Newbie Question - O/C without Turbo

[gtrm8kr]

Hi all,
At the risk of asking too basic a question...

I'm trying to overclock without using Turbo. The main software I'm running (Avid Pro Tools 11) gets finicky with Turbo boost and C-States enabled. Try as I might, I can't convince my i7-3930k to run faster than 3.2 without turbo. I've read through this forum and a bunch of articles online about overclocking, but have hit a dead end.

Any help you can provide would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

So, the details of the PC I built specifically for Pro Tools...
i7-3930k
Asus Sabertooth x79
16G DDR3 1600 (4x4G)
Samsung 840 Pro 120 system drive
WD Black 7200 rpm 2TB (x2)
Corsair TX 650
Zalman 9900 Max air cooler

 

[Burpo]

Good tutorial by JJ from Asus .. Take the time to watch it & compare settings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx2z07sFM2I

 

[tweakboy]

Nice rig gtrm8kr !!!

Turn off speedstep and turbo ....... put it on manual and choose yourself.

Let me see, Play with it. Are you OCing btw. get back I help you more...

 

[FalseChristian]

You must have Turbo enabled to overclock past, what, 3.8Ghz? My i5 2500K is at 4.5GHz at all times with Turbo enabled and all c-states off along with SpeedStep.

 

[gtrm8kr]

Thanks, both. I've got a nice stable 4.0 overclock going now, after making most of the adjustments in JJ's/Asus' video. Going to nudge a bit faster this weekend and see what the temps look like. Turbo without the c states or speed step seems to be the trick.

 

[crashtech]

Are you disabling Turbo and C-States because of USB audio problems?

 

[gtrm8kr]

Are you disabling Turbo and C-States because of USB audio problems?

Exactly; USB audio clicks and pops are what I'm trying to avoid. Haven't had trouble yet, so it's a preventive thing. The Avid user docs for Windows optimization say to disable turbo and c-states. But if overclocking (I'm new to this) requires turbo, then I'll use it until I run into trouble...

 

[crashtech]

Seems the best measure would be to avoid USB devices, but maybe that's not practical for you. Disabling something that is generally considered beneficial for a problem you may not have might not be the best course of action. I thought this problem was affecting only specific machines, but it's been a long time since I heard about it.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm trying to overclock without using Turbo.

Turbo is the best way, and you should end up with a clock setting that also has EIST enabled, if not C1E and the other C-states.

Although I won't go back and buy any that are left on the market, I'm interested in that i7-3930K because it's an "E" processor, and I might build a Haswell E system next year. I almost pressed the "proceed to checkout" button on parts for an IB-E/X79 system, but wisdom prevailed over impulse.

On the regular SB "K" chips, it appears that the default setting for PLL Voltage is too high at ~1.8V. Some have found stability at between 1.5 and 1.6; the wisdom says that 1.65V is a sure thing. If this applies to your SB-E -- which in turn presents you with a thermal limitation for OC'ing -- a tweak to this voltage should get you lower temperatures to start with and even a possibly better clock setting to end with.