overclocking i7 950 question

Hi everyone,

First of all my specs:

Cooler Master Silent Pro M850 850 Watt, 20+24 Pins
Intel Core I7 950 3.06 Ghz, Boxed, Excl. Videochip, Quad Core
Scythe Yasya
GigaByte GA-X58A-UD3R
Kingston HyperX Triple Channel 6 GB, PC3-10666, 1333 MHz
Point Of View GeForce GTX 480 1536 MB (SLI)
Point Of View GeForce GTX 480 1536 MB (SLI)
OCZ Vertex 2 Extended Capacities 25nm 60 GB, S-ATA II / 300, 250 MB's, 285 MB's, 2,5 Inch
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB, 7200 Rpm, 32 MB, Bulk
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB, 7200 Rpm, 32 MB, Bulk
Microsoft Windows 7 NL, Home Premium, OEM -
LG GH22NS50 Super Multi S-ATA,


My question is im fairly new to overclocking and i dont wanna break my computer. As far as i have come with reading countless of articles on the topic i want to know if im in the right direction with the overclock and im not breaking things by accident.

My question is, i wanna run at 3,84ghz i had this enabled with:

1st settings:

24x160
qpi: auto (5.76mhz)
uncore:x18 (2880)
spd: 6.0 (960)

The oc is running fine with stresstest and also temperatures are fine with high 60`s.
Are these good settings to keep or am i breaking something i not aware off?

Though i have been running with:

2nd settings:

24x160
qpi: auto (5.76mhz)
uncore: auto (3200mhz)
spd: 10.0 (1600)

I noticed quiet a drop in perfomance going from the 2nd settings to the 1st settings. Are the 2nd settings safe to use on my system because that whas definitly faster.

if you guys can shed a light into this it will be much appreciated.

Greetings M0dro

Are you leaving your vcore at stock?

i have my vcore upped to 1.296.

2 clicks lower and i would crash with a bsod error x101

Any comments on the settings i have entered now? I have read dozens of those articles but i cant find a good answer in them if my settings i have are any good for the specs i have.

Thnx in advance

Best is to skip higher cpu multis and set cpu like 19x200 or 19x210. The main reason is that on lower cpu multi you can set higher stable bclk. I wouldn't set anything above x21 for 24/7 if you are overclocking. These multis will let you set about max stable clocks for air/water cooling.
Most of these cpus are running fine @200MHz bclk with some QPI/VTT voltage bump.
My i7 950 isn't any special and is making 4GHz, 19x210 1.36V fully stable for everything.

Im running on stock cooling so im a bit hesitant to up my vcore to the 1.3`s due to the heat. I dont have much experience with the qpi/vtt settings so i need to do some more reading on those then.

Also what about my spd? im running 1333hz ram atm and as far as i see its clocked atm at 1600mhz is this any good? I dont want to slowly ruin my ram if i can set it lower without any performance decrease.

At the current 160 BCLK, lower the DRAM multiplier to x8 = DDR3-1280. And assuming your HyperX kit is Value RAM, manually adjust the timings and voltage to what I assume are 9-9-9-24 at 1.5V. Also set the uncore multiplier to either x16 (UCLK Freq: 2560MHz) or Auto.

Oke thnx, uncore @ auto = 3200mhz and at the current x18 it is 2880 isnt the x16 to low or is that compensated by the spd being lower. Also the timer settings apply for all 3 cards of ram? Currently the timings are set for the channel a/bc to 9-9-9-auto(20) @ 1.5 volts.

And i like to thank you guys for all the help. Wish i had a cpu to tinker with freely and not be worried im gonna brake something