Latest OC of new rig

[PTRMAN]

Thanks guys.

I guess I'm far enough into OCing to consider the pencil mod, huh?

OW - I'm using 780i and Q9550.

Polo- are you telling me to up my CPU FSB voltage, or are you replying to owcraftsman?

If the SMP continues to run without a problem then I'll leave it alone, but if I have further hanging I'll revisit the pencil mod and the voltages.

It's still running steady after 5 hours. I'll check again in the morning.




*edit: I'm using RealTemp and CPUID Hardware monitor - how do I check other temps on my board (i.e. NB, etc.)?*

[polobunny]

I was replying to owcraftsman.

[owcraftsman]

Yes I believe you would benefit from the pencil mod.
As far as temps goes I use Everest Ultimate
[url=http://imageshack.us]

[PTRMAN]

PC was hung this morning. It was 30% done on SMP when I went to bed around 11, then when restarted this morning at 6:30 (I LOVE the 6.23 - didn't crash or start from zero again!) showed 50% done, so it must have worked another 3-4 hours before conking out.

Wife checked around 2pm - was around 80% with an estimated four hours to go - so it was running for 7.5 hours stable. I'll check when I get home and see what's happened. If all has worked well I'll try to restart and get a fresh set of pics for the BIOS settings. Maybe play around with a pencil mod...

I'm wondering if I've got something set up to automatically run at 3 in the morning and that is what is causing the fail.

[polobunny]

The pencil mod, albeit not a bad idea shouldn't be necessary. It takes of vdroop, which can be compensated by upping the voltage a bit. If you can't get your overclock stable now, it likely won't be more stable if you pencil mod, unless you are right on the limit of stability (which anyway isn't the best thing).

[owcraftsman]

I agree with polo it's not a bad idea, but it has helped many get a stable system with theses EVGA boards. The mod is for stability and really a method for down tweaking your voltage and maintaining your OC with stability.

Once I reach a desired OC I always tweak down my voltages and re stabilty check the settings.

It can't hurt for a short period of time to raise the voltage and see if stability increases but watch your temps of course. I think it couldn't hurt to up your MCP, SPP and MCP voltages.
Currently with my E8400 and 780i steup:

@ 3800

I'm running
1.31v core
1.30v FSB
1.85v Memory
1.40v SPP
1.50v MCP

@ 4000

1.335v core
1.325v FSB
2.0v Memory
1.40v SPP
1.525v MCP

Hope this helps! These settings are what was required for stability. For me that's typically all cores prime stabile 10 priority for 24 hrs..

I understand your running a Quad so if anything , it seems like you could need more
at least that's the case with my Q6600 on the 680i but it's a different animal in most respects to your Q9550 but not much different than the E8400.

GOOD LUCK

[PTRMAN]

That's great - I'll take a look tonight and play some more. It hung yesterday afternoon around 2 so I restarted when I got home. Finished SMP unit around midnight. Played a bit with memory settings and restarted. It hung again about 2 hours later, so I restarted it again this morning. Probably have to restart again tonight. *sigh*

I'm gonna dial it back a bit shortly to get some stability for a bit - we're having a garage sale Friday and Saturday, then we leave for a week. I'd rather have it consistently folding while I'm away, even at a lower level, than hung for a week.

But I'll be back trying again in Dec.

[PTRMAN]

Just had a "Eureka!" moment - found an official Nvidia OC guide for 680i/780i. Reading through it I noted that if SLI-Ready Memory is Enabled (and mine is) then board automatically sets most timing options to "pre-verified" and enhanced values. So my sole problem at this point then is probably the CPU Core. You guys probably knew that already, but I just figured it out. So tonight I'll rest CPU Core to highest "green" setting and see how it goes. Can always dial it back from there, right?

Once that's stable I'll play with changing memory setting to Disabled and put in my own values.

thoughts?

*EDIT*

Ran my volts up to max and played a bit. This is what I've got:

SYS CLOCKS
CPU Multi: 8X (actually runs at 8.5x)CPUN/2: EnabledPCIe 16x3: 100
SPP-MCP: Auto
SPP-->MCP: 5X
SPP<--MCP: 5X
Spread Spectrums: All disabled

FSB & MEM CONFIG
Memory SLI: Expert
FSB-Mem Clock: Linked
FSB Memory: Synced
FSB (QDR): 1850

MEM TIMING
Mem Timing: Expert
tCL: 5
tRCD: 5
tRP: 5
tRAS: 18
Command: 2T
tRRD: 4
tRC: 30
tWR: 6
tWTR: 10
tREF: 7.8uS

CPU CONFIG
All disabled except Execute Disable Bit and Virtualization

VOLTS
CPU Core: 1.5
CPU FSB: 1.3
Mem: 2.2
SPP: 1.45
MCP: 1.525
HT: 1.25
GTLVRef: All auto (lane 1 shows as +25)

Ran IBT (2x 20 passes).

Passed with above; also passed at 1875 and 1885. BSOD at 1900 and hung at 1890. Core Temps on the 1885 IBT test ran into the mid-60s (measured with CPUIDHardwar Monitor).

Running GPU2/SMP it hung at 1885 after about 10 minutes, then hung again on a restart while only runnig firefox.

[PTRMAN]

Advice I'm seeing elsewhere:

*EDIT*
1) bump CPU FSB (not Core as earlier stated) up (1.4 is next setting; it is red, so supposedly not recommended).

2) drop CPU core to 1.375, change GTLVRef setting to the following
lane 0 15
lane 1 60
lane2 15
lane 3 60
Run Prime95 if core 0 or 1 fails adjust lane 0 and 1 by + 10 if you pass 35 start
increasing +5. Same on core 2 and Core 3 but chances are they will not fail

Any further thoughts from the HL experts?

[polobunny]

Go for 1.4v for now. It's red in the BIOS but it's not unusual for quads.
Keep the CPU FSB at max of 1.3v, you don't want and shouldn't need to go higher anyway.
Set the GTLV ref lanes to what you suggested.

You mention 8x ratio but say it runs at 8.5x... are you shooting for 4GHz? If you're lucky you might be able to do 8x500FSB which would give you 4GHz and keep your memory linked at 1000MHz thus close to spec but with an added memory bandwidth boost from not having a divider.
Though frankly, 500FSB on a 780i is pushing it a bit.