Bob, should hyper threading be turned off?

Yes, with Hyper off you'll need less core voltage to get the same GHz speed, turn Hyper on and you'll nee more core voltage for the same GHz speed.

Jose; The intel spec for the 975 Vcore is 1.20-1.375v normal range and 1.55v absolute maximum, which includes an allowance for a .05v overshoot. You're a long way from there now...lots of headroom still for clocking. The first thing you're going to want to do for overclocks at/above 4 GHz is to turn Load Line Calibration on, and turn C1E and Speedstep off. The LLC setting prevents the core voltage from dropping under load.What are your DRAM and QPI/DRAM voltages?What sort of utility do you have for monitoring voltages and temps?Do you have hyperthreading turned off?

Load Line Calibration is ON, and C1E, Speedstep, and HT are all OFF.Ram is set to Auto at 1600. I can set 7-7-7-24 at 1333. But can get 1600 to work with 7-7-24. I think I think I ran them at 1.67.What utility do you recommend? I always thought the the Asus Monitor was a good back up.

Load Line Calibration is ON, and C1E, Speedstep, and HT are all OFF.Ram is set to Auto at 1600. I can set 7-7-7-24 at 1333. But can get 1600 to work with 7-7-24. I think I think I ran them at 1.67.What utility do you recommend? I always thought the the Asus Monitor was a good back up.

If the ASUS utility gives you real-time voltage info, that's probably good. I use an eVGA utility called E-Leet on my eVGA X58 board, but I don't think it works with other mobos. Realtemp is a good utility for CPU/GPU temp monitoring.I don't recommend running with DRAM voltage set to over 1.65v...it can hose the IMC on the CPU chip.What's your QPI/DRAM voltage set at? It's very important this voltage be within 0.5v of the DRAM voltage.

If the ASUS utility gives you real-time voltage info, that's probably good. I use an eVGA utility called E-Leet on my eVGA X58 board, but I don't think it works with other mobos. Realtemp is a good utility for CPU/GPU temp monitoring.I don't recommend running with DRAM voltage set to over 1.65v...it can hose the IMC on the CPU chip.What's your QPI/DRAM voltage set at? It's very important this voltage be within 0.5v of the DRAM voltage.

What's your QPI/DRAM voltage set at?Auto

What's your QPI/DRAM voltage set at?Auto

This all assumes BCLK remains at the default 133.The DRAM and QPI/DRAM voltages are important enough I would set them manually--DRAM voltage to 1.65v, and QPI/DRAM to 1.30v--if 1.65v is a change from what you had set before, you'll want to run Memtest 86+ at the new settings for a few hours to make sure the memory system is stable at those voltages and frequencies. Since you're overclocking with the CPU mult, once the memory system is stable, you can leave the memory set and not have to fiddle with it during the overclocking trials.If your goal is 4.4 GHz, I would start by setting Vcore to 1.425v, leave your clock settings alone, and fire up the machine at 4.0 GHz with the higher voltage setting and watch the voltages and temps. Run Prime95 or OCCT (both freeware utilities) to load up the CPU. You want to make sure that Vcore doesn't exceed 1.48v under load...at 4.0 GHz with LLC on and 1.425v, I'd expect to see 1.43-1.44v. Temps should stay below 80--keep a close eye on this with the Peltier cooler. Once you've assured that the voltages/temps are behaving, bump up the mult to 32 (4.27 GHz) and repeat...the Vcore will probably climb .01-.02v from before. Assuming everything is OK at this freq, I would run OCCT at these settings for an hour or two, keeping an eye on temps and voltages.To reach 4.4 GHz, increment the mult to 33. If it won't boot or run stressed at this setting you can tweak the Vcore, but I wouldn't let Vcore (not the setting, but the reported value) exceed 1.49v. If it boots and passes a stress test at 1.425, you can try decreasing the Vcore one increment, then try again, and continue until it BSODs or starts throwing errors, then go back up a notch or two. If you can't get it to pass with Vcore reported at 1.49v, you may not be able to run at 4.4--then you can drop the mult to 32 and run at 4.27.

Thanks Bob.I'll try your advice when I have some time to really focus.

Bob, don't you think that $500 for a GTX580 would be better spent in a SB CPU + mobo? Maybe we need to know what IQ settings he's currently running his GTX285 atI would try the BP=0 tweak before doing anything else

He would also need memory for the SB. It will be tight to make all of this happen for $500. You could do it with a 2500K, if you get a great deal. What motherboard would you reccomend?Kdub

He would also need memory for the SB. It will be tight to make all of this happen for $500. You could do it with a 2500K, if you get a great deal. What motherboard would you reccomend?Kdub

What's your budget? Do you need or want a SLI/XFire capable board? What's your case?