Trouble overclocking my old i7 965 XE on MSI x58 Pro-E board

[zhokar]

I just recently switched from a LGA 1366 ASUS Rampage II Extreme to a MSI x58 Pro-E. The ASUS Bios wouldn't default to 1600 on my RAM (Corsair Vengeance 3x4GHz CL9 1600) but it was a simple setting to adjust the frequency without changing core speed.

Now with the Pro-E I noticed changing my RAM to 1600 would step up my CPU to x26. Strangely only on core 0 and, more importantly, the change was only in the Turbo Boost settings. So now I adjusted the multi to x27 across the board in the Turbo Boost settings. My QPI Link speed is 2400 instead of 3200 (with the BIOS set to auto or 6400 but defaulting to 4800). Where did I go wrong? Do I need to manually change the base clock to more than 133? Also the Turbo Boost settings are the only place I can adjust the multi. But isn't Turbo Boost only the i7's 'on demand' OCing? And isn't the bandwidth so huge anyway that a 4800 QPI shouldn't impact performance?

I also noticed that CPU-Z reads my core speed at 3607 now, but If I run a Prime95 blend test it will drop to x24 and base clock or 25 to 26 max, never 27. Is that my CPU throttling because of voltage or just Turbo Boost being stupid?

My temps don't go above 60°, max 70° on the IOH, which is low for x58. C-State and SpeedStep enabled. Update: limited all fans to 1000rpm for better noise on a warm may day and ran Prime95 for max heat. Now getting max 66° core 1, at least 3° less all other cores. Multi still clocks down to x24 though. Only in Prime95, never in other (even intensive) applications.

[urlExt=http://i.imgur.com/ZD3DME3.png]The data.[/urlExt] Bad format http://i.imgur.com/ZD3DME3.png

Another thing I just checked is that for whatever reason, my XMP specifications have worse timings than the ones I get with XMP on auto. Runs perfectly stable. Haven't touched QPI voltage/CPU Vtt, auto settings adjust vcore to up to 1.3V. Strangely using auto XMP settings adjusts core voltage up to spikes of 1.5, which is too much even for Bloomfield. So i manually adjusted the ratio to 1600, keeping my Uncore at 3200.

I know, there are a lot of points/questions in this, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[maikutech]

3600mhz is 3.6ghz try adjusting the cpu multiplier and the core cpu clock speed.
If the mobo shows a warning sign in red, don't use that setting or expect your motherboard not to boot and possibly damage it.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2177178/overclocking-965-stepping.html

 

[zhokar]

First of all, shouldn't I be able to change the multi outside of TurboBoost? Secondly, would I even want to OC via clock speed instead of using my unlocked multi? Saves me all the work of isolating bclock from CPU, then from DRAM, changing bclock voltages etc. What's bothering me is that I can manually adjust voltages but not the CPU ratio (multiplier) outside of TurboBoost. No setting for it, just shows the adjusted core clock.

What you just gave me is the most general description of what overclocking is.

 

[maikutech]

Drop by here and ask them that and see what they think the problem might be.
http://www.overclock.net/f/

 

[zhokar]

Thanks, that was the next step if I couldn't find info here. Asking on overclock.net for me always feels like asking a nuclear physicist for an easy explanation.

 

[maikutech]

Honestly it sounds like you are over clocking the wrong way, the reason why I gave you the first link.
That would normally be the way to try overclocking on intel chips, be sure to mention the msi board over there.
Out all of the mobo manufacturers out there, I usually find msi and gigabyte simple to overclock with if the bios setup is simple enough to understand.

 

[zhokar]

I prefer MSI and ASUS for that reason. I avoid Gigabyte...but I know there are many MSI haters out there. Probably because MSI does produce good and shit boards. The way you suggested, overclocking via bclock instead of just multis, seems overcomplicated considering I have an unlocked multi. Same reason I won't OC my RAM, it's more work than it's worth. Besides the fact that for gaming OCing RAM, especially on an i7, is utterly pointless.