My first overclock.

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Hi,
I'm totally new to overclocking,.. as in.. totally. I've looked at it and thought about it for a long time, but never actually taken the step to do so.

I have now purchased and installed a Corsair H-50 and my system is running a lot cooler than it was (35 idle).

My setup is in my sig, I was wondering what settings I should change to go for a fairly small overclock. I know some of the settings that should be changed, just I have no idea how much and what to.
My OCZ Gold is now OCZ Platinum on 7-7-7-24 6GB 1333.

I would like to overclock to 3.0Ghz, which is only a small improvement but a solid start.

Please can someone suggest some rough settings to try, and I will see what I can do. Please bear in mind that I am only familiar with some of the main options in the bios, and may not know all of the abbreviated names and where to find them!

Thanks!
Steve
 
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Ok well basically 3.0Ghz is to easy you should be aiming for 3.6Ghz min really But basically it's allways good to scan the forums and see what settings other people are using then work off them, Otherwise finding the max voltage for all the mainboard settings and use them then get a stable OC on the cpu and then lower the voltages till it becomes unstable, Then work for what ever performance to volt to heat ratio you are happy with.

As a guideline you don't want to go more then 1.4V on the cpu (i wouldnt pass 1.35 tbh)
1.65V on ram - (Make sure you keep the ram in spec 1333 - 1600Mhz depends on its speed using the Divider as as u up the BCLK the ram speed goes up)
And then the Voltage of the mainboard VVT it should show you Red volts around 1.325 volts all mainboards are differant.

Try find the best Allround settings trial and error and watch the CPU doesnt go over the TJmax and a 24/7 clock under prime95 wants to be under 80C really on all cores.

GL 3.6Ghz would be easy prob 1.25V i'm guessing :)

P.S - Set you're QPI link ratio to the lowest 32X or 36X or less..
 
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Ok so...
1.65V, my ram is already on that as it was one of the troubleshooting steps OCZ took me through when I RMA'd my ram.
VVT, I haven't seen a setting for this but will now go and look.
QPI link to 36x, and BCLK to 150?
Also, looking at my base clock and ratio, when I multiply them together (133*21) I get 2793, wouldn't that be 2.79Ghz, when it's meant to be 2.67?
I am looking at this right aren't I?
 
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Ok, I just set it to the settings above, all I changed was my BCLK to 150, I looked at QPI link but the only options I had was "High" and "Low".
I'm now looking at CPU-Z and the windows system information, and nothing seems to have changed. Windows still says 920 @ 2.67Ghz 2.67GHz
And CPU-Z looks like this:
53869561.jpg
 
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Also just noticed, why is the intel overclocking center telling me my CPU is at 18 degrees celc? I'm sure my room is warmer than that...
Also just noticed on the overclocking center, the Ratio changes from 12.0x to 21x and back often, is this some kind of power saving function?
 
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you need to download Coretemp - Prime95 As well i would be aiming for 180 Bclk myself thease chips all can do 3.6Ghz + some even hit 4.2Ghz and 200Bclk shoul be you're ultimate aim but makesure you're prime95 stable turn off Turboboost and memory spreader if you can find them in the bio's
 
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You have Speedstep enabled so thats why you're CPU is under the correct clock speed run prime95 and it'll shoot up to the settings you have in bios keep an eye on load temps via Coretemp or realtemp.
 
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Ok, I tried it with BCLK of 160, and it crashed in prime95 within 3 mins (Froze, no error).
I will change it back to 150, and find turbo boost and memory spreader in the bios.
I also have a setting called "spread spectrum".. do i need to change this?

Maybe my voltages are out? Why would it crash on prime95 so early? My temps only got to 65 celc.
 
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Yes sorry spread spectrum needs to be off, Are you upping the Vcore on the cpu and VVT/QPI volts and the memory just set those to 1.65V you should not be crashing @ this point @ 160 Bclk.. unless your on stock volts. :)
 
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QPI is 1.65, is that the same thing as VVT?

I will turn spread spectrum off, and what should Vcore be set to?

I don't think I had upped anything yet, oops.
It's running on BCLK 150 now fine on the voltages it started on, been running for 20 mins, temps got up to 70 though but have been that for last 10 mins and haven't changed. I'm in a small uni dorm.
 
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ok ok, I made some mistakes lol.

By the way, thank you so much for helping me through this, it's a huge help and it's really appreciated!

Anyway, I just went back into check settings and change the spread spectrum off.
My QPI was not at 1.65, that was my Dram.

I wrote down my settings this time:

CPU Voltage: Auto ( CPU Vcore: 1.28 ).
QPI: 1.35
DRAM 1.65

Edit: I'm doing the settings in the BIOS, I just opened that to look at info and because I was considering using it (Not anymore)
 
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try this
disable speedsteping it can make an overclock unstable
also disable intel turbo boost
enable vdroop
blck 180 x 20
cpu voltage 1.14 or close to it
qpi 1.32
id also losing those latencys to 8 8 8 21
then tighten them later to test stability off the cpu
run intel burn test 20 loops and 4 hours prime
 
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I'd run 180Bclk 1.35Vcore 1.32QPI 1.65Dram volt and try get the memory inside 1400ish Mhz you should be able to run stable @ that with 80C temps then just work on lowering the CPU voltage core abit to help heat once u crash turn the volts up a single notch and you're done basically if it Prime95's ok.
 
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ok, i've just changed a lot of settings so i'll see what happens.
I accidently had the Vcore way to high for a while (Around 1.5), but it booted ok.

Now, I changed the memory ratio/multiplier to 4 rather than 5, which puts it on 1444. Dram is 1.65. QPI is 1.32, BCLK 180. DRAM 1.65, VCore 1.35

My memory timings were 8-8-8-24, I changed that to 9-9-9-24 on your advice demon, but I forgot to change the last one.
I will test this and see how it goes, if it's stable, I will change it to 8-8-8-21 and test again. If that's stable I'll start lowering some voltages.

P.S When I had Vcore on 1.5 it ran at 80 degrees celc.
 
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sounds good altho memory timings on auto would prob be best they normally don't need to be fiddled with that much mine run @ 9 9 9 28 but i'm @ 4Ghz and 1528mhz on ram.
 
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Like i say you can only turn down the volts after testing till you get prime95 / IBT fails then turn the volts up one notch and rerun the tests 3.6Ghz should not give him any problems even 3.8Ghz You're really only having to try sometimes (a lot more volts) @ 4Ghz or higher but it's becomes a heat issue then i can get mine to 4.4Ghz stable but currently there is little point since i would take a lot of time off my CPU running @ 1.4Volts even tho im on a triple Rad WC setup, not to mention it's not even stressed on my games @ 4Ghz lol. :)
 
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It seems to be running fine at 3.6. I used the settings above and have not yet got around to changing the volts or even testing a lot, but it managed prime95 for 30 mins only getting to 70 degrees. It has a corsair H50 cooler but the room is fairly small and it's right up against a wall pretty much, and under a desk (Uni room, I have no space).
I will use prime95 for 4 hours to test and then start lowering voltages, I may even up the overclock to 3.8Ghz.

I have to say thankyou so much to you both because you've given me the confidence to try this and try some things for myself in the future. I'm a computer science student and we are never taught this kind of thing, so it's always nice to broaden my horizons.
Before overclocking I didn't actually think it would make any noticable difference to the speed I run the things I use, mainly the internet, documents and programming. I do play games, i've just completed assassins creed and mass effect, but not until the Summer holidays again. The boot up time seems shorter though, I no longer even see the blue windows 7 starting screen. It may be slightly due to having had faulty RAM and waiting for the returned RMA whilst using a Core 2 Duo 2Ghz for a few weeks and getting used to that, but it's so so fast now.

Thanks for your help, i'll keep this updated with any changes and if I ever get to the 4Ghz with the h50.

Steve
 
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