Newbie To Forum Need Help!!!

[PRIMETYMEPRO]

Hello Overclocking World, I'm pleased to announce my arrival after a lost of valuable time. Well I successfully completed my latest build. I actually tried to just simply swap motherboards (same MFG and Chipset to gain (2) SATA-III 6GBps ports). Everything went well until I went to run my most important piece of software Adobe CS6 Master Collection. It seems that the software attached itself to the previous motherboard and would not operate after it detected a new motherboard was installed. Okay that problem is now solved, of course after a full re-install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit.

Now my dilemma and what brings me here for your help. I've been a chicken when it comes to overclocking, because I didn't want to fry any of my hard earned money.

Following is what I'm working with as a video editor:

Intel Core i7 950 3.07 GHz Bloomfield
ASUS Sabertooth X58
2x (3 x 4GB) = 24GB DDR3 Corsair XMS3 2000MHz memory (auto mode runs @ 1066MHz)
2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX480, configured in SLI
+ a ton of hard drives for managing my projects and video footage.

Motherboard max DRAM freq states 1066MHz.

If I make changes to the DRAM Freq to 1866MHz are there any other adjustments that I need to consider making while in the bios? Additionally and more importantly I am open to recommendations for a stable overclocked Workstation for my video editing suite.

In the meantime I will just leave everything in auto mode, until I hear from the professionals in this arena. Thanks in advance for any help that may materialize. If there is any additional information required don't hesitate to make your request. Thanks again...

~Charles~

 

[redduc900]

Assuming you have 2 x (3 x 4GB) kits installed, and the rated timings and voltage are 9-10-9-27 at 1.65V, make sure that in addition to changing the DRAM frequency to either DDR3-1866 or 2000 (w/ an increased BCLK) you also manually adjust the timings and voltage. And w/ 24GB of RAM installed, chances are you'll also need to take QPI/DRAM Core voltage off Auto, and manually adjust it to somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.25V or higher.

 

[PRIMETYMEPRO]

Thank you redduc900 for the response. Make such changes will that prove to be safe for long term? I really can't afford to fry anything. I also noticed while in the bios on top of the default settings there are 2 additional options to automatically set the settings to the next cpu up i7975, and there is one beyond that, that is identified by the word "Crazy". In your opinion which would be the safest approach? The parameters that you provided or to select an overclock setting from the provided selections in the bios? And will there be a visible noticeable difference?

Remembering, I said I was chicken at the very beginning...

 

[redduc900]

You won't fry anything w/ the settings I posted. And the i7-975 settings overclocks the chip to 3.33GHz, which is a 260MHz overclock above the default 3.07GHz. And I think the Crazy setting takes the clock up to 3.7GHz (a 340MHz overclock). Most of us here don't use the overclock presets, primarily because settings like Vcore and Vtt (QPI/DRAM Core voltage) for example are auto-set to higher than required values most of the time. For example, using the Crazy preset QPI/DRAM Core voltage is auto-adjusted to 1.43750V. Considering you have 24GB of DDR3-2000 installed (large quantity combined with a high effective DRAM frequency), that particular voltage may be right where it needs to be, or on the other hand it may not require that high a voltage for stability.

 

[PRIMETYMEPRO]

WOW!!! Sounds like you have my motherboard right before you, you seem to know it very well. Last thought before I give it a go. Not sure if this matters but I'm just using the stock cooling fan which came with the i7-950 processor, It seems to be cooling things very well. And yes the memory is exactly as you described 2 x (3 x 4GB) kits installed. It was 2 separate triple channel memory packs to max my motherboard out at 24GB (but I know you already know this ;-). Thanks for your confidence that with your provided settings that I shouldn't prematurely damage anything. I guess I've read too many horror stories about potentially shortening the life expectancy of the CPU.

My primary purpose is utilizing the Adobe CS6 for video editing, encoding and DVD authoring at it's best/peak performance.

Thanks again for the great advice, It really sounds like this is common practice.