Well your ram is running default speed pretty much right? 1069 x 2. The uncore\NB freq is running 2x memory speed. Been a while since I messed with that stuff and not sure how it works on this chipset anymore. Seems like it would be to high if you got the ram up to 1800.
Daleon, thank you for pointing out the obvious. I had a couple long nights and will plead lack of sleep. Indeed, as you said, I looked at the NB frequency of 4212 and I mistakenly thought my 3600 RAM was running at 4200 with tight timings... lol, I wish.
I flashed the BIOS on my Asus TUF X299 Mark 2. It was shipped with BIOS 0402. Asus released version 0702 just a few days ago. So, I flashed to BIOS version 0702. The first thing I noticed different was a new temp was being monitored (VRM), not sure what else, but the last BIOS update was version 0503 and people on the boards were having lots of issues with that version.
I got the Windows updates done and have installed a few of the basic "must have" programs back on. I cleaned off and reformatted one of the partitions from my Seagate hard drive (1TB total, two 500 GB partitions). I'm going to use this drive exclusively to store disk image backups. So, I finally made a disk image backup of my boot drive. Now if that little hot tramp burns up, I can get back up and running without much hassle.
Time to delve into the overclocking. Found out I need to install another part of Asus utilities called Extreme Tweaker.
I'm doing a few little final cosmetic things and then I'll take a final photo of how my desk looks now. Now that my man cave it looking better, my wife thinks I should get rid of my old shabby chair and get a new one. No more duct taping the arm rest pads back on this old veteran chair. It is looking might worn out.
You really don't need that Asus Utility. If you want to monitor cpu/mobo temps use CoreTemp/HWInfo. Best to overclock the old fashion way through the bios Using those mobo utilities is more trouble than it's worth. Keep it simple and it'll run like a bat outta hell
Yeah, that Extreme Tweaker (I eventually figured out) was a section within the BIOS. I was reading an OC guide and they were using a ROG board, my board has the same exact section, but is called Ai Tweaker.
What are people usually doing when they go for max OC? Run all cores or just one? My line of thinking is use everything you got. So, I've been overclocking with all 4 cores.
I have a lot to learn and will take my time tweaking this baby. As of right now, about as high as I can get with all 4 cores and to still be able to benchmark, is 5.2 GHz.
Wow most impressive! 5.2Ghz with 1.3v is awesome! I'm at 5.0Ghz with 1.3v as well, but I have a heftier rad so my temps idle in the low 20's and max out in the mid 50's These Skylakes put out some heat, which as you know, is the enemy.
Looks like 5.4 GHz is about max CPU frequency for bragging rights. I have to ease the clock speed back down to 5.2 GHz for benchmarking. Tomorrow I'll play around with overclocking the RAM.
I believe I found my 24/7 overclock. A nice round 5 GHz CPU clock frequency and RAM looking sweet at DDR4-3600 15-15-15-35. I could bench at 5.2, but on some things I had to really up the vcore, especially when I started clocking the RAM too. This X-series CPU I got seems to love rocking 5.0 gig. I set vcore at 1.20v and it don't break a sweat. I'll probably end up going down another notch to 1.15v. I ran 5.0 gig with default voltage for a while, but occasionally, it needed more vcore.
I might do a bit more RAM tweaking tomorrow. But, I found my limit with tight timing. I was hoping to hit DDR4-4000, but for that to happen I have to loosen timings a lot and pour on more volts.
I ran Memory Mark and the results look rather impressive.
It's been fun revamping and upgrading--old school style. But, it's time to wrap things up. I upgraded the vid card earlier this summer. So, the big ticket items for this rebuild were: (1) Asus TUF X299 Mark 2 motherboard, (2) i7 7740X CPU, (3) G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-3600 2X8GB RAM, and (4) Samsung 960 Pro 523 GB NVMe PCIe 4X SSD drive.
Don't take my case mods too serious, it was kind of tongue in cheek and done to pass time while I waited for parts. All I was doing was trying to give a 15 year old case a quick makeover. I also wanted to demonstrate to the newbs that a lot of low cost or no costs things can be done to improve cooling and make your computer look better. I have to admit though, it definitely looks amazing now. I painted the case and monitor stand a gunmetal gray with black trim. It sort of matches the tactical look of the motherboard. Some black hot rod flames added a nice finishing touch.
Other cool things added to the rig during the revamp included a new bay reservoir with window and LED lights, a fan control unit, and a Blu-Ray burner (double layer media can hold up to 50 GB). I'm also now rocking a new wireless keyboard and mouse. Since this was an old school style build, I added a 3.5" floppy drive back into the tower and even connected up the power and ribbon cable to the obsolete drive. I bet that I'm the only person within the last 5 years on this forum that put a floppy drive into a new build... lol.
The results? I love my new system. It's a well rounded beast. I made the m.2 SSD my boot drive and it's blazing fast. Yes, almost literally, blazing. I put a large heat sink on top of the Samsung and now have a 40mm fan providing active cooling to the drive. I can play my games with the eye candy turned up. I had several late nights of overclocking and tweaking, just like the old days. I managed to get a 5.4 gig overclock on the CPU and posted the screen shot, but honestly it was not stable. I can benchmark at 5.2 gig, but I have to crank up a lot of voltage. This thing loves to run at 5.0 GB with low voltages. Memory is clocked at DDR4-3600 and timings are 15-15-15-35. I even managed to squeak out a decent OC on the Radeon RX 580.
Remember that first photo I posted at the beginning of this thread? Here's an updated photo of my desk (note the old school "bat" phone and lava lamp). Pretty cool, huh?!? Thanks for all the help, especially with the SSDs. I'm already planning my next upgrades. I ordered another pair of RAM, exactly like what I already have. I plan to get another Samsung 960 Pro drive and perhaps run them RAID 0 (striped). Good thing I backed up a couple of disk images, so now if I have to replace a drive and start fresh, I can get going again very quick and easy. Ok, I'm babbling. Here's the finished product.
That desk photo looks a little fuzzy, because it was taken with no flash (was trying to show off the blue LED lights). Here's another pic except with the flash turned on.
NOTE: The original photo is on the computer screen for comparison.
EPILOGUE: I never could get the watercooling flow sensor to work right. Nothing I have will read the signal. Now that I have the bay reservoir and can see the water flowing, I don't need that flow indicator in the loop anymore. I had decided to not use it, but lack of tubing was the main reason I put it in. I'm stocked back up with flex hose now, 6 feet of Tygon was just delivered. Next time I drain the loop for maintenance, I'm putting in new tubing and pulling out the flow indicator. I also have a brand new XSPC waterblock I might try, although this old Swiftech Apogee GTZ seems to be doing fine.
Dang, I tried a dozen times to get a good shot of how I filled up the drive bays of the case. This one looks kind of cool because of the glare from the blue LED lights.
Just about the time when I decided to give this 7740X a try, I saw an article where the author was overclocking and got a stable 5.1 GHz. I remember thinking, if he got 5.1, then the mighty batboy can get 5.5 GHz. Since I like nice round numbers, I never even tried 5.1 gig. I could call 5.2 stable with 1.35v to 1.40v (kids, don't try using that much voltage if you're air cooled). I had discovered the sweet spot at 5.0 on the way up, so I just dropped back to it. I bet 5.1 would be doable with 1.25v to 1.30v (funny, the same as the article... hmmm).
Dang-nab-it, what about my pipe dream of hitting 5.5 gig? Some hotshot young whippersnapper broke the RAM record with a supercooled 7740X running at 5.5 gig. I might not be able to bring CPU temps down to arctic temps, but my old school computer is "super" and "cool". Maybe I should give 5.5 gig one more try? What do you think? Can we get 5.5 gig out of this beast?
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Using those mobo utilities is more trouble than it's worth. Keep it simple and it'll run like a bat outta hell 
