It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

[faugusztin]

Hi,

i'm having serious issues overclocking my i7 2600k. What works is 4.3GHz every voltage on auto, every feature turned on, including power saving. Works no problem for whole day without any issue.

Move to 4.4GHz or higher, and the whole PC goes nuts after a while. Well, the PC works - for some time, then i get BSOD code 124 at random intervals. At 4.7GHz i get it after 3-10 minutes, at 4.4-4.6GHz after few minutes or few hours.

For example these are my settings for 4.6GHz :






In Advanced Core features everything except HT is turned off, every power saving feature (EIST/C1/whatever).

When i boot in Windows, i have VCore 1.392V at "idle" and 1.38V at load :


1 and half hour of OCCT Linpack, no problems reported. Then 1 hour of idling (web browsing etc) and out of sudden BSOD. Other times it would BSOD when running Linpack with same settings. So it's not load or idle connected.

I'm out of ideas what else can i do to get more out of this CPU than 4.3GHz.

The configuration is Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3, BIOS F1; Core i7 2600k (batch L101B356); G.Skill F3-10666CL7D-8GBXH (2x4GB DDR3-1333 CL7 1.5V).

Thanks.

[wazza300]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

You need to manually set qpi/vtt voltage,try 1.2v you won't need much with that chip,124 error is not enough qpi/vtt voltage,also set dram voltage according to your ram

[faugusztin]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

Actually DRAM is overvolted, DRAM is rated at 1333CL7 1.5V, i run them at 1333CL9 1.5V (1.536V real according to the EasyTune6). Well ok, will try 1.2V, but i know 1.12V didn't made any change unfortunately.

[wazza300]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

I would test between 1.2 and 1.25v for qpi/vtt voltage,1.12v won't be enough,esp at 4.6ghz

[faugusztin]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

4.7GHz is a no-go. 1.4V VCore, 1.24V QPi/VTT, rest on auto, every power saving feature turned off, virtualization off, HT on - BSOD while booting Windows.

Testing 4.6GHz now, but considering the results of other people i consider 4.6GHz as a sort of bad luck. Oh well, this is my karma .

BTW the voltage oscilates between 1.392 (idle) down to 1.380V and sometimes even as low as 1.367 while doing OCCT Linpack test.

[wazza300]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

Just keep testing,you need to choose manual settings for a few things as auto won't. be as stable or accurate,set your uncore freq to twice what your memory multiplier is

[faugusztin]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

set your uncore freq to twice what your memory multiplier is

Set what ? Do you realize there is no such option in BIOS, right ?

And the other voltages - System agent voltage shouldn't be touched according to other reviews, and then all we got left is PCH Core and CPU PLL voltage, but some guides say don't touch them, other increase or decrease them (decrease in case of CPU PLL)... I'm out of ideas really. For now i'm at 18 minutes of 4.6GHz testing, so far so good, but as i said, it has no problem doing BSOD hours later.

[Acebmxer]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

You just may need more vcore. some cpus have a multi wall or frequency wall.

[faugusztin]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

More Vcore ? I'm already at 1.4V.

[wazza300]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

Maybe uncore freq is locked out on that mb,same as p55 which won't help your oc

[Chike]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

May it be actually the low frequency ram?
I'd try running it at 1600 9-9-9-27, or 1333 CL7 at stock and then see if this changes anything.

[faugusztin]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

Maybe uncore freq is locked out on that mb,same as p55 which won't help your oc

What i meant that P67 doesn't have such setting at all. Not even the super highend (P67A-UD7-B3, nothing in manual about it). Will try Ctrl+F1 on next reboot, but for now i keep the OCCT Linpack running (at 1 hour now).

May it be actually the low frequency ram?
I'd try running it at 1600 9-9-9-27, or 1333 CL7 at stock and then see if this changes anything.

1333CL7 or CL9 made no difference. And why should it do any difference, memory frequency is decoupled from the CPU clock.

[Chike]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

And why should it do any difference, memory frequency is decoupled from the CPU clock.

I don't know, why should you change VCCIO(QPI/VTT), the system bus frequency don't change either.

Actually there are other settings, usually not needed. Some say not to change them, others do, and I have seen a few setting them much higher than specs, though I would strongly recommand against it.

VCCSA, default 0.925v, max 0.971v.
CPU PLL, default 1.8v, max 1.89v.

[faugusztin]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

So it seems so far that with 1.24V@QPI/VTT and 1.4V@VCore, 4.6GHz seems stable (close to 3 hours of Linpack now). Will let it run while i will be away, if it will be still running when i get back (~4 hours from now) i will call this stable @ 4.6GHz. Better than 4.3GHz, but somehow i doubt i will get it higher than this.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: It's me, board or CPU ? i7 2600k OC issues (P67A-UD4-B3)

Nice to see you are making progress!

Also surprising to see you can use QPI/Vtt 1.24, the two CPU's I have used hate more than 1.20 and one actually likes stock or 1.08 no matter what, even at 5Ghz+ and 2170+