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[Solved] Newcomer - i5-750 on H55m-USB3 maxxing at 20x177

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DARKMAZE

Registered
Joined
Jan 24, 2015
Location
Newcastle, Australia
Hi all,

I've been building systems since the days of 486 DX4 100s, and have a core understanding of the principles of overclocking, but I've never really had any successful attempts which has not bothered me much in the past.
So, technically I'm a noob when it comes to actual overclocking.

My current system I built about 5 years ago now, and I have tried numerous times in the past to have a crack at overclocking it, but I've never had any success (similar to this attempt, it normally resulted in a heap of no POSTing, and me giving up).

I came across the walk-through on this forum which has helped me to better understand the process (In the past, I've understood overclocking in the same way I understand a pottery wheel - ie: I know how it's 'supposed' to work, but I've never physically managed to produce anything worthwhile.. :p)

So, I was kinda stoked to get the system actually functioning with an overclock today of 3540 using a 20x clock, 177 BCLK, VCore 1.3, Vtt 1.1, PCH 1.05, DRAM 1.5.

I cannot seem to get the system to POST with anything over a 177 BCLK, which I'd be happy to accept had I not seen numerous other discussions on this forum of people hitting in excess of 4ghz.
I'm not that 'greedy', I'd be happy getting around a 3.8 or so, but if the system can handle more with a better eye, then why not.

Following the '3 step' guide, with a 12x multi, once I try to put in anything over 177 BCLK, it doesn't seem to matter what voltage I put in the Vtt, on boot, I get a nice message from Gigabyte advising that the "System expewrienced boot failures because over overclocking or changes of voltages", and that the system might not be running at the last saved bios state.

I was almost happy with my system at 21x and 177 after upping the Vtt to 1.25 (having read one of the numerous helps on this forum), and it did boot successfully giving me the 'aimed-for' 2.7ghz, AND I even got excited when prime 95 got to the 50 minute mark thinking I might have done it, but, at 53 minutes, one core failed a calc, and that was the end of that setting experiment.

I'd love some advice on where to go from here - ie: Do I just have a bad chip, is it my limitation, have I missunderstood something. Should I just be happy with what I've achieved?

Thanks Kindly.

CPU-Z-Baseline.png
 
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One thing that stands out to me is that you are running three different brands of memory in the same system.

This could be a problem that would cause instabilities and/or cause problems when attempting to overclock.

Also, being on the H55 chipset you're likely to be more limited in what you can do when overclocking, since it's not as good as the P55 chipset.
 
Thanks Tech Tweaker.

To be honest, I was surprised at the differing memory in my system, as I wouldn't have though I'd buy different chips, but it was many moons ago now. However, after typing up a long 'speal' on here about the history of my unstable machine, before I hit post, I thought I'd check my facebook posts from when I first built it and was having stability issues. And there in Aug 2010, I found the post saying I'd put in the new S12II 430 power supply and had bought '2gb MORE RAM to double the fun', so maybe the inherited stick has always caused my issues. But along with the new PSU and the added 2gb stick, I see that adding "the coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus kept it at a cool 42 deg running prime 95...". I must've added the 8gb paired set much later (what was I thinking trying to run win 7 on 2gb). So, maybe next weekend, I'll try pulling out the small sticks to see if I can push past the 177 limit.

In regards to the chipset being an issue, I too assumed this would be the case (particularly considering my earlier stability issues which I 'believed' were MB related), and numerous reviews talking about preferring P55 over H55 (motherboard choice based on $$ at the time as was a full time student with mortgage, wife and kids), but reviews have had kind words, so I pushed on..

eg: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/05/03/gigabyte_h55musb3_motherboard_review/6#.VMVeVi5PZaQ

Interesting, I didn't read that full article the first glance through, only saw that "I was expecting mediocre-to-OK overclocking ... Boy was I wrong in this case".
Had I read the whole article, I would've seen he was running an i5-750 at 4.2ghz, so maybe I'll try his settings when I pull the sticks.

Also, review on this forum with a decent overclock (i5-660 at 4.6ghz).
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...PC-GIGABYTE-H55M-USB3-with-Core-i5-660-Review

So think it's probably not chipset limited.
 
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I'm leaning towards your memory as well. Pulling the 2GB sticks shouldn't hurt, anyway.

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that the major timings match across all of those sticks for each speed. Other timings are probably all over the place though.
 
i wouldnt say that the ram is an issue but depending on its speed it is running now after the oc. have you run memtest to check for errors?
 
I have not run a mem-test yet, BUT, now pretty certain it was the cause. Just pulled them out because FSX kept crashing midway through a flight, and while I'm sure that's more related to the crappy programming of it or one of the addons I'm running, I thought I may as well pull it out just to be sure...

So, yanked the sticks out, powered up, and just for '****z n stuff', went into BIOS upped BCLK to 185mhz and Vtt up to 1.21 (I think that's what I 'plucked') and she booted windows just fine (as opposed to not even posting previously). I probably would've checked RAM sooner, but it wasn't until I came to post here and went to fill out my system specs that I opened the box to find the 'missmatching' RAM. By which point I was stable with 'an' overclock so I wasn't pointing fingers at the RAM.

Don't have the time right now to run through a re-OC process, but I'll have another crack on the weekend to see where I can get.
Who knows, I might even be able to up the RAM to 8 (not that I'm holding my breath). I'd set it down to the 6 setting to ensure it wasn't being pushed near it's 1333 rating.
 
missmatching ram isnt really a problem, its key to make sure timings and voltages match. if you were populating 4 dimm slots though, you might have needed more PCH voltage. though i forget if P55 was the first PCH or if it was still considered chipset with a southbridge like the X58 boards. in either case a touch more memory controller voltage or memory voltage might have been needed to correct the errors. this largely assumes that at DDR3-1333 that timings and voltages are the same, as then with memtest86 you could test each stick of ram or in dual channel 2 sticks or using all 4 sticks. though if im reading your cpuz right you only had 3 sticks? i think P55 would still be partially in dual channel mode but some boards stated they ran a hybrid mode with 3 sticks of ram. i never did fully get this "hybrid" mode with 3 sticks of ram, when you have 4 slots.
 
Thanks Evilsizer.
I probably should have clarified, but thought it would be assumed that the Patriot 8gb kit was 2 x 4gb sticks. Thus, slot 1 and slot 3 are identical (as are the CPU-z screenshots, which was why I skipped the screendump).

My board BIOS has an option for PCH Core and CPU PLL under the MCH/ICH heading.
I think I did play around with PCH Core voltage at one point (lifting it above 1.050), but don't remember what configurations I tried.
Like I said, I will have another play on the weekend when I get time to run tests on it, but I'm pretty happy with the 'un-stresstested' 3.7ghz I have achieved now that I've pulled the 2x2gb sticks out.
 
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Cheers for the advice everyone.

With the 2x2gb sticks removed, I managed to get it clocked up at 20x200mhz tonight for 4ghz using the settings shown in the screenshot. Stability tested with Prime 95.

final_settings.png
 
tested with prime95 for how long and what temps? did you run memtest86 to see if there was a problem with the other memory?
 
Ran it for 2 hours so far. Max temp was 75 (it's hot here today - system temp sitting at 40 idling)..

I didn't get around to testing the other memory, I'm happy to be running with just the 8gb, I've not noticed any performance hit from the drop.
I guess I could try messing around with the memory to see if I could get it to run with the 12gb, but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort given I couldn't even get the system to post at higher frequencies with it in previously.
 
for a first gen i5 or even i7 that is a really high max temp. you either need better cooling or need to back it down to a max of 60-65c.

if you could use all 12gig it would be worth it but its up to you. i was tring to figure out if the ram was just going bad or the memory controller needed a bump due to use 4 sticks.
 
Yes, that is a good point on the RAM front Evilsizer.

Regarding the temperature, are you sure (not that I doubt the expertise on this board)?

My google-fu research shows average temperatures around the 70 deg mark at this clock speed on the i5-750 (and they normally list lower case temps than mine).
One guide was showing 85 deg on a 4.2ghz (21x multiplier vs my 20).

Also, see numerous comments about being under 90 deg as safe...
 
i guess at this point i dont know... i follow mid 60's as a safe zone temp for long term... i still use that and on my current cpu, im happy with where it is at. just error on the side of caution is all im going to say at this point. it being a first gen i, i dont recall people saying 85 area was safe for those, it might be. If its long term stable in the 70's for prime95 or orthos or intel burn test, i mean like a 24hr run, not 2 hrs, then ur good.
 
Ok. well just to throw another spanner in the works, I downloaded Hardware Monitor, and also pulled up the Gigabyte Ezy Tune software (being a gigabyte motherboard).

While running Prime 95, RT shows about 70 deg, while Gigabyte software is showing 60 deg and HWM Pro shows 66..

edit: Never mind, ET6 uses motherboard CPU temp sensor rather than core temps.
 
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So, I've had a play to get it 'long-term' stable at 4ghz (with only 8gb ram).
Made almost 10 hours at 1.425 Vcore but after a bump to 1.45, Prime 95 Torture test completed about 1300 tests in 24 hours, 12 minutes.

"Max" temperature was during the hotest part of the hot day at 75 / 77 / 72 / 77, but when I was home, it was sitting around the 68-74 mark.
I've attached a typical 15 minute log graph shown here - note: RealTemp shows about +3deg on this logged temp.

Intel Core i5 750_temperature.png

Idle temp is sitting at 39.

Regarding 'max' temperatures, I was reading this interesting discussion tonight from some who on stock speed with the stock cooler was seeing 71 deg under load.
They also then installed the same cooler I'm running, and at 3.8ghz they were seeing 75 deg in a 19 deg room, so I'm pretty happy with my 75 deg at 4ghz in a 25-30 deg room.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2048457

Now that I know it's stable in this config, maybe on the weekend, I'll try to see if I can get around to testing out the other memory sticks.
What voltage would you recommend needing an increase for the '4' sticks?
DRAM voltage or PCH core (or something else)?
 
well it wouldnt be PCH core since the memory controller is on DIE on the cpu. It is either going to be Dram voltage increase or one that corresponds to the IMC. the main thing to know is exactly what speed the ram is running at with the higher baseclock since this will also increase dram speed. memory is fuzzy atm on the P55's since i messed with about 4-5 of them in mATX. i know on my X58 with increasing baseclock also raised ram speed. the problem with the other ram, may in fact be it can not run at the speed being asked to run.


*edit*
looking at your first set of pics at 3.5ghz your ram is running just under DDR3-1066 speeds. any pics of the memory tab with your current oc? what do you currently have ram voltages set too?
 
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