Multi or BClck?

Hi all,

First time over-clocker so go easy please...

System is:
i7 930
Megahalem B air cooler and Nactua fan
Asus P6X58D-E
6GB Corsair Dominator CMT6X3M3A2000C8 (2000 o.c. C8)
ATI 4890 vid card (stock)

I've worked through Miahallen's excellent overclocking guide and I've got my i7 930 stable at 3.88GHz using the following settings...

21 CPU multi at 1.2v
185 Bclk
DDR -1854MHz
1.35v on QPI
1.1v on IOH
1.65v on DRAM (that's what it says on the dominator modules)

My question is...

I also seemed to get the set-up stable at a Bclk of 181 against a CPU multi of 22 (although it needs a longer test to prove totally stable).

Am I better off with the lower bclk and higher CPU multi (as that gave a proc speed of 3.98GHz) or is bclk more important and I stick with what I have??

BTW I could not seem to get a stable bclk over 190 no matter what I did, and to keep the ram going had to drop to 185.

Thanks for any help you guys can provide,

Sparks

There is not big difference if you go up using multi or bclk but playing with both can give you better memory settings. You can try for example 200 bclk with 20 multi ~1.25V then you can try to set memory on 2000 but QPI will go above 1.4V and possible that you will have to set most memory timings manually. Set a bit higher IOH voltage 1.18-1.24V works good for me. There is hard to set 2000+ ram on this board but maybe you will make it. More detailed memory timings you can get from for example cpu tweaker or everest. All that you won't find just set to auto or check corsair forums, maybe will be something there. There is sometimes info to set Read to Pre time to 11 when you will have some stability problems above 1900.

and to the OCF

Thanks Woomack. I guess if there's not a big difference I'll live with what I have, as I know that's stable. An extra 100MHz won't make a massive difference overall.

Thanks for your help!

Try shooting for a 200 BCLK x 20 = 4.0GHz clock, but first check to see if these settings are stable - 191 x 21 w/ DRAM frequency at DDR3-1531. Don't worry about the lower BCLK or DRAM freq. for the time being, just work your way up to a 200 BCLK and DDR3-2000 (10x DRAM multiplier). Make sure to manually input the 4 primary DRAM timings and rated voltage, for example 8-8-8-24 and 1.65V...

Thanks redduc900. I've just used those settings and although it booted happily into windows and the temps all looked good, intel burn test crashed on first pass.

Cheers anyway,
Sparks

Bump the Vcore in increments up to ~1.30-1.35V, running IBT or LinX after each incremental increase in voltage.

redduc900 said:

Try shooting for a 200 BCLK x 20 = 4.0GHz clock, but first check to see if these settings are stable - 191 x 21 w/ DRAM frequency at DDR3-1531. Don't worry about the lower BCLK or DRAM freq. for the time being, just work your way up to a 200 BCLK and DDR3-2000 (10x DRAM multiplier). Make sure to manually input the 4 primary DRAM timings and rated voltage, for example 8-8-8-24 and 1.65V...

Code:

Ai Overclock Tuner.....................[Manual]
CPU Ratio Setting......................[21.0]
Intel(r) SpeedStep(tm) Tech............[Disabled]
Xtreme Phase Full Power Mode...........[Enabled]
BCLK Frequency.........................[191]
PCIE Frequency.........................[100]
DRAM Frequency.........................[DDR3-1531MHz]
UCLK Frequency.........................[3063MHz]
QPI Link Data Rate.....................[Auto]

CPU Voltage Control....................[Manual]
CPU Voltage............................[1.25]
CPU PLL Voltage........................[1.80]
QPI/DRAM Core Voltage..................[1.21875]
IOH Voltage............................[1.14]
IOH PCIE Voltage.......................[1.50]
ICH Voltage............................[1.20]
ICH PCIE Voltage.......................[1.50]
DRAM Bus Voltage.......................[1.64]
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHA...........[Auto]
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHA...........[Auto]
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHB...........[Auto]
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHB...........[Auto]
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHC...........[Auto]
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHC...........[Auto]

Load-Line Calibration..................[Enabled]
CPU Differential Amplitude.............[800mV]
CPU Clock Skew.........................[Delay 300ps]
CPU Spread Spectrum....................[Disabled]
IOH Clock Skew.........................[Auto]
PCIE Spread Spectrum...................[Disabled]

C1E Support............................[Disabled]
Hardware Prefetcher....................[Enabled]
Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch...........[Enabled]
Intel(r) Virtualization Tech...........[Disabled]
CPU TM Function........................[Enabled]
Execute Disable Bit....................[Enabled]
Intel(r) HT Technology.................[Enabled]
Active Processor Cores.................[All]
A20M...................................[Disabled]
Intel(r) SpeedStep(tm) Tech............[Disabled]
Intel(r) C-STATE Tech..................[Disabled]

Click to expand...

With this same setup I was able to get my vcore as low as 1.22v, and just for the heck of it I bumped my bclk up to 193 and it was still stable. That's what Im running it at now. I did try to up it to 200 with same voltage (wishful thinking), it booted up and I logged into win7, but after about 3 mins it froze. lol. I bet I could bump it up to maybe 195 but I havent tried yet.

Oh BTW, how do ppl copy all that BIOS info down and paste it into a forum thread? I am assuming that you dont write down each field on paper then copy it back on the keyboard.. right?? thats pretty tedious if so!

redduc900 said:

Bump the Vcore in increments up to ~1.30-1.35V, running IBT or LinX after each incremental increase in voltage.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much! This worked perfectly. One increment of vcore and it was stable. I am now a happy 4GHz overclocker.

Thank you!
Sparks