I5 750 overclocking

[themusgrat]

I'll be getting the rest of my parts for a new system and building this weekend, so was wondering what you guys have been able to do in terms of overclocking the I5. I've got a Cooler Master 212, so that's just about best case for air cooling, and it looks like I should be able to reach 3.8-4ghz with very slight voltage increases. Just making this thread because there's a distinct lack of I5 OCing on this forum, dunno what's happened since I built last.

My main problem I foresee, is that I went with an Asrock P55 Pro, which has great features, but is cheap, and tom's hardware says they had stuff blowing up at 1.425v, with 2 separate boards, because the boards aren't designed for high CPU voltages, at least the P55 Pro isn't, I think the Extreme version has 16 phase, whereas mine will only have 8. Apparently Asrock is releasing a new bios with overvoltage protection, but I could care less. What I really want to know is what voltages I'll need to hit the 3.8 or 4.0 mark. Also, will I have to up the voltage to the onchip PCIE controller? Or does increasing the CPU voltage do the same thing.

My build will be this, for reference. I'll be sure to update you guys with my ocs, if the Asrock is able to maintain good overclocks at 1.2-3v, then it is an absolute steal. I'm building this system for like 900, and I could have done it for 700 without the SSD, for performance that will beat anything you can buy in a store, though my video card will hold me back some for sure, but I mainly play eve and TF2, so won't run into problems there.

I5 750
Cooler Master 212 w/2 decently quiet fans (no retarded leds of course)
Asrock P55 Pro
4GB OCZ Gold (cheapest stuff I could find)
XFX 4650 (holdover till the new DX11 cards come out)
Intel X25-M G2 80gb as boot
Hitachi 1TB sata for media

And I'm upgrading from:

Opty 165 (stock speed, I burnt out 3, so finally stopped OCing, was expensive)
Custom water cooling, swiftech pump, 120mm radiator, etc., pretty good really
DFI NF4 Ultra
3gb DDR
80gb Seagate SATA 7200 drive as boot......
2x 250gb 7200s in RAID 0 as media
ATI 3850

soooo....... I'm thinking I'm going to be really really happy I do love my current build, but it's 6 years old now, and the motherboard starting to show instability from all the ocing I've put it through.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Umm...The new DX11 cards are already out.

 

[themusgrat]

I should have said decently priced ones. I would have gone I7 if I had been able to afford the best, I've never spent more than 120 on a video card, and never been disappointed.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Once I get an OS installed and some mounting brackets, I'll post my scores. I've got the damn box all built sitting next to me, and I can't even boot it up. I didn't realize mobo's don't have floppy support anymore LOL.

We're upgrading from the same era:
FX-55
MSI K8N neo4
2gb ddr
x1900gt

i5
Scythe infinity
Asus p7p55d
4gb corsair
xfx 5850

 

[themusgrat]

There's some guy selling vista business for like $30 on ebay, might look into it. I'm a student, so that means I pay like $5 to upgrade to windows 7 ultimate in a few weeks.

 

[magicrat03]

Zaitsev - Usually if a motherboard has no floppy, you should be able to flash the bios with a usb flash drive check the manual or your boards web page in the bios area

 

[TDHenderson]

Below are my specs. I am very happy at 3.875GHz on my Core i5 right now. Pushing it further seems to bring instability even though my temps look pretty good.

At idle my max core temps are at 42C, 35C, 41C, and 37C. At load under Prime95 after 60 minutes the temps max at 66C, 62C, 63C, and 62C.

Trevor

 

[Bill Brasky]

Originally posted by: magicrat03
Zaitsev - Usually if a motherboard has no floppy, you should be able to flash the bios with a usb flash drive check the manual or your boards web page in the bios area

I brought out a lurker!

Thanks for the tip. I need to play around in the bios a little more, and check it out.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: TDHenderson
Below are my specs. I am very happy at 3.875GHz on my Core i5 right now. Pushing it further seems to bring instability even though my temps look pretty good.

At idle my max core temps are at 42C, 35C, 41C, and 37C. At load under Prime95 after 60 minutes the temps max at 66C, 62C, 63C, and 62C.

Trevor

WTH, how are you getting these temps? I'm using the same cooler on my i7 860, and even with only 1.28v I'm breaking over 70c load.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: munky

Originally posted by: TDHenderson
Below are my specs. I am very happy at 3.875GHz on my Core i5 right now. Pushing it further seems to bring instability even though my temps look pretty good.

At idle my max core temps are at 42C, 35C, 41C, and 37C. At load under Prime95 after 60 minutes the temps max at 66C, 62C, 63C, and 62C.

Trevor

WTH, how are you getting these temps? I'm using the same cooler on my i7 860, and even with only 1.28v I'm breaking over 70c load.

Munky, the Core i5 doesn't run as hot as the i7s because it lacks Hyperthreading.

4.13ghz Core i7 750 power consumption < 3.2ghz Core i7 960
17 Watts higher Power Consumption on 860 with HT on at stock speeds

So you can't directly compare i5 to i7 on 1156 in terms of overclocked power consumption. However, those temperatures are still too good. Maybe 18*C ambients?

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
However, those temperatures are still too good. Maybe 18*C ambients?

More likely using something other than Core Temp or Real Temp.

Speedfan reads like 20*C less than the above apps.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Originally posted by: GLeeM

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
However, those temperatures are still too good. Maybe 18*C ambients?

More likely using something other than Core Temp or Real Temp.

Speedfan reads like 20*C less than the above apps.

Good point.

Originally posted by: TDHenderson
Below are my specs. I am very happy at 3.875GHz on my Core i5 right now. Pushing it further seems to bring instability even though my temps look pretty good.

At idle my max core temps are at 42C, 35C, 41C, and 37C. At load under Prime95 after 60 minutes the temps max at 66C, 62C, 63C, and 62C.

Trevor

If you're not using it already, would you check your temps with CoreTemp?

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

 

[TDHenderson]

Ambient temp in the room is 19C.

I've done some more tweaking and installed Core Temp and here is what I am testing right now.

4.000GHz at 190x21, CPU voltage 1.34375V, IMC voltage 1.23125V, CPU PLL 1.8V.

Temps viewed from Core Temp are a max of 71C, 68C, 68C, and 67C under load from Prime95 and 38C, 32C, 37C, and 34C at idle.

Trevor

 

[nyker96]

Originally posted by: TDHenderson
Ambient temp in the room is 19C.

I've done some more tweaking and installed Core Temp and here is what I am testing right now.

4.000GHz at 190x21, CPU voltage 1.34375V, IMC voltage 1.23125V, CPU PLL 1.8V.

Temps viewed from Core Temp are a max of 71C, 68C, 68C, and 67C under load from Prime95 and 38C, 32C, 37C, and 34C at idle.

Trevor

from the looks of it the i5 clocks to about i7 but need more juice here.

 

[MadScientist]

themusgrat,

You and I are upgrading to and from similar systems. I kept my old NEC 3540A IDE DVD burner (still works well and has a silver front to match my Lian Li PC-7A Plus silver case), MSI nvidia 8800GT video card, Hitachi 250GB SATA drive, and replaced my Antec Neopower 480 psu with an OCZ ModXStream Pro 700 psu ($50. AR ? Bing cashback at ZZF) which has an 8 pin EPS12V CPU power cable.

New:
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (1 fan) with TIM Consultants T-C Grease 0098
Intel Core i5-750
G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600, 9-9-9-24, 1.5V
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700
Asrock P55 Pro
OS: Win 7 Ultimate

Old:
Lian Li PC-7A Plus (original 120mm ADDA front & rear fans)
NEC 3540A DVD burner
Arctic Cooling 64 Freezer Pro with AS5
AMD Opteron 170 (oc?ed to 2.75Ghz)
MSI NX8800GT
2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR PC3200
Antec Neopower 480
Epox 9NPA+ Ultra nvidia nforce 4 ultra
OS: Win XP Pro

I read the review of this board at TH and I?m also concerned about oc?ing the CPU past 1.35V.

I flashed the bios to V1.80 and ran some quick overclocks (2hours on each setting) using Prime95 (Small FFts), CPUZ, and Core Temp. Ambient temp was 22C. For now, I kept my ram below its Mhz rating, the timings at 9-9-9-24, and vdimm at 1.5V. I ran Memtest86 V4.0 for 3 hours and then looped test 5 for 3 hours with no errors.

Bios Settings:
Spread Spectrum - Disabled
QPI Frequency - anything over 150 - 160MHz base clock, select the lower multiplier, suggested by the bit-tech.net article..
CPU Voltage ? Manual, 1.24375V stock? Is there a stock voltage (VID) for this CPU? When I entered Manual mode this is the voltage that came up. CPUZ reads it as 1.232V idle, 1.240V load with Vdrop Control enabled.
VDrop Control ? Without Vdrop, confusing since this seems to mean enabled from CPUZ readings.
Dram Voltage - Auto
VTT Voltage- Auto
PCH Voltage - Auto
CPU PLL Voltage - Auto

Under CPU Configuration:
Enhanced Halt State ? Disabled, is this another C1E or EIST setting?
Intel Virtualization - Disabled
CPU Thermal Throttling - Enable
No-Execute Memory Protection - Disabled
Active Processor Cores - All
A20M - Disabled
Intel SpeedStep - Disabled, this will also disable Turbomode.
Intel C-State - Disabled
Disabled everything I?m not using, floppy, firewire, SATA ports, etc.

Here?s some prelim (2 hours Prime95 stable) results:

Highest oc on stock? voltage:
Core Speed: 3.6 Ghz, Base Clock: 180, Bios CPU voltage: 1.24375V, CPUZ : 1.232V idle, 1.240V load, Temps: 30C idle, 53C load, Mem Freq: 720 Mhz

Highest oc with VTT voltage and CPU PLL voltage on Auto:
Core Speed: 3.7 Ghz, Base Clock: 185, Bios CPU voltage: 1.275V, CPUZ: 1.264V idle, 1.272V load, Temps: 31C idle, 55C load, Mem Freq: 742 Mhz

At 190 base clock I also had to raise VTT and PLL voltages a bit:
Core Speed: 3.8 Ghz, Base Clock: 190, Bios CPU voltage: 1.325V, CPUZ: 1.312V idle, 1.320V load, VTT: 1.204V, PLL: 1.812V, Temps: 34C idle, 61C load, Mem Freq: 761 Mhz

I hit a wall at 195 base clock. I raised the CPU voltage to 1.3625, VTT to 1.3695V, and PLL to 1.895V, but it failed Prime95 after 1 hour. Due to TH?s article I?m reluctant to raise the CPU voltage up beyond this until I see more on it. I didn?t see/smell any smoke or sparks at this voltage. Any suggestions?
Core Speed: 3.9 Ghz, Base Clock: 195, Bios Cpu voltage: 1.3625V, CPUZ: 1.352V idle, 1.360V load, VTT: 1.3695V, PLL: 1.895V, Temps: 35C idle, 67C load, Mem Freq: 782 Mhz

I found that trying to enable SpeedStep and TurboMode on any overclock over 3.2 Ghz resulted in a Windows hardware failure BSOD. Could it be because the top core speed for Turbo Boost on an i5-750 is 3.2 GHz? If you enable/disable Speedstep it will enable/disable TurbMode. You can though disable TurboMode and enable Speedstep.

What is the max volts that VTT should be set to? The Bit-Tech.net article recommends setting it to 1.35V - 1.40V for a base clock of 200, but Intel recommends for the i5-750 that the max should be 1.21V.
Intel Core i7-800 and i5-700 Desktop Processors Series DataSheet Vol. 1 page 67

As I stated these are just prelim results, only 2 hours Prime95. I will test these settings longer. Temps will most likely be higher. What fans are you using on your Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus?

My take on this MB:
Pros: Best bang for your buck if high voltages don't fry it or your CPU. It comes with bios auto oc and Windows oc software. I tied the bios auto oc. I didn't work well. I?d rather do it manually anyway. It has bios flashing within the bios (copy the bios file to a flash drive or leave it on your hard drive, boot into the bios, hit instant flash and it will find the file and flash the bios), I/O panel clear cmos button (didn?t have to use it), internal power and reset buttons, LED port 80 diagnostics display, and mounting holes for socket 1156 and 775 heat sinks.
Cons: Board is about 1? less in width which crowds the ram slots closer to the CPU socket. Some wider heat sinks will block the first ram slot. The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus fan just clears the first slot. The front panel audio header is in the bottom rear corner and the floppy (if you have one) connector is beneath the lowest expansion slot on the bottom edge. Longer video cards may hang past the forward facing SATA ports. The front panel header uses 2 adjacent pins for the power LED. Most cases have a 3 pin power LED plug.
Bios settings are not in the written manual but in the user manual on the CD.

So far it's been running very stable, booted up first try.

 

[themusgrat]

I'm using 2 of these. They seemed to be relatively quiet, cheap, and good airflow. I'm finishing the build today, so will start with some OC/memtest, and get my SSD tomorrow so then I can get into prime95 and other stability programs. I'll be sure to update what OC I do finally get. And I'm also waiting on a followup on this board, hopefully it's a limited issue, but I'm not so sure. And besides, a 4ghz OC on this chip is about all you can reasonably expect on air, so I think I might just leave it at 3.8-9 and save myself some time.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[n7]

I just got my i5 750 setup together & running Saturday, & started a little OCing yesterday.

So far i feel kinda like a n00b again, as i'm very used to OCing x775 for years now, & things are definitely different for s1156/1366.

Here are the main parts:
i5 750
Noctua NH-U12P SE2
Gigabyte P55-UD3R
G.Skill 4x2 GB DDR3-2000 Ripjaws

Pics:
the new toys
new Haf 932 housing the goods
installed in the case
CPU area view
i5 750 SLBLC Batch: L929B460
CPU
P55-UD3R
UD3R beige & blue glory?
top view of mobo
side view
I/O headers
Intel X25-M & OCZ Agilty: can't overclock these, but they are fast enough on their own

So getting to 20x200 (4 GHz) was a piece of cake...but since then, it's been pretty rough.

LinX seems to be extremely hard to get stable, but P95 goes forever :/

4.3 GHz SuperPi (not stable)
4.2 GHz is doing fine w/ P95 Blend for over an hour
But those exact settings fail LinX

Look at the 4.2 GHz screenie for my settings: voltages are in EasyTune.

TBH, i am still trying to learn the BIOS.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: n7

LinX seems to be extremely hard to get stable, but P95 goes forever :/

4.3 GHz SuperPi (not stable)
4.2 GHz is doing fine w/ P95 Blend for over an hour
But those exact settings fail LinX

Look at the 4.2 GHz screenie for my settings: voltages are in EasyTune.

TBH, i am still trying to learn the BIOS.

Try using Prime95 Small FFTs test to stress your CPU. From what I've heard this is a better indicator for CPU stability, while Blended test is more about memory.

My UD3R requires QPI/VTT of 1.250V up to 189 BCLK, but above 189 I am into 1.39/1.41 territory. You got 210 with 1.29

I am surprised you needed to raise Southbridge voltages (PCH) at all. Also I think your GSkills don't need 1.64V. Those chips are rated at 1.60V to begin with and you are running them well below 2000mhz.

Nice case :thumbsup: Your temperatures are really low. i5s run so much cooler since they lack HT.

 

[themusgrat]

I definitely like your case, those are some massive fans. They seem to cool much better than my case too On my Cooler Master 212 I get a 36C idle temp when running at 3.7. I'm supposedly getting my SSD today!!!! Hopefully at least, so I'll get into some heavy OCing, once I get an OS installed.

 

[MacAttack]

I have the ASRock P55 mobo as well. I am running an i7 860. I cannot get my system stable past 3.7GHz. For some reason, this mobo, CPU, or memory is limiting me. I will be doing more research and testing this weekend. I am sort of new to OC'ing, so user error is definitely a factor. Those auto OC settings only work for me up to 3.6GHz. After that, I am on my own.

If anyone gets a stable OC, I would love to see it in OC DNA.

 

[MadScientist]

n7,
Nice setup. In retrospect, maybe I should have gone with your Gigabyte board, but purchased the Asrock based on great reviews of their 1366 MBs.

themusgrat,
What bios voltage were you running at 3.7? What is your stock voltage, if there is one for this CPU? In my bios under HW Monitor it shows CPU voltage 1.224V with Vdrop disabled and 1.232 with Vdrop enabled at stock 133 base clock. CPUZ with Vdrop enabled is reading 1.232V idle, 1.240V load. When I set CPU Voltage to Manual bios shows 1.24375V.

The last system I built was a Q6600 quad for my son. You could read its VID from Core Temp, but for the i5-750 its grayed out.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: MacAttack
I have the ASRock P55 mobo as well. I am running an i7 860. I cannot get my system stable past 3.7GHz. For some reason, this mobo, CPU, or memory is limiting me. I will be doing more research and testing this weekend. I am sort of new to OC'ing, so user error is definitely a factor. Those auto OC settings only work for me up to 3.6GHz. After that, I am on my own.

If anyone gets a stable OC, I would love to see it in OC DNA.

Try:

PLL: 1.860 up from 1.800
QPI/VTT: 1.39 up from 1.1
CPU voltage: 1.35V
PCH voltage: 1.12 from 1.05
lower ram ratio to remove ram from the equation
set QPI ratio to 32x
Set PCI express to 100
Set CPU/PCI express microvoltage adjustments to 800mVs (if you have this option).

 

[MadScientist]

Originally posted by: MacAttack
I have the ASRock P55 mobo as well. I am running an i7 860. I cannot get my system stable past 3.7GHz. For some reason, this mobo, CPU, or memory is limiting me. I will be doing more research and testing this weekend. I am sort of new to OC'ing, so user error is definitely a factor. Those auto OC settings only work for me up to 3.6GHz. After that, I am on my own.

If anyone gets a stable OC, I would love to see it in OC DNA.

Also flash the bios to the latest version, V1.7. Use Instant Flash in the bios to flash it. Link

Don't use the bios auto oc functions. I gave them a try and they don't work well. Do it all manually. RS gave you some great advice about keeping your ram below its Mhz rating to remove it from the equation. Run Prime95 Small FFts setting.

Read this article for more useful tips on bios settings. Link

Also read Anantech's review of Asrock's P55M Pro for more tips. Most of its bios settings are the same as your MB. Link

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Try using Prime95 Small FFTs test to stress your CPU. From what I've heard this is a better indicator for CPU stability, while Blended test is more about memory.

My UD3R requires QPI/VTT of 1.250V up to 189 BCLK, but above 189 I am into 1.39/1.41 territory. You got 210 with 1.29

I am surprised you needed to raise Southbridge voltages (PCH) at all. Also I think your GSkills don't need 1.64V. Those chips are rated at 1.60V to begin with and you are running them well below 2000mhz.

Nice case :thumbsup: Your temperatures are really low. i5s run so much cooler since they lack HT.

I've pretty much stopped bothering with P95.
For high FSB quads on s775, i found P95 Large was good for finding VTT/NB + GTL issues.

For this though, Large doesn't find crap all, & small is useless, as i can pass both (or Blend) at higher speeds & LOWER vcore than LinX @ lower speeds & higher vcore.

In short thus far for me, P95 is proving to be a non-stability test, at least compared to LinX.

You were right about me not needing PCH voltage upped, & VTT needing as much also.

It really seems all i have to worry about is vcore...i got 4.15 GHz stable.
20x208 DDR3-2080 9-9-9-27
http://ense7en.com/pics/i5%207...20-%20SuperPi%201M.jpg
or
21x198 DDR3-1980 9-9-9-27
http://ense7en.com/pics/i5%207...44MB%2025%20passes.jpg

Suicide screenie!
4.4 GHz w/ 8 GB DDR3-2200 9-9-9-27 :Q
http://ense7en.com/pics/i5%20750/4400%20pi.jpg

I am going to work on the RAM speed/timings now...have to figure out whether 8x tighter timings (& possibly 1T) or 10x higher speeds is best.

 

[MacAttack]

Also flash the bios to the latest version, V1.7. Use Instant Flash in the bios to flash it. Link

I am a little limited on time until this weekend. I have flashed to the 1.70 BIOS already. I reset BIOS setting to defaults to restart my OC. I followed the advice from RussianSensation. All I can say is something extremely screwy is going on with the ASRock. The setting for "TurboMode" is only there after I reset the BIOS. It simply disappears from the BIOS screen once I start trying to OC.

So, I reset BIOS again, disabled TurboMode, started setting things manually. The BIOS on ASRock is not as "smooth" looking as some other mobos out there. There is no place that I see that can set RAM ratio, QPI ratio.

I will supply details of my BIOS when I have more time this weekend. Currently, this is what I see:

QPI: can be set to 6.6 or 7.2
Ram ratio: No setting that I can see. I can set the timings and I have those at the factory recommendation on the box: 9-9-9-27
VTT (uncore): Set to 1.39
CPU V: Set to 1.35
PCH: Set to 1.12
TurboMode: Up and vanished like a fart in the wind

I may just dump this ASRock experiment and go back to GigaByte. I should have never done that experiment I think.