[baberpervez]

So the age of overclocking has continued but my overclocking abilities have been quite a bit rusty. Given how the entire procedure has changed (with BLCK settings and even more advanced bios options) I just wanted to ask a few of you for some help bit by bit to get my i7 960 LG1366 overlocked to a better speeed.

First off:
Should I be updating any of my bioses/firmware for any of my components? I've got a Gigabye EX58-UD5, OCZ Vertex 2 50GB, and OCZ 19200 (2400 Mhz) 4 GB sticks. If so, is there a specific overclocker's bios that I can use that is also safe?


More questions later...

[baberpervez]

Update!:

i7 960 LG1366 3.20 Ghz Stock overclocked to the following:

3.8 Ghz @ 1.5 volts (probably way more than it really needs)
636 x4 = 2600Mhz Memory (Dual Channel) at 1.64v

Will install the H70 Corsair tonight and see if I can go past the 4.0 Ghz barrier. How on earth some of you are able to get 4.5 Ghz is beyond my abilities. Perhaps one of you would be brave enough to provide a tip?

[retrogreq]

1.5v is enough for 4.6ghz on most i7's (IIRC)

have you read this OC guide? 4ghz should be attainable at under 1.3v (again, IIRC)

[baberpervez]

Which type of i7 friend, I heard LG1366 overclock differently voltage wise to LG1155.

I'll keep the voltage at 1.5v and with water cooling now installed it's up to 4.0ghz.

I can't seem to get any faster than 166 x 24 (4.0 Ghz). With Intel's speedstep enabled it will go just fine at 4.176ghz. However with or without speedstep it won't go any higher when I move the frequency up to 170 x 24. I've added voltage to the QPI to 1.35. Should I be adding more?

How on earth did you manage to get yours up to 4.6!?!?! You have to help me friend! Please!!

[baberpervez]

I am seeing two voltages in my Gigabyte UD5 motherboard.

1) is Cpuvcore
2) is QPI/VTT

Now I know I have to give juice to both, but the question is which one should be getting 1.5 v? I read the guide and it said that on air the Cpuvcore should be 1.3v but it didn't give me a max limit as I"m using watercooling and I can go higher than that. It said for the QTT he has pushed it to 1.7v. Now I don't know whether he's referring to the first one or the second one.

Which one should I try?

Should I be feeding 1.5v to the QPI/VTT? What is the max?
Should I be feeding 1.5v to the Cpuvcore? What is the max?

Please help!

[EarthDog]

1.5v is A LOT of vcore for 24/7 on those chips. Like was mentioned before, Lower that voltage. You shouldnt need but 1.4 or likely less for 4Ghz stable.

That guide does NOT say 1.7v for QPI/VTT, you may want to reread it.

After entering your BIOS and lowering the CPU & MEM multipliers, go to the voltages section and raise your IOH to 1.3-1.35V and your CPU VTT to +0.2V. (= 1.35 or 1.4)

Maximum safe CPU VTT
What is the maximum safe CPU VTT voltage? Depends on a lot of things, but I feel like these are some basic conservative guidelines. If you’re running the stock Intel heatsink and fan, I would not advise more than +0.2V, if you are running a high end air cooler I would not advise more than +0.3V on LGA1156 platforms, and no more than +0.4V on LGA1366 systems (= 1.5-1.6v). If you are running a high end custom water loop add another 0.05V to those values, and if you are using extreme forms of cooling then use whatever works best. I’ve used up to 1.70V on an i7 920, and up to 1.55V with my i5 750 with extreme cooling

[baberpervez]

I will keep the following settings as per your advice:

Cpuvore: 1.4z
QPI/VTT : 1.5v

What about the IOH? Where is the setting for that exactly?
If you look at the following page the third picture down shows the exact voltages.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mai...extreme_7.html

If you could be a bro and really guide me good sir on what settings you'd like me to put in there I'll do it! I trust ya Mr. Senior Member! I'm tired of trying to do things on my own and only getting marginal overclocks. I read the guide too and I'm trying to duplicate its settings. Will let you know ASAP.

[baberpervez]

Got it completely stable @ 4.05 Ghz, with full gaming tests for hours including 3dmar06.

Temperatures don't go higher than 69 with the water cooling kit, but I will incrementally keep decreasing the voltages bit by bit to test for stability.

I was able to game at 4.2ghz but at way too much voltage and 3dmark would not sucessfully pass. It's true what they say, these chips are designed well to go up to 4.0 Ghz but anything higher than that and you're going to hit problems. I hope I can push the vcore down to 1.275 like some people have. Will keep overclocking this next week and let everyone know what the stable overclock is and at what temps.

Good to hear from many of you again.

[retrogreq]

what did you have your vtt set at?

[baberpervez]

Vcore is set to 1.4v
QPI/VTT is set to 1.355

I've kept it at 3.84 with speed step pushing it to 4.0 Ghz for stability.
160x25. I can't seem to push the BLCK any higher than 175 without it getting unstable unfortunately.

Ask yourself what YOU would do if you had my machine? I'd like to try exactly what you're interested in doing. A jump from 4.0 to 4.2 ghz if possible may not be the greatest improvement though.. perhaps a tighter timing would be better? The memory is at 640 @ 7-7-7-19 and as its a 19200 dual channel stick I have to ask if that's a good overclock?

Isn't it 640 x 4 = 2560 Mhz or is it only rated at 640x2 = 1280 which in this case would be very bad. Any suggestions on what else I can change? I've upped Hcore and all the other IOH, etc voltages to a good .2+ as well in most cases. Should I be concerned?

[EarthDog]

Leave it at 4Ghz with lower voltages is what I would do.

As far as the memory, why do you have dual channel in a triple channel baord?

You normally dont need to touch any of those voltages for the memory, especially with it running so slow as is. Please post CPUz screenshots of the Memory and SPD tabs please.

[baberpervez]

Hi Earthdog, thanks again for posting.

It is a triple channel board but I only have two sits of dual channel installed. I will be getting another set pair in a few weeks to push it to triple channel. I'll save the fourth stick for the time when I get another pair to make 6 in total. There's no rush for that though as triple channel really isn't much better than dual channel (or if I'm horridly wrong please do correct me!).

I realized that my memory setting was indeed way too low! I'm switched the SPD to x10 along with the QPI to x21 with the further BLCK setting of 170 x 13 to get 3.91 and memory now running at 850 Mhz. I'm slowly upping the BLCK to 200 to see if I can max the memory up to 1200mhz, which should be 1200x2 = 2400 which the memory is rated at OCZ REAPER HPC 19200. Or, like before, if I'm horridly wrong please do advise me as to what the proper speed should be.

I'm having a hard time getting the CPU stable during certian intensive tests. My QPI VTT is at 1.38 now so I'm a little confused on what else I can up. Voltage at 1.4v seems alright to me.

I'd be happy to take screenshots but first I need a site to be upload them to. I don't believe OCForums lets you host pictures on their servers. If you could suggest a upload site that would be great.

[EarthDog]

You can host pics here... use the paperclip in the advanced reply.

I think u r doing too many things at once. Leave the memory low to remove it out of possible problems and and focus on the cpu.

[baberpervez]

Which memory setting should I keep it at? It seems to be quite stable at the 800 point (1600 Mhz), with 160 x 25 (intel's speed step) = 4.0 Ghz on the dot.

Which setting should I play with next? The BLCK? The multiplier? Shall I turn off speedstep?

For me 4.0 Ghz is a nice overclock and yes I will reduce the voltage in due time, but as for now I really like to see if I could go any higher, especially in the memory area. Shame to not utilize a 2400 Mhz memory setting and be 600 mhz slower (a grosse insult). I know that if I increase the multiplier of the memory to x 12, I will have to up the QPI to at least x24. And that's where instability is going to kick in.

Gosh I wish I knew another fellow with a 960 and Gigabyte Ex58 UD5 board!

[baberpervez]

QPI / DRAM Core Voltage = 1.4v
BCLK Frequency - 191
DRAM Frequency - 1522 Mhz
CPU Ratio Setting - 21
CPU Voltage - 1.4v (will lower in the near future)

CPU PLL Voltage - 1.88
CPU Differential Amplitude - 900mV
DRAM Voltage - 1.66V


UCLK Frequency: x17
RAM Multiplier: x8
QPI Freqency: x36


Intel Turbo Mode - Disable
C1E Support [Disable]
Intel (R) Virtualization Tech [Disable]
CPU TM Function [Disable]
A20M [Disable]
Intel (R) C-State Tech [Disable]

Managed to raise the base clock (Finally!)

[EarthDog]

If you click the little down arrow next to the paper clip and insert the attachment, it will resize that masive pic.

I really wouldnt worry about running your memory so fast and just work on the voltage of the cpu. running your memory at 2400mhz 4/7 isnt really a good thing to do with all the voltage you will need. I would settle on a nice 1600mhz and tighten down the timings

[baberpervez]

Yes yes, agreed good sir!

I really couldn't get the system stable at the aforementioned settings so I had to resort back to the 160 x 25 multiplier. It's 4.0ghz, but the memory is only at 1280 Mhz. The only way I could push it any higher is if I switched the memory multiplier from x8 to x10, and that would mean pushing the QPI multiplier from x17 to a whopping x21 - and so far that really hasn't been stable at a 1900 something frequency of memory.

Oh well, shame, I was excited about a massive memory and cpu push. Guess I'll just have to settle with triple channel when I get the extra stick.

The memory is currently at
640 (x2 = 1280 Mhz)
7
7
7
16

Shall I tighten it down to 6 and see how it handles? It's currently set at 1.66, slightly over the manufacturer recommended settings.

As for the CPU I am more than happy with a 4.0 Ghz overclock. I would've got Socket 1155 however I ended up getting a free UD5 motherboard for the prior socket due to giving someone an A+ in an analytical Sociology course (by writing three essays in two weeks!!! ack!). So I wanted to enjoy the treat.

I will be raising the BLCK higher and higher to see if I could inch anything further than 4.0 Ghz but I doubt it's going to go any higher than 4050 mhz max. Then I'll slowly decrease the voltages over a few weeks to find the minimum acceptable amount required. Shame I overclocked it so quickly (within a week), now I want another system to overclock!

My twin got so upset that I got an upgrade that he bought himself a 2600k! (with money he really shouldn't be spending!). At least I will enjoy overclocking that myself.

Question: What's the best thermal paste out there? Is it still AS5? Should I replace the water cooling stock thermal paste (H70) with it? Is it worth it?

Thanks everyone for the great advice!

[EarthDog]

Lower multi to 23 and raise bclk.. or 21 to get 1600 at 200 bclk

[baberpervez]

I've lowered the multi down to x21 x 191 = 4011 Mhz which is the lowest it will go. The 200x20 combination just results it crashing during windows explorer navigation even. I really don't want to crack up any voltage anywhere to raise the processor. It seems like 4 Ghz is pretty much the highest this chip is willing to guy without putting up a fight, which is okay with me. The memory as a result of increasing the base clock has gone up to 764x2= 1528, which is just shy of 1600Mhz. But I hear that there isn't much of a difference between 1600Mhz and beyond.



Is this true? I'd love to get it up higher (near the 2400 Mhz mark) but it seems like something seriously has to change. At 1.66v, the memory should have enough voltage to up up to the base speed the memory sold at, so I know that it definitely is not that. Rather, I have a strong belief/hunch that its the QPI setting. Set at x 17, and as you can see via CPU-Z the NB frequency is set at 3247. Should I try raising the QPI to a higher multi? Theoretically I've heard that the NB/QPI frequency needs to be twice the ram frequency (as in this case 1528 memory goes well with the 3247 memory). So if I want to get the memory up to 2000Mhz I should put the QPI up to 4000). I'm going to try upping up the multi on the NB and see how far up it can go without crashing the system. About how much VTT should I be giving it? (QPI/VTT) Any suggestions? Results soon.

[baberpervez]

Well that was pretty darn easy and logical!

Memory is now set at 955 clock x 2 = 1910Mhz (x10 multi)
X 2 of that for QPI should be = 1910 = 3820 Mhz

Which is exactly what the QPI is set at as you can see as the "NB Frequency" in the following image:



So far gaming has been fluid with no hiccups or crashes, so it sounds like the memory QPI and frequency behave exactly as the forum gurus have mentioned! Which, in this case, as the memory at exactly half the frequency of QPI (1910 versus 3820). I didn't realize I could get such a perfect match combination.

Now all I can do at this point is work on tightening the memory timings and lowering voltages. I'll try tightening the memory timings first and let you all know what the limits are for this particular brand.


I apologize for all the frequent and short posts as I'm using the forums as an online/journal of my overclocking attempts - sort of a running commentary as I overclock it. At the end of it all I will write a formal result showing every bit of detail and setting configured in the bios for this particular processor and memory. With any luck, all this work will help others who may also choose to buy the same memory brand/speed or processor.