DX58SO/i7 - OC Advice Needed

After days of reading and many failed attempts, I'm ready to turn to some experienced overclockers. I've built a few computers, but this is my first experience in the world of OC. I've tried to soak up as much of the terminology that I can, but still get confused when it comes to the different terminology used in the variety of motherboard's bios.

Let's get to the details of what I have first:

Intel DX58SO
i7 920 (S-spec: SLBEJ)
Corsair Hydro H50 Cooler
G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ / Timing: 9-9-9-24 @ 1.5v
Seventeam ST-850ZAF 850W PSU
Ati Sapphire HD 5770 x2
Soundblaster X-Fi

I'm not looking to go nuts with this as I'd be happy with a moderate overclock of ~3.6, but wouldn't mind seeing 3.8 if the voltage and temp were reasonable. So far, I've only adjusted the Host Clock Frequency (BCLK) to 140 with Turbo on, which puts me right at 3.08GHz. I've tried a few different combinations with the BCLK & voltage, but I always run into POST problems when I start moving up above 142 BCLK. I have a feeling that I'm going to need to start tweaking some other settings such as QPI and other memory settings. I currenty am using the membory "Profile1" built into the bios specifically for the 1600 memory, which was added in a previous bios update. Using the suggested settings from G.Skill caused a failure to post.

So, if anyone would care to give me a hand in this, I'd greatly appreciate it. If you need any more info on current settings or additional specs, just ask.

btw, very addicting hobby, but I'm glad to be in it and a part of this community.

read up on all the links in this post.. best way to start.

You will find lots of help here, but no one can do it for you!

welcome to the boards!!


link to i7 ocing click here!


first thing to do is if you are using the XMP profile on the memory.. dont!
set it up to 9-9-9-24 and set it to your memory volts (if its not 1.5 its probably 1.65 area).. if its failing try downloading and running memtest on the memory to make sure its not going to be an RMA issue..

next, what I did was read the Clunk guide to the i7 oc and that will pretty easily get you into 3.8 territory using stock or very close to stock volts across the board

I wasn't expecting anyone to do it for me. If that's the way I came across, I apologize.

My main concern was if my memory settings were causing a problem using the XMP profile. I have read many guides, and many suggest that you simply have to adjust the BCLK, voltage and multiplier and you are done. However, I quickly found out that wasn't the case.

I'll start by correcting the memory settings and go from there.

Update

I currently sitting at 3.52GHz but still have a couple questions at the bottom. I think one of the major things causing the issue was the DRAM Frequency. However, do to the differences in bios, mine was adjusted by changing the Memory Multiplier. It was set to 12, and when I raised the BCLK above a certain point, it pushed the memory speed well above the 1600, causing the failure to post.

After some testing to make sure 3.5 was stable, I attempted to shoot for 3.8 by upping the BCLK to 181, but failed to post. I had read in a few guides that the QPI needs to be adjusted, and this is also confirmed by what it says in my bios under QPI/Uncore Voltage Override - "Increase Power to QPI bus if increasing QPI data rate or Host Clock Freqency." Since we are raising the BCLK, it makes sense that this would need to be changed. I originally changed it from 1.25 (default in the XMP settings) to 1.35 as I encountered a blue screen when I didn't change it and upped the BCLK to 160. Thinking this was also causing the problem when I tried for a BCLK of 181, I went up as high as 1.45, but still failed to post.

Question 1: I had also read somewhere that I should keep the QPI within 0.5v of the DRAM Bus Voltage to avoid damage to the CPU. Is this talking about my memory voltage, which is set to 1.5v or is this something else.

Question 2: Do I need to increase my QPI to something higher for it to handle a BCLK of 181 or is there another reason for failing to post? (vcore was 1.2)

Yes, try to keep your QPI above 1.15v (for 1.65v dram, 1v for 1.5v dram).

To achieve 4ghz with the Intel, you shouldnt need alot of QPI. Id try it about 1.25v - 1.3v QPI.

vCore is NOT qpi voltage, 2 different things.

Your uncore multiplier (the thing that said 12) is basically your RAM to bclk ratio. If you want 200x20 for 4ghz (which should be easy with that RAM), youd want to set your ratio to 2:8. Thatll give you 1600mhz on the RAM. If you go higher than a blck of 200, you would need to drop your ratio to 2:6 (giving you slower RAM speed, but higher bclk, depending upon your RAM, you may be able to scale to around 1640-1680mhz, or a bclk of up to around 210).

Try these settings. 20x200, vcore set to 1.3v in bios (if you have Hyper-Threading disabled), 1.32v (or close if HT is enabled), RAM voltage set to spec and 9-9-9-24 timings (if you get memory errors, try 1.65v for the RAM), QPI at 1.275 (safe), IOH leave default for 4ghz. Make sure your mem/uncore multi is set to 8/16 (uncore set to twice the mem divider).

Thanks for the advice. Things are running smooth and no problems during the stress tests. I can easily say I have learned a lot over the past couple days. Thanks again for your time and feedback.