i7 860@ 3.8ghz Stability issue help please

[mattnum]

Hello fellow canucks,

This is my first time OC'ing and first time posting. I am currently playing with OCing my i7 860 on a Asus P7p55d Pro mobo. I am using a Hyper 212+ with two noctua fans in push pull.

My first course of action was to determine that my mother board could handle a BCLK of 200 at the appropriate IMC voltage (1.275). Ram and CPU were all set to spec or lower so they wouldn't create any confounding factors.

I then kept the the IMC voltage at that and lowered the base clock. I then slowly increased it after setting my cpu multiplier at 22.

I am now unstable in LinX with:
Bclk 175
CPU multi 22
CPU Volt 1.34375
IMC 1.28125
and everything else on auto

Load-Line calibration is enabled
SpeedStep Disabled
C state tech disabled

usually I would only have to do small cpu volt increases (like .01v) but at this point I've appeared to hit a wall. I'm at 1.34375 volts right now and I've heard that for 24/7 overclocks you shouldn't be pushing 1.35. I have room with my temperatures, with 100% in Linx being at ~74 degC, but I keep getting LinX errors.

I tried upping PLL volts to 1.9 without any change.

Again, with my temperatures I feel like I have room to go higher. My games never push the CPU as hot as LinX or Prime95 anyway.

Is it not a good idea to have a 24/7 OC with CPU volts greater than 1.35?

Thanks guys and gals

[martin_metal_88]

Hi and welcome on HWC! Hope you love the place!
Linx usually make your CPU fail where other stress test wont. Based on my 2 system here with 860 I would tell you to add voltage to the CPU. One of my 860 need 1.38 and the other 1.36 to be stable at 3.8 so this might be your issue. Try 1.38 and then go down notch by notch.

20 run of linx with the ALL option on will tell you of it's ok. Don't worry about temp in stress test, your normal temp are usually 5 to 10 degree under the temp during linx test.

You could also try going to 21 multi with 180 BCLK. Sometime going to 21 even allow to go near 4Ghz since 180 BCLK is not that hard to achieve.

[mattnum]

Thanks Martin, I will add some more volts. I realize now that after I find the stable overclock for my CPU I might need to change the CPU multiplier and Bclk around so I can bring my RAM back up to where I want it (1600c8) until I decide to venture into RAM overclocking.

Assuming I can stabilize at these clock speeds 3.8-4.0ghz, can I turn things like speedstep and c-state tech back on after so that it will downclock and down volt to save power? I assume using a voltage offset will also crank the volts down when the system is not under load as well?

I am really new to this but having a ball! The girl friend is not as impressed as myself though.....

Thanks,

Matt

[martin_metal_88]

Well, I learned old school and for some reason usually speedstepand thing like that are usually turned off. Seems that they can cause instability at higher clock. Also, look into your bios and disable EVERYTHING you don't need. Like if you have a second network card etc. Keep us up to date!

[mattnum]

I forgot to ask. I am using CPUID Hardware Monitor for looking at my mobo temps (any better programs out there?) and for SYSTIN I have 80 degC with a LinX stable 3.95ghz OC.

Is this temp ok? considering I am doing 100% load tests and hopefully games (what I do) won't ever pull it that high?

Matt

[martin_metal_88]

I am running one of my 860 at 90 24/7 so your temp are fine. So I see that you have been able to put it a bit higher with a bit more volt and reducing the multi:P
for the temp, use realtemp for CPU and everest for the other temp.

[mattnum]

Thanks again Martin. I'm going to try to hit 4.0ghz, but I think It's going to need 1.4 Vcore, which I am not sure is ok regardless of the temps...but that I don't know.

[martin_metal_88]

As long as you are comfortable with the themp it's ok. Not many people would do as meand let it go at 90 for month. But, if you keep it under 80 in linx, it will probably be around 70-75 in game so it would be ok.

[eyekanspele]

I have an 17 860 that I hit 4.5ghz (wasnt stable), but have an everday overclock at 4.2ghz.

I have my bclk @ 200mhz, and my multiplier at 21. The only thing is I have turbo boost and Hyperthreading turned off (I know HT turned off is kinda silly for getting an i7). But I do run my cpu 24/7 @ 1.4V

in terms of if its a good idea or not, I determined it by looking at intel's spec sheet:
Intel® Core

it says the processor should be able to handle 1.4v, so I personally dont see a problem with it. Its the overvolting that can cause socket burn, and as far as I am concerned, if its within spec, its not really overvolting.

I did try to keep hyper threading on while overclocking, but I could only get 3.8ghz stable... since I only game I valued the extra couple hundred mhz over HT.