Help with new gaming PC

Hello, everyone! I am a first time poster here so go easy on me

I picked up this computer from a pawn shop for $500 around 2 weeks ago. It's been used for a little over a year, so the hardware shouldn't be in that bad of shape. Everything was stock when I got it. No modifications to anything inside the BIOS.

I've been having issues getting a stable overclock on this CPU. The computer always blue screens or freezes past a certain point.

Specifications:
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme Edition
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
RAM: Corsair Dominator 4x2GB (4 of the 2GB models for the 6GB pack)
MOBO: ASUS P6T SE

Default Multiplier: 25
Default Core Clock: 133
(3.33GHz)

Right now I have it stable at 135x30 (4.05GHz). If I set it to 31 I get blue screens that say nothing other then that there was an error. Voltage is on automatic. C-State is off and HyperThreading is on.

Are there any tips to make it go past this?

The computer is surprisingly laggy at times, but I am not sure if overclocking would do anything. I want to see how far I can push which will improve the performance of my PC.



[v Under Load v]


To my understanding these temps are okay. The computer is currently under a bit of load. When nothing is going on it's normally at 90°F. I have Corsair water cooling and 2 huge fans in the tower. The Corsair one for the radiator is sucking in, top one blowing out and side one sucking in. There is a hard drive fan as well, sucking in.

Let me know if you need more info.
Thanks,
David.

Shockingly, we go by Celsius... All documentation is in C.

You have a unlocked.multiplier, I would use that instead of bclk.

Check out the guide for.your cpu in the Intel ultimate sticky thread...

EarthDog said:

Shockingly, we go by Celsius... All documentation is in C.

You have a unlocked.multiplier, I would use that instead of bclk.

Check out the guide for.your cpu in the Intel ultimate sticky thread...

Click to expand...

I will definitely keep that in mind next time I post something! Also, thank you for the tip. I'll make sure to stick with the multipliers instead of the blck.
I will check out the thread. Thanks for helping!

I'll go into more detail when I'm not mobile.

In the bios, I changed the base clock to its original 133 And set the ratio to 32. This set the frequency at 4.27 GHz. It froze halfway through the windows boot. I now set the ratio at 30, and it boots just fine, but it crashes sometimes within windows. Any tips?

More voltage would be my guess since we don't have any information to go off of...What are you major voltages set at?

EarthDog said:

More voltage would be my guess since we don't have any information to go off of...What are you major voltages set at?

Click to expand...

The core clock is 133 in the BIOS. I don't have a clue as to why it's being shown up at 134 in TurboV.

I have the voltage setting in the BIOS on auto.

Have you read the bloomfield/gulftown overclocking guide? There is a lot more to this than A) steal underpants B) profit.

Theocnoob said:

Have you read the bloomfield/gulftown overclocking guide? There is a lot more to this than A) steal underpants B) profit.

Click to expand...

Lol.
Yeah, I've followed the guides. I followed it again, and I can't seem to get above 4.1GHz.

Multiplier is 22.

When I back off to 15, or go up to 25, nothing works from ~185 to 208. Any tips?

Should I just stick with 4.1GHz and not try to push forward?

4ghz is about where the average...

Back off to 15...go up to 25???

EarthDog said:

4ghz is about where the average...

Back off to 15...go up to 25???

Click to expand...

Multiplier, sorry. The computer keeps freezing at anything past ~3.8GHz, at random times. It passes the IntelBurnTest tests most of the time, as well.

Right now I am just about to give up and stick with 3.8GHz and deal with the random crashes.

Well... What's your memory frequency at? When you adjust bclk you also raise the memory speed. Make sure it's at or under spec.

post some cpuz screenshots of the first, memory, and spd tabs please.

It's not a Sandybridge, my friend. 4-4.2 (if you're lucky) is about all you get out of Gulftowns. Take your 4.0 and be happy. Still a respectable CPU and will keep up in games and many apps with modern chips.

Theocnoob said:

It's not a Sandybridge, my friend. 4-4.2 (if you're lucky) is about all you get out of Gulftowns. Take your 4.0 and be happy. Still a respectable CPU and will keep up in games and many apps with modern chips.

Click to expand...

(its bloomfield btw)
I am very happy. Thanks for the info! I dont see why this processor was $1k brand new and labeled with "Extreme" if it can't out perform a processor half its price :/

975 is a hex core that's gulftown. It's a Bloomfield Derivative.

Chryonic said:

(its bloomfield btw)
I am very happy. Thanks for the info! I dont see why this processor was $1k brand new and labeled with "Extreme" if it can't out perform a processor half its price :/

Click to expand...

It's extreme because of the unlocked multiplier. The other bloomfields were bclk only. It's not like today where the unlocked multi chips are reasonably priced. Anyway... Waiting on those cpuz screenshots...I have a feeling your memory is out of spec holding you back.

AFor TOCNoobs clarity, he has a 965, not not 975...regardless both are a quads with HT (click on his link in the first to confirm for yourself). The 980 would be the hex/gulftown.

EarthDog said:

It's extreme because of the unlocked multiplier. The other bloomfields were bclk only. It's not like today where the unlocked multi chips are reasonably priced. Anyway... Waiting on those cpuz screenshots...I have a feeling your memory is out of spec holding you back.

AFor TOCNoobs clarity, he has a 965, not not 975...regardless both are a quads with HT (click on his link in the first to confirm for yourself). The 980 would be the hex/gulftown.

Click to expand...

No, it's a 975 (unless thats not proper..?)
I guess I am fine with 4.2GHz. Took me another hour of tuning today to get to that. Tons of guides say I can go up to ~4.5-4.8GHz so I am a bit puzzled.

Screenshots that were requested:

Oops, 975.. my point was it wasn't a hex core.

As far as what other people got... that doesn't matter as every CPU is different.

I can't read that blue on black dude...stick with the default colors of CPUz please.

EarthDog said:

Oops, 975.. my point was it wasn't a hex core.

As far as what other people got... that doesn't matter as every CPU is different.

I can't read that blue on black dude...stick with the default colors of CPUz please.

Click to expand...

Custom windows theme. Sorry. I'll screenshot it on the ROG CPU-Z as that overrides the theme.

Did some more edits since the computer randomly froze (new specs):


Screenshots:


I don't know if this helps.. but it's worth a shot.

I was misinformed. Thought 975 was gulftown. My bad.