High temps / BSOD on Prime95

[Rebraal]

Hi guys,

Have had this custom build of mine for a couple of years now and havent bothered overclocking it - I have decided I wanted to give this a go but have run into some problems. Previously had some OCZ gold RAM which was giving me some grief so I have now traded this for some Corsair dominator 6GB DDR3. My current build is as follows:

Gigabyte X58A-UD3R rev 1.0
Intel i7 930
Radeon HD 5870 1GB
6GB corsair dominator 8-8-8-24 at 1.65v using XMP profile
OCZ 850W gameXstream PSU
Antec 900 case
Freezer pro 7 (Rev 2) CPU cooler

Everything is on optimised default settings in the BIOS, no overclock yet, apart from the RAM I put onto XMP profile as above.

My idle CPU temps are around 40C across the 4 cores. Tried to run Prime95 on these standard settings on blend mode to make sure everything was ok - temperatures approach 90C within a few minutes, I had a BSOD (STOP 0x00000124) the first time around and I cut the test short the second time around as the temps were getting really high.

Do you think the BSOD was due to the high CPU temperatures? And if so do you think I need to get a new CPU cooler or? As far as I know it is fitted properly and I havent chnaged the paste that came with the CPU when I bought it a couple of years ago.

Thanks for any help,

Tim

[Acebmxer]

No the blue screen was not do to high temps. Look at the link down in my sig for BSOD error codes and their correction. Error 124 is QPI/VTT voltage add more until it is stable.

Vcore, qpi/vtt, vdimm, should all be set to a value do not leave these on Auto. Auto does not properly set the correct voltage, it can undervolt or over volt.

Idle temps are not to be concered about for the most part, the big concern is what are core temps at load. You want to keep core temps down to around 80c at full load. If your temps are around there or higher then you need a better cpu cooler.

[Rebraal]

Ah ok thanks.

My Vcore is standard setting at 1.2875v, qpi/vtt standard at 1.2v or something like that (cant remember exact) and the vdimm is at 1.65v set by the xmp profile.
Ill try increasing the qpi/vtt in stages then, what value can i scale it up to as a max do you think safely and to look after my components?
Also should I really need to be adjusting the qpi/vtt when I havent even started overclocking??
Also, is it safe for me to be running Prime95 as it is at the minute then with temperatures going up to 90 degrees or should I get a better cooler before trying again?

Thanks

[profJim]

The Freezer pro 7 (Rev 2) is a decent middle tier cpu cooler, but most reviews show that it's about 7^o (C) warmer than top tier coolers. Its integrated 92mm fan is a quiet, high quality unit that worked well with me dual core setup. Read the reviews at the better websites and you'll find several excellent coolers that are reasonably priced. If your room is unusually warm, you should go with a push/pull dual fan setup.

[wazza300]

I agree,I would look at upgrading your cooler the sealed watercoolers or top end aircoolers will help,you can also try undervolting your CPU,1.28v seems a lot for stock clocks,to do that id set CPU voltage to normal in CPU voltage list and set dvid to -0.0500v,this would set your CPU at 1.2375v at load,for qpi/vtt I'd set to 1.26v and see if temps improve

[Rebraal]

Ok so,

I increased QPI/Vtt from 1.175v to 1.275v.
Changed DVID to -0.05000v like you said.

Ive ran Prime95 for an hour now on blend test and no BSOD, core temps have been max at 86C which is an improvement. I think I might try reducing DVID by a further -0.05000v so that Vcore would be at 1.1875v and see if it will cope ok on Prime - does this seem ok? (I have read that I should be able to hit 4Ghz on 1.25v Vcore or so, depending on the chip of course)

Thx

[Rebraal]

I did lower DVID to -0.1v and this was stable in prime for 1 hour at stock speeds with max temp 79C which I thought was ok.
I then turned off turbo / EIST / C1E and tried to increase BCLK to 143 (3.00Ghz) which booted to windows ok but a minute or so into Prime95 testing i got the same BSOD (0x00000124) which I had previously.
Am i doing something wrong?
I noticed that by increasing the BCLK to 143 this increased the memory multiplier to 1716mhz from 1600mhz as this is on auto. Do i need to set this manually and is this the cause of the BSOD? I used XMP to set memory initially.
Another query - do I need to be concerned about QPI clock ratio which is also set to auto?
Thx

[Acebmxer]

Any changes to BCLK, uncore, memory speed or memory timings you will need to adjust qpi/vtt voltage accordingly. Never run memory speed on auto always set manually and yes memory speed is also tied to the bclk. So any adjustments to bclk will affect memory speed and qpi speed. Set qpi speed to x36 should be the lowest setting before slow mode.

I forgot to answer your question about max qpi/vtt voltage. Intel says max is 1.35v I believe but most memory manufacturer suggest needing 1.5+ to run higher memory speeds and timings. Also the more ram you install into the system the more qpi/vtt you will need. My 930 with 18gb of ram need like 1.45v to run them at 1333 or 1600, dont remember were I have them set. Also keep uncore 2x memory multi you can push it up to 2x memory +1 or +2. So if memory multi is set to 8x uncore should be set to 16x, 17x, 18x. Higher uncore speeds will require higher qpi/vtt voltage.

[wazza300]

yes thats right,keep dvid at -0.1v for 1.18750 cpu voltage,you have to manually set the spd system multiplier for your ram,try and keep it as close to your rams speed as possible without going over rated ram speed,bclk will alter the ram speed depending how high you raise it

uncore frequency is twice what your memory multiplier is then add one to it,so 8x mem multi would be 17x uncore frequency and so on

124 error was probably due to not enough qpi/vtt voltage because you didnt lower your memory multiplier hence ram was at 1716mhz

[Rebraal]

Ok I have got a stable overclock at 3.42Ghz (163x21) and with the RAM at 1630Mhz. Ran Prime for 3-4 hours no probs. This is at -0.10000v DVID and QPI/Vtt 1.275v.
When I try to raise BCLK to 173 (meaning the RAM is at 1384Mhz on 8x) I get an instant freeze on Prime95 and BSOD - 0x00000024 (not the 124 QPI error).
Have tried putting the DVID to -0.075v but made no difference.
Do you think I need to alter the QPI/Vtt or the DVID? Not sure where to go from here.
Thanks