OC guide request

[Trillionsin]

I've found a few OC guides out there... but can anyone suggest one they they have personally read through and used, and makes the most sense? I've read a couple, just to be extremely confused and afraid to change certain settings and voltages.

Related hardware is:

ASUS P6T Deluxe V2
Intel Core i7 950

I am currently running this at 4.2GHz with ASUS AUTO settings for everything, but I cant seem to get it to raise anymore just by increasing the BCLK.

 

[Tmagic650]

There are so many different hardware combinations out there that an OC guide would be impossible to create. There are basic things to do related to either Intel or AMD based systems. I don't do AMD, but with Intel EIST and C1E should be disabled in the bios for overclocking...

This may be helpful:
OC TIPS

 

[red1776]

Hey Trill,
Remember that if you are using thge "FSB" method of over-clocking, you are over-clocking everything. The memory, north-bridge, SB etc. Think of OC'ing as finding the weakest link. for example if your memory is running faster than it can handle, it will limit your CPU OC. Best thing to do is to run all else at stock speed and raise the CPU clock. after you find its upper limit, then you can raise the DRAM speed etc. can you send a screen shot of your settings? and what you have tried so far?

 

[Trillionsin]

I do realize that they are much different, Tmagic. I have a Intel Core i7 950 at home, and I have a Phenom II 955 at work, both which I've built myself and have dabbled in OCing on both.

On i7 950:
I had a stable OC going for awhile.. or what I thought was stable... until I started playing the first Crysis, and in the background I was transferring data from one HDD to another via USB. I read that Crysis had some sort of memory leak.... but I only got a blue screen while doing these other activities in the background. I ended up lowering it down and the problem had seemed to go away, even did a test run afterwards. I dont have a very high OC at the moment because of this, but I did have it up near 4.1GHz, seemingly stable until my recent run in with Crysis as I mentioned.... in case you are wondering I had dont Prime95 as well as using AIDA64 stress test. I've run Prime overnight, but also cannot recall at which OC rate.. probably not 4.1. Sorry for my confusion... it's been long enough for me to forget a few things obviously. I almost forgot about this post... I appreciate your guys' response.

Red, I can post something when I am home. Possibly not tonight... and yes, I had been using the FSB method, I did not realize that everything was overclocked along with that. You can probably help me out quite a bit with this, easily. I feel like I have these nice expensive toys, but no idea how to use them. hahah.

I am not worried about the AMD processor for now.. this PC is in a HTPC case, with stock cooler and runs hot like it is.

 

[Trillionsin]

Hey Trill,
Remember that if you are using thge "FSB" method of over-clocking, you are over-clocking everything. The memory, north-bridge, SB etc. Think of OC'ing as finding the weakest link. for example if your memory is running faster than it can handle, it will limit your CPU OC. Best thing to do is to run all else at stock speed and raise the CPU clock. after you find its upper limit, then you can raise the DRAM speed etc. can you send a screen shot of your settings? and what you have tried so far?

Red, when you do have time to look at these settings, what other information would you like me to post for you? Hardware specs? Anything else?

 

[red1776]

Red, when you do have time to look at these settings, what other information would you like me to post for you? Hardware specs? Anything else?

Yup, all your hardware specs, and the settings you have tried. Also the program you are using (if you are using software)

If you get a chance give this a read. Its a ;lets say OC'ing theory bit I wrote. If you don't have a OC'ing software program, find one you like to test things out before making things semi permanent. This will explain why.

http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=182924&view=findpost&p=1909148

 

[dividebyzero]

What are your OC parameters?
You mention you had a 4.2G OC. That can be arrived at by stock multi (x23) and a BCLK of 183 , or the preferred method of lowering the multiplier to 21 with a BCLK of 200 (preferably with the RAM running at 800 freq. in other words DDR3-1600)

Auto settings on P6T/P6TD boards are usually only good up to around 3.6-3.8G. Once you head into 4+ you probably need to address the QPI/DRAM Core Voltage* ( ~1.3v in my experience with the P6T boards). Asus first revision boards can get a little flaky with long term stable OC's. As red intimated, QPI increases as a result on raising BCLK, and as the QPI increases in bandwidth speed a voltage bump is almost certainly required for stability
I wouldn't rely on OC software for X58 chipsets. The software is damn near fullproof for P55/P67 but has a tendancy to add far too much Vcore for overkill on stability with X58....and of course adding more Vcore also ramps up the need for more chipset voltage.
(* called QPI_VTT w/ Gigabyte/EVGA/DFI boards if you find an OC guide that uses PhoenixAward BIOS nomenclature)
Your best bet would be to either fill out a BIOS template (posted below) with the settings you already have, or reset to default and work incrementally up after raising the QPI/DRAM (and possibly IOH) voltage to ensure stability. I would also manually set Vcore (1.25-1.3v should be sufficient in most cases). You of course have EIST/Speedstep etc disabled I presume?

P6T Deluxe/P6TD BIOS template
 AI Tweaker
****************************
AI Overclock Tuner: AUTO
CPU Ratio Setting: AUTO
Intel (R) SpeedStep TM Tech: ENABLED
BCLK Frequency: 133
PCIE Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: AUTO
UCLK Frequency: AUTO
QPI Link Data Rate: AUTO
*******************
DRAM Timing Control
*******************
DRAM CAS Latency: AUTO
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay : AUTO
DRAM RAS# PRE Time: AUTO
DRAM RAS# ACT Time: AUTO
DRAM RAS# to RAS# Delay: AUTO
DRAM REF Cycle Time: AUTO
DRAM WRITE Recovery Time: AUTO
DRAM READ to PRE Time: AUTO
DRAM FOUR ACT WIN Time: AUTO
DRAM Back-To-Back CAS# Delay: AUTO

DRAM Timing Mode: AUTO
DRAM Round Trip Latency on CHA: AUTO
DRAM Round Trip Latency on CHB: AUTO
DRAM Round Trip Latency on CHC: AUTO

DRAM WRITE To READ Delay(DD): AUTO
DRAM WRITE To READ Delay(DR): AUTO
DRAM WRITE To READ Delay(SR): AUTO
DRAM READ To WRITE Delay (DD): AUTO
DRAM READ To WRITE Delay (DR): AUTO
DRAM READ To WRITE Delay (SR): AUTO
DRAM READ To READ Delay(DD): AUTO
DRAM READ To READ Delay(DR): AUTO
DRAM READ To READ Delay(SR): AUTO
DRAM WRITE To WRITE Delay(DD): AUTO
DRAM WRITE To WRITE Delay(DR): AUTO
DRAM WRITE To WRITE Delay(SR): AUTO

CPU Voltage: AUTO
CPU PLL Voltage: AUTO
QPI/DRAM Core Voltage: AUTO
IOH Voltage: AUTO
IOH PCIE Voltage: AUTO
ICH Voltage: AUTO
ICH PCIE Voltage: AUTO
DRAM Bus Voltage: AUTO
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHA: AUTO
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHA: AUTO
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHB: AUTO
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHB: AUTO
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHC: AUTO
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHC: AUTO

Load-Line Calibration: AUTO
CPU Differential Amplitude: AUTO
CPU Clock Skew: AUTO
CPU Spread Spectrum: AUTO
IOH Clock Skew: AUTO
PCIE Spread Spectrum: AUTO

Advanced/CPU Configuration
****************************
CPU Ratio Setting: AUTO
C1E Support: Enabled
Hardware Prefetcher: Enabled
Adjacent Cache Line Prefetcher: Enabled
Intel (R) Virtualization Tech: Enabled
CPU TM Function: Enabled
Execute Disable Bit: Enabled
Intel (R) HT Technology: Enabled
Active Processor Cores: ALL
A20M: Disabled
Intel (R) C-State Tech: Enabled
****************************
Express Gate: Disabled

I would also suggest printing off a few copies of the template. Once you have a stable OC -or a number of OC profiles- fill in the values and store them away. If you need to re-input for any reason (usually a BIOS flash which will wipe your profiles and reset to default), the BIOS template settings make resetting the profiles fairly straightforward.
They also come in handy for comparing settings in different profiles- either for benchmarks or for power consumption/heat generation and the various tradeoffs that come with OCing (and OCing via multiplier or baseclock)