Hi all, after building my new rig, specs i will post below i need some help overclocking. Now im going to be honest with you all, this is the first rig i have built and apart from a few teething problems it is up and running fsx quite nicely apart from a bit of stuttering nown again. I have not applied any cfg tweaks yet, maybe you could advise if i need to. I have pondered across a few guides here on the net but any that i try the bios comes up with an overclock warning and reverts back to original setting(luckily) so i wondered if anyone here has a simmilar setup and could walk me through overclocking my rig, i would be very very greatfull to anyone that could. Im no tech expert but if explained in english i would also be very greatfull. It seems that my rig has alot more to offer and i cant unlock its power :Cry: . So thanks in advanced to those who can help me, i await the help of the pros!Specs are as follows:I7 2600k @ 4.1 ghz through easytuneGigabyte GA P67A-UD7Geforce gtx 5804 gig mushkin redline showing at 1333 mhzNoctua nh d14 cooler640gb wd caviar black 64 mb cacheWin7 32 ultimate also have 64Thanks for reading

Hey Chris,I seem to be one of the few around here with a Gigabyte motherboard... so here goesOnce you make a few changes in the BIOS, all you're really doing to overclock these chips is upping the multiplier. Of course as you up the multiplier, the cpu demands more voltage so you have to up the vcore as well. The only danger with overclocking is feeding something too much voltage - so be careful what you're typing in the voltage menu. Also as you overclock these chips higher and higher, they hit a voltage wall at which point increasing the clock speed requires substantially more voltage.Let's see if I can't give you some sort of guide for overclocking the UD7 board - the BIOS should be quite similar to the UD5. First thing you need to do is update to the latest BIOS. It's not quite the latest, but several UD7 owners have reported F7e to be a solid bios (some newer bios revisions have CPU PLL override removed, but you want it). Download it and extract it. You will need to download @BIOS from the Gigabyte website. If you already installed it from the CD included with your mobo, uninstall it and install the version I linked. Once installed, point it to the extracted F7e bios file and when it's done updating reboot. Since the Gigabyte boards have dual bios, you will need to replace the backup bios with it. This is extremely important, otherwise your Gigabyte board may just wipe the F7e bios with the older backup version and you will have to re-update it to F7e again. To do it, hold ALT-F12 on startup . If ALT-F12 doesn't work, you need to try a different keyboard, perhaps one with the old PS/2 connecter.Next thing you need to do is install Windows 7 x64 (much better for FSX)Once you have windows up and running you're ready to overclock. Reboot the computer and go into the bios. Here's some BIOS settings that should work for you at 4.8GHz. I specified a higher vcore than what will probably be necessary so that it would work. If you can boot into windows with these settings and run prime95 for a while without BSOD or freezing, go back into the BIOS and reduce the vcore and try again. Basically you want to lower the vcore as much as possible without running into stability issues. Notice hyperthreading is disabled because FSX doesn't directly benefit from it. Enabling it will require more voltage and create more heat. Also, I'm not sure which mushkin ram you got. I assumed your memory was 7-8-7-24, but make sure to change those settings to match your memory timings. Keep the command rate at 1. Also you can probably run the memory at lower voltage than the 1.64 I specified in the settings below, but as I said this is to ensure you're up and running. You can play with lowering that voltage later on. You can also enable turbo overclocking, but for now let's keep things easy.Finally, some programs you will need:Prime95 (use this to stress test your CPU to check for stability - I think the blend setting is probably the best)Realtemp (use this to make sure you don't burn up your processor while stress testing - keep temps below 75ish while stress testing)CPU Z (make sure your CPU is running at the correct clock speed and voltage)While you're zeroing in on your voltage, run prime95 for shorter time periods (maybe 15 or 30 minutes), this way you don't waste a bunch of time. As you get a closer to the final lowest possible voltage you can start running prime95 for longer periods of time (1 hour, 2 hours, 12 hours, it's up to you).

 ### MB Intelligent Tweaker ###> Advanced Frequency Settings:CPU Clock Ratio .......................................[ 48BCLK/DMI/PEG Clock Control ............................[ EnabledBCLK/DMI/PEG Frequency Control ........................[ 1002System Memory Multiplier (SPD) ........................[ 16.00>> Advanced CPU Core FeaturesCPU Clock Ratio .......................................[ 48Internal CPU PLL Overvoltage...........................[ EnabledReal Time Ratio Changes In OS .........................[ DisabledIntel(R) Turbo Boost Tech .............................[ DisabledTurbo Ratio (Core 1)...................................[ AutoTurbo Ratio (Core 2)...................................[ AutoTurbo Ratio (Core 3)...................................[ AutoTurbo Ratio (Core 4)...................................[ AutoTurbo Power Limit (Watts)..............................[ 300Turbo Current Limit (Amps).............................[ 300CPU Cores Enabled ............................ ........[ AllCPU Multi Threading....................................[ DisabledCPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) ...............................[ DisabledC3/C6 State Support ...................................[ DisabledCPU Thermal Monitor ...................................[ DisabledCPU EIST Function .....................................[ DisabledBi-Directional PROCHOT ................................[ Disabled> Advanced Memory Settings:System Memory Multiplier (SPD) ........................[ 16.00Performance Enhance ...................................[ StandardDRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) ..........................[ QuickChannel Interleaving ..................................[ EnabledRank Interleaving .....................................[ Enabled>> Channel A Timing Settings:##Channel A Standard Timing Control##CAS Latency Time ......................................[ 7tRCD ..................................................[ 8tRP ...................................................[ 7tRAS ..................................................[ 24tRC ...................................................[ AutotRRD ..................................................[ AutotWTR ..................................................[ AutotWR ...................................................[ AutotWTP ..................................................[ AutotWL ...................................................[ AutotRFC ..................................................[ AutotRTP ..................................................[ AutotFAW ..................................................[ AutoCommand Rate (CMD) ....................................[ 1IO Latency ............................................[ AutoRound Trip Latency ....................................[ Auto> Advanced Voltage Control:CPULoad Line Calibration .................................[ Level 1CPU Vcore .............................................[ 1.36QPI/VTT Voltage 1.050v ................................[ 1.12System Agent Voltage 0.925v ...........................[ 0.925PCH Core 1.050v .......................................[ 1.050CPU PLL 1.800v ........................................[ 1.76DRAMDRAM Voltage 1.500v ...................................[ 1.64DRAM Vref 0.750v ......................................[ AutoDRAM Termination 0.750v ...............................[ AutoCh-A Data VRef. 0.750v ................................[ AutoCh-B Data VRef. 0.750v ................................[ AutoCh-A Address VRef. 0.750v .............................[ AutoCh-B Address VRef. 0.750v .............................[ Auto> Miscellaneous SettingsIsochronous Support ...................................[ DisabledVirtualization Technology .............................[ Disabled

Finally, if there were a place I would send you for more info regarding overclocking on the UD7, it would be this thread at the XtremeSystems forums. I hope that's ok to do on these forums... let me know otherwise.

Hi Corey,Firstly thankyou very much for explainig clearly this process. As with the ram it shows the timings as 9-9-9-24 in cpuz but they are 6-8-6-24. I reformated earlier to win7 64 and updated the bios to ver f7a, that was the newest release showing for this board, so im going to give it a go ( i have just noticed your link to f7e so im off to update). In the meantime, can i ask you what figures i put in the bios for the ram, the ones cpuz show or the timings on the box, or do i leave them alone? Sorry to be a pest but this is all new to me.Thanks again for your help

yeah, do the 6-8-6-24 settings

OK im off to give it a try

OK well i tried that with no luck, i changed the settings and saved and rebooted but it kept trying to reboot about 15 times and that was it. I pressed the mobo power button(i started to panic) and it booted with an error message about overclocking and went on to windows.When i checked the @bios it was showing ver f3? do i need to update the bios again? I dont think im meant to have an overclocked system or ive gone seriosly wrong with something somwhere.

No no, don't worry - it's a little confusing at first until you figure out the quirks. You can do this! Let's go step by step. Using @BIOS, re-update your bios to F7e or any other bios of your choice. Reboot and confirm it's running F7e - you can check that using @BIOS or even CPU Z. Now reboot again and hold ALT-F12 to overwrite the backup bios. A dialogue will pop up at some point asking you if you want to overwrite. If that dialogue doesn't pop up, you need to try another keyboard - probably one with the older PS/2 connector. The older Gigabyte bios revisions have some keyboard compatibility issues that I think have been resolved with the new bios revisions.

Thanks for your patience on this, i updated the bios again but the alt f12 thingy didnt work and this is the only keyboard i have, i recently sold the other one. Anyway, where shall i go from here, im baffled

Find a friend to borrow one from or worst case scenario go to a computer repair shop and buy one on the cheap. I wouldn't be surprised if a computer repair shop had a whole bin of used ones sitting around. It doesn't need to be pretty or anything because once you overwrite the backup bios you won't need to do it again. I assure you the Gigabyte boards are pretty amazing once you get past this odd quirk. Just find one with this style connector and you should be good to go.

Will do in about an hour, a friend has one that i can have...just got to wait for him to pop it round. Will report back soon.

Will do in about an hour, a friend has one that i can have...just got to wait for him to pop it round. Will report back soon.

Try using the right-side "Alt" key. I had to reboot a bunch of times before it would take. Hold the Alt key down as soon as you power up and then just keep hitting Alt+F12 until it takes. It will work just takes a bit to get it to go. Quirky that way.

Try using the right-side "Alt" key. I had to reboot a bunch of times before it would take. Hold the Alt key down as soon as you power up and then just keep hitting Alt+F12 until it takes. It will work just takes a bit to get it to go. Quirky that way.

Ok will do, wont be untill much later on tonight now, working a late one today. Thanks for the tip. By the way like i said before, when i aplyed the changes in the bios it tried to boot with no success, it managed to boot into the previous bios. This wont screw the pc up will it? i mean it will manage to boot into this version wont it as i will be basicly overwriting the previous version?

Corey, I gotta ask - why are you suggesting he goes to 4.8GHz straight away? @Chris - you should try going for a lower clock first, see how the hardware behaves, and take it from there. For example, if it works at 4.5GHz at 1.3v, go to 4.7GHz. You do this as long as the temperatures and voltages are within reasonable limits for 24/7 use. I personally wouldn't go above 75*C and 1.35v, at least not until Intel comes out with some real data about voltages. Also, remember that an odd hundred megahertz don't really make a big difference in performance. You shouldn't try to achieve a certain clock at any cost. Sometimes, settling for a 100 or 200MHz lower clock, with the benefit of significantly lower voltage will be better overall. If that doesn't work, bump the voltage a bit, and try again - if it works, try for 4.8GHz, and again - if it fails, bump the voltage a bit. You can determine how much voltage you need to bump by the severity of the failure. For example, if you just get a 'soft' error in LinX or Prime95 after 30 minutes of testing, you probably only need a small amount more, if it gets an error right away, you're probably somewhat more below the required voltage. If it BSODs during widows or fails to start at all - you're probably way below the required voltage or you're doing something else wrong. Various protections and safeties nowadays make it near impossible to permanently damage hardware by overclocking, unless you really go crazy and start pumping 1.5v into the Chip or something :)Also, you should probably loosen up the timings to 9-9-9-27 for starters, and see what the CPU does - then once you got that stable, tighten the timings and verify it's stable again.

Different schools, different methods.I am very happy to see how people are ready to help generously. Nice feeling <_< Thanks guys !

Make sure you match the back-up bios to your current bios. It is a pain in the a__ when you are testing stablity and the bios don't match on the 6 series gig boards. I was able to update the back-up the bios on my ud4 with a usb keyboard as long as you start styping alt+f12 very early in the boot process and press the combination alot. Once the bios match you can overclock in a much better state of mind. These new gig bios are kinda crap, with booting and reloading cmos after a failed oc from time to time...built solid, but geez...