Stability Issues with overlcock i7-920

[coaxui]

I overclocked my processor from 2.66 to 3.1Ghz by raising the Blk from 133 to 155. It was pretty much stable as a rock. Idle temperatures around 37-43. Full load around 70. At first I thought the idle temperatures were not low enough (been reading people get like 25-30c idle temps ) but figured these numbers are good enough. Turning hyperthreading off made no difference in idle temps but did drop the temps under load from 70 to 60.

Anyways, I tried raising the Blk further to 158 but the computer did not boot up successfully. Blank screen. Reduced the Blk to 156 and it booted up fine. Idle temps were pretty much the same. However 3 minutes into prime95 my computer froze. No blue screen or anything just everything froze. I have reduced the blk back down to 155 for now.

What changes do you think I need to make in order to raise my overclock? I have pretty much left every setting in bios other than the blk to auto and was unsure if I need to tweak voltage values.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thermaltake tough power 750w
core i7-920
Nopctua nh-u12p SE cooler
ati 4870 1gb
6gb ddr3 1600mhz ocz

 

[evongugg]

Ultimate Core i7 Overclocking Guide -- We Push Nehalem to its Limits

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/ultimate_core_i7_overclocking_guide_we_push_nehalem_its_limits

http://images.tweaktown.com/imagebank/Core%20i7%20920%20oc%204G%202008.12.12_(ENG).pdf

 

[leo2kp]

Those seem like high idle temps to me. I'm hitting about 25C with a Thermalright Ultra 120 True Black - lapped - with a 109CFM fan - @3.2GHz

 

[jay2tall]

Your temps are fine, and leave HT on. you have an i7 for goodness sake, HT gives a good performance boost.

I am oved to 4GHZ with a vcore of 1.3v. I have a thermalright U-120 extreme and idle around 55C and max load at 85C (this is through OCCT 3.0.1) Coretemp reads 3C cooler, so 52Cidle and 82C max during an OCCT stress test.

I'd set your cvore to 1.2v to start with , this is the stock voltage. Then begin to increase it a little bit if unstable. Maybe 1.225 or 1.25. I have my QPI set to the stock 1.2v as well. I turned off Line Lock which is used to prevent vdroop, but for some reason jacks up the voltage on load and generates alot of heat.

 

[Kill@dor]

Check the multiplier...8 multi should sufficent. Check your ram timings too... I'm also assuming you are using 333 Ref Freq! That should be 1333 NB strap...so make sure you have CIE & EIST disabled for now. Plus any other stupid programs like "watch dog" in your BIOS maintance screen. What board are you using, LOL!

 

[coaxui]

Ah sorry, forgot to mention my motherboard lol..

Using Asus P6T deluxe.

Thanks for the replies, will try some of those and see what happens!

 

[Kill@dor]

Dang man, with that board you can get to 3.8GHz or even 4GHz with ease!!!

Click the link...this is what you need bud!!!

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/x58-motherboard-i7,2252-5.html

 

[coaxui]

Tried the changes did not work. Then I noticed I had set the ram speed to 1604 mhz, which I did not think made much of a difference but apparently it did. I reduced it down to a lower setting 1254 or something equal to that, now my cpu is stable at 3.4ghz. Still in the process of running all the tests but looking good so far.

 

[coaxui]

Overclocked to 3.6ghz now! Stable as a rock. Pretty surprised that my idle and full load temperatures are almost the same as they were when cpu was running at stock speed. Currently idle temps are 36-42. Load temps are 60-63.

Thanks for the help! next step will be to try for 3.8 or 4.0

 

[sharken]

3.6 is the sweet spot, 3.8 and 4.0 doesnt yield any benefit except exponential power draw from articles on here....

 

[Kill@dor]

What memory ratio are you using? Please post the Ref Freq and the Mem Freq so i can understand. Plus, did you change the timings on the RAM?

 

[coaxui]

Here are the settings I am using:
Blk: 180
Cpu voltage: 1.2
Dram bus voltage: 1.5
Manually changed the timings on the RAM to 7-7-7-20, to what is supposed to run at.
RAM speed is set to 1443 (the closest selectable speed to 1600 in the bios menu)
Everything else is set to auto.

 

[Kill@dor]

Try raising the ram voltage to 1.9 and loosen the timings to default. They will OC higher that way!!! Tigher timings bottleneck the RAM big time, expecially at high FSB's.

I think you should hit 3.6 very easy with this...not sure about 3.8GHz.

Also, get CPUz to report the ratio. I think 1.5 is the newest, not sure You might also have to change your mem freq to a lower value for higher clocks.

If you really want a good OC, reset the RAM to default, restart and go back into the BIOS, change the DEFAULT to MANUAL and change the VOLTAGE to 1.8 or 1.9. Turn your CPU OC down to 3.0 GHz and work your way up as high as it can go just by changing the base clock. The multiplier should be 21 if you have turbo mode on...or 20 is fine too. Change the CPU multiplier to 19 and then change your QPI multiplier to 24. If you don't have a QPI multiplier, then make sure its on 4.8 GT's. This will hit 3.8GHz and will give you a large amount of bandwith, and you will notice you PC fly through games and some programs. You will also have to change the FSB or QPI voltage...little by little as well as your CPU voltage...i think 1.275 for CPU voltage will work with this OC, i cannot say for sure!!

Change each value lower until you get a stable OC if the system is unstable for you. I can guarantee you can hit 4.0GHz with a good OC, but you really have to understand what you are changing on your system to get that high. 3.8 is just a perfect spot