As some of you may know from another thread, a cat pissed on my p5q-pro, and obviously killed it. Now the choice for motherboards for the old 775 socket in my country is near 0 (only p41 and g41 chipsets). So I went for the next plausible board I could find. A used Striker Extreme. I knew overclocking my quad on this will be some hard work, yet I got it in a good deal, and didn't have any other choice really.. So, on my previous board (p5q pro) I had a stable overclock of 3.4ghz @ 1.3250Vcore, probably limited by my memory. Since this is a totally different chipset, and me being an overclock noob, I have no idea what to do or what settings to adjust. I want to go for 3.4ghz as it was before, or even 3.6 if possible. But any guidance and help on this would be really appreciated.
You're in luck. I was running an Asus striker II Formula 780i with a Q6600 before my current build. I kept images of settings, while testing different overclocks. I even kept Bios images. The striker II formula is quite similar to the striker II extreme and should have a similar bios layout. These settings were used for 3.4Ghz, LLC was on and memory was rated at 2.1V. I had an early B3 stepping so the cpu core voltage required was higher than later G0 chips. Also take a peek at NB temps before putting the voltage up to 1.5v as they run quite hot on these boards. I was able to reduce NB temps more than 20c by re-applying thermal paste. I used MX-2.
well, thanks, but the problem is I have the Striker Extreme (first one), not the Striker II extreme.. And those boards can be quite bitchy when it comes to fsb holes..
Ok, so I went for those settings for 3.4ghz: Multi = 9 FSB:Mem = unlinked FSB = (377)1508 mhz Mem = 800 mhz Vcore = 1.3250v (tried 1.3500v aswell) Memory = 2.1v 1.2v ht = 1.5v NB core = 1.5v SB core = 1.5v cpu vtt = 1.5v Other memory settings = auto All spread spectrums = disabled With 1.3250v vcore, Windows booted up fine, prime95 failed after a minute with a bsod.. With 1.3500v Windows crashed immediately after the desktop showed.. Any idea what to try next?
2.1v is the correct voltage for your memory? are your timings loose while your testing? I forget if there is droop on this board? were you able to verify the cpu voltage before it crashed? have you disabled C1E Speedstep etc in bios? I cant think of anything else atm.
Link the memory 1:1 with the fsb for 754 MHZ, just for the time being. Ensure it's loose timings, of course. Something like 5-5-5-18 2t, put the memory voltage to 2.2v (all quality 2.1v modules will allow up to 2.2v without the warranty being effected). Do you have LLC on that board? could you leave cpu-z open when you run prime95 so you can see the voltage droop under load. Multi = 9 FSB:Mem = unlinked FSB = (377)1508 mhz Mem = 754 mhz Vcore = 1.35 ( you could go to 1.4v if the chip is cool) Memory = 2.2v 1.2v ht = 1.4v (up to 1.55) NB core = 1.4v (up to 1.55) SB core = 1.5v (up to 1.6v) cpu vtt = 1.4v (up to 1.55) Other memory settings = 5-5-5-18 2t All spread spectrums = disabled C states = Disabled. Also do you have cpu gtl ref adjustments for that board? because I know it was added for the 780i boards due to quad cores being difficult to overclock at times on the 680i series. ps. sometimes dropping the 1.2v ht to stock can help, it's worth investigating further with other settings for that voltage.
Sweet mother, the Vdrop on this board is abnormal!! So the settings I used: FSB:MEM Linked with sync FSB: 1508 MEM: 754 Memory: 2,1v 1.2v HT: 1.55v NB: 1.55v SB: 1.6v CPUVTT: 1.55v Mem timings 5-5-5-17-22 Now for the Vcore: First I tried with 1.3250v Idle in Windows = 1.232v Load with prime = 1.216v Got a BSOD after 20 secs.. ------------------------------ Next 1.3750v Idle in windows = 1.264-1.280v Load with prime = 1.248v Freezed up after 35 secs.. ------------------------------- Next 1.4000v Idle in windows = 1.296v-1.312v Load with prime = 1.280-1.264v No crash, prime ran 5 tests in 16 minutes, which I'm happy for now (on my previous board prime crashed after 2 minutes, yet the comp was perfectly stable with everything I threw on).. Now, another "problem" if I may call it so.. The voltages, bios vs. hwmonitor are way off.. For example: Memory: 2,1v (2,21v in hwmon) 1.2v HT: 1.55v (1.65v in hwmon) NB: 1.55v (1.60 in hwmon) SB: 1.6v (1.63 in hwmon) CPUVTT: 1.55v (1.65 in hwmon) Is this normal or should I be worried? I don't want to fry the board or some other stuff because of that... screenie: http://i.imgur.com/CTHAq.jpg
Recheck the voltage sin aida64 and hwinfo32. As long as temps are ok those voltages should be fine but I see you have them all at max but might not need to so why not try dropping all other voltages down a bit as it's quite clear that the problem was mostly due to vdrop/vdroop on the cpu vcore. Also it doesn't matter what voltage you set in the bios for voltage, what matters is what you see at idle after vdrop and most importantly under load after vdroop for the vcore, same applies for other voltages so if they are that high after checking with other utilities then consider dropping them a little in the bios until they atleast meet the max voltages I set out in my last post.
