# i7 950 on ASUS P6X58D-E 4.2GHz



## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

Hi Everyone. I have been running a 3.84GHz OC for a while but the computer won't properly register that it's at 160x24 and instead thinks it's at 160x23, yet still performs at 160x24 speeds. So, I thought I'd correct it and make it run at a slightly higher speed and hopefully perfectly. Now, I have googled for ages, searched many forums and found a few different setups that people have been using that are working great for them to reach 4.2GHz. For some obscure and unkown reason, other people are having stable 4.2GHz at 1.35Vcore whereas I started at 1.35V and kept going up a notch until I hit 1.425V and then stopped as I don't want to go any higher than that. I still could not get a stable system.

I was just about to stop the test and shut down my computer before going out the other day and just as I clicked file to then click stop, it crashed. That was at 1.425V. So I then cranked it back to stock and haven't OCed again yet.

Does anyone have any idea how I can get 4.2GHz out of this without too many volts? The BIOS settings that I can remember were:

Ratio: 21
BCLK: 200
Load line cal: On
CPU Spread Spectrum: Off
Full phase power: On
RAM = Corsair XMS3 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 1.6V <All settings set as such.
All else: Auto.

This was still not stable and is quite annoying. I'd like the 4.2GHz as the increase for rendering 1080P video is reasonable as well as general performance increase all round.

PS. On the subject of video rendering, I can't get my 6970 to render videos using Sony Vegas Pro 10.0e 64-bit. It used to show that there was a GPU there before but now (after a reinstall of Windows as I tend to reformat every few months) it won't even accept that there is a GPU available at all. Open CL Drivers are installed. Anyone know how to fix this, though this is the wrong forum?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Set the ram speed down to 1333 and try it.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

OK. Will try that quickly now before going to bed. Will update in a while.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

1333Mhz isn't available at 200 BCLK so I used the closest which was 1203MHz. That still BSODed pretty quickly. All other settings the same as above. 1.425Vcore etc.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

I would really like a stable 4.2GHz system. It's currently running pretty stable but if I open Prime95, the most it'll last is 10 minutes. Any ideas?


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

What PSU are you using? Overclocking adds extra strain on the PSU, if it's low quality or underpowered it will buckle under the pressure and BSOD.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

Corsair TX650W


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

Overclocking and running a HD6970 on a 650w PSU is cutting it a bit close. I'd say you need at least a 750w PSU or better.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

Ah. So do you think it's that the PSU is just struggling to handle all that rather than my computer isn't working properly?

Only thing I don't understand is how it doesn't work at 1.35V almost at all, whereas it works almost fine at 1.425V?


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

deviess said:


> Ah. So do you think it's that the PSU is just struggling to handle all that rather than my computer isn't working properly?
> 
> Only thing I don't understand is how it doesn't work at 1.35V almost at all, whereas it works almost fine at 1.425V?


My old E2160 would boot at 3,00ghz in winter, but only at 1,45v to keep it stable. It's possible that your PSU is holding you back, definitely. It's a very good PSU, I have a HX750w in my system, just in this application it's not powerful enough in my opinion.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

Ok. I was planning on getting an AX850 sometime soon anyways. If I get an 850W, would I be able to handle another 6970 as well or would I have to go for a 1000W or something?

Another note is that I intend to get an i7 3930k and a new motherboard when they come out. Will this still cope? Again, I intend to OC. At least 4GHz would be preferrable but it depends on the way those chips run obviously.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

The AX is their very best (gold certified), but crossfirex is not really worth it. It consumes too much power, creates extra heat and noise and most games don't work nicely with it. Rather go for one single very good card. Your HD6970 is fine for games. What cooler are you using? I almost got my CPU to 5,00ghz, but then Windows didn't load. Can get it too 4,80ghz, but then the temps are too high. 4,10ghz is the sweetspot for mine.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

I'm using a Noctua NH-D14 so temps are pretty good. I was using a Coolermaster V8 but the temps with this beauty of a cooler are way down. Nearly 10C less!

Hmm, maybe I should try and get it to run smoothly at slighty less then. you think changing the BCLK by a few each way might find the sweetspot?


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

Oh, and the reason for getting a second GPU would be that I would like to get at least 55fps at MAX on all games. The 6970 gets me about 45fps on Crysis and about 35-40fps on Crysis 2 with the big patch. That's not quite 60.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Try using this > Nehalem Calc @ Icrontic.com
Keep the QPI under 7000, you may find dropping the BLK and upping the multiplier does the trick.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

Huh. Thanks. Will try that.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

Well I have one queery. How come a BCLK of 200 and multiplier of 21 gets me 4221Mhz. 200x21 = 4000. I will experiment later. Watching a film now then off to bed. Thanks for the help so far!


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

But it puts the QPI over 7000- instant crash keep it under 7000.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

Another possible scenario is that your PCI-E bus is overclocking as well. Set your PCI-E bus speed to default, which is 100mhz. I've learnt that for a decent overclock you have to set your Ram and PCI-E frequencies independently from your FSB/BCLK. I personally feel thay the Cooler Master V6GT and V8 Coolers are over-rated, expensive and don't work so well. I've seen numerous complaints about the V6GT not really cooling an overclocked CPU down properly, that's why I opted for the Hyper 212+, an excellent cooler and so much cheaper too. Let us know if this helps.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

Hmm. PCIe was at 100MHz and always has been. I'd like my RAM running as fast as possible so 1600MHz is kinda my lowest point. Thing is that running a 200BCLK means that the QPI is over 7k which means instability. Running a lower BCLK means I don't get 1600MHz RAM... Hmmmm...


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Your not going to unless you use a Extreme Edition CPU, 15xx is about as high as I've seen standard i7 9xx go and still be stable when OC'd.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

Ok. Is it the fact that you can have a low BCLK and high multiplier that lets you do that?

Another thing of note: at 1.275V I can get a stable 3.84GHz OC (160x24) But due to turbo boost etc, the 24th multi doesn't register in windows and I apparently only have 3.68GHz or whatever it is. It still performs at 3.84GHz speeds though. Anyways, my point was that I can get 3.84GHz @ 1.275V but for 4+GHz I need 1.4+V. That doesn't make sense in my mind.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

That's just the variation in CPU's no 2 will be exactly alike, changing the QPI, Uncore and Mem multipliers will also have different effects, the BLK changes all 3 equally, you can also set them independently.

A multiplier of 24 is high for a 950, try keeping it at 23 and set turbo to disabled.


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## Johnny1982 (Oct 15, 2010)

deviess said:


> Hmm. PCIe was at 100MHz and always has been. I'd like my RAM running as fast as possible so 1600MHz is kinda my lowest point. Thing is that running a 200BCLK means that the QPI is over 7k which means instability. Running a lower BCLK means I don't get 1600MHz RAM... Hmmmm...


With my MOBO I can set the QPI link freq independently. Is that not the case with yours perhaps, or is it dependent on the BCLK?


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

It's dependant on the BCLK as well as changeable. Thing is, at 200, the QPI is quite high even at the lowest setting.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

200 is too high for the BLK you can only push things so far.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

Yeah. What would you say are good settings that'll work.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Try a Blk of 191 with a CPU mutli of 22 that should give you 4.222 @ 1535 ram.


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## deviess (Apr 7, 2010)

KK. Thanks. Will try that later.


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