Stock voltages and frequencies?

[AD-15]

Those temps are the core temps, and it is at stock speeds.

I've spent most of my time sorting out my software etc, getting stuff set up. Once I've tested this profile, I'll start overclocking.

[GoNz0]

get on the case

[AD-15]

Right, I've been testing and configuring for hours now.

So far, I've managed to get 21x192 on 1.2V Vcore, with no other adjustments to voltage.

I've managed also to get 205x21, but I'm having problems. The Vcore is about 1.32, the QPI/DRAM CORE voltage is about 1.3V, and the PLL is 1.83V approx. It whizzes through intel burn test with no problem at all (except that the temps reach over 70C ). However, try to open IE and it crashes at random points. Sometimes the keyboard decided to lockup..

Could it be an issue with the SB? I've tried setting 1.2V on the ICH, no fix.

It helped a little, but it's still very buggy. The keyboard issue happens on both USB and PS/2 ports (the USB one far less though, and it would occur on the PS/2 port even at stock settings).

I could just try to up the SB voltage again and again 'till it's resolved, but I have no idea what the safe limit is.

I'll try and do a copy and paste of this post into the thread on xtreme systems, but I'm pessimistic since I've trawled through many pages on there yet can't find a fix.

[GoNz0]

vcore 1.4
pll 1.85
qpi 1.4

see how that runs as a test.

you start high and work your way down its easier

70 is nothing on a flat out burn.

[AD-15]

OK, I kinda did what you said, and it seems stable now. So far so good, assuming it doesn't BSOD half way through writing this.

The temperatures maxed out at 78C on the hottest core (the temperatures were all jumping round wildly, impossible to tell what the avg was, nothing like my old duo ). The NB maxed out at 50C. It's taking ages to cool down actually, I'm guessing it's because the NB isn't directly cooled by the water block.

I think I may have found out why I was having problems with the keyboard. I found that it was fine throughout testing, but when I hold 'Q' for two secs to get into the tweakit keyboard control, it stops working, except for the arrow keys, so I'm assuming it's only 'cos the tweakit feature has exclusive control. However, I can't get it back without rebooting! Is there some kind of key combo I need to press.

I've brought down the CPU PLL and VCORE voltages right down to the minimum stable settings. I've left the CPU VTT (QPI/DRAM CORE?) where it is, as I still need to OC my RAM. I'm assuming btw the VTT and DRAM bus are the only things needed for OC'ing your RAM, which is why I left them alone for now, but lowered the others (guessing they have nothing to do with RAM).

As for the device/SB instability, I've increased the voltage to 1.25V. I'm going to leave it there for a while, and slowly bring it down every day or so until I get problems again.

And yes, no crashes by the end of this post!!

[GoNz0]

forget about the ram for now, once everything else is stable you can consider it, thing is it wont give you any better performance, just a few synthetic benchmark points.
try 200fsb and 20x multi with those settings, it should help stability, did you get 1066 ram over 1600 ?

oh forget about all the tweak it tools, just use good old bios to do it and save a profile between changes

[AD-15]

Right, it's unstable again. I run memtest and intel burn test, no problems whatsoever, but as soon as I close IBT it starts stuttering and crashes to a BSOD.

I did as you said and set 200Mhz, and it's stable at 4.2GHz. I think I know what was causing the problems though. When not under 100% load, I could see the multi jumping between x12 and x21. This is bizarre, as I definitely disabled speedstep. I'm positive that getting rid of this effect will give me back my high OC, but I have no idea how to stop it. Vcore, doesn't change, it's just the multi.

Any ideas?

[AD-15]

Just found this:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=327089

Bugger.

My temps are about 78C maximum.

That doesn't completely describe what's going on though. In IBT, the multi stays at x21 no problem, doesn't drop at all. It does drop when there isn't much load though.

[AD-15]

OK, I went into the BIOS and disabled every thing associated with power saving (before it was just C1E and EIST). Seems to have done the trick. I'll try a few tests on IBT, see what happens.

[GoNz0]

take some pics of the bios screens so i can cast a beedy eye on it

might be able to give some pointers !

[GoNz0]

also try 4ghz, 200x20 as it may not clock any higher, its pot luck to get a chip that does.

[nibbler]

if its not 4ghz yet stop pissing about and set the multi to 20 and the blk to 200

+1 to that

[AD-15]

Managed to get the chip to 4410Mhz stable. I almost got to 215 base clock, but it needed another voltage boost and the temps were already getting to 80C.

I've gone back to 4410 (210 base), and undervolted a little. It passed a couple of linpacks but now it feels a there's a little more stuttering, and the hard drive is constantly active. Is this a sign of CPU instability? I'd rather not bump the vcore back up, this drop gave me a 5C reduction in temps!

I'll post the BIOS setup ASAP.

[GoNz0]

stuttering could be indexing at work if its a fresh install ?

[AD-15]

I hope so, the noise is driving me crazy. I was just looking at SSD's.

I've had the install for 2 days I think.

[GoNz0]

thats why i like my coolermaster cosmos and its rubber mountings for the drives