SOLVED My OC, almost there, some questions left

Hello Overclockers community, first post

I bought an Cooler Master Hyper 212+ last friday because I had heat problems with the Intel stock cooler, and I saw good results, I decided I'd do overclocking, to learn how to do it.

First things first, my rig:

• CPU - Intel Core i7 930 Bloomfield
• Mother Board - GA-X58A-UD3R Rev. 2, BIOS Ver: FF
• RAM - F3-10600CL9S-2GBNT x4 (total 8GB)
• GPU - EVGA nVidia GTX 680 FTW LE
• PSU - Cooler Master GX-750W
• Case - Cooler Master Storm Sniper Black Edition (with stock fans)
• CPU Heatsink - Cooler Master Hyper 212+
• Thermal Paste - Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400
• Additional fans - Cooler Master 120MM Blue @200 RPM (intake at bottom)

My objective was to reach 3.5 GHz in the CPU and 1600 MHz in the RAM. Seemed good and something reachable as I saw this guide, before start I tried to read a lot more and I reached this tutorial and I decided to follow it.

My first question:
As I searched the BIOS at optimized defaults (before moving anything) I realized my RAM was running at 1066 MHz with CAS Latency of 7.0, 7, 7, 19 (I really don't know what does this numbers mean), in the G.Skill page the specs of the product are 9.0, 9, 9, 24 and 1333 MHz (PC3 1066 MHz). Why the mother board sets the defaults to lower numbers? As far as I could understand lower CAS Latency numbers are better, but why it has two speeds?

I successfully reached 3.52 GHz in the CPU and 1600 MHz in the RAM, my settings are:

• Base Clock - 160 MHz
• CPU Multiplier - x21 (with Turbo Boost becomes x22)
• VCore - 1.21875 V
• RAM Multiplier - x10
• RAM Voltage - 1.5 V
• QPI Vtt - 1.2 V
• IDLE Temps - 44 ºC, 41 ºC, 43 ºC, 38 ºC (for each core)
• Stress Temps - 66 ºC, 65 ºC, 64 ºC, 61 ºC (for each core)

Second question:
I set Turbo Boost to "Enable" in the BIOS, I understand it adds one to the CPU multiplier and that it is activated inside the operating system, so the BIOS says my CPU is at 3.35 GHz, but in the operating system it will run at 3.52 GHz, is that correct? it will always be active in the operating system? I ask this because I have a multiboot configuration.

Third question:
Once I have find this configuration is stable, I can still play around with the multipliers and if I don't find other satisfying configuration (I worry a lot that the temperature goes over 70 ºC under stress) rollback to this configuration and nothing goes wrong?

Fourth question:
I have read that in the final stability test, you should let the test run up to 6 hours (some people say even 24 hours!), why so much? mine has been running by 3 hours now and everything is working fine so far (Prime95, default test).

I use my rig mainly for gaming and programming.

Thanks

1. RAM modules have SPD profiles that tell the bios what frequency and timings to run at. RAM modules have multiple SPD profiles with a different combination of frequency and timings. If you run an SPD profile with high frequency (1333MHz in your case) the timings will also be higher (9-9-9-24 in your case), and if you run at a lower frequency (1066MHz) then the timings can also be lower (i.e., faster, such as 7-7-7-19). Sometimes it's better to have higher frequency and slower (higher) timings and other times i'ts better to have lower frequency and faster (lower) timings.

2. Turbo Boost should always be active in any operating system as long as it's enabled in the bios. However, this does not mean that your CPU will always be running at Turbo Boost speeds. Turbo Boos only kicks in when the operating system demands more speed from the CPU. If you want your CPU overclocked 24/7 then you need to overclock it manually.

3. First of all, you definitely should keep your CPU temperature below 70c. If you're concerned about your temps, take a screenshot of HW Monitor and post it for us. The answer to your question is yes. Nothing should go wrong with your system by reverting back to previous settings. You run a greater chance of having something go wrong by pushing your system too far.

4. It depends on how stable you want your PC to be. Some people will run their system at select speeds even if they have an occasional error on Prime95. Just because you get errors on Prime95 does not mean you will get crashes and BSODs all the time. However, most people want their system as stable as possible. The longer you can run Prime95 without errors, the more stable your system is. In other words, "stability" is totally subjective. What is stable to one person may not be stable to another person.

Thanks for the quick answer, after a long night and a longer day at work I can come back to tell my experience.

Before my first post, I tried with this settings:

• Base Clock - 168 MHz
• CPU Multiplier - x21 (without Turbo Boost)
• VCore - 1.35 V (I´m not sure about this number)
• RAM Multiplier - x8
• RAM Voltage - 1.5 V
• QPI Vtt - 1.2 V

I don´t remember the idle temperatures, but the top temps after one hour of Prime95 Blend test reached 76º

After that I reaplied the thermic grase, instead of the pea-sized dot I used lines like these (not my actual heatsink, but is the idea):



Yesterday after reapplying the thermal paste and my first post I tried again with those settings a Prim95 blend test for 7 hours (of bad sleep) and these are the results:



I´m happy with the results, except that I was playing Crysis and the GPU temp reached 80 ºC (while the CPU reached 59º max), but I guess that's for the cooling forum.

Thanks for the help juane414, I´ll try to get my CPU to 4.0 GHz, maybe not for the day to day use, but just to see if I can.

I'm not super familiar with Intel CPUs or what temps you should see on your particular CPU. Upper 60's seems a little high to me, and your GPU should certainly not be hitting 80c unless it's passively cooled. Being that your CPU and GPU temps are a little high makes me think that the airflow in your case is not the best. I see that you have the Cooler Master Storm Sniper.

Could you tell me what fans you have, where they are in your case, and which direction you have them blowing air? Also, try running Prime95 with the side panel removed from your case and see if the temps stay the same or if they drop .

So, here is the layout of my fans



The green, the blue and the side fan the side fan can be controlled by a knob in the front panel, I usually set it to the half.

• Green - 200x30mm, 500 -1000 RPM
• Blue - 200x30mm, 500 - 1000 RPM
• Red - 120x25mm, 1200 RPM
• Yellow - 120x25mm, 2000 RPM
• Side fan - 200x30mm, 500 -1000 RPM (not shown in the image cause it is placed in the panel that covers everything

The ones marked in purple are the CPU with the CoolerMaster 212+ (120x25mm, 600 - 2000 RPM) and the GPU, I can't find the specs of the fan thought.

I'm thinking about buying 4 like the yellow one (120x25mm, 2000 RPM) to replace the top and the side fans.

Looks like a pretty good setup. I would recommend setting your green front intake fan to half and setting the blue top exhaust fan to max. The key with having good airflow is to try and have a balance of air coming in and air going out. It's hard to find the perfect balance, so I always try to err on the side of having more exhaust and less intake. The reason why is if you have too much intake and not enough exhaust, then you create a high pressure system in your case and a lot of the hot air ends up getting trapped and cycling around inside the case.

This guy on youtube explains pretty well.

I cannot control each fan individually, there is one knob for all.

Well, I'll keep investigating, thanks.

thanks for the vid link, really helpful!