Ok, get your motherboard manual and open it page 2-19 to locate the CMOS reset jumper. That's in case something goes wrong, you can reset your BIOS to defaults.

Then the first step before OCing is to test the system at stock clocks to make sure everything is fine. Was it running ok before you attempted to OC?

 

Yes it was

Ok, now we can either downclock the memory to get it out of the OC equation or assume it's running ok. If you want to go straight up for the Vcore adjustment, we can ignore this step although I wouldn't. Your call, I don't know how specific you want this to be?

 

to downclock your RAM...

 

 

set 1) to 1333MHz

 

2) set first 5 timings to 9 - 9 - 9 - 9 - 27 for example

Ok, now we can either downclock the memory to get it out of the OC equation or assume it's running ok. If you want to go straight up for the Vcore adjustment, we can ignore this step although I wouldn't. Your call, I don't know how specific you want this to be?

 

Ok dazz, I really would like to do it right and learn at the same time and try to get it to 4.8Ghz or better w a low vcore. Now I'm using the same computer online that we need to get into bios with so I don't know if you need to PM me with the guide or what? Also today is my wife's birthday and I'm taking her out to dinner. It's 5:00PM here in Texas and I don't really know what time it is in Spain lol. But whatever is convenient for you to do this is fine with me but I may not be here when you post the next step in the guide. You let me know what works for you! Thanks

 

Regards,

 

Jim

Ok no problem on my part, let's just post when we can. It's 0am here, but I plan to geek away the night in the interweb + FSX until 4:30 when the lakers game starts. Lame for a friday night I know

 

for the RAM timmings

 

 

that should work for 9-9-9-24-1N

you should manually set the first 5 values

Ok no problem on my part, let's just post when we can. It's 0am here, but I plan to geek away the night in the interweb + FSX until 4:30 when the lakers game starts. Lame for a saturday night I know

 

Ok great, I may be gone for a couple of hours or so. What about the problem with only the one computer to post and get into bios??? I suppose I could use my wife's Ipad or laptop. Will let you know when I get back! OK? Also not so lame when you enjoy geeking away and FSX not to mention the Laker's game lol Who you pulling for anyway??

 

But my Ram is CL9-11-10-28 2T I can still change it to what you posted 9-9-9-24-1N???

well, if you have any questions while tweaking your BIOS you'll need an alternative way to connect, but you can always press *ESC* to exit without changing anything and then go back. Don't let it intimidate you, as long as you know how to reset it with the jumper, there's no reason to fear it. And we're not going to do anything crazy that may trigger protections.

Note that pressing F12 will take a screen shot of your current BIOS screen that you can save to a pen drive or something if you need to:

 

 

I root for the lakers since the 80's, but I guess we're pretty much doomed already

Once you have downclocked your RAM, you should boot into Windows and make sure it's stable. You can never be too anal when OCing for the first time.

Open CPU-Z, tab memory, and confirm that RAM is running at the speed and timings you just set in the BIOS

 

DRAM frequency should be 666MHz (you will see half the speed of those 1333MHz you just set in the BIOS because CPU-Z displays the "raw" RAM speed, but in practice it's running at 2x that because it's double data rate memory)

 

 

Stress test for a while (5 - 30 minutes depending on your patience) with Prime 95, or Linx. Always monitor your Vcore with CPU-Z and temps with Core Temp while stress testing.

Max temps 80ºC and max Vcore 1.37-1.4V

But my Ram is CL9-11-10-28 2T I can still change it to what you posted 9-9-9-24-1N???

 

yeah you're right, sorry about that. to play it safe make it 11-11-11-30-2T maybe. At 1333MHz it may work at 9-9-9-24, but it defeats the purpose of downclocking specially with a 1T (1N) command rate

yeah you're right, sorry about that. to play it safe make it 11-11-11-30-2T maybe. At 1333MHz it may work at 9-9-9-24, but it defeats the purpose of downclocking specially with a 1T (1N) command rate

ok loaded optimized defaults set dram to 11-11-11-30-2T but windows won't boot up o/c failure press F1 for setup??

ok loaded optimized defaults set dram to 11-11-11-30-2T but windows won't boot up o/c failure press F1 for setup??

 

was that with mem freq set to 1333MHz? anyway, probably better to set the timings to 9-11-10-28 2T and the mem speed to 1333 or 1600

was that with mem freq set to 1333MHz? anyway, probably better to set the timings to 9-11-10-28 2T and the mem speed to 1333 or 1600

 

yes mem set to 1333mhz so reset timings to manuf 9-11-10-28-2T and it booted up to windows. However I think I will go back to previous settings at 4.7Ghz because it was stable. But according to CPU-ID vcore was between 1.38 and 1.43!!w/ FSXrunning Is that too high on vcore at 1.43?? I don't know just thinking out loud maybe we should go on with your help but I'm afraid my vcore will be too high at 4.8 to 5.0 and not be stable?

1.43 is a bit steep for a 24/7 overclock, nothing to worry about for a short stint but we can surely do better than that.

Let's focus on the power management modes - C states now

C1E, (EIST) Speed Step. You can find them under Advanced -> CPU Configuration

Those will tune your Vcore and frequency as a function of CPU load when enabled. When your CPU is idling, the VCore and frequency will go down to maybe 0.9V & 1.6GHz

At full load both will go off, and your CPU frequency will be maxed out, at whatever speed you set it to run.

 

Now we'll set a manual overclock, set "AI Overclock tuner" to manual

"Turbo Ratio" to "All Cores"

right below that: "By all cores" set it to 47 (for 4.7GHz) or whatever you want to test

1.43 is a bit steep for a 24/7 overclock, nothing to worry about for a short stint but we can surely do better than that.

Let's focus on the power management modes - C states now

C1E, (EIST) Speed Step. You can find them under Advanced -> CPU Configuration

Those will tune your Vcore and frequency as a function of CPU load when enabled. When your CPU is idling, the VCore and frequency will go down to maybe 0.9V & 1.6GHz

At full load both will go off, and your CPU frequency will be maxed out, at whatever speed you set it to run.

 

Now we'll set a manual overclock, set "AI Overclock tuner" to manual

"Turbo Ratio" to "All Cores"

right below that: "By all cores" set it to 47 (for 4.7GHz) or whatever you want to test

 

Ok C1E and speedstep both enabled and set 47 by all cores and booted into windows ok

 

Ok C1E and speedstep both enabled and set 47 by all cores and booted into windows ok

 

CPU-ID showing 4.8 w vcore of 1.45 to 1.48 too high will change in bios to lower number and see

 

Ok C1E and speedstep both enabled and set 47 by all cores and booted into windows ok

 

 

 

CPU-ID showing 4.8 w vcore of 1.45 to 1.48 too high will change in bios to lower number and see

 

 

Ok better set to 45 and CPUid shows 4635.76 45 x 103.02mhz and vcore is between 1.38 and 1.40v core temps are 60,57,61,58 w FSX running NGX at Las Vegas FSDT

Ok C1E and speedstep both enabled and set 47 by all cores and booted into windows ok

 

 

 

CPU-ID showing 4.8 w vcore of 1.45 to 1.48 too high will change in bios to lower number and see

 

 

 

 

Ok better set to 45 and CPUid shows 4635.76 45 x 103.02mhz and vcore is between 1.38 and 1.40v core temps are 60,57,61,58 w FSX running NGX at Las Vegas FSDT

 

 

Intel Burn Test w/ above settings show the core temps of 70,78,79,74 on high setting within burn test so maybe I've gone as far as I can with this particular chip etc. Dazz you've really help me understand more of what to look for and what to change. I can't thank you enough for your help. Guess I will leave well enough alone for now! ENJOY the Lakers game!!!!!!!

 

Regards

 

Jim

I'm very sorry, I fell asleep and should have clarified a couple of things. Here's a little bit of the theory and some important concepts before we go to the process itself

 

Before setting the multiplier you should always set your Vcore manually. If you leave your Vcore to "Auto" your board decides what Vcore it will run for you.

 

A good place to start is 44/45 multi and a manual Vcore of 1.38V. To set your Vcore you have these settings under "AI Tweaker" (from the manual)

 

CPU Voltage [Offset Mode]

[Manual Mode] Allows you to set a fixed CPU voltage. <--------------------------------------------------- set to manual for now, a new window should appear to set your Vcore to 1.38V

[Offset Mode] Allows you to set the Offset voltage.

 

Offset Mode Sign [+]

This item appears only when you set the CPU Voltage item to [Offset Mode].

[+] To offset the voltage by a positive value.

[–] To offset the voltage by a negative value.

 

CPU Offset Voltage [Auto]

This item appears only when you set the CPU Voltage item to [Offset Mode] and

allows you to set the Offset voltage. The values range from 0.005V to 0.635V with a

0.005V interval.

 

Once you boot into Windows again, you'll find that your Vcore is still a bit lower than expected, maybe 1.35V (And also that when setting the Vcore as a fixed/manual value, C1E - Speed Step stop working, so your Vcore will stay at it's maximum value even when the CPU is idling)

 

That's because of Vdrop. Vdrop is the voltage difference between what you set in your BIOS and what you really get while the CPU is idle (without power saving modes enabled that will further lower your Vcore obviously). In summary, if you set a manual Vcore of 1.38V and you get 1.35V when idle, you have a 0.03V Vdrop.

 

Then you can have some Vdroop too. Vdroop is the voltage differential between idle and full load operation. So Vdroop will further lower your Vcore once you apply load to your CPU. In the example above, you had 1.38V set in the BIOS, with 1.35V while idle, and let's say you run Intel Burn test and you see the Vcore drop to 1.33V at 100% load. That's a 0.02V Vdroop

 

No problem with that really, just to let you know what to expect, because one may think it will be ok to set 1.35V for a 4.8GHz overclock and then only get 1.3V at full load so it ends up blue screening or failing stress tests due to lack of voltage. Vdrop and Vdroop are not a bad thing per se, actually they are built in intentionally in the board. You will find mixed opinions on weather one should fight Vdroop or not.

 

Vdrop is a non issue obviously. If you have a lower Vcore once you boot into the OS, you can simply set it a bit higher to compensate the Vdrop effect.

Vdroop is a different story. Here's an example. Imagine you have a chip that will make 4.8GHz at 1.4V stable. That means that you need it to be stable at full load with 1.4V, and let's say that you have a 0.05V Vdroop. So you need to set your Vcore in the BIOS to whatever gets you 1.4V at full load, and with a 0.05V Vdroop that means that this chip will idle at 1.45V which is a pretty high voltage. You can always use C1E to lower your idle Vcore, but there will always be a transient at some point where Vcore will shoot up to 1.45V when the load decreases to idle.

Personally, I like to cancel Vdroop in my overclocks, and that's done in Asus boards with Load Line Calibration (AI Tweaker tab)

 

The higher you set your LLC, the lower your Vdroop will be. Set to "Ultra High" it should pretty much cancel it completely, and you should see no voltage variation between idle and full load operation.

 

Now let's go for the Vcore settings. In manual mode you just set a fixed voltage and off you go. Problem with that is that you get no C1E and the chip will sit at that voltage even when idle.

This is also a matter of personal preference, some prefer to have it at full speed / Vcore all the time, some like me like it at a nice low 1.6GHz / 0.9V while idle, and have C1E adjust the speed and Vcore as the CPU load demands more juice. Initially I use manual Vcore to be able to identify my idle Vcore vs full load Vcore, and therefore pinpoint how much Vdroop I have, then tweak Load Line Calibration to cancel it.

 

Once the overclock is done using manual Vcore, tested and deemed stable, I set my Vcore using an offset value to get back C1E & Speed Step. In offset mode you have a "fixed" base Vcore value and then an offset or incremet/decrement amount of Vcore you add/substract to that base Vcore. The idea is very simple. If you got your chip to say 4.7GHz & 1.36V manual Vcore, you need to find the offset that will give you 1.36V at full load. Trial and error, but there's a table bellow that should help you determine an aproximate offset value depending on your OC parameters.

The base Vcore to which you apply an offset depends on

 

- your set CPU clock (the multiplier). The higher it is, the higher the base Vcore will be, just like when you set your Vcore to "Auto" and the board will increase you Vcore automatically as you increase the CPU multiplier, only that now you can adjust it using the offset

 

- Load Line Calibration: again , the higher it is, the higher the base Vcore will be. You need to be careful with this one. Imagine you've found that with an offset of +0.030 you get a nice 1.35V at 4.6GHz, and you have LLC set to "High" as that gives you an ok Vdroop control, with for example 1.36V at idle (with C1E off, otherwise C1E will lower Vcore on it's own). So you you say, hey, I want to try and completely cancel that 0.01V Vdroop and have 1.35V both at idle and full load, I'm gonna try "Ultra High" LLC. Increasing LLC will also increase the base Vcore value and you will probably have some 1.4V as a consequence

 

So now the process of overclocking I use, copy-pasted from an older post here in Avsim:

 

1.- Test on stock clocks. Make sure it's all stable, temps are fine, Should run on stock clocks for a week or so and pass a few hours of Prime95, OCCT or the likes

 

2.- Decide what Vcore you are ready to push. For SB, 1.375V is my max. It's full load Vcore what matters, Vcore in windows at 100% load, not what is set in BIOS

 

3.- Downclock your RAM. This is to get RAM out of the stability equation. Setting it to 1333 CL10 or something like that will ensure RAM doesn't interfere with your CPU overclock, and that you'll be certain when you hit the chip's limit it will be the CPU limit, not the RAM crapping out. This is more of a legacy thing since older platforms overclocked with BCLK and that has a bigger effect on RAM, but I still do it with SB5.- Set a manual / fixed Vcore and multi to reasonable values to start testing. Something like 1.35V and 4.4GHz for example

 

4.- Get to know your board's Vdrop / Vdroop and Load Line Calibration capabilities. What you want here is to get those 1.35V you set in BIOS in Windows.Vdrop will lower your Vcore in Windows so while idle it will be something like 1.34V. Vdroop will further drop your Vcore at full load, maybe 1.33 or 1.32V

Start upping LLC till you get exactly or as close as possible those 1.35V you set in your BIOS at full load and idle in Windows. Monitor temps while you stress test and don't let it go over 80ºC

 

5.- Once Vdrop & Vdroop are cancelled, set your Vcore to your maximum, 1.375V for example using manual Vcore in BIOS. Check again you have no Vdrop & Vdroop by booting into Windows and stress testing for a short stint. Monitor temps while you stress test and don't let it go over 80ºC. You should now have 1.375V at full load and idle too (to check idle Vcore you wil need to switch off power saving modes, Speedstep, C1E, C3, C6 report)

 

6.- Now that you have your maximum Vcore in place, start bumping your multi 100MHz at a time, and stress test thoroughly. Repeat until you hit the chip's limit. Monitor temps as you increase the frequency!

 

7.- Once you know what frequency your chip can take, start lowering your Vcore till you find the minimum it will run at you max overclock8.- If you want to use the power saving modes, you'll need to switch from manual to offset Vcore modeHere's how to obtain the offset value to get the Vcore at which your OC was stable in the previous steps (in manual mode)this are the approximate values for each LLC level. I believe this table was made at 4.6GHz. Not sure thoughSo for example, if you want 1.35V and your LLC is set to Ultra High, set your offset to -0.010.Boot into windows and open CPU-Z. Stress test for a minute to see what full load Vcore you have and see if your Vcore is where you want it to. Lower? raise it in BIOS and try again. Higher? lower it in BIOS.Once you have your offset, you can enable C1E and EIST. Check if it throttles down to 1.6GHz and 0.9 - 1V while idle, and stress test again for 8+hours. Monitor temps and Vcore while you do9.- You now have (hopefully) a rock solid CPU overclock, time to focus on memory speed.Set your RAM speed, timings and voltage at what your sticks are rated and stress test for 8+hours. Monitor temps and Vcore while you doIf you want to overclock your memory, do so, and stress test for 8+hours. Monitor temps and Vcore while you do

 

 

Here's a pic of the main stuff in the BIOS. Just to help locate things, not necessarily to use those settings

 

 

 

 

And where to set an offset Vcore: