First time oc the i7 920 C0/C1

[Walleye05]

I'm new to this type of technology, i used to have older AMD Athlon XP 3000+ barton on nf7-s 2.0

Anyways, I've decided to get a new cooler today and got Prolimatech Megahalems with a Ultrakaze 120mm fan. I've decided to just bump up the BCLK values. its now at 20x150 at 3.0ghz 1.208v.

the thing is that before i oc'ed i read the memory forums and set my timings for my ocz3g1600lv2g gold tri channel 6gb memory to 8-8-8-24 which at auto setting it was at 7-7-7-20 and also set the volt to 1.65v instead of auto. the stock setting from ocz site for this ram is 8-8-8-24 @ 1.65v.

But when i bump the BCLK values, the memory on the bios goes up to 1805. I am confused, it is showing 900mhz on cpuz. let me post pictures and you guys let me know whats right and not. I havent ran PCmark or 3dmark yet to see if its stable. Its late, i'm going to bed. Will check it back tomorrow. BTW the mobo is ASUS P6T.

 

[redduc900]

Multiply the value in the DRAM Frequency field of CPU-Z by x2, for an effective frequency of 1800 MHz. At a Bclk of 150 MHz, running a FSB : DRAM ratio of 2:12, that equates to a DRAM Frequency of 1800 MHz and 8-8-8-24-2T timings.

 

[Walleye05]

I'm a little paranoid that its running 1800 not 1600, and doing more bclk increase will increase the ram speeds as well too will it?

 

[N3buchan3zzar]

Yes, any changes in BCLK will result in changes in RAM speed.

First bit of advice is to not get hung up on your ram speed. Between 1333 and 1800 does not show all that significant of a difference. That's not just my own testing but from others I speak with also. Timings have a more notable effect.

For cpu OCing start with your ram underclocked as you look for your max. Try running a 10x memory multiplier(might read as 800 or 1066 in your bios not sure) and that will put you @ 1500 for now. Moving your BCLK to 160would have it at 1600 speed and be at 3.2CPU. To go farther drop your Ram multi again to 8x(1280 ram @ 160BCLK) and start pushing your BCLKs again. You will be under 1600 until you reach 200 BCLK then.

After you find your CPUs place then experiment more with your RAM. It may run faster than 1600 but if it wont then put it where it needs to be to run. Then start messing with your timings and sub timings.

It might help to think of your BCLK as FSB when you are thinking about this as it is roughly analogous to that on older boards. BCLK(FSB) * Ram multi(or divider) = actual Ram speed.

As mentioned most progs report it 1/2 the DDR speed but that is logical. It's rating is just Mhz, DDR has 2 calculations per cycle so effectively doubles the usable MHz and that is why ram is listed as DDR 1600 when it's actually running 800Mhz

 

[Walleye05]

OK its running stable now at 20x195 @3.9ghz 1.424v max load temp 79c

mem is at 780mhz so that is 1560mhz, with 8-8-8-24 timing at 1.65v

3dmark vantage score of 9392gpu 23728cpu with a score of P11063

I havent tried to go over 195 yet, and havent tried prime95 or any other benchmark. Going to try Crysis and FSX tonight, its going to run PCmark vantage right now.

So far it looks good.