NOOB - x58a-ud3r i7 930 overclocking advice..

Hi all - as a newbie to the overclocking scene I'd be grateful if you could pass on some wisdow re my settings.

I'm going for 3.8ghz, looking for a stable 24/7 that won't fry my chip in 2 years but will give me the extra performance for the odd game and HD encoding.

I've got the current settings which seem stable so far (I've still to run a 12 hr prime test) but would appreciate any thoughts on improving this in terms of power efficiency, stability and temps.

My current settings are:

CPU multiplier: x21
Bclk: 180
vcore: 1.19375
vtt: 1.335v
IOH core: 1.260v
DRAM: 1.66

QPI link speed (AUTO at 6.48ghz)
Uncore (AUTO at 3600)

Mem settings otherwise on auto (need to set for defaults here I guess? I have Kingston DDR3 1333 ram).

HT: on (this okay?)

Turbo: off (should I enable)

I'm getting temps about 60c at 100% load and around 38 - 40c at idle using prime95 which seems respectable? What do you think? I'm using a Corsair H50 on a push / pull setup.

I only really use Windows 7 for the odd game otherwise I'm running Mac OS X

Thanks all for your help?

Alex

your settings look good to me, other than I would try to leave the IOH core at 1.10 if you can. for me I the IOH did nothing other than increase heat. it looks really good that you can run 3.8 at 1.19 volts also, seems you did some work to try to work it out on your own. Nice work

Thanks! I've lowered the IOH to 1.10 as you suggest and it seems to be stable and running at around 58 - 61c at load. Going to run a longer test later today and see how it goes.

Those temps seem okay to me for this speed, what do you think?

Cheers!

Actually temps up to about 65c - is that okay for this setup / oc?

Sorry - one more thing! Running tests, getting the odd worker failing so am upping vcore slowly and re-testing? Is this the best approach, and when should I consider upping vtt a little too?

Thanks!

the temps that got me with the IOH increase was the northbridge. What mem speed are you running?
If you mem speeds are close to 1600 then your vtt may well be enough where they are. The cpu voltage is what i would suspect from afar. If you are getting full load temps in the 60's then you are fine. many are way in the 70's at 4.0, and 200mhz isnt going to make a ton of difference on temps.

Stable...

Thanks - I've slowly upped the vcore and ran a prime95 test overnight last night and seem to have found a stable setup at 1.225v, the IOH at normal levels as you suggested and the DRAM at 1.64v which I think keeps it within recommended specs.

Thanks for all your suggestions, really helpful and it doesn't really run that much hotter than it did at stock 2.8ghz which can only be a good thing!!

that still looks pretty impressive, and nice to see it that cool also. good luck and have fun with it.

If you are interested in joining the benching team and really seeing what your hardware can do check this link out.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=643867
many a great dude in there and very helpful too. benching is a lot of fun if you have a little spare time.

Can you try lowering vtt ? start from 1.20v and if you get a BSOD 124 - then try bumping it up one click at a time until you don't get the BSOD. You will notice a little drop in temps doing that.