In case you get that far:
GA-X58A-UD3R
Intel i7-930 x21mult 2.8GHz .8-1.375V 130W TDP (to 3.36/4.0GHz)
Corsair Dominator 6GB DDR3-1600MHz (CMP6GX3M3A1600C7): 7-8-7-20-?t 1.65v nominal
'Gentle' overclock (3.36 w/stock cooling) are
in italics; faster OC (with any other cooling!) are
in bold!
Uninstall any GIGABYTE 'system software': EasyTune 6, Dynamic Energy Saver, Smart 6, Auto Green...
If you haven't yet done it, start with a BIOS' "Load Optimized Defaults" with only three sticks of RAM in the white slots...
Before we start ramping things up, I want to teach you a new skill involving the BIOS: Do the <DEL> at the boot to enter the BIOS;
notice, at the bottom, the <F11> "Save CMOS to BIOS" - hit this, and you should get a menu that will show a number (the count varies by BIOS) of empty 'slots', each of which will store an entire set of BIOS parameters, to be re-loaded from the corresponding <F12> "Load CMOS from BIOS"; this is a wonderful overclocker's feature. What I do with it, is to save my 'baseline' working parameters, so if I change something that 'irritates' the board, and forces a reset of all the parameters to defaults, or, even worse, get so screwed up I need to do a 'clear CMOS', I can get back to my starting point with no effort, and without having to remember 85 separate settings! Another thing it prevents is two hours' troubleshooting, having forgotten a change to a crucial parameter - like, "wait a minute - didn't I have the Trd at seven?!" It's pretty self-explanatory, and I alway urge people to start right away by taking the time to give the 'slots' names that mean something: in two hours, "Try2" and "Try3" will not be very helpful, but "450@+10MCH" and "450@+15MCH" will! Another use is for 'green' settings; overclocks, as a rule, do not 'play well' with green features, such as 'down-clocking' and 'down-volting'; with the storage slots, you can set up one profile, say "Green", with all the settings at 'stock' values, and all the 'green' features enabled; another, say "Balls2Wall" with a full overclock, and all the 'green' stuff turned off... Another neat feature of this 'slot' system is, for most BIOS, the mechanism itself will keep track of which ones have booted successfully, and how many times (up to, I believe, a max of five)!
Now, the next step is the most time consuming - we've got to 'sidestep' XMP's limitations. The only reliable way to
get the XMP timings for your RAM is to
enable XMP - BUT - enabling XMP 'locks out' most all the other OCing parameter changes. Easy to get around, though. Having done a LoadOpt to set up the main config, the next thing you need to do is enable XMP, <F10> to save, exit, and reboot - and then run a pass of MemTest86+ (instructions for D/Ling and 'prepping' MemTest about the middle of Part IV -
"Tweaking and tuning") to verify the the XMP for your DIMMs
actually works! Assuming it's successful, go into the BIOS, and on the "Advanced Memory Settings" sub-page of the "MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)" page of your BIOS, write down (preferable in a neat, tidy, easy-to-read table - extra points here for neatness!! Actually, neatness doesn't count toward your overclock, but accuracy
does - if you make a mistake
anywhere, you'll, guaranteed, have the devil's [:lorbat:8] own time finding it!) the "Channel Interleaving" and "Rank Interleaving" settings; then, enter the "Channel A Timing Settings" 'sub-sub-page' (?!), and write down
all the settings. If I am correct, it will display two sets of timings - on the left, it will show you the 'LoadOpt's 'Auto' parameters; on the right, labeled either XMP or 'Profile (number?) settings', it will show you the 'fast RAM' parameters -
these are the ones you need... As an example, here is a table from a client's machine (different platform...):
CAS 7
tRCD 8
tRP 7
tRAS 24
tRC 40
tRRD 5
tWTR 6
tWR 12
tWTP 23
tWL 7
tRFC 88
tRTP 6
tFAW 50
tCMD 2
static tRD 15
Next, 'back out', and go to the " Channel A Turnaround Settings" 'sub-sub-page' (?if they get many more 'layers' of menuing, I'm gonna lose it!), and scribble those down as well. Now back out again, and look at both sets of 'channel B's' & 'channel C's' - they
should be the same - just double check, and note anything differing...
On to the 'quick' part! First, disable XMP. Then, while you're still 'familiar' with those memory pages, go back and set
all of 'em - to the values you wrote down - and don't forget to check the two on the 'main page', "Channel Interleaving" and "Rank Interleaving"... To set these, start with:
"Performance Enhance" to "Standard"
"DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD)" to "Expert"...
Once they're all set -
...next, two adjustments for the fact that you are running two DIMMs per channel - XMP values are 'figured' for a single module per channel:
Set "Command Rate(CMD)" to "2", "2T", or "2N" (whichever way your BIOS shows it...)
Take the number you wrote down for the tRFC, multiply it by 1.15, round
up to the next highest integer, and set tRFC to the resultant value...
At this point, I usually do an <F11> save to BIOS, just so I can easily 'get back to where I was', calling it something like "RAMisSet"...
On the "MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)" page:
"CPU Clock Ratio" should already be at "X21"
"CPU Frequency" - this one can't be set, it's calculated
On the "Advanced CPU Features" sub-page (there we go again![:fixitbil:9] ):
"Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech." to "Enabled"
"CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)" to "Disabled"
"C3/C6/C7 State Support" to "Disabled"
"CPU Thermal Monitor" to "Enabled
"CPU EIST Function" to "Disabled"
"Bi-Directional PROCHOT" to "Enabled"
"Virtualization Technology" to "Enabled",
if you intend to use it - it has costs...
On the "UnCore & QPI Features" sub-page:
"QPI Clock Ratio" to "X48"
"QPI Clock Ratio" to "X44"
"QPI Clock Ratio" to "X36"
"Uncore Clock Ratio" to "X25"
"Uncore Clock Ratio" to "X21"
"Uncore Clock Ratio" to "X17"
"Isochronous Support" to "Enabled"
...under "Standard Clock Control":
"Base Clock(BCLK) Control" to "Enabled"
"BCLK Frequency(Mhz)" to "133"
"BCLK Frequency(Mhz)" to "160"
"BCLK Frequency(Mhz)" to "190"
...under "Advanced Clock Control":
...should all be OK as set...
On the "Advanced DRAM Features" sub-page"
"System Memory Multiplier" to "X12"
"System Memory Multiplier" to "X10"
"System Memory Multiplier" to "X8"
On the "Advanced Voltage Settings" sub-page:
"Load-Line Calibration" is anyone's guess - this seems to work differently on
every single board I do - even, sometimes, differing between boards of the same model with different CPUs! My best guess - start with it at "Standard", and, maybe, adjust when 'running thermals'...
"CPU Vcore" to "1.325V" - idea here is to start high, to get 'er
stable first,
then reduce voltage when 'running thermals' - doing it the other way - starting low, and trying to 'creep up' the Vcore is a real PITA, as, often, if the MOBO's not 'happy' with OC settings, she'll 'crank back' to the LoadOpt parameters - and you lose anything you didn't have the foresight to 'save to BIOS'!
"CPU Vcore" to "Auto"
"CPU Vcore" to "1.2375V"
"CPU Vcore" to "1.300V"
"QPI/Vtt Voltage" to "1.250V"
"PCH Core" to "1.10V"
"DRAM Voltage" to "1.68V" - 'even' increments only - need the slightly higher Vdimm as you are running two DIMMs per channel...
On the "Advanced BIOS Features" page:
"Quick Boot" to "Disabled"
"Full Screen LOGO Show" to "Disabled" (easier to get into the BIOS + lets you 'see' the POST...
On the "Integrated Peripherals" page:
...disable
everything you're not actually planning on using - no 1394 port -
turn it off!; same for serial port, eSATA, etc - if you don't need it, the processor/system doesn't need the 'overhead' either!
On the "Power Management Setup" page:
"ACPI Suspend Type" to "S1(POS)" (S3 is notoriously difficult to get working properly on OC'd boards...)
On the "PC Health Status" page:
"CPU Warning Temperature" to "70C"
And that
should do it! Time for, first, an <F11> 'save to BIOS', followed by an <F10> save & exit - power down, add the other three sticks of RAM - hopefully, she'll reboot, and WORK!
I should point out that getting two reboots in a row here is perfectly normal behavior; it seems that, when you change certain settings (and we don't exactly know which ones - the only sure one I know is Trd - if you change it, I think you get the 'twin' reboot) it boots once to 'see where it's at', recalculates its remaining 'auto' settings, saves them, and then boots again. Three reboots in a row, however, usually indicates that the board was 'given indigestion' by your settings, and is going back to defaults. This sometimes goes astray, and it doesn't get back into proper operation - for example, at this point, mine will sometimes 'lock' itself into 111MHz x a six multiplier - and take a week to do a whole boot - that's time to do a CMOS reset, and use your 'stored' <F12> profile to get back to where you were...
Good luck!
Bill
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