# Help overclocking i7 975 please



## mizike (Jan 24, 2010)

Ive read these forums for awhile but never used them that much, but have seen so many great people helping, I would really love some help with this build. I have done every other processor out there and consider myself pretty good, but this i7 is my first and a whole new freaking beast that has me stuck around 4.0ghz stable and I know it can do way higher, Im looking for some help to get it to 4.6 to 4.8ghz pleaseee or it makes it worthless, I know the 920 would have been smarter but this is what I got lol.
I have tried the 920 guides, the gigabyte guide, a bunch of other peoples settings but cant quite get it right, so many new voltages, and then so many say just take multi to 30, a little bump in voltage and your at 4.0ghz, well that didnt work for me either, supposed to be easier but im struggling lol. Thanks for any help. This is swiftech LIQUID cooled, 2 loops, 2 rads.
Corsair 1000watt PSU
i7 975XE
6gbs pc2000 gskill trident ram
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 motherboard
2-BFGOCUFBE 295s in SLI

Whenever I start going over 4.0ghz it gets really tough, need to use 1.55v, it crashes, I have tried different multis, odd and even, raising just the blck, just the multi a combo, then I have played with all the different voltages, IOH, CPU PLL, etc, to try to balance it out, ive kept my ram underclocked, not quite sure on the combos of settings. Any help would be appreciated. I fail prime95 around the 5th run, but can pass OCCT, run 3dmark06, cinebench but its not fully stable if its failing prime95 that soon, one thread usually stops, I have turbo off, all the norms you turn off for overclocking disabled. Appreciate any input and things to try, these codes on the board are pointless, dont help at all, but I see plenty of people hit 5ghz with this on this board as well so somethings up that I am missing.


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## Fitseries3 (Jan 24, 2010)

holy shit. 

too high voltage is killing it. 

4ghz only needs 1.24v

to OC the 975 you should use a 27x multi

you wont get 4.8ghz on standard water. you need something really good.


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## mizike (Jan 24, 2010)

*Well*

Well 1.55 I have gone too, I have tried lower voltages for sure hard to get stable, I should be able to get to 4.8 or higher on water, my temps are no problem, its not failing because its too hot thats for sure, im still idling at 40 and maxed out prime95 at 80 and thats with the full 1.55v, I have seen a bunch of forums and yeah it seems people need alot less volts, but my shit aint working like that lol, no I can get to 4.0ghz on around 1.3volts, its getting above that, that where im having my issues at. But yea just like you said, 4.0ghz should be no volts really but if I got 30 multi with 1.28 or 1.3 I can fail prime 95, seems wrong to my ass lol


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## PaulieG (Jan 24, 2010)

All chips have their "hard wall", and it often does NOT help to continue to through volts at it. All you're going to do is increase electron migration and kill the damn thing. 

Don't ever assume that your chip works the same as other guys. Core i7 is a totally different animal and clocking is all over the place, from 3.8-4.6 on air/water. After owning 18 i7 chips, I know this to be true.


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## mizike (Jan 24, 2010)

No for sure I got ya on that, just like every other processor I have had, same rules apply no chip is the same, but in general, and this was a DO good batch, low vid 975, you see them everywhere hitting 4.8 to 5.0ghz on liquid, and even 5ghz on air, I know mine might not be the same, but I have to assume its my lack of i7 overclocking knowledge that cant get my ass to 4.5ghz lol, but if my wall is 4.0ghz well that would just suck.


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## DirectorC (Jan 24, 2010)

First get Orthos, then experiment with Small FFT testing and Large FFT testing.  To a Memtest on your RAM.  You could be having problems with memory stability rather than processor stability.  And all what I call the 'bottom end' voltages like PLL and VTT, only need to be tweaked MINIMALLY, don't be pushing mad volts through those either, that will surely generate heat and crashes.  MHC doesn't need a whole bunch of volts thrown at it either--most people think they do, but I have a stable 445MHz bus with just 1.2 volts.


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## PaulieG (Jan 24, 2010)

mizike said:


> No for sure I got ya on that, just like every other processor I have had, same rules apply no chip is the same, but in general, and this was a DO good batch, low vid 975, you see them everywhere hitting 4.8 to 5.0ghz on liquid, and even 5ghz on air, I know mine might not be the same, but I have to assume its my lack of i7 overclocking knowledge that cant get my ass to 4.5ghz lol, but if my wall is 4.0ghz well that would just suck.



I'm not sure where you are seeing tons of 4.8-5.0. Link? Also, can you post a cpu-z and coretemp screenie of your current clocks?



DirectorC said:


> First get Orthos, then experiment with Small FFT testing and Large FFT testing.  To a Memtest on your RAM.  You could be having problems with memory stability rather than processor stability.  And all what I call the 'bottom end' voltages like PLL and VTT, only need to be tweaked MINIMALLY, don't be pushing mad volts through those either, that will surely generate heat and crashes.  MHC doesn't need a whole bunch of volts thrown at it either--most people think they do, but I have a stable 445MHz bus with just 1.2 volts.



I prefer "quick" tests with 1024 wprime. If it passes, then I use LinX for 25 cycles or an hour of OCCT Linpack.


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## mizike (Jan 24, 2010)

*ok*

ill do cpuz screenies, but for which settings lol, ive tried so many lol.
As far as it hitting 4.6ghz and higher its everywhere, heres some good screenies http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=222967
and here. http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=614636

I wanna be somewhere in a happy middle lol

Ok so maybe im hitting the other voltages too high. I know its gotta be a bad mix on my part of multi, voltages, qpi, ram ratio etc or something.
I tried to download and run memtest but it kept saying run multiple and allocate ram to it but couldnt figure out how to alocate the ram it wanted for each instance of memtest and one wouldnt run said couldnt allocate more then blah blah ram or something lol.


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## surfingerman (Jan 24, 2010)

that sucks, i can get 4.2 stable on my 920, im not sure but ive heard Gskill ram being kind of sucky.. it may not help at all but try setting the timings for your ram manually to stock or less, maybe even loosen the timings a little from the rated ex. if its rated 9-9-9-24 try 10-10-10-27, might not help but worth a shot, sounds like a ram problem


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## mizike (Jan 24, 2010)

*hey*

Yeah I have seen plenty of DO 920s hitting 4.5ghz as well with ease, so I know the 975 does just as well or a tiny bit better with the higher stock setting, better Stepping and 25x multi with 6.4gt/s, my ram a couple others have it friends of mine that run it at 2100mhz with ease, but could be an issue with ram, but I have not even began to try to really run it at 2000, I keep it underclocked 1333, or 1600 around there to eliminate the ram as the problem, but maybe it cant do that, but I havent heard that the gskill tridents are not good.  This comes from tweaktowns review of the exact ram I got.....Getting to 2000MHz and running the kit at the company's 9-9-9-24 setup was an absolute breeze. If you want a 2000MHz kit that isn't going to break the bank the G.Skill option we have here today is going to be a good choice. The other bonus, as we've mentioned, is the quality of heatsink the company has opted for...... THIS GSKILL TRIDENT ranked right there with corsair and patriots top line in performance and are built for the i7 architecture so I should be good there.

So Im pretty sure as I did research all my components, that the ram will at least run at the 9 9 9 24 at 2000mhz area, but im not even trying that yet, still underclocking it so it should be something else.


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## surfingerman (Jan 24, 2010)

hmm also, for me at least i can run 210 blck or 200 blck with ease.. but if i try 201 blck -209 blck it messes up, i dont know why???

 try even number blck numbers, also maybe part of your motherboard or ram is having trouble due to heat .. try setting up a 120mm fan blowing on the motherboard / ram.. worth a shot, i assume even though you watercooling you have good airflow through your case.. probably still very important,

i always go by new egg reviews.. i never trust site reviews and newegg only gave 60% 5 star reviews for that ram, not bad.. but not great either.. i wouldnt trust it but thats me.. if i were you id return that processor if at all possible and get an 920. id also return the ram and try something different as a last resort.., no point in having a 975 if you cant even get past 4.0..  heck for the price of that 975 you could almost get a 980

hmm even used 975's ar going for 700+ on ebay.. you may just want to cut your losses with this and go 920, tehn step up to a 980.. if you cant get it working


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## human_error (Jan 24, 2010)

I notice you're running an obsidian 800d - i've just got one for my rig and have found that the airflow for the motherboard area is awful with the stock setup - you need to really replace the 140mm fan blowing up out of the PSU area, and to replace and turn around the exhaust fan blowing out the back of the case, so it blows onto the motherboard (just try reversing the exhaust fan first, see if that helps at all). The stock cooling solution moves very little air and even with WCd cpu and graphics you'll still be wanting your motherboard to have some airflow to make sure you won't be overheating it. 

If it's not the airflow in your case then there is definately something not right - you've either very unlucky and got a bad chip or something else can't take the strain in your setup - even my c0 revision 920 can handle 4.1/4.2 at a shade under 1.4v so you should be doing a lot better. Oh and as fits and Paulieg have already said 1.55v will kill your chip - dont go over 1.4v.


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## Binge (Jan 24, 2010)

There is no problems with the 800D's lower 140mm fan.  I think your observation is splitting hairs.  The case is designed to have positive pressure if you keep the fans moving in the correct direction, and if you change it around the case will no longer have positive pressure.  That's positively heart breaking.


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## human_error (Jan 24, 2010)

Binge said:


> There is no problems with the 800D's lower 140mm fan.  I think your observation is splitting hairs.  The case is designed to have positive pressure if you keep the fans moving in the correct direction, and if you change it around the case will no longer have positive pressure.  That's positively heart breaking.



http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/corsair_obsidian_800d/6 and the video part http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9yMF6etqAw&feature=channel say that with the stock setup there is a pretty bad problem with temperature build-ups.

Also i thought if you had more fans exhausting from the case than blowing into it you would end up with negative pressure? (since you have 1 140mm intake and with a triple rad 4-5 120/140mm exhausts).

Either way since the reviewer found a problem with their 800D setup i thought it worth mentioning to the OP since they could also be having cooling issues with their motherboard.


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## Binge (Jan 24, 2010)

Yeah I feel ya.  I just don't use all top fans in my setup.  Positive pressure here my friend.  My ram doesn't even need active cooling running at 2GHz there's plenty of air-flow.


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## mizike (Jan 24, 2010)

*nah*

The board has good passive cooling on the other parts, and I have 3 ninja fans blowing out the top and 2 ninja fans blowing out the bottom that I drilled out to blow through the top and bottom rads, so cool air is being pulled in from the back holes of the case out and up and out and down the case blowing across the board, so my cooling should be fine, I either got a unlucky chip or I am just messing up these settings in the bios, I have heard the board is sensitive to changes, but one of the best x58 boards to overclock the i7 so it has to be me setting it up bad, gonna try again today.


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## Bo$$ (Jan 24, 2010)

have you tried a newer bios for your board?


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## mizike (Jan 24, 2010)

Nah getting ready to power it up again and start my frustrations lol, I have f7 bios, could go to beta f9m bios as someone has said, but I have overclocked so many processors and I know bios has some updates for certain issues, but never seen it help in overclocking if the bios options were available in the current bios I have had, but willing to give that a try as well, maybe its messed up, but the first bios was like f2 for the board, then 3 and 5, so I have a newer bios just not the newest beta, and I hate trying to update bios lol, but if it would help ill try it.


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## Bo$$ (Jan 24, 2010)

mizike said:


> Nah getting ready to power it up again and start my frustrations lol, I have f7 bios, could go to beta f9m bios as someone has said, but I have overclocked so many processors and I know bios has some updates for certain issues, but never seen it help in overclocking if the bios options were available in the current bios I have had, but willing to give that a try as well, maybe its messed up, but the first bios was like f2 for the board, then 3 and 5, so I have a newer bios just not the newest beta, and I hate trying to update bios lol, but if it would help ill try it.



well on my XFX 750i board and by brothers ASUS x58 board a bios update got a good 700MHZ/300MHZ increase respectively


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## mizike (Jan 24, 2010)

*yeha*

Yeah im scared of updating bios lol, hate it, whats the best route for the gigabyte board to update bios in a windows environment, since I have no floppy? Yeah I heard the updates even ones that are not on the gigabyte website the overclockers are using, help out big time but are hard to get, the best out for normal people is the f9m on the website I have f7 so will try it and see.


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## Bo$$ (Jan 24, 2010)

mizike said:


> Yeah im scared of updating bios lol, hate it, whats the best route for the gigabyte board to update bios in a windows environment, since I have no floppy? Yeah I heard the updates even ones that are not on the gigabyte website the overclockers are using, help out big time but are hard to get, the best out for normal people is the f9m on the website I have f7 so will try it and see.



try doing it from a CD or a USB pendrive


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## mizike (Jan 25, 2010)

*well*

Well I updated the bios with @bios, worked fine, see a few new options but same freaking shit, having issues cant get past 4.2ghz oc stable, Now I did see the auto settings for ram in bios do not match cpuid or memtest, bios showing 9 9 9 24, freaking others show it at some wack ass 10 11 11 29 retarded settings, before I updated the bios I did the ram manually and that stopped me failing blend prime95 at 4.2ghz, guess im gonna go back to those settings, but everything I try this chip doesnt act like anyone elses which is really driving me nuts, I have to be screwing some setting up.


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## Fitseries3 (Mar 7, 2010)

sell the 975. 

i will bet you money it solves your problem. 

i could go into detail but i cant let all my secrets out of the bag. 

high end chips arent always the best.


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## mizike (Mar 7, 2010)

*aaa*

Ahh come on thats the help I get lol, I cant sell it, I got the liquid cooling all hooked up to it, its not like im trying to get 4.5 to 5.0ghz I just want a modest 3.8ghz stable, soon as I play with any settings I get prime 95 failures, it has to be something stupid settings im messing up


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## Deleted member 74752 (Mar 7, 2010)

I don't have that mb so all I can contribute is some bios screens from one of my Evga's. With the exception of the multiplier maybe you can glean something from them...most of the other settings should work for you.


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## Fitseries3 (Mar 7, 2010)

mizike said:


> Ahh come on thats the help I get lol, I cant sell it, I got the liquid cooling all hooked up to it, its not like im trying to get 4.5 to 5.0ghz I just want a modest 3.8ghz stable, soon as I play with any settings I get prime 95 failures, it has to be something stupid settings im messing up



thats the thing... you WONT get it to clock like that. 

a 920 will.


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## Binge (Mar 7, 2010)

920s OC like beasts.  That 975 is a bad expense for such a small OC.


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## mizike (Mar 7, 2010)

But there everywhere overclocking to 4.0gh and higher with very ease, only adjusting the multi and minor voltage changes and then to 4.5ghz easily on so many forums and posts, I just want 3.8ghz, theres no reason why the 975 shouldnt, its got an unlocked multi and lower vid cause its a DO so should do as well as a 920, its the same architecture for the most part???  Mine is having issues cause of settings I have to believe


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## Fitseries3 (Mar 7, 2010)

in all honesty..

the 975 is made to run a higher speed at stock. 

as long as it can run that speed stable its considered perfectly fine. 

they are binned to run at a higher stock speed than a cheaper chip.

the 975 has no promises of OCing.


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## PaulieG (Mar 7, 2010)

Fitseries3 said:


> in all honesty..
> 
> the 975 is made to run a higher speed at stock.
> 
> ...



Exactly. Now, in theory a higher binned chip should equate to a higher OC, but in the world of i7's, nothing is a given. My suggestion is that you ebay that 975, sell it for a good price,  then find an early 920, and pocket the proceeds. A good 920 will be much better than a poor OCing 975 and you will save yourself some serious jack.


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## mizike (Mar 7, 2010)

*Right*

Right but taking the whole liquid system back apart and putting a 920 in it is a pain, Im not even trying to get a super high overclock or beat out a 920, I just want to hit a stable 3.8, where all these toms hardware and all kinds of other forums they easily hit 4.0 and higher just raising the damn multi, so there has to be somethign I am messing up, now I am booted into 4.0gh, but I am going to run prime and sure ill fail lol


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## Fitseries3 (Mar 7, 2010)

dont sell the water setup. 

just sell the cpu and get a 920 D0 or better yet, 930.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Mar 7, 2010)

mizike said:


> Right but taking the whole liquid system back apart and putting a 920 in it is a pain, Im not even trying to get a super high overclock or beat out a 920, I just want to hit a stable 3.8, where all these toms hardware and all kinds of other forums they easily hit 4.0 and higher just raising the damn multi, so there has to be somethign I am messing up, now I am booted into 4.0gh, but I am going to run prime and sure ill fail lol



No good reason you can't do that with the chip you have. Show me your bios screens please.

And make sure you use uneven multi's...


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## hat (Mar 7, 2010)

What is Uncore frequency? MCH strap... I take it that's for the QPI link?


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## mizike (Mar 7, 2010)

*lol*

I wasnt talking about selling the liquid set up but it took me forever to build it, its a pain in the butt to take out and try to put a new cpu in is a major pain when I know damn well this cpu should easily hit 3.8ghz without breaking a sweat even if its a shitty i7 975, which the build number and all was reported as fine, but see I just freaking go with all stock settings and voltages and just raise the multi to 27 and bam it wont boot, what the fuck, but 25 everything is fine, my ram I can lower that shit too, memtest it will pass fine, but prime95 cant pass or wont boot if I just make minor changes.


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## PaulieG (Mar 7, 2010)

mizike said:


> I wasnt talking about selling the liquid set up but it took me forever to build it, its a pain in the butt to take out and try to put a new cpu in is a major pain when I know damn well this cpu should easily hit 3.8ghz without breaking a sweat even if its a shitty i7 975, which the build number and all was reported as fine, but see I just freaking go with all stock settings and voltages and just raise the multi to 27 and bam it wont boot, what the fuck, but 25 everything is fine, my ram I can lower that shit too, memtest it will pass fine, but prime95 cant pass or wont boot if I just make minor changes.



Now, taking a CPU out from a waterblock is often easier than taking off an air cooler, but it sounds like you are just against the whole idea...OK. 

Can you give us some of your bios settings/voltages? It would be easier to help that way. Please include CPU, QPI and dram voltages.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Mar 7, 2010)

I really need to see those bios screens to help at all.


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## mizike (Mar 7, 2010)

Ok, whats the easiest way to take a snap shot of the bios?  I can use snipping tool for cpuz or lavalys but what to use for a pic of the bios settings?  I have everything on auto right now besides the ram at 1.68 for the gskills, cpu voltage is at 1.25, ram 10x multi for 1333. fsb is 133, uncore is set to twice the ram at 20x.  With settings there if I just raise the damn multi to 27 it doesnt work which seems insane but at 25 I can run through linX with no issues.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Mar 7, 2010)

Do you own a digital camera?


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## mizike (Mar 7, 2010)

*shit*

Shit Yeah I think thats how I did it last time, need to find some batteries. See I just freaking had everything normal, auto set up and just enabled turbo which bumps it to 26x and it wont boot, it makes no damn sense, but then I can get it to boot at 4.0ghz but not stable, wtf, its like this board is so damn sensitive to change, let me look for freaking batteries, im so frustrated, I think I have enough power with the corsair 1000watt PSU pushing this but I do have some power draw from everything esepcially the two 295s and running 4 SSDs, but I had this issue before I even installed the damn SSDs


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## hat (Mar 8, 2010)

Try pulling the cmos battery and leaving it out overnight. That way, you can be certian the BIOS is running at it's default settings.


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## mizike (Mar 8, 2010)

*well*

Well I have the clrcmos button on back of case, but also if I do that, which I did many times before installing these SSDs, will it mess up my 4 intel x-25E in raid 0 set up once I reset the cmos?


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## Deleted member 74752 (Mar 8, 2010)

There is that possibility...let's just look at those bios screens before anything else.


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## hat (Mar 8, 2010)

Pulling the cmos battery is the best way. In my experiance, clearing the cmos using the cmos jumper (on in your case, a button) doesn't actually set *everything* in the BIOS to it's default settings.


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## freaksavior (Mar 8, 2010)

sounds like you're having one of my problems. I've owned 7 x i7 920's and not 1 oc the same. My current i7, I don't know. i can get around 3.8 and it wont go further.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Mar 8, 2010)

We will never know if we don't get those bios screens...


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## mizike (Mar 8, 2010)

*yeah*

yEAH i CANT find my damn sd card for my camera I will boot and right them down today then post them for the gigabyte bios settings, cause this is driving my ass nuts any adjustment is screwing me up, I can pass linx but fail prime or pass prime for awhile but then boot and it hangs, like killing me, even on auto with everything if I enable turbo mode it wont work, i have to raise the cpu voltage, but 25x auto turbo disabled passes with flying colors, once I do any changes it has issues.


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