPI/DRAM Uncore Voltage, Batch 3836A394
3 x 1GB G.SKIL DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) [DDR3-1691MHz] 10-10-10-24 @ 1.64 DRAM Bus Voltage
ASUS P6T Deluxe v.1 [LGA 1366 Intel X58] BIOS 1102
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT with 120mm Scythe S-Flex F fan
ASUS EAH4850 TOP Radeon HD 4850 512MB @ 680 MHz GPU & 2100 MHz Memory
Antec nine hundred case, two front 120mm fans, one back 120mm Fan, one top 200mm fan
Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W

I will slowly raise the multilier and see what happens.

Well, here are the results:
Multiplier 20
BCLK 165
3.31 mhz
This is the max I can get out of it. If I go to 166 on BCLK, the overclock fails. At 165 it seems very steady and the computer is completely useable.

You'd have to run stability tests to make sure but if tweaks/adjusting voltage do not work, then you just may have a chip with a low BCLK because of your hopefully properly installed heatsink and your power supply are just top notch.

I have not tried to adjust voltages. Don't know where to start, but it doe seem like I received a bum chip. (the heatsink is properly installed. My cpu temps are running around 39c most of the time)

Cooper,

You are a few steps ahead of me with the overclocking. It could be something as simple as a slight tweak of voltage which might get you a higher overclock. Now, which one, I'm not sure. I'm kind of feeling my way around this myself. You might look at the thread I started here which has links to various reviews. These reviews talk about the voltage tweaks they might do to achieve good overclocks. I'm still digesting this information myself.

c627627 - I exchanged my i920 for a new one and this one runs at 3.80 ghz with a 20x190 setting and is very stable. I have not tried pushing it higher yet. Yiu were right about the first cpu, it was a weak one. Thanks for all your help. (Now my memory is also getting up to 1600, before it would only go to 998 when I pushed the cpu to 3.2mhz.)

Yeah good. With enough voltage you could be in the 4 GHz territory but you're OK now, glad it worked out.

Consider the pros & cons of chasing the last MHz. I personally could have gone higher but chose to leave some room for stability since I aim to keep my rig for half a decade.


_____________________
Intel i7 920 [211] BCLK x 19 = 4.0 GHz @ [1.4000] CPU Voltage & [1.35000] QPI/DRAM Uncore Voltage, Batch 3836A394
3 x 1GB G.SKIL DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) [DDR3-1691MHz] 10-10-10-24 @ 1.64 DRAM Bus Voltage
ASUS P6T Deluxe v.1 [LGA 1366 Intel X58] BIOS 1102
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT with 120mm Scythe S-Flex F fan
ASUS EAH4850 TOP Radeon HD 4850 512MB @ 680 MHz GPU & 2100 MHz Memory
Antec nine hundred case, two front 120mm fans, one back 120mm Fan, one top 200mm fan
Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W

I am now at 4.02 MHZ and very stable. I did not change voltage at all, only increased my BCLK a little bit. Feels like it could easily go higher, but I am very happy at this level. Also am now running 2 GTX260's in SLI and all is stable with reasonable temps. Again, thanks for your help.

Running stability tests might reveal that you may need a voltage bump... Prime95 Torture Test threads should be 8 for the i7, half a day without any errors.

Have you tried reading through the info on Asus's message board? It was very helpful to me when setting up my p6t6 revo.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx..._id=1&model=P6T+Deluxe&page=1&SLanguage=en-us