i7-5820k Overclock Conundrum

[CaptainHobo]

Hi there everyone, thanks for taking the time to read my post (relevant specs are at the bottom). I just would like to start this off saying that I'm ready to slam my head through my PC case and rip out my CPU with my bare teeth. I have been trying to overclock this sunofagun for ages. I normally give up and return to default settings, only to come back a few months later and try again. My PC and I know this dance all too well. But let me just get to the point here. I have tried overclocking my CPU to a mere 3.9 Ghz, all the way up to 4.5 Ghz and have failed in one way or another. I have toyed with every small setting, and I have tried with almost all default settings. The most confusing thing is that with a lot of my OC settings, I am able to boot into windows and run stress tests for hours under my settings (I use AIDA64 Engineer and Prime95). Temps never really get above 80 and tests go fine. My system will almost certainly crash AFTER stress test when I launch a browser or some such. Sometimes the crash comes the second I end the stress test, other times it crashes 10ish mins after. My system doesn't BSOD (usually), it just flicks to black and restarts. It is so disheartening to see a successful test run for hours only to crash so quickly afterwards. Is it possible that I lost big on the Silicone Lottery? If it isn't that, I am almost certain the CPU is tripping up bc of some voltage setting. Thanks so much for taking the time guys

XMP overclock settings enabled
CPU: i7-5820k
Core Ratio: 40
DRAM: 2666Mhz
VCore: 1.275
Cache: 1.25
CPU Input Voltage: 1.95

 

[EarthDog]

Motherboard? Is it on the latest bios?

How are you overclocking the voltage....offset/adaptive or manual?

 

[CaptainHobo]

Appreciate the reply
Motherboard: ASUS X99 Deluxe II (has current bios)
It is currently set to auto, however I have toyed with the adaptive setting to little avail.

 

[EarthDog]

So when you were overclocking it was either on auto or adaptive, correct?

I'd move to a manual voltage and make sure you enable Load Line Calibration so that when you go from idle to load, the voltage sag is eliminated/minimized.

See what voltage it pulls on auto under load for 4 ghz or w/e, set that manually and see if the idle or transition stability improves

 

[CaptainHobo]

So something very interesting happened last night. Never considering (or even aware) what LLC was and did, I turned it on along with auto settings throughout the rest of the system. Turned the core ratio to 44 and was able to load into some games and play smoothly for a few hours. Temps never eclipsed the 80 degree mark either. After some cautious optimism it did eventually BSOD on me. I should probably get back into BIOS and tweak the voltage settings some more. However you were definitely on to something with the LLC

 

[trents]

Do you have any adjustment levels for the LLC or is it just on or off?

 

[CaptainHobo]

There were levels that scaled from 1 to 8 or 9 I believe. I went with level 5 and its been smooth sailing since then!

 

[CaptainHobo]

Of course I spoke too soon. Almost right after writing this I BSOD :/
I went into BIOS and tweaked my voltage settings. After looking at some advice from you guys and other threads I made the following changes. How do they look to you guys? Full breakdown of current OC below...

Core Ratio: 45
Min/Max CPU Cache Ratio: 31
DRAM Frequency: 2666Mhz
CPU Core Voltage: 1.3
CPU Cache Voltage: 1.1
CPU SA Voltage Offset: .15
CPU Input Voltage: 1.95
VCCIO CPU and PCH: 1.05
LLC: Level 5 (Out of 9 levels)
Everything else on auto (DRAM voltage, PCH Core Voltage, PCH I/O Voltage, VTTDDR, PLL Reference Offset)

 

[EarthDog]

SA and IO dont need touched. You're running your ram at base platform spec.

What's the bsod code? And was it a bsod on idle again or transitioning from idle to load?

 

[CaptainHobo]

Sorry for the late response man, you've been really helpful! I've been waiting to see if I BSOD again and was going to give you that error code but I havent had one yet. I believe the code was a system thread exception but I can't quite remember anymore. I will be playing with the voltage soon again and let you know if anything fishy happens. Thanks so much EarthDog )