BSOD on a system made for extreme OC

Hey, nice system. Pretty similar to mine. I also use to have 2 EVGA 680 FTW+ (4GB) cards.

Let me ask you: What VCores are you running at the different multiplier rates, and how are you specifically going about doing your overclocking? Also, what's the clock speed of your RAM's XMP (1600MHz, 1800, 2400, et cetera), and are you loading the XMP settings?

At 4.2GHz by just raising the multiplier, you should be fine with a VCore of 1.25 or so.

Also, make sure your CPU PLL Voltage is at the stock 1.8. For some reason mine had dropped at some point with out me knowing and was causing stability issues.

For starters, you may want to go to factory default BIOS settings again, and we can work from there to try and get the clock rate up while maintaining stability.

Good reply Wrend. I would say it's either down to Vcore or Ram speed/timings.

A CPUz screenshot of the CPU tab (under load) and Ram tab would be useful.

Shept1z said:

Ran memtest 3.5 passes (10hrs)

Unfortunately thats insufficient - a minimum of 8 consecutive passes is required to call your RAM "passed".

You shouldn't need the VCore that high, especially not at 4.0GHz. If you do, then there is likely something else going on that is wrong, or you have a very weak chip that can't take overclocking. Perhaps you pushed it too high for too long before.

You might want to try reflashing the BIOS, if you can, since you seemed to first notice these problems with a BIOS update.

As I previously stated, you should not need to go above 1.25 VCore for a 4.2GHz clock on the 3930K, definitely not more than 1.3 VCore. So if it isn't stable at that voltage, I wouldn't bother with trying it at higher voltages. Something else is going on, or you have a weak chip. Sorry.

I have a different chipset than you and Wrend, so I can't give you specific advice. What I can tell you is you have to know and understand the bios and what every setting means and what affect it has on other settings. You have to spend the time to set the bios up for overclocking before you even think about Multiplier and Vcore settings. Things like Wrend mentioned such as CPU PLL voltage and C states and Load line calibration have a big effect on Vcore and stability. I know those boards can be real tempermental and some settings really throw everything off, especially ram settings.

Yeah, good point, essenbe! Something that seems easy on the outside can likewise easily get thrown off from minor under the hood tweaks.

I set this up in the BIOS now, but still use these settings as my default go to, baseline OC. With sufficient cooling, you should reasonably expect and be able to fairly easily hit at least 4.2GHz stable, and likely higher with some fine tuning. Maybe raise the VCore a little (up to 1.3V) if needed, determined through stability tests. You shouldn't need to raise it any more than that for that clock rate.

I do load the XMP for my RAM first, and then just tweak the CPU after that, but only because I've determined that it seems to work well with it. I'm using two identical matched sets of 32GB of RAM (64GB total, 8×8GB DIMMs) and have it set up so that each matched 32GB set is on the same corresponding four channel slots. 10-10-10-27, 1600MHz, 1.5V. You could try loosening up your timings. I have fairly different RAM from you, so I can't comment more specifically on how yours should work and what settings might be best.

Also, for these settings, do not use the VCore offset; manually set it, otherwise it will throw your VCore off from where it should be.

I hope this helps some, as you do have quite a nice rig, and I'd like for it to work well for you.

You can also try reseating things and/or switching out different components to try and rule out any specific component issues. I understand that this isn't always easy nor feasible. It can sometimes take a lot of work finding the weak link and how to resolve it, but in the end when your system is performing where you want it within what you can reasonably expect from it, it's worth it.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

Edit:

I just wanted to also mention that the stability and longevity of my 3930K is very important to me since I keep my computer up and running nearly 24/7 crunching for scientific and humanitarian research (primarily on my GPUs, though I do run some of these tasks on the CPU too), while also hosting a few Minecraft servers for family, friends, and co-workers to play on. Point being that I can pretty easily push this CPU significantly higher and keep it "stable enough" for gaming, running benchmarks, or similar, up to around 4.8GHz or so. 4.6GHz is more of a reasonably high OC for this CPU since I can keep the VCore at a safer level, a little below 1.4V.

From my research on this as well (referring to the site you linked to above), 1.4V is generally considered to be the high end VCore limit for a safe, more consistently used OC (which can limit how high you can potentially get the clock rate of your CPU). Ideally though, you want the VCore as low as you can get it at any given OC while still keeping the system stable. Also, it's a given that you need to have sufficient enough cooling, with your 3930K cores preferably staying below or at least not getting much above 70°C loaded. These are just the generally agreed upon safe higher end limits for longer term OCing of this CPU that I am aware of. Some can be pushed significantly higher without failing, of course, though it isn't considered safe for the continued performance and longevity of the CPU. Every individual CPU is at least a little bit different than the rest and will likewise have at least slightly different capabilities and operational tolerances, even if those differences happen to be too small to discern, though of course some outliers can have much more significant differences. These chips are made to at least perform within their stock clock rates, and likely a bit higher, but how high they can safely be pushed over stock rates is never guaranteed. (Well... unless you happen to pick one up from someone who tests them and resells them at a premium with some kind of a performance guarantee, I suppose, though I don't personally have any experience with that.)

Anyway... long story short: From my own experience using this CPU and what I've heard from many others that use it, 4.2GHz isn't asking that much at all really from your 3930K, and it should very likely be relatively easy to reach. This may be a little controversial, but I actually generally consider this to be the clock rate that owners of this CPU should at least OC it to (assuming they have the know-how to do so) to get more of their money's worth from it, though I'm not saying that it isn't a capable CPU if it isn't overclocked. Of course it's a given that sufficient cooling is needed and that CPU power efficiency isn't a higher priority for the CPU's owner. In your case, this makes me think that there is most likely something else that is holding your CPU back. So hopefully this can be resolved.