Post Your Overclock!

sygnus21 · 12 Jan 2011

Lordbob75 said:

As a random question:
I ran Prime95 while I went to class for an hour, and when I came back, my computer was frozen. Keyboard and mouse lights were off, screen frozen on the screensaver.

Perhaps this means my CPU isn't stable at FACTORY clock?

~Lordbob

A lot of people will tell you that the system isn't stable if it fails prime95, but to me, if you've never had any issues with the system other than a prime95 fail, and the system is at stock speeds, well.

Remember prime95 puts a lot of stress on your CPU and generates a lot of heat, so if you have a stock CPU cooler it could be that the CPU over heated and shut down thus causing the freeze.

CPU overheating is a common cause of Prime95 failures. Prime95 pushes your CPU harder than almost all programs so it's entirely possible that it's much hotter when running Prime95 than any other program you run including games. It's worth opening up your machine and making sure that your CPU heatsink and fan are working properly. I've seen drops of 5 degrees centigrate in Prime95 just by cleaning the dust out of a CPU heatsink. Modern CPUs use lots of power and they can get very hot if anything is wrong with their cooling system. Most computers come with monitoring programs which can display the current voltages and various temperatures in your computer. If you don't have one then you may be able to find a program on the internet which is compatible with your motherboard. A free program which works with most hardware is SpeedFan. Motherboard Monitor is compatible with many older motherboards made in 2005 or earlier. You can use a monitoring program to check that your CPU temperature is reasonable. The temperatures reported by those programs are not all that accurate but it's still worth the trouble of comparing with other peoples' temperatures. You can find them by doing an internet search on the name of your CPU and "peak idle temperatures".

Torture test your CPU with Prime95 - What Do You Do If The Test Fails?

I will say however that outside of a heating issue you should be able run prime95 for at least few hours (3 or more) before it fails, so if it fails within an hour, that "could" be a problem. Shut the PC off and re-run the program and see what happens.

My two cents.

thehappyman · 12 Jan 2011

Dave76 said:

thehappyman said:

Core I7 980X Overclocked to 4 Ghz (was orig OC'd to 3.73 Ghz by Alienware) - I upped the Core Turbo Multipliers from 28 to 30 in Bios. Only 1 HD 5970 Video Card.
Attachment 131256

Attachment 131257

Nice rig, runs very cool.

The core speed idle issue, do you have EIST enabled?

If you don't, I'd say Core Temp is reading core speed wrong.

Did you get that Intel OC'ing app?

Pretty low core voltage, is that normal for the I7 980X?

Hi Dave 76 - Yes, it's a nice rig - it runs very cool (though it is water cooled). The entire rear panel area feels almost cold to the touch and the main fan is almost off most of the time. Really strange to have a rig run so very quiet (its a nice change). Under full load, the main fan will speed up though. I haven't yet tested it with a program like Prime95. My last rig was an Intel quad core and it was water cooled too but it needed multiple fans (which were always on), made a ton of noise, got really hot on the real panel (even with no load), and only ran at 3.3 Ghz.

The core speed idle question ? - well the CPU CORE NON TURBO RATIO is still at 25 which maybe explains why CORE TEMP reads the multiplier as being low under "no load".

The Intel Speed step is enabled as well as the Hyper threading and the Turbo Mode is ON.
In the 980x the turbo mode is independent of the number of active cores as long as the TDP isn't reached.

Which Intel OC'ing App are you referring to ???

The rig came "Overclocked to 3.73 Ghz" by Alienware - I just increased the Core Turbo Ratios to 30. I haven't changed the voltages yet. I've been monitoring temperatures with CPUID HW Monitor and CORE TEMP and have yet to see any temp go over 55 C, even under full load for a while.

Just my guess, but I guess its the Turbo Boost which is getting the rig up to 4 Ghz. But what puzzles me is why CPU-Z always shows me at 4 Ghz (loaded or not) whereas Core Temp only shows a multiplier increase when I apply a heavy load. Can CPU-Z read my core multipliers ????? Or is my Core Speed always at 4 Ghz ????

It would be nice to run faster but I'm pretty happy with the speed of this now - I don't want to take any foolish chances for that last "bump". It seems run run cool and is 100% stable.
What do you mean "Pretty low core voltage for a 980x" ??? What core voltage are people usually applying to a 980x ???

thehappyman · 12 Jan 2011

sygnus21 said:

That's a pretty good voltage reading - 1.056v. What's your QPI/Vtt voltage and CPU VCore voltage set to in your BIOS?

Also your temps reading?

Hi sygnus21 - My Bios only lets me set three voltages - An Ioh which is set to 1.1 volts and a Cpu Vcore offset which is set to 100 mV and a QPI/Uncore voltage. I wish I had more control over the individual voltages but they didn't design this Bios that way. :):):)

The higest Temp I have seen yet is 55 degrees C under full load for a few minutes, using CPUID HW Monitor and CORE TEMP. The rig is water cooled.

sygnus21 · 12 Jan 2011

Well for a MB with limited BIOS options/voltage tweaking your temps and CPU voltages are damn good!

Since your CPU is unlocked I'm guessing you have a CPU clock ratio multiplier of 30?

thehappyman · 12 Jan 2011

sygnus21 said:

Well for a MB with limited BIOS options/voltage tweaking your temps and CPU voltages are damn good!

Since your CPU is unlocked I'm guessing you have a CPU clock ratio multiplier of 30?

Thats what all the CPU Core Multipliers have been set to. Alienware uses a "custom" MB made by Intel. It's mATX. I actually like the smaller case (it still holds a HD 5970 and 4 HDD's) :):):) Only weighs 50 pounds.

Lordbob75 · 12 Jan 2011

Well, I have had a FEW instances of freezing, but it appears to be hardware related rather than software.

My CPU is water cooled, so if it's a heat problem....

I am just confused as to why it is crashing instead of just failing the test...

~Lordbob

sygnus21 · 12 Jan 2011

thehappyman said:

sygnus21 said:

Well for a MB with limited BIOS options/voltage tweaking your temps and CPU voltages are damn good!

Since your CPU is unlocked I'm guessing you have a CPU clock ratio multiplier of 30?

Thats what all the CPU Core Multipliers have been set to. Alienware uses a "custom"

I'm assuming you mean the Extreme chips, which are the only unlocked chips. The 920 - 960 are locked, so that means their multipliers are fixed to certain point.

Using my experience with the 930, the highest multi is 23, for the 950, it's 24.

Lordbob75 said:

Well, I have had a FEW instances of freezing, but it appears to be hardware related rather than software.

My CPU is water cooled, so if it's a heat problem....

I am just confused as to why it is crashing instead of just failing the test...

~Lordbob

No sure about the crashing issue. I would run it again and watch it and the temps.

Lordbob75 · 12 Jan 2011

sygnus21 said:

Lordbob75 said:

Well, I have had a FEW instances of freezing, but it appears to be hardware related rather than software.

My CPU is water cooled, so if it's a heat problem....

I am just confused as to why it is crashing instead of just failing the test...

~Lordbob

No sure about the crashing issue. I would run it again and watch it and the temps.

They never hit much over about 60.... But I can do that when I have time to sit and watch for over an hour.

~Lordbob

sygnus21 · 12 Jan 2011

When you say it crashes, do you mean the entire program or just one of the workers?

If the whole program freezes, that sounds like a program program issue. If one or two workers stop, the the program is telling your your cores aren't stable.

Lordbob75 · 12 Jan 2011

sygnus21 said:

When you say it crashes, do you mean the entire program or just one of the workers?

If the whole program freezes, that sounds like a program program issue. If one or two workers stop, the the program is telling your your cores aren't stable.

Neither. The entire computer freezes, with no power to the keyboard and mouse. If there was a sound playing when it froze, it stay playing that sample of sound on the speakers.

~Lordbob