Can't Get Core i7 past 3.6 gHz

[nonxcarbonx]

Motherboard: Foxconn Renaissance
CPU: Core i7 920 C0 Stepping
Water Cooler: Domino A.L.C.
3x2GB 1600 mHz RAM

I just bought a new water cooler, and after a lot of overclocking I'm having trouble getting past 3.59 ghz. I would think that that is simply my processor's limit, but I'm skeptical of that because a month ago I oced it to 3.39 gHz on stock cooling, so I would think that upgrading to a pretty decent water cooling system would give me more than 200 mHz increase. But this is the odd thing: I have a stable oc at 3.59, w/ stats here:

V Core: Added +.13 V (~1.33 V)
VTT Core: Added +.07
North Bridge: 1.155 V Overall
Base Clock: 178

Normal, Right? But when I tried upping it to a base clock of 181, I kept getting blue screens. I even tried it with these settings below (my motherboard turns the numbers from white to yellow if I go above theses, so I don't know whether to treat above them as taboo)

V Core: Added +.2 V (~1.45 V)
VTT Core: Added +.2 V
North Bridge: 1.239 (I could increase it 2 more of my motherboard's increments, but I already should have raised it plenty)
Base Clock 181

I increased voltages pretty significantly for 3 clocks higher on base, and I still get a blue screen in windows! My RAM is at maximum 1.65 V and on auto, and qpi is on auto too. I tried my hand at manuel, and lets just say it took a lot of system reconfiguring to get the computer to post again 😉 Unfortunately, I have no auto voltage settings, and the stats i listed are the only voltage settings I have access to. Please help get me to at least 3.8.

 

[D3LTA09]

Theres definitely something wrong, You shouldnt need any voltage increase at all at that frequency. Set vcore 1.20, QPI to about the same. cpu pll to 1.80. ram voltage to 1.65 and bclk to 175x20 multi. then I would set the ram and uncore multis to either x6 and x12 or x8 and x16. and should also have the qpi link data rate at its lowest too.
With those settings should have no trouble at 3.5, also as Psychosaysdie says turn turbo mode and EIST off as well.

I may have missed something as im not on my desktop atm and just remembering my settings I had when I was running at 3.5 off top of my head.

Also (not trying to be rude) your particular water cooling is no better if not a little worse than decent air cooling, however this should mean you can keap temps stable at up to 3.8ghz

EDIT - Im using a p6t deluxe but your foxconn board should be just as stable if not more so, however its the foxconn bloodrage I might be thinking of that was rated one of the best x58 boards wasnt it?

 

[Helloworld_98]

nope, your problem is your processor, even with that cooling you won't get above 3.8ghz at safe volts.

also 3.6ghz is the optimum for i7's so no change is needed.

 

[apache_lives]

why do we *expect* an overclock to reach a certain clock speed?

rule #1: don't expect to get anything extra from overclocking, even if someone else with the same model chip got x mhz out of it, whatever you get is bonus with no guarantee.

 

[D3LTA09]

^no we should expect anything as there is an infinite amount of variable that can affect ocing. My comment was purely directed at given a materially similar setup there is more of a likelihood of getting similar OC results, if it doesnt work then thats that all you can do is try and increase chances it will by emulating other successful setups.

 

[nonxcarbonx]

I can only edit the following voltages: V core, Vtt core, ram, and north bridge. I have no direct control over pll and qpi, it's all in the vtt. Also, my cruddy motherboard doesn't have any editable multipliers for the ram and qpi, it's all manuel which ive never done. This is what it looked like when I manually did it:

Performance tuning mode: manuel
Uncore frequency: 1600 mhz
Dram frequency: 800mhz
DRAM tCL: 7
tRCD 7
tRP 7
tRAS 20
tRRD 4
tWR 8
tWTR 4
tRTP 4
tRFC 59

I also tried uncore and ram at 1333 and 2666, but each time my computer took about 4 restarts to post (kind of like when you turn off the power supply and turn it back on, how it keeps restarting itself until it has enough voltage). So I'm not sure what to do. I've never manually overclocked Ram and I don't know what those codes mean, but I'm open to advice. I suspect that the problem lies in the ram/uncore because turbo still works, and if i didn't have enough v core voltage it wouldn't. Please help me with my memory tuning.

 

[D3LTA09]

Hmmm im not sure then, in terms of ram I personally dont change my sub timmings I like my mobo take care of that as seems to do it perfrectly fine. Essentially take just your first four inputs up there and leave the rest on auto also, look for an command rate option, will have variable something like 1n, 2n or 3n the lower you go the better your ram performs but higher gives more stability so for testing probably set it at 2 to rule out another variable.
My mobo doesnt have a direct multi per see, but you can work it out, just take bclk and then multiply by whatever multi you want, and then enter that figure or select the option for it.
Like on the setup I suggested above 175x8 will give you DDR3 1400 and thus uncore needs to be x2 which will be 2800. or you could use x6 and x12 for lower frequencies.

However if I was you id just tone down your OC a bit and just try and reduce your voltages, your not gona get a performance difference between 3.5 and above anyway