Question Help with OC xeon x3440

[heatmikepark2]

Currently I am using a xeon x3440 on my asus p7h55 m - lx mobo along with 6gb 1333mhz kingston ram. I was looking to OC my cpu with jumper free configuration on my BIOS but I am confused how to go use it. The BIOS has AI OC Tuner which I have no idea about. Since its a old mobo there are not many tutorials available, if anyone has experience with this help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[fagetti]

I have i7-875k with p7p55d and am hitting 4.1 ghz with 1.4vcore and 1.2 vtt (only below 185 blck, otherwise need alot more vtt). Im also using 2 x 8gb ram sticks even when manual says im limited to 4gb stick size it works fine with 8gb if your planning on upgrade. Just dont use the AI OC tuner that thing is horrible.
what kinda cooling you have ?

EDIT: also what is your graphics card so we know is it even worth overclocking or do you hit bottleneck

edit2: take pics of your bios, page where blck voltages etc are, what ram model number and 3 or 2 sticks?

 

[heatmikepark2]

I have i7-875k with p7p55d and am hitting 4.1 ghz with 1.4vcore and 1.2 vtt (only below 185 blck, otherwise need alot more vtt). Im also using 2 x 8gb ram sticks even when manual says im limited to 4gb stick size it works fine with 8gb if your planning on upgrade. Just dont use the AI OC tuner that thing is horrible.
what kinda cooling you have ?

EDIT: also what is your graphics card so we know is it even worth overclocking or do you hit bottleneck

Gtx 750 ti is my GPU and for cooling I am using coolermaster hyper 212

 

[fagetti]

750 ti is bottlenecking your cpu even at stock. Upgrade your GPU and then think about overclocking again. You might also consider atleast 8Gb of ram, depends are you gaming or what is purpose for your desktop pc

 

[fagetti]

I had these graphics cards with this platform in this order : gtx 670 => gtx 780 lightning => gtx 780ti => gtx 980ti and even the latest one is not bottlenecking AT ALL when im at 4.1-4.2ghz

 

[heatmikepark2]

750 ti is bottlenecking your cpu even at stock. Upgrade your GPU and then think about overclocking again. You might also consider atleast 8Gb of ram, depends are you gaming or what is purpose for your desktop pc

I have a spare 2 gb ram but the mobo only has 2 ram slots. Cpu oc was to help desktop with cpu intensive applications.

 

[fagetti]

" cpu intensive applications " you mean gaming or something else?

 

[fagetti]

Also your ram sticks should be the same model, dont add spare stick if it is not

 

[heatmikepark2]

" cpu intensive applications " you mean gaming or something else?

In gaming pubg and for work adobe premiere pro. I know pubg performance depends on your gpu but I play on 900p resolution so maybe a little push with oc.

 

[fagetti]

what power supply you have? are your 6gb ram sticks all same model? you have ssd or hdd? also send pics from your bios page where voltages and blck etc is "overclocking" section

 

[fagetti]

This only helps with adobe premiere pro though for the time being, you need better GPU to gain anything from overclocking your cpu. Search prime95 and download that for stress testing, also download cpu-z and hwmonitor for monitoring clock speed and temperatures.

You can test your GPU bottleneck by opening task manager with ctrl alt del and going performance tab, leave that open and go ingame and play pubg, check it once in a few minutes ingame with alt tab to see what kinda cpu / ram usage you are getting maximum ingame fights etc

 

[heatmikepark2]

This only helps with adobe premiere pro though for the time being, you need better GPU to gain anything from overclocking your cpu. Search prime95 and download that for stress testing, also download cpu-z and hwmonitor for monitoring clock speed and temperatures.

You can test your GPU bottleneck by opening task manager with ctrl alt del and going performance tab, leave that open and go ingame and play pubg, check it once in a few minutes ingame with alt tab to see what kinda cpu / ram usage you are getting maximum ingame fights etc

4gb and a 2gb kingston 1333mhz ram. I have a extra 2gb Kingston ram but can't use it due to limited slots. GPU usage is 100% I want to use CPU to capture gameplay which I think will require OC. Here is a image of bios

https://imgur.com/a/exSdxtY

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/exSdxtY

 

[fagetti]

Looks like you can indeed overclock with this motherboard. Download CPU-Z and open SPD tab, what part number those are and are both sticks same part number? You might need to open cpu-z as administrative to view it. This is important for ram timings.

And most importantly what was your power supply model ?

 

[fagetti]

First see your temperatures on stock settings, download prime95 and run blend (default settings just set it to 8 threads) and closely monitor temperatures for cores with hwinfo / hwmonitor or whatever you like to use. Another stress tester which can give results even faster is INTEL BURN TEST, run it about 90% memory usage what you have available. Dont let temperatures exceed 85c just close if any core does so.

EDIT: i would suggest doing 5mins IBT and 5mins prime95 blend to test stability and when you find stable settings do longer tests. You will eventually crash in the 5min tests when you hit max voltages cause of temperature or max blck

edit2: check that bios version is already latest Version BIOS 0406

 

[fagetti]

After testing your temperatures go to bios and check what options it gives when you set AI overclock tuner to "manual", take a pic and post it here of all options you get. dont yet change anything

 

[heatmikepark2]

After testing your temperatures go to bios and check what options it gives when you set AI overclock tuner to "manual", take a pic and post it here of all options you get. dont yet change anything

Unfortunately only BLCK option unlocks. Intel stress test runs temp at max 70c on 15 min tests.

https://imgur.com/a/14Mkzkf

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/14Mkzkf

 

[fagetti]

Yes thats normal your cpu has a locked multiplier so you need to raise blck to overclock your cpu. What was your PSU again? If its very bad quality i would get a better one (check psu tier list on toms hardware) but on the other hard your motherboard and cpu / gpu costs like 10-20 dollar each so its your call. Never overclock or as a matter fact run any medium / high end systems on bad psu.

 

[fagetti]

Take a picture of fan control page and also you should find page for c-state / intel virtualization etc advanced options take a picture of that too so i can say what to turn off and on. If you find Intel turbo boost option somewhere turn that off

 

[fagetti]

Do a stress test with prim95 and open cpu-z while stress test is on and take a picture (you might need to open cpu-z with administrative) of main page, also SPD and memory pages. This is important to see what is your CPU voltage when stressed so you know how much you add in by offset voltage.

EDIT: when you can only overclock with blck that means you change also uncore / and DRAM speed same time, you basically overclock everything so getting timings and voltages right is crucial

EDIT2: also are you on latest bios version did you check from manufactor site?

 

[heatmikepark2]

My system is a very low end system. 750 ti, x3440, WD 1 tb green etc. So I think my current corsair VS 450 should do the job. I updated my BIOS the day I bought this mobo to the latest 0406 version. I'll post the pictures you asked for as soon as I get home.

 

[fagetti]

Damn. Legendary corsair 450w VS, i actually used one 500-650w model with lynnfield 3.8ghz i7 first gen overclock, didnt kill my lower end motherboard but my overclock was very unstable. You actually have so low end system its worth a try but if you upgrade even your 750 Ti then switch PSU asap.

 

[fagetti]

I would just upgrade the PSU to very good 450w or 550 / 650w model that would futureproof your next 2 gaming pc:s. These things can have 10 year warranty.

EDIT: and then you never fail overclock cause of voltage instability or kill other components by accident

 

[fagetti]

If your getting 70c with stock settings (85-89c is my limit, cause you start throttling over 90c) in intel burn test you dont have much headroom with the voltage, i suggest first to replace your thermal paste with example Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste i use it,, use 90% isoprophyl alcohol to clean gently all remaining thermal paste from heatsink and cpu, with q-tips or paper, just check that there is no remaining fibers on the heatsink or cpu when you add new thermal paste, remove all old paste to make it clean before you add new one in. That cooler should do better on stock settings.

 

[heatmikepark2]

If your getting 70c with stock settings (85-89c is my limit, cause you start throttling over 90c) in intel burn test you dont have much headroom with the voltage, i suggest first to replace your thermal paste with example Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste i use it,, use 90% isoprophyl alcohol to clean gently all remaining thermal paste from heatsink and cpu, with q-tips or paper, just check that there is no remaining fibers on the heatsink or cpu when you add new thermal paste, remove all old paste to make it clean before you add new one in. That cooler should do better on stock settings.

I applied a decent quality paste not too long ago. We should start testing the waters first than think about upgrading. With the headroom we got how much ghz can I oc according to you?

 

[fagetti]

Did you find the cpu settings page ?