Upgraded from i7 930 to 960

[Rich3077]

I am very pleased with my upgrade... my 930 was a lazy S.O.B.

Anyway I have been screwing around with this chip for a couple of days now. I am running CPU at 1.2125 (reports 1.18 in CPUz)

Currently at 4.0 GHz but have been at 4.2 Ghz at the same voltage.

Prime 95... runs for me as long as I am watching it. (Thats boring) I fired it up before I went to bed and when I woke up I found the system had rebooted itself... all overclock settings still applied. No news in the Prime 95 log.

Sisoft Sandra. Yes I know this is a POS program but I downloaded it anyway.
All of the program runs fine until I try to run a CPU benchmark then it freezes up my system.
I tweaked for a whole day to fix this.... then I discovered that it still freezes when the system is at stock speeds. :facepalm: so its possible that my system is not perfect even at stock.

I am not very skilled when it comes to overclocking i7's, last time I just followed someone elses BIOS template.

My system is as follows

Gigabyte X58A-UD7 mobo
Corsair Dominator 2 gig x 6 sticks
ATI 5770 x2 in crossfire
i7 960
Corsair H70 cooler
Corsair 1000w P.S.

Here is a BIOS template. I left out all the Ram stuff because I have my Ram underclocked a tad while I sort the CPU.

Any advice you can give is appreciated. I will also keep any problems I have in the next few days to this thread.

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7
MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)
Advanced CPU Features {Press Enter]
CPU Clock Ratio............................: 24
CPU Frequency .....(Ghz)...................:4.0
Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech..................:[Disabled]
CPU Cores Enabled..........................:[All]
CPU Multi Threading........................:[Enabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)....................:[Enabled]
C3/C6/C7 State Support.....................:[Disabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor........................:[Enabled]
CPU EIST Function..........................:[Enabled]
Bi-Directional PROCHOT.....................:[Enabled]
Virtualization Technology..................:[Enabled]

Uncore & QPI Features [Press Enter]
QPI Clock Ratio*...........................:Auto
QPI Link Speed* ......................(Ghz):6.0
Uncore Clock Ratio.........................:Auto
Uncore Frequency......................(Mhz):3333
Isochronous Support........................:[Enabled]
Advanced Clock Control [Press Enter]
>>>>>Standard Clock Control
Base Clock (BCLK) Control*.................:[Enabled]
BCLK Frequency (Mhz)*......................:166
PCI Exxpress Frequency (Mhz)...............:Auto
>>>>>Standard Clock Control
CPU Clock Drive (mV).......................:700
PCI Express Clock Drive (mV)..............:700
CPU Clock Skew (ps)........................:0
IOH Clock Skew (ps)........................:0
Advanced Voltage Control [Press Enter]
>>>>CPU Voltages
LoadLine Calibration.........................:[Level 1]
CPU Vcore....................................:1.2125v
QPI/VTT Voltage..............................:1.3v
CPU PLL......................................: 1.80v
>>>>>MCH/ICH Voltrage
PCIE.........................................: 1.50v
QPI PLL......................................: 1.10v
IOH Core.....................................:1.10v
ICH I/O......................................: 1.50v
ICH Core.....................................:1.10v

 

[Maximilian]

I would call that a sidegrade, they are pretty much the exact same chip with similar overclocking capabilities, just a different default multiplier.

 

[Rich3077]

I agree, but with my old chip all I could do is run it straight to 1.35 volts and go from there to battle heat. This chip behaves much better.

 

[krose]

From the settings in your template it appears you did not load optimized defaults in BIOS. I can tell because your clock drives are at 700/700 instead of 800/900. Write down your settings then load optimized defaults and re-enter your settings. Stability should be fine then.

 

[Dave3000]

I noticed that your uncore frequency is listed as 3333MHz. That is way above specifications for the i7 960. The uncore should be running at 2133MHz. Also set your memory to 1066MHz which is the fastest the i7 960 can officially support, same as with all i7 9xx series CPUs. See if that fixes your problems.

 

[Rich3077]

Thanks for the suggestions... I played around a little to much and lost my raid array and wasn't able to restore it, so I will have to put my problems on hold for a couple of days.

My old hard drives have my windows keys on them. ( A document ) Trying to find a way to access the drives now.

 

[Makaveli]

I noticed that your uncore frequency is listed as 3333MHz. That is way above specifications for the i7 960. The uncore should be running at 2133MHz. Also set your memory to 1066MHz which is the fastest the i7 960 can officially support, same as with all i7 9xx series CPUs. See if that fixes your problems.

Is this a serious post?

He is overclocking his system.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Erm... maybe I'm missing something, but if Prime reboots the system and you can't run a CPU bench, I think you're in need of more vcore. What makes you think your chip is stable at 1.2125?

 

[Maximilian]

This thread is full of fail lol. Why are you even overclocking it OP? What are you doing that requires more CPU power?

Your twin 5770's aren't held back by a stock i7 at all. In fact theres not much that is, if you are not sure about overclocking then dont do it, leave everything at stock/auto.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Thanks for the suggestions... I played around a little to much and lost my raid array and wasn't able to restore it, so I will have to put my problems on hold for a couple of days.

My old hard drives have my windows keys on them. ( A document ) Trying to find a way to access the drives now.

Set the drive controller back to RAID mode - when it goes back to defaults it is set to basic SATA drive support. It should come right up.