Getting above 200 blck help needed

Hi, my system specs are

Gigabyte x58a-ud7 mobo with latest bios
Hd5970 video card
6 x 4Gb geil 1.6 V memory 1600Mhz
Core i7 930 processor with Zalman CNPS10X extreme (Modified with Siverstone FM121)
All powersaver and auto enchanter options are off

i was following the guide below
http://lifehacker.com/5580998/a-beginners-guide-to-overclocking-your-intel-processor
and i successfully overclocked my cpu to 4.2 Ghz. These are my settings

Cpu clock Ratio :21X
Uncore Clock Ratio:x16 (3200 Mhz)
Blck Frequency :200
System Memory Multiplier: 8 (1600 Mhz)
Cpu Clock Drive: 700mV (default)
PCI Express Clock Drive: 700mV (default)

CPU Vcore : 1.45V
QPI/Vtt Voltage: 1.455V
CPU PLL : 1.84 (1.8 default)
IOH Core: 1.3V (1.1 default)
Dram Voltage: 1.6 (1.5 default) my rams operate at 1.6
I also set my ram timings 9-9-9-28 as manufacturers sheet
The other settings are auto configured. I ran prime95 for 5 hour without any problems. I also ran OCCT. It was very stable in both tests and degrees were around 78 and 70 C respectively.

My question is this i'm trying to overclock more.
1. My mobos maximum CPU clock ratio is X22 but when i try to save and exit with X22 setting it automatically returns to X21 ratio after boot. It's not about its cannot post and return to safe values but it just cannot apply X22. I think its a bug.
2. So i have to increase Blck above 200 to achieve higher values. According to my guide i have to increase QPI /Vtt Voltage to stabilize Blck value. I set Blck to 210 I increased QPI to 1.6V from 1.45V gradually. It can boot but it gives BSOD everytime when i run prime. I was afraid to increase my QPI voltage above 1.6 because it shows them as blinking red values in my bios settings. So what should i do next?

Take a stick of ram out of each channel and test. 24gigs or ram is a load to tote runing more that 4.2Ghz and it will appear just about like a wall. You add voltage here and there and nothing makes it really stable when you try to go faster than that particular point.

First, back up any/all important data on hard drives connected to your computer, you are about to receive benching section information.

All backed up? Excellent. Disconnect the backup hard drive.

Done? Wonderful!

Crank the PCIe clock up to 110mhz.
That should be low enough to not roast your windows install, but high enough to allow more BCLK if that is the issue.
Alternatively, start with 105PCIe if you fear for your data's life.
I ran 110 on a daily basis for quite a while without issues, generally corruption starts somewhere >115MHz.

If it is a bclk wall you have hit, more PCIe speed will likely help it substantially.

For bonus points, your GPU will like the extra bandwidth from the higher PCIe clock too, if it functions at all.

I may have been playing portal2 too long, I suspect it has changed me.

Ok thanks for the quick reply

Rgone's signiture requires me for more system specs i guess, rest is followed

5 x 1 TB 32mb cache Seagate HDD configured as Raid0 (mobo fake raid)
Windows 7 on 2TB logical raid0
1200W Xilence Power Supply
Onboard sound
No Usb attached right now
Dvd writer on sata

I didnt understand why i should remove my memories. Even if i achieve stability without half them,could i put them back later?
I tried your advice but it didn't work or it is maybe related to other things. These are the things i always do i presume they are true

1. Unnecessarily increasing voltage does not improve stability nor increase instability
2.Uncore frequency and memory frequency must have a ratio of 2:1
3.If you increase Blck you have to increase QPI/Vtt and you can leave Vcore alone
4.If you increase Clock Ratio you have to increase Vcore and you can leave QPI/Vtt alone

In this following page i read your PCIE tip but i didnt know the exact value
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?527-ROG-Overclocking-Handbook
I also read that increasing IOH Core can help increasing stability above 200 blck. But i dont know the exact voltage to give.

Anyways i tried this

I set Blck 205 this time. I both tried 105 and 110 PCIE, all failed. Afterwards I reduced memory frequency and made uncore frequency twice of that. Then I retried those PCIE clocks still no luck. I was using 1.55 QPI/Vtt voltages at all those times. By the way, my HD5970 is overclocked too, can this cause instability?

This is my both gaming and computational science computer. I need high CPU power for 3D seismic wave computation/modelling, thats why i need large memory space.

Beyond my understanding but you might try this. Linked >>


Modern GPUs have now become ubiquitous in
desktop computers and offer an excellent cost-toperformance-
ratio, exceeding the performance of general
purpose CPU by many times, due to their powerful and
fully programmable parallel processing architectures.

I do a lot of modelling in a different area and spent a lot of time with the overclocking. If I could go back in time 6 months and say something to myself it would be "focus on different things than the CPU clock to get faster code", because I spent days messing with the settings only to achieve semi-stable speeds that gained 5% extra Gflops on linpack. Compare that to other areas I've cut computation time, eg. vectorising code, parallel computing, cutting data into chunks that fit into caches, these steps have reduced the time by something like 95%.

If you still want to go above 200 bclk, there's another guide floating around this forum that might help. It recommends 1.5V for IOH. Also from my own experience I'd suggest turning the memory multiplier down to 6... that way your 200+ bclk won't push the memory above 1600 (for me this caused major BSODs). Then I tightened the timings and it's working nicely.

Thanks again for the info

Mikeyw i understand what you are saying, i'm also a programmer, i cuddle with the stuff you say all the time. I just want to discover my CPU's limits, just for kicks . In practicality overclocking %5-10 more means nothing in modelling. I also aware of GPU computation i'm currently trying to implement it to my existing codes. This is outside the topic

After posting previous one, i decided to go to the beginning. I isolated Base Clock (x12 multiplier) and started trying. I discovered memory frequency above 1600mhz is major problem like you said so i turned the multiplier down to 6. After that i increased base clock until 230. It was stable up there. But when i try to increase clock multiplier towards X17 it got unstable. So i think 230 base clock was unstable in the first place i dont know. Maybe cutting down base clock to 210-220 and going again could solve the problem but i havent tried that.
I also want to note that even though at 230 base clock seems to be stable, my computer can even post at 232 or above . Its strange.

Long story short, I decided to go back to 4.2Ghz settings. It is pretty stable down here. I also want to look at the guide you mentioned i couldnt find it

Here is the one I mentioned,
http://www.overclockers.com/3-step-guide-overclock-core-i3-i5-i7/

It's probably very similar to the one you have already read.