I am ready to be taught everything you all know about overclocking

[Macgruber]

try 1600 on the ram

im going to tonight, im gonna leave pc off for 2+hours and try to boot with 1600 which means ill definately be returning the other 8gb i bought of this fail ram ^^



should i set PLL to [auto] and vdroop to [auto]?

 

[Vectronic]

im just so frustrated because i dont know where to start, so many people saying so many things

So stop listening...

Make a pot of coffee, smoke a joint, whatever it is that gets you in the mood.

Rest to factory defaults, make a list of everything.

1. Look up your CPU, whats the maximum suggested voltage, temperature. (1.5v, tCase 73, TJMax, 105)
2. Look up your RAM, voltage, timings.
3. Look up the minimum/maximum values for motherboard voltages.

Great... stay within those... now play.

Maybe overclocking really isn't for you, there isn't much you have to keep track of really, like 6 voltages, about 5 settings, some kind of knowledge about how RAM and CPU's work... if that's too much, then stop, stay with default, OC using the motherboards auto-OC settings, or just up the multiplier... bad things happen, step it back.

Done... move on to actually using your computer.

I think your main problem is that you keep asking questions... just do it... I don't, we don't... really know what might work for you, you have to try it, just stay within limits.

 

[Macgruber]

So stop listening...

Make a pot of coffee, smoke a joint, whatever it is that gets you in the mood.

Rest to factory defaults, make a list of everything.

1. Look up your CPU, whats the maximum suggested voltage, temperature. (1.5v, tCase 73, TJMax, 105)
2. Look up your RAM, voltage, timings.
3. Look up the minimum/maximum values for motherboard voltages.

Great... stay within those... now play.

Maybe overclocking really isn't for you, there isn't much you have to keep track of really, like 6 voltages, about 5 settings, some kind of knowledge about how RAM and CPU's work... if that's too much, then stop, stay with default, OC using the motherboards auto-OC settings, or just up the multiplier... bad things happen, step it back.

Done... move on to actually using your computer.

I think your main problem is that you keep asking questions... just do it... I don't, we don't... really know what might work for you, you have to try it, just stay within limits.

i appreciate your honesty and advice man, yeah i know i ask too many questions, i tend to ask untill i get an answer and ive realized this isnt the place for it.
while many people here are knowledgable, noone have mymotherboard and are able to say
"this motherboard has issues with that setting, only x-x is recommended" so my questions stem from poster B contradicting poster C and poster and so forth

im going to look at what you told me and get the lowest voltages possible on all EQ and start from there

 

[Macgruber]

PROBLEM SOLVED. MY COMPUTER IS TROLLING ME

2hours on 1600 i start, instant fan spin+comp boots. so i shut down immediately to try another start.

shuts down, i turn on, fans spin, does a restart and loads on next one -_-

well half of this memory is being returned tomorrow, as for the other 8gb i might just break it and throw it in the trash if i dont try to sell it then ill buy new ram
maybe i should go for a 16b dual channel 2x8gb this time -_- .. is there a downfall to bigger ram sticks or does it not matter if the stick is 2gb or 8gb

 

[atomheart]

Some people forget what it's like to be a novice in an area. Instead of wasting energy criticizing the OP (for something that is honestly not a big deal) why not help him and get this thread solved?

Glad you were able solve part of the problem.

 

[ckay27]

Ok if you have the cosair vengance 1866 ram then here are settings according to xmp profile:
9
10
9
27
2t
Try that at 1866

Edit: This is the default timings when loading xmp profile from bios for this specific ram so I am presuming it should be right.

 

[ckay27]

Though I would say it was odd, considering I loaded off mobos default 1600 profile at 9 9 9 27 2t for months before i changed it to mobos default 1866 at 9 9 9 27 2t, I have only just realised I could load the xmp profile from my bios.

 

[Macgruber]

ok scratch that, im stupid and we already know but apparently disabling the "Power technology" wouldnt let me get past 3.4...


clearing cmos and everything sets ram to 1333,

so it doesnt even seem like im stock @ 1600.. does this mean if i buy 1600 ram from a diff brand im going to be at less than 1333? so confused i am.. so confused

 

[Macgruber]

Ok if you have the cosair vengance 1866 ram then here are settings according to xmp profile:
9
10
9
27
2t
Try that at 1866

Edit: This is the default timings when loading xmp profile from bios for this specific ram so I am presuming it should be right.

ok but do you mean set the ram manually to all the timings that it sets through XMP ?

 

[Vectronic]

Uh, well... I hope that's the case... but the more things you say about your config, the more it sounds like the mobo is dieing.

 

[Macgruber]

Uh, well... I hope that's the case... but the more things you say about your config, the more it sounds like the mobo is dieing.

seeing noone has been able to give me a config to use, and me not knowing what im talking about, im sure you would think the mobo is dying, regardless its under warranty, i can rma it, and its <4months old

the motherboard is perfectly fine, i just dont know what settings to set things to and neither does anyone who has helped me with various issues

if you care. what should i set VDROOP to? CPU PLL voltage? PCH? any idea?
i7 2600k is at 4.5ghz now v1.3150

but yeah my mobo is probably dying it just looks brand new, hasnt ever got warm and what not



--- but yeah all bs aside, im sure its the ram. with 1333 i had no issues on restarts or boot ups, but obviously with XMP on i get the funnies

worst case scenario if this mobo dies without ever having gotten hot, bent, chipped, bumped, scratched, or OC'ed hard, ill just rma it

 

[Vectronic]

LLC/VDroop should be set so that the voltage you set for VCC in the BIOS matches what the voltage actually is (as reported by CPU-Z or similar), it doesn't have to be *exact* just as close to it as possible.

What that setting will be?... no idea, ideally it should be the maximum setting, 100%, Level 1, "Enabled" (depends on the motherboard).

However this sometimes overvolts, ie: you set 1.2v in the BIOS and it ends up being 1.22v when under load.

For mine, LLC 1 (100%), is within 0.004v of what I set it to in the BIOS. Some people with the same motherboard, and same CPU, get overvolted at LLC1, and have to use LLC2 (75%), or LLC3 (50%).

LLC only really comes into play when using Offset voltage, when using Fixed voltage, it should be enabled, or 100%.

It takes a bit of playing, a bit of writing down numbers, to figure out which LLC setting is the best one to use for your configuration. (unless your only options are Enabled/Disabled).

PLL should be left at stock... 1.8 to 1.85
PCH and VTT should be somewhere between 1.03 and 1.08v

All of those should be left at stock until you get to about a 125% overclock. Or you are trying to overclock your RAM at over 125% of it's speed.

You shouldn't have to touch any of them till you are around 4.5GHz... or 2200 on your RAM... I say *shouldn't*, but you may have to.

VCCSA should be 0.925v ... and just never touched really, unless you can get to 5.2GHz or something, *then* you might have to.

If RAM is cause problems, then yeah... just get rid of it... underclock it to 1333, 1600, whatever is stable... ignore it... overclock your CPU and just set things to whatever it takes to get that stable.

Once you've figured that out... then consider overclocking RAM... when doing that, set the CPU back to default values... ie: ignore it... then focus just on RAM see what it takes to get that stable.

I wouldn't really bother OC-ing RAM, there's very little difference between 1600 and 2000 for me... maybe if I was using the iGPU it would have more of an effect, but it's only about a 4% increase in speed, for a 125% overclock, and that's just throughput, normal RAM usage/speed is practically unaffected by the overclock.

The only reason I do, is because my RAM will take it while still being undervolted, if you have to add voltage to your RAM (DRAM, whatever it's called in our BIOS) just give up, it's not worth it.

NO ONE will be able to say something like: "set this to this exact voltage, and set this to that exact voltage" it just won't happen, you have to figure out what your ranges are for your configuration... they might be really good, they might be really bad.

Delayed Edit: Anyways, once you figure out your top-end for CPU, and RAM... then work on merging them, because by then you'll have a good idea of the behavior of your system... what sort of errors occur when CPU isn't stable, and which occur when RAM isn't stable, what it took to correct it.

Also keep in mind, the BIOS version you are using, if you really want to get picky, often one BIOS will be better than the next... some people use nowhere near the latest one for this reason... the latest one is v3.0... and they might be using 1.3 because it works best for their system.

Personally, I just downloaded all the versions for my motherboard, and tossed them on a USB key so I can randomly or methodically pick which one to use. I don't really suggest this, because it's just a pain in the ass and more crap to wrap your head around. But it might be worth trying the latest one, or an earlier one... if you're lucky your motherboard manufacturer will actually say what changes were made, some don't.

 

[Macgruber]

im at 4.5ghz now
is it better for me to keep PLL under 1.8? will undervolting this help the OC?

unfortunately my bios doesnt have a VTT or a offset control ;0 look at my screenshots

i did set vdroop to 100% before and have PLL at 1.65, i was actually googling how to set my PCH , the lower the better?

last thing im looking at is those primary /secondary plane current limit and the turbo power limit(dont think im using turbo but was still researching)

ty for the help yeah i wasnt looking for an exact range obviously, just an idea on what is better for lower and what is better ofr higher

 

[Macgruber]

i appreciate this post more than ever Vec, it's given me a better idea on numbers and why, im not 100% solid as to which features benefit from having lower voltage and which higher

But you dont understand how many pages ive clicked from google searches and forums ive read... you might, and you can understand how frustrating it is, its not like theres an overclocking class i can take overnight and set my cpu to the BEST OC ever

tbh, my main problem was always the coldboot, my memory PERFORMS... i just dont know what to expect out of it :/ i did memtest yesterday and passed no problem, just seems i need to find best settings for cpu OC and even with that idk where my cold boot will stem from xD!

 

[Vectronic]

I have no idea... on mine PLL doesn't come into effect till about 4.8GHz. (excluding RAM)

Anything below 4.5GHz I can undervolt it... at stock speeds I can drop it right down to the minimum my BIOS will allow (1.585).

Less voltage is always better, ultimately you'd want to use 0 volts for everything...lol

However, if I overclock my RAM to >2000 it wants me to start undervolting PLL... so at some point the CPU wanting more voltage, and RAM wanting less, hits an apex and I'm stuck there... lower CPU clock and get faster RAM, or lower RAM and get better CPU.

Most people set their power limits to max, this won't hurt anything unless your motherboard goes apes**t...lol

I set mine to 120W primary, 105W for everything else... the only reason I do that is because it coincidentally matches temperatures... 105W = 105C @ 4.5GHz... there's no "good" reason why I do it, it's more just an OCD thing...lol, same reason why I try and get VTT and PCH to 1.000... at 4.2GHz I could do that, at 4.5 I can't.

 

[Macgruber]

v1.320 - v1.296 is what im drooping at, not sure if at 0% or 100% vdroop if its changing not sure why

the power thing i dont understand the primary is set to 1024 and secondary to 32 or something

the other two were 0 at defalt so i did not want to touch ;S

i gotta look into the droop, its at 100% and it droops the same as at 0%? not sure if that makes sense

 

[Vectronic]

LLC/Droop may not be working... that would likely be a BIOS glitch, or an automated override if you are using Fixed voltage.

With LLC totally disabled you generally drop by about 0.05 - 0.07v (for some as much as 0.200v)... but you also generally BSOD unless you are already fairly well overvolted for that clock.

Make sure to pay attention to whether or not it's on (W)atts, or (A)amps, but whatever the max is will be easiest, set it to the highest setting, or enter "65536" or something and it should set it to max.

Edit: looking at your BIOS settings..

CPU I/O = VTT
System Agent (SA) = VCCSA
I assume PCH 1.05 is PCH (is that where it shows the current value?)

 

[Macgruber]

after another cmos reset in the back of the comp i got droop to work

i didnt know VTT/VCCSA was that tyvm im going to set them now

those settings are at the bottom i did not want to touch them at all :S

im still researching virtualization tech, someone told me its just good for if im running vmware on my pc, others said it would "help my oc" but i found no solid info yet from non-oc threads
edit- im assuming v0.9300 is 925? its going from .9100 to .9300 in bios now i am scared haha

 

[Vectronic]

Yeah, you probably don't need VT-d... it's for virtual machines (and other rare things)... it basically allows them to directly access devices, rather than being routed or virtualized within the virtual machine.

VT-x (the top one of your two listed there)should probably be enabled, it may help with an overclock when disabled, but you might actually run into an application that uses it, and be all WTF! when it doesn't work and completely forget about it.

Does "Power Technology" open a sub-page?... if so, if there are any "power saving" features, you might want to disable those.

I would highly suggest that you do use Turbo/EIST/SpeedStep though once you figure out what your limits are. It's a bit harder to get stable than Fixed clocks/voltages, but will reduce temperatures, power use, and "theoretically" increase the life-span of your board/CPU... and pretty much have no reduction in speed.

 

[Macgruber]

if turbo eist or speedstep lower the MHz when the pc isnt in use i cant use it

i leave the pc on running certain progs 24/7 and i just need that constant speed/power from the cpu

the power saving only opens some features when i enable but they disapear when i set to custom i think it actually might only open speedstep or something

im testing my vcore i dont know if the 1.33x im at is worth 4.5 when i was at 4.4 at 1.315 :/

edit- should i set VTT to 0.9100 or 0.9300?

nope no options in power saving, just disabled, custom, and energy effecient but no menus or options to mess with

bah who am i kidding, if i knew what i was doing off the bad i would try to hit 5.0 or the max without passing the voltage that is considered BEWARE!!!
i technically if i dont pass the cpu's max voltage im not voiding warranty, will they rma a chip if it dies within the warranty? :S

 

[Vectronic]

It lowers the multiplier/CPU speed when it's not in use... even if you are away from the PC if there is an application using the processor, then it won't lower the speed.

If everything is completely idle, no apps open, no apps doing anything, no screensaver, nothing... it will lower it to the minimum (I think that's still 1600 for Sandy bridge, might be just the base frequency like 3.4GHz)... as soon as an application uses more than 1% of the CPU it will start raising the multiplier/speed again. The application might run perfectly fine at say, 2.8GHz... instead of the CPU being at 4.4GHz and being 40% idle/not in use.

1.315 @ 4.4
1.330 @ 4.5

That would actually be a pretty good "step" if your temperatures are ok and you are stable at 1.330... that's only 0.015v for 100MHz.

Mine are:
1.182 @ 4.4GHz
1.270 @ 4.5GHz

Almost a full 0.1v.

VTT (CPU I/O) should be above 1.0v... it will make no difference on temperatures, and may as well stick with the usual/normal voltages for now... so go all the way up to 1.05

If you meant System Agent... DON'T set to above 1.0v...lol... it won't damage anything, but... just don't, stick with as close to 0.925 as you can get (should be able to specifically set it to 0.925)

You shouldn't have to worry about voltage till you are above 1.5v... the key thing to pay attention to is temperatures. I wouldn't suggest going above 1.35v though for a 24/7 config... if you're doing a suicide run.... then sure, go above it. I've had mine up to 1.63v... no issues.

VCore/VCC: 1.63
VTT/CPU I/O: 1.104
PCH: 1.096
PLL: 1.955
VCCSA/SA: 1.016

Those are the highest I've gone... no apparent damage (at least so far, maybe knocked a year off it's life though...lol, who knows).

 

[Macgruber]

It lowers the multiplier/CPU speed when it's not in use... even if you are away from the PC if there is an application using the processor, then it won't lower the speed.

If everything is completely idle, no apps open, no apps doing anything, no screensaver, nothing... it will lower it to the minimum (I think that's still 1600 for Sandy bridge, might be just the base frequency like 3.4GHz)... as soon as an application uses more than 1% of the CPU it will start raising the multiplier/speed again. The application might run perfectly fine at say, 2.8GHz... instead of the CPU being at 4.4GHz and being 40% idle/not in use.

1.315 @ 4.4
1.330 @ 4.5

That would actually be a pretty good "step" if your temperatures are ok and you are stable at 1.330... that's only 0.015v for 100MHz.

Mine are:
1.182 @ 4.4GHz
1.270 @ 4.5GHz

Almost a full 0.1v.

VTT (CPU I/O) should be above 1.0v... it will make no difference on temperatures, and may as well stick with the usual/normal voltages for now... so go all the way up to 1.05

If you meant System Agent... DON'T set to above 1.0v...lol... it won't damage anything, but... just don't, stick with as close to 0.925 as you can get (should be able to specifically set it to 0.925)

You shouldn't have to worry about voltage till you are above 1.5v... the key thing to pay attention to is temperatures. I wouldn't suggest going above 1.35v though for a 24/7 config... if you're doing a suicide run.... then sure, go above it. I've had mine up to 1.63v... no issues.

VCore/VCC: 1.63
VTT/CPU I/O: 1.104
PCH: 1.096
PLL: 1.955
VCCSA/SA: 1.016

Those are the highest I've gone... no apparent damage (at least so far, maybe knocked a year off it's life though...lol, who knows).

i hear you man.. thanks
thats why im thinking about dropping to 4.4 to save some v since its 24/7/30/365 except for a few hour breaks / day breaks at random times

but its such a little amount of voltage it makes me then say crap i might as well go to 3.8 @ 1.150

the system agent is weird! it wont let me hit .925 its doing intervels 9100 9300 9500 all the way up to auto

thank you for all the voltages, i know you said earlier the lower the V on everything the better, the only time i need the higher voltage is to make something stable if i understood right



i got my pch 1.0335 ,
system agent(SA) 0.9300
cpu pll voltage 1.7000(im planning on dropping to 1.65)
dram at 1.5055 to keep 1.502 and stay stock with Linked timings at 1866(seems to be working better than xmp)
cpu io voltage 1.3100 changing it now as i read wrong before :S
cpu vcore 1.3350
and primary/secondary input still default 1024/32 or whatever it was

 

[Vectronic]

cpu io voltage 1.3100

Holy s**t... you should be very thankful there's pretty big tolerances there and we're dealing with such small voltages.

If you had made that mistake at the next power up... like 10.5 vs 13.1... you probably would have killed whatever was supposed to run at 10.5.

 

[ckay27]

http://www.dabs.com/products/corsai...-memory-kit-81YS.html?q=COSAIR 1866MHZ&src=16

I would say that if loading the XMP profile is giving you the "funnies" then there is probably something wrong with your ram....these are the timings, you should see in cpu-z, if you can't load the XMP profile try and do it manually. If this still doesn't work I would be returning my ram, but I am no technician, just does not seem right to me and if you are having cold boot issues the other day I would be concentrating on making sure that everything is working at stock like others suggested.

 

[Macgruber]

http://www.dabs.com/products/corsai...-memory-kit-81YS.html?q=COSAIR 1866MHZ&src=16

I would say that if loading the XMP profile is giving you the "funnies" then there is probably something wrong with your ram....these are the timings, you should see in cpu-z, if you can't load the XMP profile try and do it manually. If this still doesn't work I would be returning my ram, but I am no technician, just does not seem right to me and if you are having cold boot issues the other day I would be concentrating on making sure that everything is working at stock like others suggested.

after entering the xmp profile manually, i havent had cold restarts but i havent been able to power off for a cold boot

now im worried that the ram DOES work good and im just a noob, however i can only return 8gb so im contemplating whether i return this 8gb or not

if i do then my next step would be buying 2x8GB 16gb dual channel and saving using 4 slots