# Core i7 920 C0 overclocking help getting to 3.8ghz



## BradleyKZN (Oct 15, 2009)

Hey everyone. So i just managed to get my cpu to 3.6ghz and i want to take it to 3.8 and then 4ghz. I would like to know if anybody could tell me what voltages i need set for my qpi and vcore and things. Any input whatsoever would be useful. I had my vcore at 1.29 for 3.6ghz which i thought was quite high, whats the highest these things can go? If it helps, my pc wont post at 3.8. Thanks!


----------



## DanishDevil (Oct 15, 2009)

Read through this thread and keep an eye out for C0's.


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 15, 2009)

Well, i looked at it, thanks danish. If anybody has anything else it would help too


----------



## shevanel (Oct 15, 2009)

to maintain 4gz on mine I had to use +.20 on both qpi/vcore whilst lowering my ram speed too.

But my board is being sent to RMA tomorrow bec. of the memory dimm


----------



## Tatty_One (Oct 15, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> Hey everyone. So i just managed to get my cpu to 3.6ghz and i want to take it to 3.8 and then 4ghz. I would like to know if anybody could tell me what voltages i need set for my qpi and vcore and things. Any input whatsoever would be useful. I had my vcore at 1.29 for 3.6ghz which i thought was quite high, whats the highest these things can go? If it helps, my pc wont post at 3.8. Thanks!



Firstly, the highest i can go with some degree of stability is 4.2gig but more so than C2Q's, these chips even from the same batches can be very different and of course, even with voltages the motherboard will have a large say in things so really there is no definitive answer, I have a very good C0 and I have attached a screenie which shows QPI/uncore speeds and that was with a VCore of 1.31V in the BIOS, I am currently running 3.8gig (normally i run 4gig 24/7 but am doing a lot of encoding at the moment so she gets warm), at 3.8gig I am running Turbo mode so base is roughley 3.6gig, the 2nd screenie shows you some settings at this speed also (ignore the speedstep so go by FSB, ohhhh and I am actually running with HT on, just my Bus aint showing it)........ at this 3.8gig my QPI volts are at 1.225v, apart from memory and VCore, everything else is on auto, you will see the vcore in the screenie, hope this helps.


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

This is bs! I can get to 3.4 by changing only vcore and 3.6 i have changed vcore, vdimm, qpi voltage, cpu pll voltage, nb voltage, and ich voltage and still nothing. Vcore was at 1.44, pll was at 1.85, qpi was at +0.200, dram at 1.60, nb was at 1.15, and ich was at  1.55. Everything on auto works for 3.4 but no matter what i change, 3.6 will not boot. I only managed to get it to boot once ever at 3.6. So what am i doing wrong?


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

Bump


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

Bump please


----------



## twicksisted (Oct 17, 2009)

what cooling you on? (says stock in your specs)... i7's are very hot but you already know that im sure


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

Cooling isnt my problem here. It wont even boot, and my bios cpu temps are only 26degrees


----------



## grunt_408 (Oct 17, 2009)

Keep trying you will get there. I see you have stock cooling, why would you want to try and OC higher on stock cooling?


----------



## Asylum (Oct 17, 2009)

What memory setting are you useing?
Post some screenshots of cpu-z with cpu-memory and spd tab.


----------



## twicksisted (Oct 17, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> Cooling isnt my problem here. It wont even boot, and my bios cpu temps are only 26degrees



well somethings not right there... 26c on a i7 with stock cooling at 3.8ghz! id say thats the root of your problem... perhaps in bios its not hot but try loading the cores and youll get a nasty heat spike  unless you dont have enough volts going through which is why the temps are so low and it wont boot windows without crashing... either way youre mad going that high on stock cooling... i can only imagine what an i7 chip costs in SA!


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

Craigleberry said:


> Keep trying you will get there. I see you have stock cooling, why would you want to try and OC higher on stock cooling?



so that i know what to use when i get my cooler next week


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

Asylum said:


> What memory setting are you useing?
> Post some screenshots of cpu-z with cpu-memory and spd tab.



cant get to windows at that speed, but its only 1026 mhz at 3.6, and 9-9-9-24


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

twicksisted said:


> well somethings not right there... 26c on a i7 with stock cooling at 3.8ghz! id say thats the root of your problem... perhaps in bios its not hot but try loading the cores and youll get a nasty heat spike  unless you dont have enough volts going through which is why the temps are so low and it wont boot windows without crashing... either way youre mad going that high on stock cooling... i can only imagine what an i7 chip costs in SA!



lol its a cold day and i had a large fan blowing on the mobo but it was trying to get to 3.6, it wasnt at 3.8 yet even. I think this is a mobo issue. At 3.4 with that fan and a 3dmark06 run, max temp was 57 so i should be able to get to 3.6. Edit: the chip only cost me 1.8k, board 2k and ram R700


----------



## Lazzer408 (Oct 17, 2009)

Don't forget to lower the uncore multiplier to 2x your memory multiplier. If your cpu is at 3400 that means your fsb is up to 170. 170*20=3400. For your ram to run at 1026 on 170fsb that means your ram multiplier is 6x so set your uncore multi to 12. Raise your QPI +100mv and then try raising your fsb again for higher overclocks. We hit 4ghz with 1.4v to the CPU with only the changes I mentioned.

Oh don't forget turn off turbo mode and anything to do with speed step. Also don't use any dynamic adjustments if your bios has that.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2009/03/12/msi-x58-pro-review/9


----------



## Binge (Oct 17, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> This is bs! I can get to 3.4 by changing only vcore and 3.6 i have changed vcore, vdimm, qpi voltage, cpu pll voltage, nb voltage, and ich voltage and still nothing. Vcore was at 1.44, pll was at 1.85, qpi was at +0.200, dram at 1.60, nb was at 1.15, and ich was at  1.55. Everything on auto works for 3.4 but no matter what i change, 3.6 will not boot. I only managed to get it to boot once ever at 3.6. So what am i doing wrong?



Steps to success...
#1) Get yourself together man!

#2) Give people the screenshots they need or take a camera and shoot some pics of your bios settings.

#3) You'll GET more if you GIVE more.  Even if you can't give people a photo of your bios, then you can at least make a bios template with all of the overclocking settings and fill in the values you're using.  If you leave information out of this template it only hurts our ability to help you.

#4) Don't assume we know what you're talking about.  This isn't some place where you saying 3.8GHz vcore and qpi are going to make some sort of lightbulb shine and give you some answer to your OP.  You need to give us more information than you think is comfortable, or you're just giving us the equivalent of a math problem without enough variables.  I know I'm not a help desk, and I don't get paid so what makes you think the rest of TPU's members enjoy being given very little information and expected to give you a good answer.

By no means am I mad, but you gotta understand where I'm coming from.  You're asking a good starting question.  We're expecting some useful information.  There are 18 things off the top of my head which could be your issue, and without seeing your template I could end up doing you more harm even suggesting them.


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

Lazzer408 said:


> Don't forget to lower the uncore multiplier to 2x your memory multiplier. If your cpu is at 3400 that means your fsb is up to 170. 170*20=3400. For your ram to run at 1026 on 170fsb that means your ram multiplier is 6x so set your uncore multi to 12. Raise your QPI +100mv and then try raising your fsb again for higher overclocks. We hit 4ghz with 1.4v to the CPU with only the changes I mentioned.
> 
> Oh don't forget turn off turbo mode and anything to do with speed step. Also don't use any dynamic adjustments if your bios has that.



where do i find turbo mode? I have the option for 21 multi but dont use it. What dynamic adjustments you talking about?


----------



## Lazzer408 (Oct 17, 2009)

I don't know that specific board so I couldn't say where some settings may or may not be. Dynamic adjustment is a feature some boards have that makes adjustments to the voltages as needed. Turbo mode is that 21x multiplier. Default for 2.66 is 20x.

Did you find the uncore multiplier?


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

Binge said:


> Steps to success...
> #1) Get yourself together man!
> 
> #2) Give people the screenshots they need or take a camera and shoot some pics of your bios settings.
> ...



you are right, thanks for this post mate  now, me being on my phone is nobody elses problem, but it seriously hampers my ability to post things. Im going to try some of the things suggested here and i will return with my findings


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

Lazzer408 said:


> Don't forget to lower the uncore multiplier to 2x your memory multiplier. If your cpu is at 3400 that means your fsb is up to 170. 170*20=3400. For your ram to run at 1026 on 170fsb that means your ram multiplier is 6x so set your uncore multi to 12. Raise your QPI +100mv and then try raising your fsb again for higher overclocks. We hit 4ghz with 1.4v to the CPU with only the changes I mentioned.
> 
> Oh don't forget turn off turbo mode and anything to do with speed step. Also don't use any dynamic adjustments if your bios has that.
> 
> http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2009/03/12/msi-x58-pro-review/9



thanks for the review! Now, where did you get those figures for uncore and ram because uncore is 6 and mem is 3 , im guessing i missed something? What should my qpi frequency be at? What does overspeed protection do? And what is Hpet?


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

Wait now. What on earth is 'auto disable dram/pci frequency'?


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

After an overclock fails, and i go into cell menu, my current dram frequency is at 800mhz!


----------



## Lazzer408 (Oct 17, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> thanks for the review! Now, where did you get those figures for uncore and ram because uncore is 6 and mem is 3 , im guessing i missed something? What should my qpi frequency be at? What does overspeed protection do? And what is Hpet?



I'm guessing if 3x=1026mhz then it's actually 6x170 to get 1026. If 3=6 then uncore of 6=12? Every boards display things differently sometimes. I wish they would all just stick with actual numbers rather then trying to account for things like ddr. If we are in the BIOS messing around with clocks in the first place then we better be well aware of how clocks and multipliers are used throughout the system.

QPI can be thought of as the 'hub' for data between the cores. The QPI is prone to instability when forced to higher clocks just like ram or a cpu. Lucky for us it has a seperate multiplier for it. Set this multiplier to 2x the memory multiplier.

HPET is High Precision Event Timer. For most of us we don't need it. It's more accurate then the RTC (real time clock) and is used to more accuratly measure time. Did something happen at 12:00:00pm? Or did it happen at 12:00:00:0000000001pm?


----------



## Lazzer408 (Oct 17, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> Wait now. What on earth is 'auto disable dram/pci frequency'?



Do you ever google this stuff? There's one that explains some of MSIs settings.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/msi-p45-platinum_7.html


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 17, 2009)

Lazzer408 said:


> Do you ever google this stuff? There's one that explains some of MSIs settings.
> 
> http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/msi-p45-platinum_7.html



ok well thats not gonna help matter, thanks for the link still. So i changed all my settings to the ones in that first review you posted and still nothing. I think i maybe got a bad board.


----------



## Lazzer408 (Oct 17, 2009)

Can you do as Binge suggested and either take a pic of your screen with a camera or write down each setting? Maybe there's something that was changed or should be changed that is being overlooked.

Don't push the fsb 50mhz at a time or anything like that. Go up in increments of 5mhz at a time and find exactly where you loose stability. Say your good at 170 but hang at 175... Go back and try 175 again but only change one setting at a time to find which one helps. Maybe adding QPI voltage helps. If so there's no need to adjust the CPU voltage yet. It's all a matter of finding exactly what is causing the instability. You can't just clock it for 4ghz and start tweaking settings randomly to make it work because then you don't know what setting helped. 

When I overclock I do it in this order...
1: Memory always at a safe value in relation to your fsb. Say 800-5-5-5-15@2v. (ddr2) 1066 9-9-9-24@1.5v (ddr3)
2: CPU voltage stock
3: Raise the fsb until unstable
4: Adjust voltages starting with NB/QPI to see if it helps stability. If it does I push for more fsb. If it doesn't I leave the NB/QPI stock and try more CPU voltage. One of them will get it stable again and I push for more.
5: Once the max fsb is reached (staying within voltage and temp extreems) I start pushing the memory.

I usually just leave the ram close to what it's rated for unless the memory strap falls just below or above it's rating. DDR-2 example: If the ram is rated for 800-5-5-5-15 and the strap winds up at 765 then I'll raise the voltage to the ram and shoot for 765-4-4-4-12. If the strap winds up at 860 then I'll leave it alone unless it's unstable then I'll try more voltage to it. It all depends on the memory.

That link I sent you has alot of good information about BIOS settings. It is an MSI board so it uses alot of MSI's terminologies and explains what they do. You have to actually read it though.

I've never played with i7s until last night and had no problem getting my friends i7 to 4ghz stable. It overclocks like any other cpu. The only major difference was the uncore multiplier and QPI voltages. Uncore should be 2x memory multiplier. If mem is 6x then uncore=12x. Treat the QPI as if it was the northbridge. To get a NB to run at high fsb speeds it took adding a bit more voltage to it. My Q9550 is running 3.83 at stock voltage but it took more v+ to the NB to get it to 450fsb. The QPI is the same way. Takes some voltage to it to get higher fsb.


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 18, 2009)

Just a little update, the highest it will do on auto everything is 3.5. A strange thing happened though because in attempting to add more vcore, i accidently reduced it, and it managed to load 3.5 at only 1.22v  instead of what the board gives me on auto which is 1.3v. So at least i know my problem is not vcore. Ok, now something weird with my bios. If i press the + key to increase something, eg. Ioh, it takes me a little to high me thinks. 1.5v to be precise, which im guessing is too high. I also ruled out the feeling i had that my ram wasnt able to keep up, as it booted into windows @ 1600mhz!


----------



## Lazzer408 (Oct 18, 2009)

BradleyKZN said:


> the highest it will do on auto everything is 3.5.



And whats the highest it will do with a mem multiplier at 6, QPI multi at 12, and QPI voltage raised +.125?


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 18, 2009)

I think i may have found the problem, i have a feeling the bios is not very clear on how the +.000 works. Anything you add is from stock not from what it was previously at! Hence my being at 1.3vcore and manually adding .100 left my vcore the same. It was adding .100 to 1.2 not 1.3, so ill try those settings tomorrow laz!


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 21, 2009)

I got it! Woohoo! I was quite stupid actually. I would raise my qpi speed but not raise my qpi voltage accordingly! Major vdroop though lol 1.35 in bios, and 1.41 in windows lol


----------



## Lazzer408 (Oct 21, 2009)

Sweet. You know their going to hound you for screenshots now.


----------



## twicksisted (Oct 21, 2009)

yeah and load temps... you running 3.8ghz on an i7 with stock cooling... crazy dude


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 22, 2009)

twicksisted said:


> yeah and load temps... you running 3.8ghz on an i7 with stock cooling... crazy dude



yeah i know, but cold day and big fan blowing on everything helped a ton! Cant wait to get my hyper 212+ next week!


----------



## BradleyKZN (Oct 22, 2009)

Lazzer408 said:


> Sweet. You know their going to hound you for screenshots now.



lol! I got a problem with that because my work server blocked me from tpu! Ill try make a plan though! 15584 on 06 with a 4850 512mb is pretty decent imo!


----------

