Help on my first overclock

[tostitos]

Hello, Ive been looking for a way to oc a core i7 870 on my dh55hc but i had no had any success so Im making a thread asking for a little help. Im pretty new to overclocking, iv been researching for a while but i have not attempted it yet. Is it possible for me to reach a 4ghz OC or the max oc i can get on this specs? Also i have an corsair h50
my spec are
cpu: core i7 870
mobo: dh55hc
Ram: patriot g series 1333, dram frequency running @ 531mhz(for some reason i don't know why, or if this is the correct speed it should be)

 

[dalauder]

It's DDR (Double Data Rate) Ram, so 531MHz means 1062, which is approximately 1066. The default speed for DDR3 is usually 1066 if you don't manually adjust settings, so that sounds right.

1333MHz RAM can be limiting if you don't have an unlocked processor like Intel "K" series and AMD "Black Edition". You say you've been researching. I assume you know about the base clock and the multiplier.

Your multiplier is locked, so you can only increase speed by adjusting the base clock. The RAM and the Uncore (non-core parts of CPU, which I think might include northbridge?) both run off of the same base clock as the CPU so you have to adjust them so they don't run too fast and crash.

Nehalem is a bit trickier to overclock than most because instead of the simple Step 1 - find max CPU speed, Step 2 - Adjust RAM settings, you also have the Uncore there. And you have to decide whether to get your Core or your Uncore first. People say different things. You can try both, but that'll take longer.

Oh...dh55hc is made by Intel. You typically can't OC with Intel boards. If you're lucky, I'm wrong. Hopefully your board's an exception.

 

[trihedral]

you can hit 4.0ghz but it's going to be a little difficult.

Your ram 1333, you can get to 4.0 easier if it were 1600.

just change FSB and core volt you should be good. Intel i7's are good becuase they use less power = less heat. you can probably hit 4.0 with stock coolers.

 

[dalauder]

I'm not sure what you mean by the i7's using less power. They need 8 CPU pins! Mine runs at 140W load.

You might be able to do 4.0 with a stock cooler, but your room better have cool ambient air and you better keep an eye on your temps when first overclocking and during hot summer months. 4.0 is a solid overclock. If he was going 3.8GHz, I'd say stock cooler okay. 4.0--not even 100% of chips hit that. And it can sometimes require some voltage bumps that put out a lot of heat.

If the Intel board allows OC'ing, he'll need to change the Uncore volts, PLL, and some others. Nehalems are a pain to OC--at least compared to unlocked Phenom II's or Core 2 Quads/Duos.

 

[tostitos]

Thanks a lot for the responses.I tried to oc i can reach 3.1 ghz passed that i start getting blue screen, g-card will not even work, basically im stuck at 141 bus speed. I'm going to try to figure out the ram possibly il reach higher, but since i can't control the voltages on this motherboard i might not be able to reach 4.0

 

[dalauder]

You should be able to at least get near a baseclock of 160 on stock voltages. I think my i7-930 does 164 fsb on stock voltage.

It's absolutely crucial that you set your RAM and Uncore properly if you want to overclock. If you just want to up your fsb speed, set your Uncore and RAM to the minimum speeds, then try the CPU. If you don't do this, then you can't isolate which variable is causing your overclock to fail (like a scientific experiment).

Afterwards, increase the Uncore, then RAM, then adjust ram timings. You could also go Uncore first, then CPU, then RAM. The RAM speed is practically irrelevant since you can just tighten timings at a slower speed. However, there are sweet spots that happen to have better timings for a specific stick.

I have trouble running my RAM at 1500MHz CL5. But it'll run 1915MHz CL 6 just fine.

 

[tostitos]

Alright so i managed to have a base clock of 160 and overclocked to 3,520, but for some reason my startup seems slow, im running my ram at 640mhz (1280).
latency 9
trcd 9
trp 9
tras 24
1.65V
which allowed me to overclocked passed 3.1ghz, is this ok or should i lower them to 8?