i7 920 D0 - Problem getting to 4GHz

[Nameless_87]

Hi all,

This is the first overclock I am trying in my life...

Been playing with the PC since last Friday, and although I got somewhere, I am not quite there yet.

The problem I am having is memory related basically.

First of all... the equipment is the following:
- i7 920 D0
- Gigabyte EX58-UD5 - F12 BIOS
- 6GB Corsair Dominator 1600MHz 8-8-8-24
- ATI Sapphire 5870 (stock settings)
- Prolimatech Megahalems CPU Cooler

What I want to achieve...
BCLK 191
CPU Clock Ratio 21x (~ 4 GHz)
RAM close to 1600 at 8-8-8-24

The problem...
Right now I am running the memory multiplier at 6.0, so 1146MHz and I managed to get it stable (18 hours prime95 blend and 10 counts of maximum stress on IntelBurnTest) with these settings:

Advanced CPU Features:
CPU Clock Ratio ................................ [21x]
Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech .................. [Enabled]
CPU Cores Enabled ............................ [All]
CPU Multi Threading .......................... [Enabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) ................... [Disabled]
C3/C6/C7 State Support .................... [Disabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor ......................... [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function ............................ [Disabled]
Virtualization Technology ................... [Enabled]
Bi-Directional PROCHOT ..................... [Enabled]


Uncore & QPI Features:
QPI Link Speed .............................. [Auto]
Uncore Frequency .......................... [16x]
Isonchronous Frequency ..................[Enabled]


Standard Clock Control:
Base Clock (BCLK) Control ................ [Enabled]
BCLK Frequency (MHz) .....................191
PCI Express Frequency (MHz) ........... [100]
C.I.A.2 ........................................... [Disabled]

Advanced Clock Control:
CPU Clock Drive ..............................[800mV]
PCI Express Clock Drive ................... [900mV]
CPU Clock Skew ............................. [0ps]
IOH Clock Skew ............................. [0ps]


Advanced DRAM Features:
Performance Enhance ...................... [Standard]
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P) ......... [Disabled]
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) ........ [6.0]
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) .......... [Expert]

Channel A + B + C

Channel A Timing Settings:
##Channel A Standard Timing Control##
CAS Latency Time ......................8
tRCD .......................................8
tRP .........................................8
tRAS .......................................24


##Channel A Advanced Timing Control##
tRC ........................................ [Auto]
tRRD ....................................... [Auto]
tWTR ...................................... [Auto]
tWR ........................................ [Auto]
tWTP ....................................... [Auto]
tWL ........................................ [Auto]
tRFC ....................................... [Auto]
tRTP ....................................... [Auto]
tFAW ...................................... [Auto]

Command Rate (CMD) ................ [1]

##Channel A Misc Timing Control##
Round Trip Latency ...................
B2B CAS Delay ..........................


Advanced Voltage Control:

CPU
Load Line Calibration ................. [Enabled]
Dynamic Vcore (DVID) ............... [Auto]
CPU Vcore ............................... 1.27500v
QPI/VTT Voltage 1.150v ............1.220v
CPU PLL 1.800v ....................... [Auto]

MCH/ICH
PCIE 1.500v ........................... [Auto]
QPI PLL 1.100v ....................... [Auto]
IOH Core 1.100v ..................... 1.100V
ICH I/O 1.500v ....................... [Auto]
ICH Core 1.1v ........................ [Auto]

DRAM
DRAM Voltage 1.500v .............. 1.660V
DRAM Termination 0.750v [Auto]
Ch-A Data VRef. 0.750v [Auto]
Ch-B Data VRef. 0.750v [Auto]
Ch-C Data VRef. 0.750v [Auto]
Ch-A Address VRef. 0.750v [Auto]
Ch-B Address VRef. 0.750v [Auto]
Ch-C Address VRef. 0.750v [Auto]


The problem is that I want the RAM to run at 8.0 so 1528MHz...

What do I need to tweak in order to get it stable... I tried various settings but only managed to get random freezes (before or shortly after getting to desktop) and random restarts.

Any help is appreciated as I am basically against a wall as this is my first overclocking and don't know what to try anymore :(

Thanks

[Sihastru]

You don't really need to post the same problem in different forums, the one in the Overclocking forum was enough... but I'll just give you the same answer:

CPU Clock Ratio ................................ [20x]
Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech ............................ [Disabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) ............................. [Enabled]
C3/C6/C7 State Support ............................... [Enabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor ................................... [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function ...................................... [Enabled]
 
QPI Link Speed ........................................... [36x] or [Auto, it should default to 36x]
 
BCLK Frequency (MHz) ................................ [200]
 
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) .................. [8.0]
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) .................... [Quick] it just auto-copies all settings done to A to B and C
 
Command Rate (CMD) ............................... [1] should work fine, but just in case try [2] or [Auto] also
 
Load Line Calibration ................................. [Disabled]
Dynamic Vcore (DVID) .............................. [+1.13125V] or just one or two levels more <- THAT'S A PLUS SIGN (+) IN FRONT OF THE NUMBER, THE FIRST OPTIONS ARE WITH A MINUS SIGN (-)
CPU Vcore ................................................ [Normal]
QPI/VTT Voltage 1.150v ............................ 1.335
CPU PLL 1.800v ........................................ [1.840] or [1.860]
 
PCIE 1.500v ............................................. [1.540] or [1.560] in case the videocard driver crashes
QPI PLL 1.100v ........................................ [1.200] or one or two levels less if it's stable
IOH Core 1.100v ...................................... [1.140]
ICH I/O 1.500v ........................................ [1.500]
ICH Core 1.1v ......................................... [1.100] or just one level more if you get abnormal hdd transfer rates
 
DRAM Voltage 1.500v ............................. 1.620 - 1.660V

The other settings are fine the way you have them in the template. EIST and Dynamic Vcore will work fine, in idle the multi will drop to 12x also the voltage will drop around 0.9-1.06V conserving power and running at 2.4GHz, the moment you apply any workload the clock will go to 4GHz and the voltage will increase to 1.25-1.26V... To me this seems a much smarter way to overclock then to have the voltage always stuck at 1.35-1.4V and the LLC have it spike to about 1.45-1.5V sometimes...

Turbo boost must be Disabled, when you'll be at 4GHz it doesn't look like it will be needed. You cand enable it, but the voltages need to be higher and temperatures will be a lot higher then you'll get with my settings.

[wazza300]

From the settings you posted,your qpi/vtt voltage is nowhere near enough imo,set to 1.32v,enable c3/c6 too set ram multi to 8x,uncore freq to 17x,keep cpu voltage as it is

[Nameless_87]

Tried your settings wazza but didn't work...

It felt very slow to boot into windows... and after 10 seconds of intelburntest it rebooted automatically?

Tried Sihastru's suggestions, with manual Vcore cause I don't have DVID enabled and a lot of reboots before the windows logo happened.

I want to leave the 21x and 191 BCLK and just tweak voltages if necessary...

Will leave the QPI clock at 36x and the uncore at 17x though

Any more suggestions?

[Acebmxer]

here are my settings that are 21x191 with ht on 8x ram 17x uncore
vcore is 1.3v I have dvid set 1.25 +0.0500 for 1.3v. problly could go lower but just set that to on safe side.

[Sihastru]

[...]Tried Sihastru's suggestions, with manual Vcore cause I don't have DVID enabled and a lot of reboots before the windows logo happened. [...] Any more suggestions?

Dynamic Vcore will be enabled when you select [Normal] for the CPU Vcore.

[wazza300]

You might have needed more cpu or qpi voltage or both,could leave cpu v at 1.275 and try 1.34v qpi/vtt or try 1.3v cpu and 1.34v qpi/vtt

[Nameless_87]

i tried raising both and nothing... system just does not feel very responsive... now with 1.2-1.24 QPI system loads in seconds... and then reboots after 15 seconds in windows... what does that mean? Why is it more responsive with less QPI?

Thanks

[wazza300]

It reboots probably of not enough voltage,each cpu is different in needing more/less voltage,when your cpu v is set to normal in bios tell me what voltage it uses

[Lsdmeasap]

Any luck yet?

I'd suggest you not use x20 CPU multiplier, that may be causing you issues as some CPU's do not like even CPU multiplier, so use x19 or x21 (20 + Turbo enabled). Also disable C1E and EIST for now so you can be sure they are not causing you issues, then select High Performance in control panel/power plan.