# 5820K Instability, Too Noob to solve



## Wireline (Nov 8, 2014)

Hello there

I am new to OC'ing and am having trouble with stability  I have got the following:

i7-5820K, 4.3GHz
ASUS X99 Deluxe Motherboard
Corsair Dominator DDR4 2666MHz (not currently running the XMP yet so its 2133MHz)
PSU: 1000W Superflower Leadex Platinum
H105 cooler

At first I tired using the automatic ASUS stuff, and wasn't convinced, so here's my manual settings:

BCLK: 100MHz
Multiplier: 43 (giving 4.3GHz)
Vcore: 1.32 (apparently this is "maximum safe voltage"?)
Vinput: 1.9 (auto setting).

Desktop / windows seems fine, and I ran DCS World too, also OK. I know these are in no way long enough but AIDA64 ran fine for 2 hours, Intel Extreme test for a short period (only 20 minutes) and no crashes, however OCCT just makes my machine fall over right away. I appreciate these are vague measures, but the OCCT result is a worry. My temps are great, AIDA64 never goes above 63 and the Intel test was pushing 67, so I have headroom thermally.

1) Are there other settings I should be paying attention to that I have not listed? For example, is increasing the CPU Input voltage (not Vcore) worth pursuing? I have also read about ring voltages etc. Are these options?

2) Is that 1.3V max VCore limit hard and fast?

3) Would using a different strap and multiplier have any effect?

Thanks for reading, I am really hoping I can get this thing stable.


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## cadaveca (Nov 8, 2014)

1) look at the digital I/O and analogue I/O voltages. Also try LOWERING v-input. Cache multi can have an effect as well, can go up, or down. You just need to play and see what gets the results. Speaking of cache, that voltage can use an increase, too, if it's not close to vCPU.

2) 1.3V, nope, not a limit, but do be careful and take it up step by step. Once the increases in clock grow smaller for each voltage boost, or you have to increase voltage by a large amount for the next multi, then you are near the limit.

3) Most definitely. Some CPUs prefer a specific base clock, or specific multi, when pushed hard. That's why we have these options in the first place.


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## Wireline (Nov 8, 2014)

Hi Dave

Thanks for your response, I really appreciate it!  I'm afraid I am learning at the moment and have not come across those terms. Could you explain why they are important and what they do? It has been really hard to find a good comprehensive overclocking guide - most just give the bare minimum of multiplier + VCore.

Just by way of update, I went and changed to the 125 strap and put the multiplier to give me around 4.3, and it wasn't even stable in the BIOS screen  I also noticed my memory timings are below what they should be - I have 15-17-17-35 DDR4 Corsair Dominator, and CPU-ID reports the slower Cas-16 timings. When I set the XMP mode in my X99 Deluxe mobo BIOS, it won't load windows. Don;t know if this is related issue though.


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2014)

Update the bios if you can, set optimized defaults for now and see if you're stable at that point.


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## cadaveca (Nov 8, 2014)

Wireline said:


> Hi Dave
> 
> Thanks for your response, I really appreciate it!  I'm afraid I am learning at the moment and have not come across those terms. Could you explain why they are important and what they do? It has been really hard to find a good comprehensive overclocking guide - most just give the bare minimum of multiplier + VCore.
> 
> Just by way of update, I went and changed to the 125 strap and put the multiplier to give me around 4.3, and it wasn't even stable in the BIOS screen  I also noticed my memory timings are below what they should be - I have 15-17-17-35 DDR4 Corsair Dominator, and CPU-ID reports the slower Cas-16 timings. When I set the XMP mode in my X99 Deluxe mobo BIOS, it won't load windows. Don;t know if this is related issue though.



Alright, no problems there with a lack of experience.

So, let's start with this:



eidairaman1 said:


> Update the bios if you can, set optimized defaults for now and see if you're stable at that point.



However, what I would do, exactly, is this:

Go into BIOS, load optimized defaults, this is on the exit screen.

Save and Reboot.

Get back into Windows, and download the most recent BIOS off of the ASUS website. Save it to a "FAT32" formatted USB stick.

Reboot, and get back into the BIOS. Go to the tools section here, and load up the EZFlash Tool. point the BIOS to the BIOS file you saved in Windows, and update the BIOS.

Let the board do it's thing. It might reboot a time or two... just leave it alone until you are back in Windows, or the BIOS pauses on loading, and tells you to "press F1 to continue". If it asks you to reboot, of course, please do.

Once that's done, you want to go back into BIOS, load optimized defaults, save, and exit once again. Then go into Windows, and play around a bit, like a game, or some stress tests. Watch performance, etc, maybe grab some screenshots to reference later. AIDA64 is a bit of software I use myself A LOT. If you can, grab a copy of it. It's pretty cheap for a one-year subscription, and gets updated often.  IF you do, you can check voltages and temperatures using it, and run the built-in memory testing. I highly suggest the memory testing part.

Then, once you are familiar with how the system performs, maybe take a day or so...at least several hours... and then go into BOIS, and enable XMP. Hopefully it works without a problem, and you can get back into Windows, and do the same sort of playing around you did before, comparing the changes to performance ,stability, etc, compared to the "stock" playing.

Try this, get back to me. After, you'll want to run OFF XMP, and try clocking the CPU up, but you should be manually setting all available voltages and options in the BIOS, leaving nothing on "AUTO". I have published a review of the goard you have here on TPU, and still have mine, so I can help you step-by-step, for sure. But there's no "quick and dirty" overclocking recommendations I'll have...it's a process that takes time to do right.


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## Wireline (Nov 8, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Alright, no problems there with a lack of experience.
> 
> So, let's start with this:
> 
> ...



Hi Dave

Wow, well what can I say, I really appreciate the help you are giving me, you are a gentleman. 

Right, so something odd happened. Just before I came back and saw your reply there, I had reset to defaults and found I could not boot windows anymore. I didn't make the connection at this point, and I just thought I had trashed my installation with all the fiddling. I was going to try a windows repair by booting off the disc. But I couldn't boot off that, either. It got to the W8.1 blue window logo and stopped, twice.

So I used the CMOS clear button on the deluxe's front panel. Then did the USB flash process, with just the USB stick and the button on the IO panel. I was trying to put BIOS update 0904 in, rolling back from 1004 in case that was the culprit. It didn't work, and by this point I had got a bit downhearted and turned it all off for a break, including the PSU switch. I left it for about half an hour.

When I came back, aside from some screens saying "overclock failed" (there wasn't one), and having to reset the boot device to SSD, suddenly I was able to boot windows. I reset and tried 4 or 5 times to make sure it wasn't a fluke - no, it was OK. Then I came here and saw your reply. I hadn't done one of your steps - set optimised defaults, so I went and did it. Windows wouldn't boot again! So, I repeated the process above with CMOS / flashing / off for 5 minutes, and it worked again. It seems there is something in optimised defaults my system really does not like, which also gets carried in memory unless I do a totally cold reboot, which seems odd. For a moment I was really thinking my board was fritzed (still have a fear it might be!).

I will follow the rest of your suggestions now and see how I get on, but at least there's maybe a clue somewhere in there. NB the XMP is off as you advised. I have the free trial version of AIDA64, so I will give that a blast as well as run some DCS World and EuroTruck Sim2, which are quite CPU demanding too. Thanks again man!


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## cadaveca (Nov 9, 2014)

SO there's some setting with the drive, maybe AHCI, boot priority or similar, that the OS doesn't like. Is this a fresh install of Windows for this build, or an older one?

When testing, try to use AIDA64's monitoring page to capture a screenshot of the voltages that are being used, as well as temps. This info will be useful.


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## Wireline (Nov 9, 2014)

Curiouser and curiouser

Looks like its not just optimised defaults that's causing inability to boot. I just changed a fan profile in anticipation of the memory stress test (intake fans running off the Deluxe's EXT fan header) as well as put the CPU coolers up to max. Hey presto, try to boot windows and the same problem returned, can't boot up - fixable by clearing CMOS. I did experiment with a full power off BEFORE CMOS clearing to see if that would do it, but no success. Its like ANY change to the BIOS leads to this problem.

I am starting to hear the magic three letters in my head .... RMA ... RMA ...  

EDIT: I've emailed ASUS, to see what they say. A guy on another forum seemed to have this issue and I think he RMA'd http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2330982/asus-x99-deluxe-system-boot-amount.html . I wonder if it was part of what was causing the 'bad' overclock.


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 9, 2014)

Wireline said:


> Curiouser and curiouser
> 
> Looks like its not just optimised defaults that's causing inability to boot. I just changed a fan profile in anticipation of the memory stress test (intake fans running off the Deluxe's EXT fan header) as well as put the CPU coolers up to max. Hey presto, try to boot windows and the same problem returned, can't boot up - fixable by clearing CMOS. I did experiment with a full power off BEFORE CMOS clearing to see if that would do it, but no success. Its like ANY change to the BIOS leads to this problem.
> 
> ...



Could be the board (several reports of x99 platform quality issues) or the cpu (its crippled compared to the bigger numbered chips).

If a board replacement doesnt fix it get a diff cpu perhaps the next model up...


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## Wireline (Nov 9, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> Could be the board (several reports of x99 platform quality issues) or the cpu (its crippled compared to the bigger numbered chips).
> 
> If a board replacement doesnt fix it get a diff cpu perhaps the next model up...



Thanks for the response. That doesn't chime with what I read on benchmarking sites and reviews before buying the 5820K, which mostly found the chip actually clocked higher than the 5930K and 5960K. The only thing that was cut down was the amount of lanes and cache, but the ultimate overclock capacity of the chip was by no means inferior. In most cases it was better due to the reduced heat output.

Unless Intel have begun speed binning AFTER the batches that hit review sites, I don't think its accurate to say that it was known to be a reduced or crippled chip at all.


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## cadaveca (Nov 9, 2014)

Wireline said:


> Unless Intel have begun speed binning AFTER the batches that hit review sites, I don't think its accurate to say that it was known to be a reduced or crippled chip at all.


Most sites have ES CPUS, not retail, so they got them early, for sure. I managed to get my own CPU sample before the launch, and it was a retail chip. But I ask for retail so that the reviews I post reflect what the end user gets, since I don't review CPUs...I review motherboards. I got my X99 DELUXE board before the launch, too, and didn't have any problems at all. It might simply be an issue with a batch of bad BIOS chips that go crazy when changes to BIOS are saved, or a wrong Intel Management Engine Interface version.

If you can swap out the board from where you bought it easily, I'd give that a go, for sure. Changing fan speed shouldn't cause issues like this, unless your PSU is faulty. Bad PSU can cause all sorts of issues.


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## OneMoar (Nov 9, 2014)

I have had the same boot-drive-weirdness with this board I chalked it to some weird ASUS bios quirk when I was doing the inital overclocking it would spatially refuse to boot and would sit either at the post screen or a blinking cursor keep in mind I had been in and out of the bios setup literally 20 times in 10m tweaking various bits getting things set to manual

the only thing that made a difference on mine was setting the "secure boot" mode to other-os and then booting windows via GRUB witch seemed to reduce the sensitivity to the 'boot hang`
even now if I jump in and out of the bios more then 5 or so times without doing a full cold boot(from fully powered off) the issue comes back and then the only fix is to load optimized defaults and start over
again only seems to be a issue if I have changed something in the bios > saved > gone back into the bios and changed something else ; repeat about 3 times >> hang
might wanna try disabling fast boot related stuff (full post full usb initialisation ect ect ) and see if that makes a difference


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## Wireline (Nov 9, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Most sites have ES CPUS, not retail, so they got them early, for sure. I managed to get my own CPU sample before the launch, and it was a retail chip. But I ask for retail so that the reviews I post reflect what the end user gets, since I don't review CPUs...I review motherboards. I got my X99 DELUXE board before the launch, too, and didn't have any problems at all. It might simply be an issue with a batch of bad BIOS chips that go crazy when changes to BIOS are saved, or a wrong Intel Management Engine Interface version.
> 
> If you can swap out the board from where you bought it easily, I'd give that a go, for sure. Changing fan speed shouldn't cause issues like this, unless your PSU is faulty. Bad PSU can cause all sorts of issues.



Hi Dave
Were you finding that the retail 5820's underperformed in relation to its siblings? I must admit I am a little ashamed to say I did not see your review before buying - the site that convinced me to buy was HardOCP, who bought their 5820 from Microcenter, so I had very much hoped that this was representative especially as they did the testing on a deluxe. Their chip hit 4.6GHz at 1.32V.

I am leaning towards an RMA anyway at this stage. All my stuff I get online - I live in the UK so its usually amazon or SCAN / Overclockers. The board was an amazon job, I am guessing it will be a return to ASUS job! Might have a look and see what amazon's policy is.

EDIT: Weirdly, my other reply disappeared, so I will add it here. I traced the no-boot problem down to a wrecked MBR, so fixed it. Still got crashing in BIOS (always when tweaking a fan to manual for some reason) and updated to version 1004 from 0904 which I'd rolled back to as a troubleshooting attempt. My BIOS flashback facility is still broken, which TBH though small, is still a good reason to consider a return.

So now we are back to square one. I am not sure whether to carry on with the stress testing or not. I know the system has done 4.0GHz at 1.268 volts ok, but with a potentially iffy mobo I am a bit leery of trying again.



OneMoar said:


> I have had the same boot-drive-weirdness with this board I chalked it to some weird ASUS bios quirk when I was doing the inital overclocking it would spatially refuse to boot and would sit either at the post screen or a blinking cursor keep in mind I had been in and out of the bios setup literally 20 times in 10m tweaking various bits getting things set to manual
> 
> the only thing that made a difference on mine was setting the "secure boot" mode to other-os and then booting windows via GRUB witch seemed to reduce the sensitivity to the 'boot hang`
> even now if I jump in and out of the bios more then 5 or so times without doing a full cold boot(from fully powered off) the issue comes back and then the only fix is to load optimized defaults and start over
> ...



Thanks man, I will use that power-off-after-changes trick for sure. If I am still running into issues I will try tweaking off those other settings. I am a bit unsure of changing too many things at the moment as I at least have a system running again!


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## cadaveca (Nov 9, 2014)

Wireline said:


> Hi Dave
> Were you finding that the retail 5820's underperformed in relation to its siblings? I must admit I am a little ashamed to say I did not see your review before buying - the site that convinced me to buy was HardOCP, who bought their 5820 from Microcenter, so I had very much hoped that this was representative especially as they did the testing on a deluxe. Their chip hit 4.6GHz at 1.32V.



Yeah, I don't review CPUs, so it is no surprise that you didn't see a review of mine.  Just the board review is up, on the front page here.

4.6 GHz @ 1.32 is fairly decent, IMHO, but I feel myself that isn't that great of a clock... under 1.3V is much better. I don't have that much experience with a multitude of CPUs for this platform as of yet, but maybe soon I can fix that. I need to finish up a huge whack of board reviews first, though. Being a full-time student has greatly reduced my available time, never mind I'm still recovering from an accident at the end of July and have to attend physiotherapy, too. Anyway, I feel it's decent only because the 5820K is the lowest model for the platform, but at the same time, I don't see the more expensive chips doing all that much better....


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 9, 2014)

Def try the board rma


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## Wireline (Nov 9, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> Def try the board rma



Thanks eidairaman1, I think I will do that. The boot problems have returned, and I am getting an "overclock failed" message when there is no overclock applied. It definitely seems like something is very wrong with it.


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## OneMoar (Nov 10, 2014)

Wireline said:


> Thanks eidairaman1, I think I will do that. The boot problems have returned, and I am getting an "overclock failed" message when there is no overclock applied. It definitely seems like something is very wrong with it.


yea rma it ///


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## Wireline (Nov 12, 2014)

Thought I would update
Was just within my 30 day return period with amazon UK so I have requested a replacement. The feedback I got from ASUS Customer Support (EU) was "you can buy yourself a new BIOS chip and battery and see if that helps, if you like, or alternatively make an RMA request with your supplier". That seemed a bit weird TBH. I know we mess about with our boards a lot, but I was surprised at that as a suggestion. I just want a replacement.

Anyways we will see how long it takes to come back and give this all a try again sometime!


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## Sasqui (Nov 12, 2014)

If you haven't already torn it apart, I've got a suggestion:  Try loading an XMP profile and run OCCT.


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## Wireline (Nov 13, 2014)

Sasqui said:


> If you haven't already torn it apart, I've got a suggestion:  Try loading an XMP profile and run OCCT.



Hi 

Unfortunately by the time I read that it was all stripped down. My first overclock was with XMP on though.

TBH I am avoiding OCCT anyway. They advised against Prime 95 for testing Haswell-E and OCCT seems even more aggressive


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## OneMoar (Nov 13, 2014)

use occt but use it in linpack mode @ 25% memory


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 13, 2014)

I think your board was a pos


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## EarthDog (Nov 13, 2014)

It would never boot again if you changed settings or would it take a a couple of times to do it? I ask this as I have random booting problems on two boards, across 2+ BIOS on each, and two different sets of memory all on fresh installs... but after resetting a couple of times, it would boot. Even though I am stable, it sometimes wouldn't boot the first time upon reboot. This platform is odd.


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## Wireline (Nov 13, 2014)

OneMoar said:


> use occt but use it in linpack mode @ 25% memory



OK thanks. The other one (forget the name, didnt try linpack) seemed to really rinse the processor, I didn't like running it at all. That said, I have the H440 which is meant to be poor for cooling, and with the 6 cores of the 5820K chugging away on OCCT it was only just troubling 80 at 1.3V (IIRC), possibly not the best ever but maybe those fans I added to it helped. AIDA64 barely broke 63 degrees even when the chip was doing 4.3GHz. Interestingly, it WAS stable with AIDA64. It was OCCT (non Linpack) that spanked it. Even at 4.0GHz I could only bear to run it for a couple of minutes.



eidairaman1 said:


> I think your board was a pos



I think you may just be right there



EarthDog said:


> It would never boot again if you changed settings or would it take a a couple of times to do it? I ask this as I have random booting problems on two boards, across 2+ BIOS on each, and two different sets of memory all on fresh installs... but after resetting a couple of times, it would boot. Even though I am stable, it sometimes wouldn't boot the first time upon reboot. This platform is odd.



It seemed to be solidly "will not boot, nuh uh" once you got it there, though it would also do it randomly. Can I ask what boards and memory / combinations you are using?


Also as a general note, this place is by far and away the friendliest and most helpful overclocking community I have found whilst searching around for answers! Thanks guys.


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## OneMoar (Nov 14, 2014)

1.3v seems aweful high for only 4.3


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## cadaveca (Nov 14, 2014)

OneMoar said:


> 1.3v seems aweful high for only 4.3


Stock is 3.4 GHz on all cores, 2 cores @ 3.6 GHz. So 900 MHz OC...1.3V...meh, may be normal. Haswell-E took a clock drop, but still performs really well vs the past generation, considering.


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## OneMoar (Nov 14, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Stock is 3.4 GHz on all cores, 2 cores @ 3.6 GHz. So 900 MHz OC...1.3V...meh, may be normal.


yea but on LGA 2011 ? 
could be just a awful chip ... but dam


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## cadaveca (Nov 14, 2014)

OneMoar said:


> yea but on LGA 2011 ?
> could be just a awful chip ... but dam


Like I said, Haswell-E took a dump on clockspeeds. So, being the lowest-bin chip, and seeing 4.6 GHz is still the norm for Intel high-end on normal cooling, it might actually be within expectations.


The cost of DDR4 right now has had few users making the upgrade so far, but as time moves on, we might get a more clear picture of how these chips OC, but 4.3 on regular Haswell (ie 4770K), was kinda normal, too, so to me, to get 2 more cores, roughly same price, and same clocks...makes that within expectations? 4960X, 4.0 GHz on one core, 5960X, 3.5 GHz on two, 3.3 on all, 5930K 3.6-3.7 GHz...


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## OneMoar (Nov 14, 2014)

bleh I hope broad-well is better how ever unlikely that is ...


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## cadaveca (Nov 14, 2014)

OneMoar said:


> bleh I hope broad-well is better how ever unlikely that is ...


I say that opinion is rather misplaced, since Haswell-E does have performance to offset that clock loss. I mean, clock is but a number, really, what matters is the end performance, right?


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## OneMoar (Nov 14, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> I say that opinion is rather misplaced, since Haswell-E does have performance to offset that clock loss. I mean, clock is but a number, really, what matters is the end performance, right?


but dat Ghz


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## Wireline (Nov 14, 2014)

OK update again  The RMA is in progress, but the supplier started being _super_ weird, so rather than go replacement, and what with ASUS Customer Service also being awful (send an email into the ether and get a one sentence reply back that may partially relate to what you asked 2 days later. No you can't phone, component buyers), I am going to refund it and go and look for a better X99 platform. Any ideas? The MSI SLI X99S looks nice. ASUS is out as I don't really like the prospect of ever needing their help.


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## Wireline (Nov 18, 2014)

OK so, after a pretty horrible run-in with amazon's usually good customer service system, looks like I will be getting a replacement or repaired board this week, so i will be back to trying to get my 5820K up to some nifty speeds 

Word of advice - always ask amazon a question three times. You will get three people answering with three different answers. Hopefully two of them will vaguely agree.


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## OneMoar (Nov 18, 2014)

odd they should't be giving you any qubbil over a refund
tho I never go though customer dis-service todo it i just request a return on the order history page


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## Wireline (Nov 18, 2014)

OneMoar said:


> odd they should't be giving you any qubbil over a refund
> tho I never go though customer dis-service todo it i just request a return on the order history page



Loooong story, basically if you buy through a seller in the UK you only have 14 days if its arrived faulty to send it back. Amazon fugged up and told me otherwise. One failed claim and lots of stress that could have been avoided later, I'm getting a replacement. Amazon are very nice, however they are also idiots.


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## Wireline (Nov 25, 2014)

Lol well turns out amazon may have not been entirely ... right after all, and I got a full refund! The board WAS faulty, and its gone back to ASUS in shame  The seller initiated the refund.

I may well just go for another deluxe, there's not much else out there that seems significantly more reliable or feature complete, not to mention most of the boards IIRC cannot yet take RAM above 2666MHz (may have this wrong though).


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## EarthDog (Nov 25, 2014)

> not to mention most of the boards IIRC cannot yet take RAM above 2666MHz (may have this wrong though).


Every board we touched and reviewed at OCF ( about 7 boards now) could all reach 3K... though is there a point in that.... (no).


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## Wireline (Nov 25, 2014)

EarthDog said:


> Every board we touched and reviewed at OCF ( about 7 boards now) could all reach 3K... though is there a point in that.... (no).



Thanks man. I can't remember where I read it, but there was a note somewhere that other mobo makers were lagging behind ASUS in XMP profiles and would be rectified later. Ive been reading so much crap on X99 lately though its entirely possible it was from august or something. I dunno.

Anyways, shortly I hope to transform my computer from expensive paperweight in corner of room into .. a computer. Whoo.


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 25, 2014)

Watch as it remains a pw


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## Wireline (Dec 3, 2014)

OK, so  Back up and running, after a fashion.

I have started with a very mild manual overclock to 3.8GHz, and chose a VCore of 1.28V. Eveything else on the Deluxe is Auto.

I am going to leave it like this for a few days, run stability tests and ensure the boot problem isn't coming back, and then play with pushing her up. So far seems quite happy, but want to take it slow and smooth this time. Will keep you guys updated and probably start a new thread


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## Wireline (Jan 24, 2015)

Just adding an update to this. I had the chip running at 4.0GHz for a while, but it seemed to degrade gradually, so that it was unstable even at lower multipliers. I had a tuning plan for it, and have just put my exchange chip in the machine. I followed the ASUS OC guidelines, put it to 1.3V and 45 multiplier, and its nice and happy. So looks like that last chip was just a really nasty one, or my faulty Deluxe did something to it.

If anyone wants to know, the batch number of the old chip was L427C525. It was a MALAY chip. 

Now I just need to figure out how to get adaptive voltage to work.


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