I7 920 D0 Bundle - Stable for supplier at 4.0GHz, but not for me at home?!

[jackhulk]

Hello

This is my bundle....

OVERCLOCKED Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66GHz @ 4.00GHz.
Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 Motherboard.
Patriot Viper 6GB DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz DDR3
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler

Rest of the PC is nothing out of the ordinary, 2 writers, 2 SATA drives, a floppy, case fans etc and that's pretty much it.

I have no experience in OC'ing, but wanted to make the most of my new PC, so decided to purchase a pre-clocked bundle. Even since then it has been nothing but hassle.

PC blue screens after just a few mins or Prime95 / OCCT etc. At first I suspected it could be due to my PSU (Nesteq NA5201 520W) not being up to the job, so I purchased a Zalman ZM850-HP. PC still blue screened after just a few mins of stress.

Kept an eye on temps, all fine and within range.

I've sent this bundle back to the supplier twice. Each time the technician has assured me that its running stable at 4.0GHz. He even reckons the CPU was changed just in case. However, each time it comes back and blue screens for me after just a few mins at 4.0GHz. 3.8GHz is fine.

Driving me nuts. Tester also seems stumped at this point and so has asked me to return the bundle again. However I really don't think I can put up with more downtime, just for him to claim its stable, only to come back to me and blue screen again.

I have since changed my PSU to the Corsair HX 850. My bundle is now (apart from graphics card and hard drive) idential to that of the technicians, plus my temps are lower than his and yet it STILL blue screens.

Here's my bios settings, but please remember, these are the exact same settings that the tester has this system stable at and also what they use for all there pre clocked I7 bundles (give or take a tweak here & there), based on him telling the truth of course.

Hope screen shots at ok....

http://www.mediafire.com/i/?hznmo2ozat0
http://www.mediafire.com/i/?xgiom3zmzoj
http://www.mediafire.com/i/?jyalnyxyyzb

These are the latest settings, but there are two other profiles (no turbo, but BCLK 200 for example) which he claims have also been tested successfully, but failed for me

How on earth can this be possible? How can this be stable for the technician and not for me? I am using the same bios profile so what could possibly be the problem?

Help please?!

P.S. Another thing I just remembered is once he asked me to try and lower the memory multiplier down to 6.0, however the system won't even post at 6.0, which is strange right? Memory past memtest86+ at 4.0Ghz fine.

 

[satandole666]

If I had to guess, you need to nail down some of your "auto" settings to make it stable of 4ghz.

I'm not sure about specific voltages as I don't have an i7, but you'll need to focus on getting your vcore, qpi/vtt, and pll voltages at the right level.

Is 1.3v vcore enough for most 920s to hit 4ghz?

 

[psionic98]

"suppliers" like that do not do stress testing.. they overclock and run windows and some standard applications.. if it stays running.. BOOM stable 4g OC! I agree with satan there and go into the bios and play with some settings.. and check the forums.. lots of folks have i7s in the 4+ range with air cooling and stable for 24/7 running.

Also welcome to the boards!

 

[redduc900]

With the BCLK at the current 191MHz - 200MHz x 20X multiplier, try enabling the Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) using a System Memory Multiplier of 8.0, for an effective 1528 - 1600MHz DRAM frequency. Also change QPI/VTT Voltage from AUTO to 1.35 - 1.40V. Also note what the exact error was while running Prime or OCCT at 4.0GHz, and the OS you're running. And also try manually setting the following...

Advanced CPU Features:
CPU Clock Ratio ................................ [20x]
Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech .................. [Disabled]
CPU Cores Enabled ............................ [All]
CPU Multi Threading .......................... [Enabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) ................... [Enabled]
C3/C6/C7 State Support .................... [Disabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor ......................... [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function ............................ [Disabled]
Virtualization Technology ................... [Enabled]
Bi-Directional PROCHOT ..................... [Enabled]

Uncore & QPI Features:
QPI Link Speed .............................. x36
Uncore Frequency .......................... (x18)
Isonchronous Frequency ..................[Enabled]

 

[jackhulk]

Hi redduc900. I tried those settings but system would not post.

There has been various blue screens with OCCT. I'm running windows 7 64bit.

 

[redduc900]

Try changing Uncore Frequency to either 17x (3400MHz at a BCLK of 200MHz) or AUTO, and Isochronous Support to Disabled.

 

[Remeniz]

I've got pretty much the same set up and i'm stable at over 4Ghz!

Make sure the QPI/Vtt voltage is as close to the Vcore as possible. Set the DRAM to XMS Profile 1. No Turbo with 200 BCLK.

 

[jackhulk]

Try changing Uncore Frequency to either 17x (3400MHz at a BCLK of 200MHz) or AUTO, and Isochronous Support to Disabled.

System simply doesn't post with these adjustments either. Going back to my first post, if the settings were fine for the technician (OCCT stable overnight), then it should be stable for me without touching the settings, surely?

 

[nzaneb]

What specifically are you sending back to him to test? CPU, Mobo, Ram?

You say that 3.8ghz is fine. How long did you stress test at 3.8? Try adding 25mv on the vCore, and see if your Prime 95 session lasts longer. First test using Small fft's, to focus on the CPU. What kind of load temps are you getting at 3.8?

For some reason your QPI link speed is showing up as 6.87ghz, in your first screen shot...it should be 4.8. Try setting this manually.

 

[HDCHOPPER]

also check that your pwr to the room is clean and any UPS or pwr strips are ok and up to the needs of your rig , if he is testing in a larg industral building you can bet his pwr is continuous & clean ....


Check the circut breaker for your comp room make shure it is at least up to standard (IMO 20amp breaker at least) that could be the only differance between you and him , given all the equipment is all the same ( your comp)
That will narrow it down to him blowing smoke up your errrrr shirt.....

 

[jackhulk]

What specifically are you sending back to him to test? CPU, Mobo, Ram?

You say that 3.8ghz is fine. How long did you stress test at 3.8? Try adding 25mv on the vCore, and see if your Prime 95 session lasts longer. First test using Small fft's, to focus on the CPU. What kind of load temps are you getting at 3.8?

For some reason your QPI link speed is showing up as 6.87ghz, in your first screen shot...it should be 4.8. Try setting this manually.

I've sent the whole bundle back each time.

Stressed 3.8Ghz for 8h OCCT & Prime95 (small FFT). Temp are fine and actually lower than the technicians.

Set QPI link speed to 6.87ghz, no improvement.

The only improvement I have ever manged is to increase the vcore to 1.33, after which I got an hour of Prime95 before BSOD. D0 should each reach 4.0Ghz at 1.30v. Duff cpu maybe?

 

[jackhulk]

also check that your pwr to the room is clean and any UPS or pwr strips are ok and up to the needs of your rig , if he is testing in a larg industral building you can bet his pwr is continuous & clean ....


Check the circut breaker for your comp room make shure it is at least up to standard (IMO 20amp breaker at least) that could be the only differance between you and him , given all the equipment is all the same ( your comp)
That will narrow it down to him blowing smoke up your errrrr shirt.....

I have no clue how to check any of the above, but very much doubt (& hope) that is not the problem. Reason being if I stress cpu (3.80Ghz) and gpu (which is stable), that of course is a lot more wattages than stressing just the cpu at 4.0Ghz.

 

[nzaneb]

Boot into windows at 4.0 ghz (your unstable settings) Give us a screenshot of all CPU-Z tabs open (you can open multiple instances). I would also like to see your voltages under load. You can do this by downloading HWMonitor. Start up Prime 95 and HW monitor, and take a screenshot of the full HWMonitor list, while it's loaded.

 

[jackhulk]

8h of prime (small fft) at 1.35 vcore last night, no errors. I think it I can go one vcore notch lower but thats it. I take it this is just a not so great D0 cpu then as some can handle 4.0GHz with ease, below 1.30v.

Surely, after trying pretty much everything else, and only manging to get stable with an increased vcore, this is proof that my tech guy is bs'ing me about being stable with the settings he provided? I can't see any possible way he could have been 8h stable when I can't even get 8mins (let along 8h hours!) stable with his settings (or adjustments).

 

[jackhulk]

Received my replacement bundle. BSOD after 40mins! Shipped with the exact same settings as the last so I explained to Overclockers that "even though cpu's/motherboards etc may be the same model, not all are equal and therefore require slightly different settings to achieve stability". They of course already know this, so it appears they just don't care.

The CPU is from a different batch (3939B265) and here's my results, using the same pre-clocked settings (which I will tweak later) by just adjusting the Vcore to find what this is capable of.

Tests incl...

OCCT Linpak = 2h (some times longer).
P95 Small, large & blend = 8h each

Stable at...
4.11Ghz = Vcore 1.33125
3.88 Ghz = Vcore 1.27500

Not the best chip I reckon but an improvement on my last and I'm happy enough to run at 3.88GHz @ 1.27500.

What do you guys think please?

 

[doz]

Why dont you overclock it yourself? Start from the beginning. Read some threads and stickies and learn a bit, then dive in. Im not sure why you are having someone (obviously a slightly janky computer builder who might not really know what hes doing) overclock it for you.

There is no GIVEN overclocks. Every overclock has an instability somewhere, some people just never see it.

 

[jackhulk]

Well I have pretty much done that now but I did purchased from a well know supplier. I was new to OC and so purchased a pre clocked bundle to save time and hassle.

 

[doz]

Well, stability testing (as close to 100% as you can get) takes a LONG time. I usually work on my overclocks (for daily, not play clocks to see what I can get) for atleast a week, tweaking settings and making sure its stable, if not longer.

Stability testing can take a minimum of 12 hours. I highly doubt they put even 4 hours into it, as thats alot for a "well known supplier". Too much babysitting and lost time.

 

[jackhulk]

Never mind, thanks anyway.