Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3, P55 temperature problems, smells burnt

Hi!

I'm running a rather archaic system; the memory, MB and CPU is from 2009, yet it still serves my needs well, which is 1080p gaming with 60fps+ in games like BF1 on high/ultra settings.

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3, P55, Socket-1156
Intel® Core™ i7-860 Processor @ 2.8GHz, first ****ing gen i7 Lynnfield OG represent 8)
ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 3GB DUAL
Crucial DDR3 1333MHz CL9 2GBx4
Corsair RM650x 650W PSU
512GB SSD, Windows 7

Default settings are 133MHz BCLK with a x21 CPU multiplier.

My current OC profile:
CPU freq: 177BCLK x 21 = 3717MHz, HT enabled
Vcore: 1.216V
QPI/CPU VTT: 1.225V
Memory: 177BCLK x 8 = 1416MHz, not fiddled with any timings as I know jack **** about it. Default multiplier for my ram would be 133BCLK x 10 = 1333MHz
Memory voltages untouched (1.5V default), otherwise disabled all power saving features and CPU turbo boost. Load-line calibration is enabled.

CPU temp of around 60C when gaming, so I have a lot of headroom here.

However, I'd like to reach 4.0GHz+ which seems perfectly doable with this old CPU.

I achieved this as well, with 200BCLK x 20 and a memory downclock to 200BCLK x 6=1200MHZ. For this I needed a Vcore of 1.35V (anything below is unstable), and a QPI/CPU VTT of 1.31V. This was all going fine, prime95 blend test had been running for 10 minutes without any calculation errors or BSODs, with "only" 80C on the CPU, and Prime95 always gives way higher CPU temps than any games I ever play.
Then one TINY problem occured; I detected the familiar smell of something burnt. I immediately shut down everything and let it cool for 10 minutes, and nothing appears to have been damaged, which means it was most likely dust or some obscure cable/wire in contact with something hot on the MOBO. The TMPIN2 sensor on my MOBO showed a rather hot 60C+, so I guess it's somewhere around here that the frying occured.

How to proceed?

Also, another thing; how do I go about my RAM speeds? The "safest", or closest speed to stock (1333MHZ) at 200BCLK would be the x6 multiplier, which gives me 1200MHz. The next possible step is x8 which yields 1600MHz, not too sure how that would go, and I'd rather play it safe on the memory side considering its speed doesn't affect gaming performance that much. How does timings tie in with this? Is there any way I can obtain stock 1333MHz speed without lowering the BCLK?

I think you need to leave the memory at the present settings. It's the best trade off. Burnt smell could be the PSU. How old is it? Look for bulging and/or leaking capacitors, particularly around the socket. You may need to remove the CPU heatsink to see some of them. In that time period of manufacture there was a common problem with failing capacitors.

trents said:

I think you need to leave the memory at the present settings. It's the best trade off. Burnt smell could be the PSU. How old is it? Look for bulging and/or leaking capacitors, particularly around the socket. You may need to remove the CPU heatsink to see some of them. In that time period of manufacture there was a common problem with failing capacitors.

Click to expand...

PSU is relatively new (used it for 5 months) and of good standard, Corsair RM650x 650W PSU. I have a H100i one installed, so don't have to remove the heatsink in order to clearly the whole MOBO. Either way nothing looks damaged, although I noticed that it has become pretty dusty inside my case as I haven't opened it in 3 months. Everything has been working as it should, no strange smells or BSODs or anything using the original OC profile. So I am confident that it most likely was just dust. If it wasn't, how come everything works? I'd think if I popped a CPU capacitator of all things, my computer wouldn't run very well or at all. Or can you halfways wreck your MOBO and it will still function depending on what got destroyed?

I used to have one of those, until I shorted out the system. I ran my RAM at 1600MHz. I ran the CPU at 4004MHz: with the muliplier at 21x, I ran the BCLK at 191. When I had an 875K it ran around that, until it would not go that fast anymore. My daughter uses it constantly at 3.6GHz.

You can run the RAM at 10x1333, I think -- I am doing this all from memory. I haven't been inside a Lynnfiled system in ages.

As for the smell, order a Metro Vac blower from Amazon. Blow off your system thoroughly -- you are probably smelling burned dust.