Quick and easy i3 540 overclock...

mzs_biteme · Mar 1, 2010

Specs in the sig.
This was a dirty cheap combo (mobo + CPU) at Fry's here in Houston.
$125 after MIR. Couple sticks of DDR3 for $60 after taxes.
So far I'm very pleased with this sub $200 upgrade.
I'm not posting extended stability test results, as I'm not done with it at all. This was just a qucik shot for 4GHz.
The mobo is really impressive in terms of OC options, being a low-cost no bargains model. Gigabyte knows their stuff...

Will be back soon...

SamSaveMax · Mar 1, 2010

P95 would be an ideal stressing tool for all 4 threads.

mzs_biteme · Mar 1, 2010

Slowly, but surely, pushin' up....

One question: which temp monitoring app to trust?

SamSaveMax · Mar 2, 2010

Good going........
Are you using its IGP or with a dedicated GPU?
Best is to use RealTemp.....Coretemp doesn't work properly with i3 series.

mzs_biteme · Mar 2, 2010

SamSaveMax said:
Good going........
Are you using its IGP or with a dedicated GPU?
Best is to use RealTemp.....Coretemp doesn't work properly with i3 series.

Thanks.
I got Real Temp.
I'm also running GTX250, so no -IGP.
Last succesfull P95 was at 23x191MHz....:

PS
This was almost 1hr of P95 and playing SOF2 mulitplayer on top of that. Took a while to load the game (bout 2min from usual 10sec), but once it loaded, it was actually quite playable at 1600x1200.

From there I tried going to 195MHz, but P95 started halting on one of the cores, then two, and then Win7 would BSOD....

I increased the Voltages a bit, but I'm a n00b with this i3, i5, i7 bussiness, so I need some help. 4.5GHz is so close...

Here are some BIOS shots right before I attempted 195MHz bus...:

Thanks again....

SamSaveMax · Mar 2, 2010

Did you disabled your IGP when used a GTX250.
As I've heard using a dedicated GPU like yourself would ocing much further.

Bring QPI/VTT to: 1.32 or 1.35
PCH: 1.10 or 1.12
Adjust rams SPD to manual to its specs timing and voltage.
(1.80v was used...isn't that too much?)
Might need to bump vcore up a little more.

mzs_biteme · Mar 2, 2010

SamSaveMax said:
Did you disabled your IGP when used a GTX250....

I guess not.. I didin't even look for it, or know what to look for... I tought that IGP got disabled automatically once dedicated video card was insterted..

Bring QPI/VTT to: 1.32 or 1.35

- will try

PCH: 1.10 or 1.12

- will try

Adjust rams SPD to manual to its specs timing and voltage.
(1.80v was used...isn't that too much?)

- RAM is pretty cheap 9-9-9-somehting 1333MHz set . I tried bringing the SPD down to 6.0 making the RAM speed 1175 (or something like that) which is below its rating, but that didn't help much. I'll lower the Vs on RAM.

Might need to bump vcore up a little more.

Had it up to 1.385V and that didn't seem to help with 195MHz bus.

Will try the other settings when I get home.

Thanks!

mzs_biteme · Mar 3, 2010

Well, hit 195MHz mark....

PS the 3D Mark was running on top of P95... No errors, no crashes...

Here is what I had to do in BIOS:

I'm not sure if I'm comfortable pumping any more voltage into this CPU...

BTW, 196MHz BSOD'd Win7 within 1min....

Maybe I can't get a nice, round 4.5GHz figure out of this fella...
And, oh yeah, I did find the IGP line in BIOS, but it says something to the effect if there is a card inserted into PCI slot, the IGP is OFF...

SamSaveMax · Mar 3, 2010

You can try to reduce to vcore
Here is mine i3-530 voltage underload
http://i50.tinypic.com/2mf18np.jpg

mzs_biteme · Mar 3, 2010

So you think reducing Vcore will give me more headroom? That can't be right. It defies years of my OC-ing experience...

I was gonna do that anyways to see how low I can go and still keep it stable at 195MHz.
What's the highest Vcore for i3 anyway? At what point should I start worrying about frying the CPU?

SamSaveMax · Mar 3, 2010

mzs_biteme said:
So you think reducing Vcore will give me more headroom? That can't be right. It defies years of my OC-ing experience...
I was gonna do that anyways to see how low I can go and still keep it stable at 195MHz.
What's the highest Vcore for i3 anyway? At what point should I start worrying about frying the CPU?

It's not about headroom. As you have settled with that clock....reducing unnecessarily voltage with stability would cut down heat and energy consumption somewhat.

It's proven with many tests stable with low voltage on my i3-530
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6406919&postcount=9

mzs_biteme · Mar 3, 2010

SamSaveMax said:
It's not about headroom. As you have settled with that clock....reducing unnecessarily voltage with stability would cut down heat and energy consumption somewhat.

It's proven with many tests stable with low voltage on my i3-530
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6406919&postcount=9

Gottcha....
Looks like I did hit the wall... :bang head

Still very impressive considering the hardware involved...
But just to make my "I gotto have 4.5GHz" bug go away, what would you say is a safe Vcore on i3?

Thanks!

SamSaveMax · Mar 3, 2010

You want 4.5GHz? You got it. 23*196
Try these in order......1 step at a time.

CPU Clock Drive: 800mV and PCI-E Clock Drive: 900mV

If that doesn't work.....then
try up 2 or 3 notches more for Vcore from 1.38125

Still no?.......then use PCI-E Frequency set at 101...step by step up to 104 if needed.

MIAHALLEN · Mar 3, 2010

Excellent OC so far bro

Good advice from SSM...go ahead and give it a shot.

Nobody knows for sure right now what the hard cutoff for voltage should be on these chips, but I'd say your still in the safe zone....barely. :shrug:

If you kill it, be sure to tell us

So we can learn from your misfortune

mzs_biteme · Mar 4, 2010

4.5GHz FINALLY!!!

Well finally borke the 4.5GHz barrier, but not the way I expected....

See what changed???
Yep, the multi....
Default is 23.. Tried 22, no go with anything over 4.5GHz, then I tried 21.
I did't even think my RAM would work at all, since it's a cheap ($52...) set from Patriot. But lookie here... 215MHz and still going... The Temps are a bit high, but that's cause Vcore is at 1.4V in BIOS

...
I'm gonna try for 4.6GHz... If that works on this multi, and then try bumping Vcore down a notch and see if it hangs on...

mzs_biteme · Mar 4, 2010

Aghhhrrrr... Spoke too soon...
Errored out at 215fsb..
Bumped down to 214, and no errros so far...

Again, 3DMark ran on top of active P95...

It's like there is a wall with "Thou shalt not pass 4.5GHz unharmed..." scribed on it...
Ohh well, higher bus probably does me better anyways...

Brolloks · Mar 4, 2010

Very nice OC indeed...have you tried the 23 multi?, you probably pushing bclck with that board and the 23 multi will give you some grace on your bclck ceiling.

PS...for $125 ... wow, turn the clock back 18 months, it would have cost you much more to get to 4.5 on a dual core

mzs_biteme · Mar 4, 2010

Brolloks said:
Very nice OC indeed...have you tried the 23 multi?, you probably pushing bclck with that board and the 23 multi will give you some grace on your bclck ceiling.

Tried it... I had 23x196 and it wasn't passing P95... 23x195 though, works fine... I think I'll settle for 21x214 to claim I ALMOST have 4.5Ghz CPU... For day-to-day use, I'll bump it down to 20x200....

Brolloks · Mar 5, 2010

Good stuff man, you are ready to join the benching team now, click on the 2nd link in my signature and you will never look back

SamSaveMax · Mar 5, 2010

If you're stable with "The WORKs" then there is no need to tune it down.

I just made measurement of wattage usage on my system i3-530 @ 4.34GHz using its IGP
Idle: 56w
100% load with P95 sFFTs = 151w
Now, this is a system that I wouldn't mind running at full steam.

Quick and easy i3 540 overclock...

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