Help O.C Intel i7 950 with corsair Dominator GT 2000 Mhz

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Jan 22, 2015
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Hey there!

I need some help to understand how to max out my gear!

My specs are:
Asus P6T deluxe V2 1366 chipset motherboard
Intel Core i7-950 (Watercooled)
AMD Radeon HD 5970 Powercolor (Watercooled)
Revodrive 120 GB SSD PCI-e
Corsair dominator GT 10 Gb (2Gb died for some reason)

I have an issue with CS:GO. I can't get a stable FPS while gaming. 200 FPS stable sometimes, but it drops to 70-80 FPS when meeting enemy. I bought this system to be very powerful many years ago. The motherboard supports 2000Mhz ram. But then I recently discovered that i7 950 do not support more than 1066MHz.

I therefor want to overclock this old system. Since I don't have money for building a new one.

How come then so many guides show how to O.C 4Ghz on CPU and 1866MHz or 2000MHz of the GT RAM? Wouldn't that just be a bottle neck at the CPU side since its locked at 1066Mhz anyway?

(Sorry for bad typing, Norwegian is my main language.)
 
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1LiquidPC
Just looking at what your trying now, your QPI/DRAM voltage looks way to high to me. I was using 1.35v, whereas your using 1.6v. I'd think you run the risk of burning out the memory controller at that voltage over time. I used 1.35v for both my CPU Vcore and QPI/DRAM and my ram set to 1.65, which for some reason ends up 1.66v in BIOS, same as yours. However, it looks to me in your picture that's what the XMP profile set it to(confirmed this with google searches of others w/ 2000mhz RAM being normal. Your could raise your QPI Link data rate a bit, as stock is 6.4GT(6400 MT), where your actually underclocked a bit at about 5992MT. I wouldn't go higher than the 1.6v on your QPI, as it's already gotta be pretty high to get that 1866...
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1LiquidPC

1LiquidPC

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Oct 11, 2014
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You should have a few memory dividers to choose from. 1066 is just the official spec, not what IMC is capable off. To get near 2000, you'll need to overclock. Have you OC'd before? I can get you started if needed, as I still have a P6T-Deluxe in use w/ a 980X. I had an i7 920 before @ 3.8 Ghz.
 
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Jan 22, 2015
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I've overclocked but I'm not good at it. Usually I just use guides. I do not know everything in bios, but I'm a fast learner :) Therefor I'm careful while clocking.
 
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1LiquidPC

1LiquidPC

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For your CPU and X58 chipset, there are a few things to remember. Whatever your RAM is, the Uncore needs to be 2X it's speed. So if RAM is at 1066, uncore needs to be 2133, and so on. Also, QPI multiplier needs to be higher than Uncore. Most likely, the only voltages you should need to adjust are Vcore, QPI/DRAM, and actual RAM voltage(worked for me anyways). 133 Mhz is your BCLK, which gets adjusted for overclocking. What speeds are you trying to achieve? Also, getting memory to 2000mhz may be pushing it, as uncore would need to be 4000mhz. Do you happen to know what the memory divider options are in your bios now at stock speed?
 
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Jan 22, 2015
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I think I've read somewhere that the divider is hidden in Asus Bios. Not sure. Well 1866Mhz would work too. And I'm trying to get as much Ghz at CPU as possible. Gets easily 4GHz now
 
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Jan 22, 2015
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I will get back to you tomorrow with pictures of my bios and settings :) Downclocked it to stock caus of the misunderstanding of 1066Mhz stock frequency on i7 950.
 
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1LiquidPC

1LiquidPC

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Oct 11, 2014
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Just looking at what your trying now, your QPI/DRAM voltage looks way to high to me. I was using 1.35v, whereas your using 1.6v. I'd think you run the risk of burning out the memory controller at that voltage over time. I used 1.35v for both my CPU Vcore and QPI/DRAM and my ram set to 1.65, which for some reason ends up 1.66v in BIOS, same as yours. However, it looks to me in your picture that's what the XMP profile set it to(confirmed this with google searches of others w/ 2000mhz RAM being normal. Your could raise your QPI Link data rate a bit, as stock is 6.4GT(6400 MT), where your actually underclocked a bit at about 5992MT. I wouldn't go higher than the 1.6v on your QPI, as it's already gotta be pretty high to get that 1866 frequency. You've got a nice OC so far! Anyways, If I remember 1.35 was the voltage considered "safe" for these firstgen i7s(what I used on my 920, still running fine @ stock again in another PC). Right now, it looks at your at 1.25v. All you should need to do is increase only the CPU vcore and increase the BCLK a little at a time and check for stability. Maybe try changing to 175 instead of the 166 your at now, which would increase your CPU speed to 4.2Ghz. Just remember, if your change this number, it will also adjust the RAM speed, Uncore speed, and QPI speed, which were all adjusted by using the XMP profile, so you may have to change the multipliers(lowering to keep these speeds similar to where they are now).
 
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Jan 22, 2015
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I'm trying now to finetune the BLCK and CPU voltage. Getting blue screen on test at 24*177 W/ 1.275V on CPU (gonna try 1.3V). I see alot of people use less CPU ratio setting than 24. Can I gain something from lower ratio and increase BLCK and why?

I also adjusted the QPI/DRAM core Voltage to 1.35 as you said. Don't seem to have any impact yet. (may lower the CPU temperature though :) )
 
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Jan 22, 2015
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"I see alot of people use less CPU ratio setting than 24. Can I gain something from lower ratio and increase BLCK and why?"

I think I figured out this one by myself. (correct me if I'm wrong). We use this multiplier on the Asus P6t deluxe v2 motherboard to get the best overall ratio since we can not adjust the multipliers for the ram manually. So like if I use 24*177 I get 4,248GHz on the CPU, but then the ram is eiter 2,13 GHz or 1,77GHz. If I use 23*180 I get 4,140GHz on CPU and 1,8Ghz/2,165GHz on the ram.

 
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1LiquidPC

1LiquidPC

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You're correct, you only get so many ram multipliers, regard of CPU multiplier. Its always the BCLK x Multiplier for CPU, RAM, Uncore, and QPI. However, RAM, Uncore, and QPI only have a few multipliers to choose from. To answer your other question, the benefit of a lower multiplier/higher bclk vs. the other way around can be more memory bandwitch from faster QPI, uncore, and RAM speeds. However, the flip side is you may be limiting your actual CPU overclock by using to high of a BCLK.
 
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Jan 22, 2015
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I manage to get a 4,3Ghz clock. with 180*24 ratio. But then the CPU start to run hot while stressed and the safety feature clocked it automatically under Intel Burn Test down to 12x multiplier. So The issue now is actually the cooling is not good enough. This is my first watercool build, so next time I will make separate cooling for the GPU and the CPU. I'm sure I could have got a lot more from this processor, but I'm satisfied with the end results.

The results:
CPU: 4,2Ghz on 1.32V
GPU Core: 900Mhz Memory: 1190Mhz
RAM: 1750Mhz with 8-8-8-24 v/1.6V

Could have overclocked more, but I like to have a stable system while gaming competitive.
 
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Jan 22, 2015
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I'm using a 3x12cm radiator in front of a Thermaltake Armor cabinet. With the fans sucking air through the radiator. I also have fans on the GT's RAM and fans in the back of cabinet to push hot air through. The water pump is on the floor of the cabinet pumping first to the CPU, then to the GPU and then back to the radiator. Water pump and reservoir is in one device. This is a kinda cheap setup. For starters! Next one will be much cooler as I'm planing to build a case out of a old wooden TV :D

http://www.thermaltake.com/db/pictures/modules/PDT/PDT060207001/200852111183564783.jpg
 
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Next time I will have 3 separate radiators. first one for Motherboard and RAM, second for CPU, and last for GPU :)

It depends on budget when I will start on the new project. As of now the system works for some more years (I hope). So maybe I will build the case with the specs I already have.

That said I'm thinking of replacing GPU with either MSI GeForce 970x or MSI radeon r9 390.

The r9 390 is more future prof. So think I will go for this card.
 
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