New to OCing, Tips for an i7 960?

[igot6strings]

So I'm starting to get into the OC game.
I recently purchased a nice Noctua cooler for my cpu and upgraded my ram to some nice triple channel Corsair Vengeance. I have an i7 960 in an MSI x58m mobo. If you folks could offer any tips or potential issues I may run into ahead of time that'd be greatly appreciated.

My stuff should ship from NCIX today and with any luck I'll be melting my cpu by monday.

[igot6strings]

My stuff arrived today and is all installed.
I have it pretty stable at 4.2ghz right now with temps idle at 38 and load around 70. Ram is at 1600mhz.
I've had a few random BSODs but it seems to be fairly stable. Everything is on auto right now except for the memory and uncore ratio. It was the only way I could get 1600 to boot.
I probably need to tweak some voltages but I don't know where to begin.
Any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

[Your_friendly_gamer]

I am on the same boat as you. But I think I finally figured it out. I have never played with 1366 much before other than the auto oc utilities.

This is what I got.

X58A-UD3R rev 2.0 board
I7 960
3x2 gig patriot ram 9 9 9 24

I disabled all the cpu funtions other than all cores, and hyperthreading and left the boost at auto.

changed the multilplier to 25

BLCK 160

Ram at 8 and that gave me 1280mhz but thats cool, and left the timing to 8 8 8 24 1T

changed the memory voltage to 1.6

QPI Clock Ratio 36

Uncore Clock Ratio 18

LLC i put it on regular to meet intel standard whatever

CPU V core to 1.3375

QPI/VTT Voltage 1.275

CPU PLL to 1.88

and everything else just leave it as auto and now I have been running prime 95 for over an hour and no bsod so far.


For the cooler, I am using my most reliable cooler that has been my best friend over the years, prolimatech Megahalems with 2 scythe slip stream 1900 rpm fans. This cooler has seen 5.2ghz on with a 2600K. I love this cooler!

I hope above helps!

[supaflyx3]

Whats a safe temp for x58?
My 920 at 4ghz is currently at 89 degrees on load, ambient temp is around 33 degrees.

QPI v: 1.35
VTT: 1.3
PLL: 1.88

[Your_friendly_gamer]

Originally Posted by supaflyx3

Whats a safe temp for x58?
My 920 at 4ghz is currently at 89 degrees on load, ambient temp is around 33 degrees.

QPI v: 1.35
VTT: 1.3
PLL: 1.88

That is frigging high. Have you tried lowering your voltages? What are you using for a cooler? Just played some Diablo 3 for 30 mins or so and the hottest core was at 55 degrees.

[supaflyx3]

Yeah i tried 1.28, bsod right away so i dropped it down to 3.8. So far it's been stable, but still its at 85 degrees on load.

[Your_friendly_gamer]

It could be because of your ambient temprature as well, 33 is kind of high as well. What are you using for a cpu cooler?

[supaflyx3]

I'm using an H50 with 2 CM R4 red led fans in pushpull.

[Your_friendly_gamer]

wow frigging high. Do you have the air blowing into the fan or outside? THat is really high. Not sure how safe that is, try zsamz_ he is like oc guru, he knows everything lol

Do you have good air flow in your case? I am using an antec 1200 and have 3 fans pulling air in from outside the case, and then additional two inside the case to pull air in, and 2 120 mm pusing out and one top 240 mm pusing out.

Here are a couple pics of my system right now.

[supaflyx3]

I have my case setup for positive airflow, 2 120mm CM R4 fans intake from the front of my case, my H50 fans intake, and 1 120mm fan intake on the bottom of my case.