First Overclock Rate me and Advise please

[fosk]

I have posted around here before and sort information from here and there but last time around I wasn't quite ready so I didn't really tamper too much

well today I have proudly over clocked and changed some stuff which I hope you can give me a general heads up about anything that doesn't look right

Original PC specs

i7 920 @ 2.66 turbo like 2.9
Corsair CM3X2G1600C8 - 6 gig @ 1600 mhz 9-9-9-9-40?-81-1T (not 100 percent)
Asus rampage II extreme
Nvidia 295 evga
stat 1000 gig @ 7200rpm western digital or something
Antec 1200 Case
Got a extra bolt on CPU fan 80-120mm not sure I could check if it matters.

ok so here is where I tell you what I played with and did

firstly I tested a basic setting involving

Core Voltage - 1.30
QPI Voltage 1.40
CPU PLL Voltage - 1.88
DRAM Voltage 1.65
checked the ram at 1600mhz
this auto set FSB to 160

and off I went I had a little power showing @ 3.2 ghz and 3.4 in turbo

After a while I decided to play with my ram changing the timing to something like this 8-8-8-8-20-41-2T which from what I read won't be such a bad thing.

I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get my CPU ghz higher than a friend told me to touch the FSB so then I put FSB to 190 which auto set my ram @ like 1900

After my pc didn't start I managed to lower my default of 1600 mhz that auto clocked to 1900, I put it at 1333mhz which clocked @ 760 DRAM being 1520 mhz

the FSB being at 190, brought my cpu to 3.8 ghz and 4 ghz in turbo mode (21 x multiplier)

after Everest 30 minute stress test on everything.. it seemed to be stable (from what I was told I need a 30 min CPU RAM stress test to make sure its reliable/stable)
with temperature averaging 77-83 and upping to 85-87 in last 10 minutes

After seeing the max Core Voltage @ 1.38 I upped to 1.38 from 1.35 which a friend using 190 FSB was also @ 4 ghz 1.38 core voltage.

So now I would like some advice and anything that looks out of place or you could suggest, and when do I define this stable.

Lastly on top of that 6gig of ram I have another 6 gig my brother picked up from the states for me, the code checks pretty much exact model but a newer batch or update and just wondering what kind of settings I would need to touch to make it run, as previously I tried plug n play method with no luck

Everything was done in the Bios but here is the Asus tool to view in windows, DRAM Voltage is at 1.65 because at 1.66 in bios it says that it's not recommended to go higher or it can damage the CPU, it's strange because I have everything else turned up higher without any notice or warning, but in the picture below its well away from the middle let alone red line

 

[fosk]

I see a lot of poorly written threads with barely any information or questions to help them, seems like the better engineered thread the less people want to help, thought I would get more help if I made it clear step by step

 

[Nechen]

If you got a 50% overclock on your first attempt I'd say thats pretty damn good.

Unfortunately I just got an LGA1155 so I'm not too familiar with these i7's, I'm still learning how to do this myself

 

[RGone]

I see a lot of poorly written threads with barely any information or questions to help them, seems like the better engineered thread the less people want to help, thought I would get more help if I made it clear step by step

Truthfully, many of us don't spend a lot of time looking at reports of "this is where I am". Multiple reasons for that. One don't want to rock the boat since the poster is up and going and often doing pretty good. None of that comes from a post that is neat and informational. Truthfully the posts needing "help" ought to be neat and informational.

1. Your temps seem high for the Vcore you are using. AND you did not mention what cpu cooler you are using.

2. It is n0t often that the cpu is going to be hammered wide-open so the cpu temps in the long range look at things, means maybe not much.

3. 1 and 2 above are all looked at in light of the fact your 3.8Ghz is not too to bad and certainly plenty of power for daily use and daily work.

4. So again truthfully, you seem doing okay and that leaves us all with little to say given the pretty good circumstances.

5. If you need an "attaboy", then consider it done. Looks good overall, from my seat in the arena. Happy putering.

 

[fosk]

Truthfully, many of us don't spend a lot of time looking at reports of "this is where I am". Multiple reasons for that. One don't want to rock the boat since the poster is up and going and often doing pretty good. None of that comes from a post that is neat and informational. Truthfully the posts needing "help" ought to be neat and informational.

1. Your temps seem high for the Vcore you are using. AND you did not mention what cpu cooler you are using.

2. It is n0t often that the cpu is going to be hammered wide-open so the cpu temps in the long range look at things, means maybe not much.

3. 1 and 2 above are all looked at in light of the fact your 3.8Ghz is not too to bad and certainly plenty of power for daily use and daily work.

4. So again truthfully, you seem doing okay and that leaves us all with little to say given the pretty good circumstances.

5. If you need an "attaboy", then consider it done. Looks good overall, from my seat in the arena. Happy putering.

this is exactly what I needed to hear thank you

for now I'm going to undo the ram and lower from 3.8 down to like 3.4-3.6, I will post a picture of my CPU cooler next post for safe measures

 

[RGone]

For a few years now I have been benching at 4.0Ghz, no I do not have SandyBridge for which 4.5-5.0Ghz would be more like it, but benching other chipsets at 4.0Ghz, I throttle back for daily use at 3.6Ghz and it really allows for better cooling due to lower voltages required. So your throttle back idea sounds spot on man.

Just the exact name of your cooler is enough. No need to have to put up picture.

Again happy putering.

 

[fosk]

im expirencing crashes 2-3 times a day and lately during seiges (common 200 + man war in mmos) i seam to crash instantly when the two forces load each other in.

right now im down to testing as low as 3.2 ghz which might work according to prime95 temps at 78-84 degrees after 30 mins, but still the real test is the game itself i intend to play.
(edit has reached 85 degrees one two cores and other two 81/82 after one hour stress test which after another 10 mins i think this is what i read as "stablised" and the max cpu temp has dropped a few degrees

im almost ready to buy a 2600k which stock turbo 3.8 and a NOCTUA NH-D14

found out out i own a asus triton 88 this is the link

 

[fosk]

reall concearned now im still crashing @ even stock settings now which i never used to do

sorry freezing not actually crashing

 

[Janus67]

For a heatsink that monstrous I would generally expect better temperatures at load at near-stock settings. I would double check to make sure the mount is good on the heatsink and re-apply TIM (thermal paste) after cleaning off the old stuff and re-mount the heatsink.

If you go into the BIOS and set to load optimized defaults, do you still have crash/freeze issues in the game? It could be a number of things, for example maybe the RAM is a tiny bit too tight on the timings, or something isn't getting enough voltage to be happy.

A fantastic guide on overclocking bloomfield is here:
http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/07/3-step-overclocking-guide-bloomfield-and-gulftown/

Written by one of our own.

 

[fosk]

For a heatsink that monstrous I would generally expect better temperatures at load at near-stock settings. I would double check to make sure the mount is good on the heatsink and re-apply TIM (thermal paste) after cleaning off the old stuff and re-mount the heatsink.

If you go into the BIOS and set to load optimized defaults, do you still have crash/freeze issues in the game? It could be a number of things, for example maybe the RAM is a tiny bit too tight on the timings, or something isn't getting enough voltage to be happy.

A fantastic guide on overclocking bloomfield is here:
http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/07/3-step-overclocking-guide-bloomfield-and-gulftown/

Written by one of our own.

right now its standard 2.66 with turbo @ 2.9

the ram is 1600mhz default is 1333 but i had 1600 ram and rampage II extreme can handle it

like i said everything was perfect till i started to overclock and touch stuff, also i did minor overclocks and temperatures were good.. now its just crash fest even when im playing light load game

 

[Janus67]

I'd try running through a few passes of memtest86+

If you run through Prime95 Torture test on 'Blend' does it freeze/crash the PC as well?

 

[fosk]

I'd try running through a few passes of memtest86+

If you run through Prime95 Torture test on 'Blend' does it freeze/crash the PC as well?

not too sure if it was on blend but it was on 100 percent cpu for 90 minutes without problems and temperature stabilised ect at decent amount.

really disappointed I can't even keep it from freezing in default settings, right now I can only see a reformat coming? and starting fresh, is this advised?

 

[Janus67]

I would try it with blend, as blend will use both a lot of CPU and a lot of memory,

 

[fosk]

I would try it with blend, as blend will use both a lot of CPU and a lot of memory,

I updated my video drivers a few weeks ago and had a few freezes then the exact same way, had a bunch of gaming mates who all had to roll back there nvidia drivers because of the crashes..

playing 3 hours now no problem, ill assume it was the nvidia drivers and the OC just made it crash more frequent then default.

will test OCing again later and see stability, because if PRIME95 is fine then it problem was the GPU driver

I don't go on forums daily so I miss this kind of info

Edit: I've found out it was indeed on blend mode!

on that note I've roll backed my nvidia drivers 10 hours gaming no freeze, now I've over clocked to 3.4 GHz with 160 on FSB 1.30 cpu voltage, I've kept everything auto like in this new guide I found except enabled load line calibration and disabled turbo limit, also changed my Triton 88 from intelligent to turbo mode and seams to running 0.2 GHz higher at same temp perhaps, but real test will be tomorrow game events when you got 200+ people loading in together

on top of this I'm questioning when I'm told if I hit 80 degrees on prime95 its too high O.C even if I was to be 60 in game

Why does CPU core temp drop 10 degrees when i lower TJ Max from 100 to 90, is this acurate or some fake ratio reading? any explaination

 

[fosk]

im at the stage where i think ill be good testing and playing, and will ditch this thread and start a new one when im successful