Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale, SB Overclocking Guides (1155/1156/1366)

[Salty]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

Now yr putting me to shame. The UD3R only goes to 1.6v, and I've depended on multiplier, so a miserable 203 x 23 for 4.669 on water (i7-950), no pretense of stability. It must be my conservative streak. Haven't messed with dry ice or phase or LN2. Haven't chased maximum bclk/fsb. Just interested in all this somehow though.

Don't X58 usually run out about 227 (without slow mode)?

EDIT: Just tried slow mode for 3.something and no boot. My idea of settings is obviously out of the ballpark. Would love to see a template for one of those overclocks you posted at OCN - by PM (?) if risky to hardware - big ask maybe - if so no worries.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

Anytime man!

What's your max Bclk so far?

[Salty]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

What, for QPI Slow Mode you mean? If so yes, in the past, up until a few months ago, when you selected QPI Slow in the BIOS it would actually still use x36 (You can verify on old BIOS and use CPU-Tweaker)

Yeah, that's what I meant. Thank you LSD for sharing this info.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

This was a bios fix?

What, for QPI Slow Mode you mean? If so yes, in the past, up until a few months ago, when you selected QPI Slow in the BIOS it would actually still use x36 (You can verify on old BIOS and use CPU-Tweaker)

[miahallen]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

If anyone is interested in following my work, please do so here, thanks :)

[Salty]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

This was a bios fix?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

Myself, and many others, were interested in this being fixed for maximum Bclks. Without slow mode you run into a QPI wall at 8.8Ghz on X58 using x36 multi for QPI, slow mode uses x24 so you have much more room to play.

It's been fixed for a few months now for Bloomfield CPU's. I'm still waiting on it to be fixed for Gulftown though!!!

I have a killer Bclk 980X, can do 246 on water, but same applies frozen since QPI slow mode does not work for these CPU's.

So max Bclk for me with that CPU is the same under dry ice or water, not cool at all :(

[Salty]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

In Miahalen's guide:

My suggestion with QPI, is to set it to the lowest multiplier available (but not “slow mode”).

Recently saw a post by LSDmeASAP saying "Slow Mode" had been fixed for Bloomfield, but I'm finding nothing enlightening on it by Google search.

What is Slow Mode, and what is it useful for? High bclk? I can see a high bclk in a validation of nearly 252MHz and ram at 1007MHz, but what do you do with other bios settings to get there? Any insight welcome.....

[gigaboy]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

I agree, I've found the same thing myself with both my old Q8200 and my E7400. I was 24 hour pPrime Blend, 12 hour large AND small FFT stable along with 50 IBT runs, yet I could not extract any large RAR files without WinRAR stating the RAR was corrupt (it was actually perfectly fine). After some minor tweaking I discovered it was CPU Reference voltage causing the problem on the Quad ( I added an extra tick at default VTT then increased VTT back) and MCH Ref voltage on the Dual Core (took away three ticks at stock VTT then increased VTT back).

As you suggest, I do what ever stress tests reassure me that the system won't fall over just sitting on the desktop, then I use the PC for a little while. Again, this is why I always quote a 3 day wait after a build if the customer wants an over clocked system. I don't build many machines so I have the time to use each build as my main machine for a couple of days, simply watching TV progs, encoding/time-shifting TV and if they spec a decent GPU I game on it too.

OMG I was having this exact problem with rar files not extracting without crc errors with my overclocked IBT 20 pass stable E8400, but I followed your suggestion about tweaking cpu & mch ref voltage and viola, all errors are gone now!! Thank you so much for sharing this great info mate! I tried all sorts of stuffs to eliminate this error but all in vain(upping voltage didn't help but made things worse). This is probably one of the best piece of info I could ever find on entire internet. Sorry I'm bit too excited to write proper English now but hope you understood my gratitude. Again, THANK YOU!

[Psycho101]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

I agree, I've found the same thing myself with both my old Q8200 and my E7400. I was 24 hour pPrime Blend, 12 hour large AND small FFT stable along with 50 IBT runs, yet I could not extract any large RAR files without WinRAR stating the RAR was corrupt (it was actually perfectly fine). After some minor tweaking I discovered it was CPU Reference voltage causing the problem on the Quad ( I added an extra tick at default VTT then increased VTT back) and MCH Ref voltage on the Dual Core (took away three ticks at stock VTT then increased VTT back).

As you suggest, I do what ever stress tests reassure me that the system won't fall over just sitting on the desktop, then I use the PC for a little while. Again, this is why I always quote a 3 day wait after a build if the customer wants an over clocked system. I don't build many machines so I have the time to use each build as my main machine for a couple of days, simply watching TV progs, encoding/time-shifting TV and if they spec a decent GPU I game on it too.

[miahallen]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

Yeah, I hear ya :)

Concerning the stability testing bit. I've had really mixed results....for instance I had a Q6600 that was 24hrs prime95 stable but would crash if I was encoding video and playing a gmae at the same time. Once I got it gaming/encoding sable I was happy. On the flip side, the next rig I built (QX9650) would crash in prime95 within 30 minutes (everythime) yet was 100% stable for my daily uses (including encoding/gaming). Since those experiences I've changed my views on stability testing a bit. But since I know that there are plenty of people who would be quite to disagree with me, I don't push my views in my guides, but leave it up to the individuals. My 3 loops/1hr recommendations in the guide were chosen in the interest of finding decent stability in a short amount of time.

Thanks for the feedback Psycho ;)

[Psycho101]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

Just to emphasize my thoughts mate, I think you have done a great job with those guides!

Everyone has their own method and as long as it works for them, it's a good method IMO. I am greatful personally for you writing them as they do give very good explanations for what various voltages do. Also for the beginner, as LSD says, it gives the extreme novice a starting point on how to get going on an OC. The guides are logically laid out and well presented. Sounds like a minor detail, but I also like the dark background. I find it much easier to read than white backgrounds with black writing.

I have used my method for as long as I can remember with immense success, however I am open minded to suggestions. For example I freely admit I've only built nine i7/i5/i3 systems, so the intro and voltage explanations were useful to help me clarify in my head what does what.

I also agree that the best "stability" test is using the system for what ever you do the most, be it 3D gaming, modeling, encoding or simply web browsing and word processing. The only reason I usually emphasize a vigorous testing regime (50 IBT runs and 24 hours total of Prime 95 as a minimum) is because I've had problems before where a slightly unstable system has corrupted my precious data. There were always backups, but unless one runs a RAID array with redundancy, there is usually some data loss as nobody really backs up every day, unfortunately.

Don't know if it's worth mentoining or adding to your guides, but having an image of the OS drive before you start clocking is a God-send, especially if clocking the RAM too.Since getting Acronis, I can now simply re-image a slightly corrupted OS in about 3 minutes... amazing. I'm a bit over cautious, but as I often deal with other people's PC's, you can never be too careful with another person's data.

[miahallen]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

Straight out of the guides:

Determining methods for finding a stable overclock are highly controversial, everyone has their own definition of a stable system, but when I refer to “stable” in this guide, I am referring to the stability of your selected “stability test.” So for a power user or gamer who wants a reliable system that won’t ever crash due to an overclock pushed too far, you’d need to test with a program that will load all of the cores and threads applicable to your CPU, OCCT and IntelBurnTest are two popular choices. OCCT uses the same algorithm as Prime95 but has a more friendly interface. IntelBurnTest uses the Intel linpak binaries to stress the system and also has an easy to use interface. In this guide I may use testing that is insufficient in your opinion. It is only a guidline and if you feel more testing is necessary for your system, by all means feel free.

After you have found your highest stable speed to within 2MHz accuracy, lower the bclock by 2MHz and run your test again, this time let the test run for a full hour. If it passes the test - Congratulations! – you have found your highest reasonably stable bclock frequency.

This 1 hour test is repeated at the end of each of the three steps. ;)

[Psycho101]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

I've said several times that they're fine for beginners, and I'm not trying to discourage anyone from reading them. I was told the way I do things is illogical, guess work and requires back tracking. I was pointing out thast there is potential for just the same amount of back tracking, especially using a poultry 3 runs of IBT for testing.

Just giving my honest feedback. People are free to make up their own minds.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Gulftown, Bloomfield, Lynnfield, Clarkdale Overclocking Guides (1156/1366)

Well I appreciate the guides

I know, you probably don't mean to bash, but it sounds like you are in a way and that doesn't leave people with positive thoughts in mind, so they may not even try out these guides.

I still have not had time to read through them all, but I think overclocking and stability would really be different guides. Many people can't even get an overclock started, and for that reason I really appreciate guides like this, they help people get going!

As for stability, that is something users would need to look to others for help with or other threads where stability is more of a discussion. As I said though I have not read these guides fully yet so if stability is a larger part of the guides, more than overclocking, you may have a valid discussion here.

* This is not meant to bash you either, I just saw your comments and it made me feel like you would be turning others away from giving these guides a chance *