i5 overclocked, need advice

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PsichoDM

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
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I finally decided to overclock my 2.6ghz i5 to a more interesting clock. I'm completely new at the whole overclocking business so I was hoping you seasoned tweakers might give me a few pointers. My harware is:


- 2x G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel
- Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core
- GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
- Noctua nh-d14 cooler

I was watching this specific video for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llqhe3N1cJA and referring to this guide too: http://www.overclockers.com/3-step-guide-overclock-core-i3-i5-i7/

One thing I noticed in the video is that the guy suggests not to even mess around with voltages as the system is pretty smart about picking the right one to keep things stable.

Here are the settings that I ended up (after some very minimal tweaking) with according to CPU-Z:



Couple of questions for those of you who, unlike me, know what they're doing:

1) max temp on the CPU has been 66C so far. Is that cool or is that low enough that I should try to increase things a bit more?

2) in the SPD tab, CPU-Z says that max bandwidth for that ram stick is 667mhz whereas as far as I can tell it's a DDR3-1600 stick so it should be able to handle up to 800mhz. Right now the frequency is at 720, is my ram about to die?

3) Ram frequency is at 720, so I stil have overall (when doubled) 180mhz to spare. Is the ram going to be a bottleneck if I don't bring is as close as possible to 800mhz or is it fine the way it is?

4) The system doesn't seem to be stable. Running prime95 for an hourish earlier to a reboot, so I'm trying to figure out what I should be bumping down to make it more stable. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
What do you have it overclocked to? Whats your bclock, memory multiplier and QPI multiplier set to?
 
deff said:
What do you have it overclocked to? Whats your bclock, memory multiplier and QPI multiplier set to?
Click to expand...

I was hoping the pictures would answer that. In any case:

Current clock: 3600mhz
bclock: 180mhz
memory mult: 2:8
QPI mult: 32 (I believe)
 
PsichoDM said:
I was hoping the pictures would answer that. In any case:

Current clock: 3600mhz
bclock: 180mhz
memory mult: 2:8
QPI mult: 32 (I believe)
Click to expand...

Pictures aren't loading.

Sounds like you need to check your heatsink and make sure everything is copacetic. How did you apply the thermal paste? Are you using the bundled NT-H1 that came with the cooler? Are the fans running at 100%?

The fact that the D14 isn't keeping things cool is the first I would look at. My NH-U12P SE2 does an excellent job at keeping things in check when at those speeds.

As for your memory questions, everything is working as it should. You could up the memory multiplier, but make sure your memory can run at higher than advertised speeds and still be stable.

Another option is to bring the base clock up and bring your CPU multiplier down to where you'd like, then adjust the memory multiplier to bring it back up to 1600.
 
deff said:
Pictures aren't loading.

Sounds like you need to check your heatsink and make sure everything is copacetic. How did you apply the thermal paste? Are you using the bundled NT-H1 that came with the cooler? Are the fans running at 100%?

The fact that the D14 isn't keeping things cool is the first I would look at. My NH-U12P SE2 does an excellent job at keeping things in check when at those speeds.

As for your memory questions, everything is working as it should. You could up the memory multiplier, but make sure your memory can run at higher than advertised speeds and still be stable.

Another option is to bring the base clock up and bring your CPU multiplier down to where you'd like, then adjust the memory multiplier to bring it back up to 1600.
Click to expand...

I updated the pictures, they should be visible now.

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear, when I said I was getting 66C max temperature, I meant that was as high as the temps would go when under stress with OCCT or prime95, so I would say that's a pretty decent temp for 3600mhz.
 
Is stability still an issue? Have you tried knocking the clock down to somewhere around 3.4?
 
Isn't the CPU voltage kinda high? Is it not stable below that? That could be a contributor to your moderately high temps.

dgo2oh.jpg
 
Your voltage does seem a little high. I'm at 3.6ghz on 1.27v and may be able to go higher clock or less voltage, haven't messed with it in a while.
 
Whats up with having to reach 3.6 Ghz, is it sort of a gimmic or what?

3511Mhz here with 1.120vcore :cool:

edit: forgot to tell that it is on i5 750 :) old sig
 
3511 here too (kind of an odd clock, ram wont do a flat 175, needs that 175.65) @ 1.201 cause my GD65 doesn't always play nice with low v-droop. Even running intel burntest for 100 loops@ high, never passes 65c. I would bring that voltage down at least .1v, maybe more.
 
misan-thrope said:
3511 here too (kind of an odd clock, ram wont do a flat 175, needs that 175.65) @ 1.201 cause my GD65 doesn't always play nice with low v-droop. Even running intel burntest for 100 loops@ high, never passes 65c. I would bring that voltage down at least .1v, maybe more.
Click to expand...

Lol I have the same board as you.
You can disable the annoying vdroops if you turn off the load-line calibrations in bios.

I also have H50 but with two noctua 120mm fans, but I have much higher load temps than you, in intelburn.

But the speed of the fans are at the lowest, hence the high load temperature, which is 80c(intelburn)(prime95 75c).
 
It doesn't bother me that much, i just have to turn the voltage down more in the bios to make up for it. I am just using the stock fan and one of the fans that came with my Antec 900 on it, with the tri-LED fan at medium and the H50s fan at max, i can barely hear it.
 
Vonteme said:
Lol I have the same board as you.
You can disable the annoying vdroops if you turn off the load-line calibrations in bios.
Click to expand...

They took out LLC in a bios update. The only options are Hi/Low vdroop. Even with low vdroop on when clocked at 4.01ghz @ 1.36v CPU Z shows 1.4v idle and 1.42+ on load. MSI has no explanation for this problem :(
 
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