Overclocking and BIOS

[Exide]

Hi.

I once heard that you can share BIOS settings with each other, so that if two persons have the same system one can over clock his processor and share the BIOS with the other person.
Is this possible?

My motherboard (ASUS Rampage Extreme II) supports two BIOS settings, so I figured I could have one BIOS with over clock settings and one without.

I would like a slightly over clocked processor, and maybe RAM. Enough to make a difference, but still work perfectly and not overheating.
Bottom line: I want someone to over clock my system for me nicely, because I'm too noob to do it myself. Sharing BIOS sounds like an easy way to do it.

 

[Samuraid]

Every piece of hardware (even two of the same model and revision) has different overclocking thresholds. The specific settings for one machine may or may not work at all for another.

If you want to overclock, your best bet to to take the time to learn how and do it yourself.

That said, feel free to ask questions and post your settings here, and we can help.

 

[Exide]

Every piece of hardware (even two of the same model and revision) has different overclocking thresholds. The specific settings for one machine may or may not work at all for another.

If you want to overclock, your best bet to to take the time to learn how and do it yourself.

That said, feel free to ask questions and post your settings here, and we can help.

I have no idea even where to begin.
I think I know that you change the power output something,something on each part, and that will make it perform better? -Very basic, (probably) very wrong.

 

[Samuraid]

First off, let us know what you have, specifically: motherboard (model number and revision), CPU (model and revision), RAM, CPU cooler, and Power supply.

Each architecture overclocks differently, so any info you can provide will help.

You can find most of that information using this: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

 

[Exide]

Motherboard:
ASUS Rampage II Extreme

Processor:
Intel i7 920 (stock cooler)

PSU:
Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W

RAM:
DIMM1: Corsair XMS3 CM3X2G1600C9 2 GB DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM (9-9-9-24 @ 666 MHz) (8-8-8-22 @ 592 MHz) (6-6-6-16 @ 444 MHz)
DIMM3: Corsair XMS3 CM3X2G1600C9 2 GB DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM (9-9-9-24 @ 666 MHz) (8-8-8-22 @ 592 MHz) (6-6-6-16 @ 444 MHz)
DIMM5: Corsair XMS3 CM3X2G1600C9 2 GB DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM (9-9-9-24 @ 666 MHz) (8-8-8-22 @ 592 MHz) (6-6-6-16 @ 444 MHz)

(I just noticed that my RAM is in DIMM1,3 and 5. Does it matter?)

 

[jig7c]

it doesn't matter what slot you put the ram in, as long as the computer recognizes it; afaik

 

[Exfiltrate]

Overclocking

I have an i7 920, so I think I can help you with the overclocking. When you go into the bios change the AI overclock tuner to Manual.

After you do that change the BCLK (Baseclock) from 133 (default) to 152. Make sure turbo mode is enabled or change the CPU multiplier to 21.
Set the ram speed to somewhere close to 1333mhz, a little above or below, shouldn't make too much difference.

Changing these settings should give you an easy overclock. This is a good start for learning how to OC.

Once you are in windows download RealTemp, and check your temperatures. If the temps are too high you can lower the BCLK.

 

[Exide]

I have an i7 920, so I think I can help you with the overclocking. When you go into the bios change the AI overclock tuner to Manual.

After you do that change the BCLK (Baseclock) from 133 (default) to 152. Make sure turbo mode is enabled or change the CPU multiplier to 21.
Set the ram speed to somewhere close to 1333mhz, a little above or below, shouldn't make too much difference.

Changing these settings should give you an easy overclock. This is a good start for learning how to OC.

Once you are in windows download RealTemp, and check your temperatures. If the temps are too high you can lower the BCLK.

I assume you have overclocked yours?
What speed does your CPU run at after the overclock? Does anything weird ever happen (crashes, reboots, etc)?

 

[kingkingyyk3]

At earliest stage, try to increase the clock speed. Each time you overclock to high value, test it for stability. Then try to play around with multiplier. Test them until they can't be higher, then add vcore little by little. Monitor your temperature too.

 

[AnthraxXx]

*IMPORTANT* Don't forget to set PCI-Express Frequency to 100.

Overclocking RAM is feasible, RAM speeds affect performance of i7 CPU's somewhat moreso than Core 2's, check this article out: http://techreport.com/articles.x/15967

 

[Exfiltrate]

Yes, mine is overclocked to 4ghz

My cpu is overclocked to 4ghz (Prolimatech Megahalems Cooler) There could be some rebooting, etc, but it is hard to damage the cpu, unless you are really trying. You may experience some rebooting, so if that happens decrease the BCLK. If you want to test for stability, use prime95 and run a blend test. Be sure to watch the temperatures, and leave it on for 24 hours if you want to test true stability.

 

[Exfiltrate]

So far I have made my 4ghz overclock stable with idle temps about 39 C Idle temp. I have an i7 920 revision C0 which runs hotter than the newer revision (D0). Could you also tell us what revision of the cpu you have D0 or C0 by looking at Revision in CPU-Z. I hope I could help!

With the settings I posted previously you should get to around 3.2ghz.

 

[Exide]

Thanks for all the replies.

I read some forum threads about overclocking and decided to at least take a look in my BIOS to see if I wanted to change anything.
I found that my awesome BIOS has everything set to AUTO, and furthermore has a function to automatically overclock to pre-set settings to match intel i7 940 and even 960.
I decided to try to set it to 940 and saved and rebooted.

Everything seems to be working as normal, and I did a 100% CPU stress test for 15 minutes.
Highest temp value I got for the cpu itself was 58 degrees (with the stock cooler.)
However, the cpu cores went up to like 72 degrees. -Why is there such a difference? Is it bad? (I remember it was a difference like this even before I overclocked too.)


Here's my settings according to EVEREST:

-Does it look ok?
-What does DRAM:FSB ratio mean?
-The speed says: 3064,5MHz and the multiplier says: 21, does that mean that the FSB is: ~149?

(The only thing that bothers me is that the ASUS fan controller software (EPU-6 Engine) refuses to control the fans because I'm in "overclocked mode".)

 

[Exfiltrate]

Yes, your overclock looks fine. The QPI Clock (145.9) is the FSB (145.9*21) = your CPU Clock speed. The difference in temperature on the stress test is because the stress test stressed all 8 threads of the 4 core cpu (most applications don't do that) In gaming temps will not go as high as the stress test. As long as things are stable I think you are fine.

Also, your memory is at 583*2 (1,166mhz) you could bring these speeds up to 1333mhz (or a bit higher) in the bios.

 

[Exide]

Yes, your overclock looks fine. The QPI Clock (145.9) is the FSB (145.9*21) = your CPU Clock speed. The difference in temperature on the stress test is because the stress test stressed all 8 threads of the 4 core cpu (most applications don't do that) In gaming temps will not go as high as the stress test. As long as things are stable I think you are fine.

Also, your memory is at 583*2 (1,166mhz) you could bring these speeds up to 1333mhz (or a bit higher) in the bios.

Thanks
I have no idea of the RAM temperatures, though. So I'm not sure if I want to clock them too much.
Maybe I should install one of them Corsair RAM fans to be and the safe side?

 

[Exfiltrate]

Ram fan

As long as there is some air blowing on your ram you should be fine. A ram fan wouldn't hurt, as I began to run into ram overheating issues with 12gb ram, so I bought an OCZ XTC2 ram cooler, which helps a lot. It's up to you whether you want a cooler or not, while for you it's probably not necessary.