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Overclocking Escapades: Intel socket LGA1156 Core i5 650 K0 stepping

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Tech Tweaker

Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Well, since I finally managed to get my major PITA board working (Biostar TPower I55) I thought I would start trying to overclock my i5 650.

The motherboard has a lot of weird issues. Firstly, when I first bought it the rear USB ports kept shorting out, it would run normally at first and then four or five minutes into the system running they would cut out and not come back on. I noticed corrosion around some of the tiny surface-mounted capacitors and other electronic chips at the rear of the board, which I though was related since the corroded parts were right near the ports that were shorting out. So, a few months back I stripped down the board and sent it through a wash cycle in my dishwasher to wash away the corrosion, then used an air compressor to blow all of the excess water off of the motherboard so that it wouldn't cause more corrosion. And left it sitting disassembled in my bedroom for two or three months to make sure it was thoroughly dry (actually, I could have just left it sitting for a week and it would have been thoroughly dried, I just got caught up in other projects in the meantime).

Problem number two is that the system fails to output any video if there is only one memory stick and stick is placed in slot A1, if single stick is in slot B1 then system performs normally. If two sticks are used, one in slot A1 and one in B1, then both are detected and the system runs normally. Stick in slot A1 does require occasional re-seating for system to POST if it does not POST on first try, which is a bit odd considering sometimes it will work fine on first try, but if I have to reboot the system to complete installation of updates it will sometimes fail to POST upon restart even though it was just running normally seconds earlier.

Third problem is that one pin in the CPU socket is completely broken off. A second one is bent down pretty far and the pin is quite weak, so I cannot straighten it up to where it should be. The pin that is broken off though seems to be non-essential though as the system runs normally without it.

Fourth problem is that the Primary PCI Express X16 slot only runs at X1 bandwidth no matter what video card I use. No idea what's wrong there, at first I thought it was a seating issue, so I reseated the cards multiple times, but it hasn't helped. Also thought it might have been a driver issue, so I reinstalled the video driver, didn't help.

I fired the system up three days ago, and it ran normally for two of those days. USB ports were all functioning normally, and there were no problems with the memory issue for a considerable period. Then, strangely yesterday morning all of the USB ports and the PS/2 (mini-din) port cut out while it was up and running, sitting at the desktop. I couldn't explain it, since it ran fine for two whole days before suddenly going out again. Just this morning I finally figured out the problem when I noticed a chip of some kind with noticeable corrosion on one of its pins. When I touched this chip with my finger the USB ports would come back to life, but only lasted for fifteen to twenty seconds before going back out again. So, I decided to see if I could clean away this corrosion on the one pin I noticed that did not look like the others using a small metal tool I use occasionally (you could call it a metal probe I suppose, that's the best description I can come up with for it without knowing its actual name). So I scratched away at this pin for a minute or two until it looked reasonably shiny again and was not the same dull corroded color, then flipped the power back on to my PSU and started up the system again. To my relief the USB ports came to life this time, and have been on for almost an hour and a half now. I can only speculate that this small chip is a USB controller, or a chip that feeds power to the USB controller. I hope it doesn't go out again, but at least now I have some idea of where to look if it does.

CPU: Intel Core i5 650 (3.2GHz stock 133MHz X 24x multiplier)
Motherboard: Biostar TPower i55 (P55 chipset)
Memory: G.Skill 4GB (2x2GB sticks) F3-12800CL7-4GBXM (DDR3-1600/PC3-12800) 7-8-7-24-1T
Graphics: Evga GTX 570 HD
CPU cooling: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Black Edition with 1x Gentle Typhoon AP-15 in push and 1x Cooler Master SickleFlow 120x25mm blue LED fan in pull
HDD: Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATA II

Intel LGA1156 Core i5 650 overclock settings
Note: Biostar TPower i55 motherboard has 0.04v Vdrop, default (Auto) voltage in BIOS is 1.24v (when at this voltage 1.20v is displayed in OS and BIOS voltage monitoring software).
Core 0 40°C max temp (22°C minimum temp), Core 1 36°C max temp (20°C minimum temp)-stock temperatures
3.3GHz: 1.14-1.15v (1.24v-0.0625v) (1.158-1.175v showing in bios)
3.4GHz: 1.14-1.15v (1.24v-0.0625v) (1.158-1.175v showing in bios)
3.5GHz: 1.14-1.15v (1.24v-0.0625v) (1.158-1.175v showing in bios)
3.6GHz: 1.14-1.15v (1.24v-0.0625v) (1.158-1.175v showing in bios)
3.7GHz: 1.14-1.15v (1.24v-0.0625v) (1.158-1.175v showing in bios)
3.8GHz: 1.14-1.15v (1.24v-0.0625v) (1.158-1.175v showing in bios)
3.9GHz: 1.14-1.15v (1.24v-0.0625v) (1.158-1.175v showing in bios)
4.0GHz: 1.14-1.15v (1.24v-0.0625v) (1.158-1.175v showing in bios)
4.1GHz: 1.15-1.17v (1.24v-0.05000v) (1.175v showing in bios)
4.2GHz: 1.18-1.20v (1.24v-0.018750v) (1.207v showing in bios)
4.3GHz: 1.22v (1.24v) (1.240v showing in bios)
4.4GHz: 1.26-1.28v (1.24v+0.0625v +1.325v VTT Voltage) (1.289-1.305v showing in bios)
4.5GHz: 1.28-1.30v (1.24v+0.075v +1.325v VTT Voltage) (1.305v showing in bios)
4.6GHz: 1.33-1.34v (1.24v+0.1125v +1.325v VTT Voltage) (1.354v showing in bios)
4.7GHz: 1.38-1.39v (1.24v+0.1625v +1.34v VTT Voltage) (1.403v showing in bios)
4.75GHz: 1.424-1.44v (1.4375v +1.33v VTT Voltage (GA-P55A-UD4P)
4.8GHz: 1.424-1.44v (1.4375v +1.33v QPI/VTT, +1.580v DRAM)*not fully stable, just for benching-P55A-UD4P
4.85GHz (194x25): 1.424-1.44v (1.4375v +1.33v QPI/VTT, +1.580v DRAM)*not fully stable, just for benching-P55A-UD4P
 
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Damn been busy with that one. I laughed when you said you threw the board in the dishwasher. Thats awesome haha.
 
Damn been busy with that one. I laughed when you said you threw the board in the dishwasher. Thats awesome haha.

Yeah, I do crazy-sounding stuff like that sometimes when none of my normal troubleshooting steps work. Though I also sometimes do that with really dirty, dingy, or stinky motherboards (as in, previously owned by smokers or people with lots of animals). Works great for cleaning a motherboard, just have to make sure it's really dry before using again.

On the topic of this CPU, I'm really impressed by how cool it runs temperature-wise. It idles in the low to mid-twenties in degrees Celsius. Under load the highest I see is 43-46°C on Core 0 and 38-40°C on Core 1 typically, so far. Seems to overclock quite well at relatively low CPU voltage too, which is nice for keeping power consumption and temperatures down. I kind of wish my C2Q Q6600 ran so cool, it can't even get close to the idle temps of this (the Q6600 idles in the low 30's typically, temps under load are 46-46-44-40 in typical usage (gaming), but it's liquid-cooled.)
 
How high have you gotten it so far? I haven't gotten to play around with Intel yet. Fiddling around with my sempron 140 right now.
 
How high have you gotten it so far? I haven't gotten to play around with Intel yet. Fiddling around with my sempron 140 right now.

Just 3.9GHz so far. I'm assuming I'll hit at least 4.0-4.2GHz, maybe higher than that.

A Sempron 140 on good air cooling with a decent board should hit 4.0-4.1GHz I would think (though your mileage may vary). My Sempron 145 went to 4.3GHz, but it wasn't fully stable.
 
had that board for the wifes puter for a bit. think I ended up getting 4.6 or so out of it on air. you can add voltage for the chip through another voltage-cant remember what it was called now
 
had that board for the wifes puter for a bit. think I ended up getting 4.6 or so out of it on air. you can add voltage for the chip through another voltage-cant remember what it was called now

You had the same CPU or the same motherboard? Bit confused by your reply...
 
Ooooooh Sub'd for another round :thup:
What a pain that board sounds like LOL

You have no idea. :facepalm:

I signed myself up for a world of pain on this one, without realizing it.

Board was previously owned by someone that used it for sub-zero benching with things like DICE, Phase Change, LN2, etc. It was poorly insulated from water condensation though, I found corrosion on a lot of the little electronic chips' electrical contacts on the topside of the board. Then, when I removed most of the conformal coating from the back side of the board I found even more corrosion underneath the conformal coating (silicone in this case). Spent about five hours peeling the silicone rubber off, exposed about 3/4th's of the motherboard's back, then went to work cleaning off the corrosion with Isopropanol (similar to Isopropyl Alcohol, but with a higher alcohol percentage and not suitable for medical usage (sterilizing, etc)) and a toothbrush.

Apparently when you bench sub-zero and the board isn't insulated just right, it can cause lots of problems down the road.

The BIOS is annoying too. Voltage settings for CPU voltage doesn't give real numbers, just plus or minus 0.XXXX. And I can't seem to find any way to adjust the Uncore value. A multiplier or divider somewhere would be nice.
 
This CPU just keeps going.

Temperatures aren't too bad, but I do exceed 60°C under load now (63-64°C max so far).

Think I might be able to get 4.6GHz or 4.7GHz stable, but it will probably stop short of 5GHz.
 
This CPU just keeps going.

Temperatures aren't too bad, but I do exceed 60°C under load now (63-64°C max so far).

Think I might be able to get 4.6GHz or 4.7GHz stable, but it will probably stop short of 5GHz.

Looks like it's needing more voltage to go another 100Mhz now :-/
 
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