Need some help with an i3's stock settings.

[SunnyD]

I've been working with (nagging?) Biostar to fix their BIOS for the TH55B HD motherboard, which seems to overclock things by default out of the box. The supposed Normal settings which should turn off all OC related stuff and go pure stock simply doesn't.

They sent me a beta BIOS which alleviated the memory and CPU clocks, however a few other things are still wrong (GPU is still being overclocked slightly). Unfortunately, I'm fairly new to the Intel camp, so I'm not 100% certain as to what the "Uncore" and "QPI" speeds should be. ARK has QPI listed at 2.5GT/sec, but I have no idea what that translates to in frequencies. Also, the uncore speed has me thrown for a loop, I have no idea what it should be by default.

This is for an i3-530. Thanks to anyone that can help.

 

[Axon]

I THOUGHT YOU HAD A 920 SON

Here's my understanding of it based on the 1366 platform. If the 1156 stuff is different, I'm sure someone will correct me and call me a homo. Hahaha. First one I'm confident with, second one not so much.

Uncore – Essentially the speed of everything which isn't your core (L3 cache, IMC, etc). It should be 2x your memory speed (though you are allowed multipliers higher than 2x). Stability will be greatest at 2x. So RAM at 1333 mhz = Uncore 2666. Etc. Watch this one carefully. I always do it last because RAM gets changed by other things.


QPI – Quickpath interconnect - It's basically the Intel equivalent of AMD's Hypertransport. It's how the CPU and the x58 chipset communicate. Not sure on 1156. Sorry dude.

 

[SunnyD]

I THOUGHT YOU HAD A 920 SON

Am I not allowed to have two computers?

 

[Gillbot]

Am I not allowed to have two computers?

no

 

[Spikesoldier]

QPI frequency is derived from QPI/uncore multiplier * BCLK frequency.

for an i3, stock QPI link speed is 2133MHz.

you will want to use a 16x qpi/uncore multiplier in your BIOS settings.

on my P55 ASROCK board, my QPI multiplier is locked to the default core multiplier, which is 22 for the i3 530. dont know if its my board in particular or just P55 boards altogether.

 

[McRhea]

I too have a question about a seemingly high QPI Link speed on my i3 530 / ASRock H55M (exact same setup as in the System Guide from Feb 2010: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2936/4).

I did as the i3 530 Review from Anand says (http://www.anandtech.com/show/2921/5) and increased the core voltage by 0.16V, lowered the clock multiplier to 21 (from 22), increased the BLCK frequency to 190 (from 133 default)... and CPU-Z shows my QPI Link at 4180 Mhz.

Anand's CPU-Z screen cap shows his at 2666 Mhz... What am I doing wrong? Or is it perfectly fine to have a QPI as high as 4180 Mhz?

I have the same ram from the guide as well: DDR3-1600. With the BLCK Freq at 190, my DRAM is at 760Mhz DDR3_1520, any higher and I lock up obviously.

One more thing, the QPI Frequency option is grayed out in the ASRock H55M bios as well, what's the deal with that?

 

[SgtSpoon]

I'm sure someone will correct me and call me a homo. Hahaha. First one I'm confident with, second one not so much.

Why so homophobic?

There was this politician a while ago ...

About the QPI speed, i have a gigabyte board (H55M-USB3) and, if i understood correctly, it displays the same behavior.

Uncore – Essentially the speed of everything which isn't your core (L3 cache, IMC, etc). It should be 2x your memory speed (though you are allowed multipliers higher than 2x). Stability will be greatest at 2x. So RAM at 1333 mhz = Uncore 2666. Etc. Watch this one carefully. I always do it last because RAM gets changed by other things.

Odd ... my motherboard dosn't even have any "Uncore" indication/setting.