Trouble getting my old OC back..

[italianxmna89]

First, here is my old setup that was running strong until i started getting "overclock failed" messages in my bios..

Asus P6T (Non-deluxe)
Core i7 920 (C0 revision)
-Vigor Monsoon III Air Cooling
Mushkin Blackline 6GB 1600mhz 9-9-9-24 1.5-1.6v
Sapphire 4830 512mb
750W Corsair

AI Overclock Tuner: Manual
BCLK: 190
Multiplier: 19
DRAM Frequency: DDR3-1520Mhz
UCLK Frequency: Auto
CPU vCore: 1.30v
QPI/DRAM voltage: 1.35v
DRAM Bus Voltage: 1.60v

Dram Timing Control
DRAM CAS# Latency: 9
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay: 9
DRAM RAS# PRE Time: 9
DRAM RAS# ACT Time: 24
DRAM Timing Mode - 1N

That was working fine for a good two years until i started getting stability issues. I figured the issue was the ram so i RMA'd it but replaced it with Corsair Dominator 6GB 1600Mhz 8-8-8-24 1.65v. I plan to sell the RMA'd mushkin when they get back.

Now i ran everything at auto settings and they were stable. However, i am having a really hard time getting back to 3.6Ghz with my ram at anything over 1360mhz.

Right now i'm running stable at:

AI Overclock Tuner: Manual
BCLK: 170
Multiplier: 20 (Turned turbo off but keeping the speed step)
DRAM Frequency: DDR3-1360
UCLK Frequency: Auto
CPU vCore: 1.30v
QPI/DRAM voltage: 1.35v
DRAM Bus Voltage: 1.66v

Dram Timing Control
DRAM CAS# Latency: 8
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay: 8
DRAM RAS# PRE Time: 8
DRAM RAS# ACT Time: 24
DRAM Timing Mode - 2N

When i set the BCLK to 180 and kept the 20x, it would be stable for 5-10 minutes in prime but then crap the bed. The more vCore i added the longer it went before becoming unstable but i think the problem is not just the vCore so thats where i am hoping for some suggestions. I want my ram to at least be over 1500mhz and ideally be at 1600mhz.

If i set the XMP settings to get 1600mhz its unstable (same issue with the mushkin xmp settings) personally i dont like preset settings and id prefer to have my say in every little setting. Should i start pushing my qpi or dram bus voltages? Is there a setting i'm missing that could be the key?

I just dont like the fact that i now have to increase my vcore beyond what it was at to even come close to stability. So far my temps have been pretty good. Under load i havent seen it go past 66C.

 

[lowjack989]

Hmmm..have you played with loosen up timings...like say 8-9-8-26-1N...or 8-9-9-26-1N

 

[italianxmna89]

Yea ill give those a shot and see what happens..defeats the purpose of buying them for their 8-8-8-24 timings though

i was afraid to push over 1.32vcore..im finding people running up to 1.5v on the c0 revision 0.o ...i guess a vcore of 1.35 is worth a shot?

 

[lowjack989]

Yeah 1.35v ......just be careful !!!!

 

[italianxmna89]

I ran about 50minutes stable with Bclk 180 turbo off so x20 is 3.6ghz. Dram at 1480mhz 1.66v bus and 1.35qpi. Vcore at 1.34. Have not tried 1.35 yet. Anything past 1.35 shows up in red in my bios and even though it's safe with my air cooling (70c max under load) it still scares me lol. If I can get those speeds stable I'll be happy. Suggestions?

 

[lowjack989]

Alright I would stick to 1.34v

 

[italianxmna89]

Even though it's only 50 minutes stable??

 

[lowjack989]

Well, run Prime95 for at least 4 hours..I would say your safe if it passes....although somebody is gonna jump on this thread and say 8 hrs small fft's, followed by 24 hrs of blend....

 

[lowjack989]

If your not stable at that CPU speed and voltage...and you don't want to bump the voltage anymore then I would pull 100 MHz off of the clockspeed instead of pushing the voltage above what you are comfortable with

 

[italianxmna89]

im just going to start from scratch. first i started with all auto settings which was stable for 12 hours. now im setting bclk, dram freq, vcore, qpi, dram bus, and timings manually to stockish settings then take it little by little to see what happens. just to be sure, are those the only settings i should need to change?

 

[lowjack989]

Now you got ....yeah it looks like you have covered your bases on which settings to use

 

[italianxmna89]

Okay so i pretty much have a page and a half of trial and errors starting from stock. I got as far as finding a stable checkpoint at:

Multi: 19
BCLK: 180
Ram Frequency: 1443mhz
Timings: 8-8-8-24-1T
vCore: 1.26875v
QPI: 1.30625v
Dram Bus: 1.62v

My goal is a BCLK of 190 x19 so i bumped the bclk to 185 just to inch my way toward it. It seemed stable with vcore: 1.3 QPI: 1.33125 and Dram 1.66. I have not tried to lower those values to one notch above an unstable setting.

So i jumped the gun and tried a blck of 190 with vcore: 1.325v, qpi: 1.34375v and dram at 1.66v. that was unstable.

Now should i try and find the lowest voltages before instability with a bclk of 185 first to compare those voltage differences with my checkpoint above or is there a point where the voltages have to jump significantly to hold a higher clock? In other words, is it possible for there to be a +.4 or .5 difference in the voltage between a stable 180x19 and a stable 190x19?