Can a lot of USB peripherals make OC unstable?

[dsc106]

I had my computer in living room working on it. 3930k 3.2ghz OC'ed to a modest 4ghz with Corsair H80, cool temps. Asus Rampage IV Extreme.

Moved it into my office, plugged in a few USB hubs each loaded with peripherals (HDDs, External Sound, printer, mice/keyboard/webcam, etc.) and plugged in a couple more internal HDDs/Optical...

"OC Failed"

What gives? Corsair AX750 PSU, GTX 285 (waiting for my GTX 670 FTW to come in mail).

 

[lopri]

Unlikely with 3930K with which you only raise multipliers. And usually things go backwards; Unstable OC can make USB devices act up, not the other way around. (unless you're into some exotic USB bus overclocking via registry hack, etc.)

"OC failed" message at POST could be a false alarm for a system where it's actually a stable configurations once the system is up and running. Still, those warnings tend to occur at a threshold. You may want to lower the OC a notch or two for peace of mind.

P.S. Do you happen to have a board with "Turbo USB" or whatever board makers call these days that speed up USB?

 

[borisvodofsky]

I had my computer in living room working on it. 3930k 3.2ghz OC'ed to a modest 4ghz with Corsair H80, cool temps. Asus Rampage IV Extreme.

Moved it into my office, plugged in a few USB hubs each loaded with peripherals (HDDs, External Sound, printer, mice/keyboard/webcam, etc.) and plugged in a couple more internal HDDs/Optical...

"OC Failed"

What gives? Corsair AX750 PSU, GTX 285 (waiting for my GTX 670 FTW to come in mail).

Are you using Auto overclocking or manual overclocking.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Are you using Auto overclocking or manual overclocking.

This could be an issue

 

[dsc106]

Using auto OC - why does this chance things?

Also I plugged into the blue USB 3.0 port out of convenience when all devices are USB 2.0, didn't think it'd matter since they are backwards compatible?

 

[cmdrdredd]

auto overclocking raises voltages on its own. It usually raises it too much giving higher temps but I suppose it could have the reverse effect and not raise voltages enough.

 

[Magic Carpet]

auto overclocking raises voltages on its own. It usually raises it too much giving higher temps but I suppose it could have the reverse effect and not raise voltages enough.

Depends on the board. I have often had, exactly the opposite, not giving enough juice. IMO, Auto Overclock is worse than Auto Voltage.

I had my computer in living room working on it. 3930k 3.2ghz OC'ed to a modest 4ghz with Corsair H80, cool temps. Asus Rampage IV Extreme.

Moved it into my office, plugged in a few USB hubs each loaded with peripherals (HDDs, External Sound, printer, mice/keyboard/webcam, etc.) and plugged in a couple more internal HDDs/Optical...

"OC Failed"

What gives? Corsair AX750 PSU, GTX 285 (waiting for my GTX 670 FTW to come in mail).

I suspect those hard drives has just eaten into your overclocking headroom, somehow. You have massive currents of amps going on there, of course it affects it.

 

[borisvodofsky]

Using auto OC - why does this chance things?

Also I plugged into the blue USB 3.0 port out of convenience when all devices are USB 2.0, didn't think it'd matter since they are backwards compatible?

Hahahahahaha.... You have a knack for making all the n00ber mistakes.

Achem chem emm emm... :sneaky:

General rule, Disable as many features as possible. everything eats up PCIE bandwidth to an extent, think of it that way.

USB3.0 has no advantage for any USB 2.0 hardware except some (rare) disk drives.
--Putting usb2.0 peripherals into usb 3.0 also often causes the boot time to be significantly LONGER.

Disable the OpRom on the motherboard drive controllers except for the one you're actually booting the OS from, all other data drives don't require it. This will save you 6-8 secs off your boot time.

Finally, NEVER EVER use auto-overclocking. It kills more CPUs than you think.

 

[dsc106]

Yes, first time OC'ing so I am a noob to that - didn't realize auto killed CPUs...? I thought it would be more conservative/safer to use something like Asus's Auto Level Up since their reputation relies on it, and if anything I would be only getting a moderate little boost? But you're saying its dangerous, and potentially unstable?


Ah, didn't realize it mattered which port. Wasn't plugging into USB 3.0 to get benefit, but because my cable didn't reach the higher 2.0 ports as well. I'll switch it to USB 2.0 ports.

Is there a guide I can find to this, for manual OC'ing and disabling "as many features as possible"... such as?

Don't know what OpRom is but I'm sure the guide will fill me in. I do have a somewhat complicated setup as I am running Windows 7 as a boot and Hackintosh as a boot, as well as a couple clone partitions of the hackintosh as boots for testing patches, updates, etc.