i7 Overclocking for Beginners

[rsmarsha]

I did a memtest86 test on each ram chip in turn and on the 3rd had an error. I ran it again to make sure and the next time on boot it said overclocking failed so I loaded defaults and the test ran fine.

I then reclocked the RAM and ran it on each chip, all were fine but a few times had overclocking failed on boot.

base clock 155
multiplier 20
cpu voltage 1.2
dram 1554 (can't get it to 1600 without playing with the base clock more).
dram voltage 1.65
timings 9-9-9-24 with timing control of 2

I'm going to have to wait and see if I get a blue screen again, if I do i think trying with no OC on is the next step. If the RAM does cause a bluescreen again then there must be a fault with the RAM that lets it run at the motherboard's default of 1066 but not it's actual rating of 1600.

Any other suggestions?

[nightkhaos]

In reference to my earlier posts in this topic a while ago. I have refreshed my motherboard bios and had to redo my OC settings. I noticed that when I redid my RAM settings I've set the voltage to 1.65 which is in the red, is this correct?

I have started getting blue screens now and again, not sure it's related to my OC settings but I ran a memory diag in windows and it says there are memory problems. Any ideas?

Hey dude. Based upon the given voltages it is likely there is an issue with your RAM that is unrelated to to the overclocking. I recommend running the tool memtest86 at stock, and then at overclocked settings, to check the RAM.

If it fails the test at stock, the RAM is faulty and needs replacing. If it fails the test at just overclocked, then the issue is related to the binning of the RAM. This means that the RAM is just not capable of running stable at your current settings. You will need to reduce the RAM clock speed.

Finally, it it passes in both instances, you can rule out the RAM as the issue.

[rsmarsha]

I have run memtest multiple times and it seems to fail when cold, odd I know. It fails the first pass on one stick and then is fine on future passes.

Going to run a from cold test with all sticks in soon.

[Sparhawk]

Firstly, thanks to nightkhaos for an excellent write up on how to OC. Must admit, I have in the past OC'd up a couple of hundred Mhz (literally 200Mhz) on older chips but have never really felt confident in giving the CPU a real kick.

Anyway, I have a Core i7 920 and 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator, Triple DDR3 PC3-(1866), CAS 9-9-9-24, DHX, XMP, DF, 1.65V. These are mounted onto an Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard.

I've read through all of the information and when coming to OC my own CPU I see there was XMP, DOCP and Manual. I was a little concerned about what voltages everything would be running at if using full manual as they all still showed as Auto (and I know certain configs push the V up) so decided on using the DOCP option as this seemed to give me much more visual information to use.

I would be very grateful for information on whether using DOCP would be detrimental or beneficial to my OC.

Anyway, as I have RAM capable of 1866Mhz, I, after trying different variables settled for the following settings.

DOCP at 1805Mhz Profile
Multiplier - x20
Base Clock -170 giving a CPU speed of 3.4GHz (I'm happy with 3.4)
I opted to go for 1704Mhz on the RAM options as opposed to 1805Mhz in the interim. Didn't want to push anything too far to start with.
I also dropped the DRAM Voltage down to 1.64v as it was sat at 1.66v and giving me the warnings of possible damage.

So, I would be grateful for opinions on this configuration as to whether it's perfectly fine, could be tweaked somewhat more or whether I've royally ballsed it up .

I ran Prime 95 for 1hr 30 mins just to see if it would flag anything up and it ran fine. Screenshots below.

This is the CPU/Voltage/Temps under Prime 95 load






Thanks for looking.

[Terbinator]

I'd say 1.66v would be fine - due to fluctuations on the actual voltage and such but obviously if you want to be save then 1.64v is absolutely fine. Your overclock looks solid to me - even got yourself a nice Vcore there for 3.4GHz.

[Sparhawk]

Cheers Terbinator.

I'll probably look at bumping the memory up to 1805Mhz as it's rated 1866 so shouldn't be an issue I hope.

Just going back a bit. Any reason why I wouldn't use DOCP? Also, would it be possible for me to run the RAM at 8-8-8-24 or should I leave well alone at 9-9-9-24 as that's what it's rated at.

[Ulti]

Tbh, you'd get more performance from overclocking the processor than the RAM, obviously if you want every bit of performance then you'd overclock both to the max and find the lowest timings for the RAM. If you've got time to spare then you could try overclocking the RAM but I find it much more tedious than overclocking the processor. Make sure to run stress tests on the RAM such as memtest or a blend test to check the RAM as your system may boot up and appear to run fine but it'll randomly blue screen on you or programs will have errors and data may even get corrupted.

When stress testing for long periods make sure to have a fan on the northbridge as it gets very toasty after a few hours. Just out of interest though, what cooler/cooling are you using? Air cooling or watercooling?

[Sparhawk]

Hi Ulti,

Well as you can see, I have the CPU at 3.4ghz and the Ram is actually under it's maximum capability of 1866 so I'm hoping there'll be no problem there. The system certainly seems to be very stable. The Prime 95 test I ran was a blend test however I have downloaded memtest to check the RAM specifically.

With regards to the timings. It's really just an enquiry really.. I'm sure running at 9-9-9-24 is going to be fine and there's not much benefit in trying to tighten them up to 8-8-8-24.

With regards to cooling, I'm using a Prolimatech Megahalems SuperSix with a 120mm Gentle Typhoon on it. I believe nightkhaos is also using the same cooler with his 920 @ 3.8Ghz so I'm sure it'll be fine. 66c was the CPU totally under load. At idle, it's around 31 - 34 and playing Bad Company 2 a little earlier, it didn't break 51c.

Appreciate the reply and advice.

[patters78]

thanks for this has really helped me tonight

[Rabb]

cheers , something's there forgot

[Ed Omega]

Cheers Terbinator.

I'll probably look at bumping the memory up to 1805Mhz as it's rated 1866 so shouldn't be an issue I hope.

Just going back a bit. Any reason why I wouldn't use DOCP? Also, would it be possible for me to run the RAM at 8-8-8-24 or should I leave well alone at 9-9-9-24 as that's what it's rated at.

On the i7 architecture intel are now running something similar (albeit enhanced) to AMD's hypertransport system. Roughly this means the data is shunted around the PC in a different way and the speed and latency of your RAM now have far less of an effect on overall data speed across the bus. Ultimately, faster (or lower in the case of latency) is always better, but the impact of you dropping your latency settings would be negligable (not like the good old days where it had a big impact) for performance and would quite likely cause instability in your system.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Hi. sorry to bump this thread but how do u calculate the ram speed?

i have a 1600mhz ram and set my bckl to 181

the OP did not state how to find the result:

So this will be your base clock. Now then, we need to work out the required multiplier for your RAM. The multiplier unfortunately has to be an integer, so you will either have to get a multiplier of 10, and run your RAM at 1500MHz or a multiplier of 11 and run it at 1650. Some motherboards, like mine, only support even integers, further restricting your ability.

So that's the math, let's get in there and do it shall we?

i understand how to get the desired cpu clock speed based on the multiplier of 20/21 if turbo mode is on but what about ram?

[Terbinator]

Hi. sorry to bump this thread but how do u calculate the ram speed?

i have a 1600mhz ram and set my bckl to 181

the OP did not state how to find the result:



i understand how to get the desired cpu clock speed based on the multiplier of 20/21 if turbo mode is on but what about ram?

Ram multi for 1366/1156 is only up to x6(x12) AFAIK so just pick which multiplier is closest;

181*6 = 1086/2172(DDR)
181*5 = 925/1810(DDR)
181*4 = 724/1448(DDR)
181*3 = 543/1086(DDR)
181*2 = 362/724(DDR)



Edit: You could always just stick your BCLK to 160 and have a x5/10 multiplier.

[Doritos]

This is cool! I'm glad i found this. I have always wanted to learn how to overclock.

[Primey0]

Alternatively you can wait until I write my dedicated i5 overclocking guide when I get some i5 hardware to experiment with.

How's that i5 dedicated overclocking guide coming along?

[KeyboardDemon]

Is there a thread like this for Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge CPUs?