Ready to OC my new i7 930!

[PCJake]

Alright guys, I just put my new system together yesterday (in signature) and it's oozing awesomeness and overclocking potential. I'm amazed at how many more voltage, clock, and timing settings there are in the bios of an X58 enthusiast board compared to a P35 board (which is what I learned to overclock on, with a Q6600). Frankly, I'm a bit intimidated. I've been Googling like mad trying to learn as much as I can about overclocking a Core i7 on an X58 board, but there are still lots of settings that I don't understand. I'm hoping you all can help me to understand them before I attempt any major overclock.

I'll start with a few of the major clock and voltage settings that I need help with:

Clock settings

PCIE Frequency: (Is it best to leave this at 100 throughout my overclocking?)
UCLK: (I don't understand this one at all)
QPI Link Data Rate: (Nor do I understand this one, but I've heard that a lower number is best)

Voltage settings

CPU Voltage: (I need to know what the recommended min and max settings are for an i7 930)
CPU PLL Voltage:*
QPI/DRAM Core Voltage:*
IOH Voltage:*
IOH PCIE Voltage:*
ICH Voltage:*
ICH PCIE Voltage:*
DRAM Bus Voltage: (Is this the main RAM voltage setting? Should I just set it at 1.64v and leave it?)

I don't understand any of the ones marked with a *. Which ones are important, and which ones should I leave on auto?

Side Note: I've already disabled C1E, Virtualization, HyperThreading and Intel SpeedStep, but I'm unsure about Load-Line Calibration (though I think it applies to VDroop), CPU Differential Amplitude, CPU Clock Skew, and CPU Spread Spectrum.

I know there are a lot of questions here. I've tried to organize it to make it easier to provide answers. Thanks in advance!

 

[yours truly]

Congrats on the build there, that's a nice system! Was the installation of the NH-D14 easy? I think that's the only thing worrying me about assembling a new PC because it's so big.

Sorry I can't offer any advice about OC but here's a little bump and hopefully the gods will chime in.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...overclocking_guide_we_push_nehalem_its_limits

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1502931

Here's some useful info. Too much to try and explain all at once.

If you want a quick overclock just up the baseclock (might be uclk on your mobo should be set at 133 stock) to 160 and it will give you 3.36ghz and make sure your memory speed and timings are okay and set memory voltage about 1.6v. It should run no issues stock cpu voltage up to 3.5-3.7 on most i7 930's

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Take it easy on your hardware.
Check my sig for stability testing tool links.

EDIT: and congrats on an awesome build!

 

[PCJake]

Congrats on the build there, that's a nice system! Was the installation of the NH-D14 easy? I think that's the only thing worrying me about assembling a new PC because it's so big.

Sorry I can't offer any advice about OC but here's a little bump and hopefully the gods will chime in.

I was actually surprised at how easy it was to install the NH-D14. And it seems like it's working extremely well so far.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...overclocking_guide_we_push_nehalem_its_limits

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1502931

Here's some useful info. Too much to try and explain all at once.

If you want a quick overclock just up the baseclock (might be uclk on your mobo should be set at 133 stock) to 160 and it will give you 3.36ghz and make sure your memory speed and timings are okay and set memory voltage about 1.6v. It should run no issues stock cpu voltage up to 3.5-3.7 on most i7 930's

Thanks, those links are helpful!

 

[Axon]

BLCK to 160. Make sure your RAM settings are exactly as depicted in their manual (or in the product specs on newegg). That will get you started. As you mess around you'll understand how everything works together. It's not much different from 775.

 

[PCJake]

BLCK to 160. Make sure your RAM settings are exactly as depicted in their manual (or in the product specs on newegg). That will get you started. As you mess around you'll understand how everything works together. It's not much different from 775.

Yeah, you're right. Overclocking was a breeze once I got into it and figured out the settings that I didn't understand. I think I've got the settings that I'm going to keep:

4.3GHz (205 BLCK x 21) @ 1.3500v Max temps of 71-69-68-65 after two hours of Prime 95
RAM at 1638MHz @ 1.64v Two passes in Memtest stable

I have no doubt that I could get it higher with a higher vcore, but I'd prefer leaving it here so that I have a little headroom with temps for a hot day. Overall, I'm very impressed with the whole build (especially with the Noctua cooler) and I've had no problems.

 

[HumblePie]

Yeah, you're right. Overclocking was a breeze once I got into it and figured out the settings that I didn't understand. I think I've got the settings that I'm going to keep:

4.3GHz (205 BLCK x 21) @ 1.3500v Max temps of 71-69-68-65 after two hours of Prime 95
RAM at 1638MHz @ 1.64v Two passes in Memtest stable

I have no doubt that I could get it higher with a higher vcore, but I'd prefer leaving it here so that I have a little headroom with temps for a hot day. Overall, I'm very impressed with the whole build (especially with the Noctua cooler) and I've had no problems.

sounds like a GREAT air overclock there. I personally would leave it just as is unless you want to nudge down the voltage any too see if it remains stable at a slightly lower voltage. Might be able to and get lower temps that way.

 

[PCJake]

sounds like a GREAT air overclock there. I personally would leave it just as is unless you want to nudge down the voltage any too see if it remains stable at a slightly lower voltage. Might be able to and get lower temps that way.

Thanks! I'm definitely gonna leave it as is. The room I'm testing in was getting fairly warm last night after a few hours of Priming and I still didn't see the temps getting past 71c. I'm Priming again this morning and all of the max temps are about 5c cooler.

 

[Nurn]

That is a great overclock. Congrats.

 

[manimal]

Do you have HT turned on? Did you try linx as well for stability? I have gotten stuff stable on prime only to see it flake out in linx or OCCT.
Have you run memtest on your memory as well?

My 920 ran at 4.4 no HT well enough and was prime stable. It did end up crashing when LinX pushed it 10 passes. Are your temps with the case open or all closed up? I didnt think the cosmos breathed that well.

 

[PCJake]

Do you have HT turned on? Did you try linx as well for stability? I have gotten stuff stable on prime only to see it flake out in linx or OCCT.
Have you run memtest on your memory as well?

My 920 ran at 4.4 no HT well enough and was prime stable. It did end up crashing when LinX pushed it 10 passes. Are your temps with the case open or all closed up? I didnt think the cosmos breathed that well.

I turned HT off, I haven't tried linx, and I have run two passes of memtest. And all my temps are with the case closed.

If I have any problems at all during normal usage then I'll try linx, otherwise I don't see the point.

 

[manimal]

I turned HT off, I haven't tried linx, and I have run two passes of memtest. And all my temps are with the case closed.

If I have any problems at all during normal usage then I'll try linx, otherwise I don't see the point.

Cool cool, Ive been struggling with the decision to run either 4.2 with ht off or 4.1 with ht on. Ive run both ways for weeks on end and I couldnt really notice the difference. I keep switching back and forth lol..

Congrats on your cherry chip!

oh btw are all your other volts at stock? Most interested in what your qpi dram is at.

 

[PCJake]

Cool cool, Ive been struggling with the decision to run either 4.2 with ht off or 4.1 with ht on. Ive run both ways for weeks on end and I couldnt really notice the difference. I keep switching back and forth lol..

Congrats on your cherry chip!

oh btw are all your other volts at stock? Most interested in what your qpi dram is at.

Thanks! I chose to leave HT off because it made temps suffer and it doesn't help in games at all. All of my voltages are the same as the ones on this list: http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/662236-asus-p6x58d-premium-e-thread-93.html#post8649740 (except for CPU voltage, which is at 1.35000v)

So, QPI/DRAM core voltage is at 1.25000 (.05v over the stock).

 

[Shmee]

great clocks! Sounds like a good chip! my 920 couldnt do 4.3 GHz with less than 1.45 Vcore, HT on or off! Got it to 4.2 HT on w/1.41 Vcore.

 

[HumblePie]

well, you are doing better than me. I just got my replacement asus riie board back from rma and picked up a brand new 930 from microcenter. I can't get the thing past 3.6Ghz. It's worse than the 920 I had in there. Not sure what the hell is going either as the temps are nice and low. Going to try to see if it's the board and a really crappy bclk issue. If it is, I might just have to RMA this board back as well.