Minimal bios changes for tiny OC (i7 920)

[DonnieT]

I have an asus p6t and a i7 920.

I've ready many posts and "guides" and they have been so extremely varied in the number of things you have to mess with in the bios. Usually having to mess with more stuff the higher you want to go. If I wanted to do a tiny OC just so I could see if I get any difference in the game I play could i change the bclk value by say 10 and not have to change anything else from its default value? I am definitely not going to mess with any voltage changes. Once I saw an actual in game improvement I could get more desire to learn more and go higher.

 

[kranky]

How would you determine if you see improvement?

 

[Zap]

Yes, you should be good with just a simple 10MHz BCLK boost. Unless your RAM is already borderline, everything should be fine.

You might have a difficult time noticing a 200MHz (less than 10&#37 overclock by the seat-of-your-pants method. You might want to do before/after benchmarks.

 

[GLeeM]

Use CPU-Z to check your Core Voltage before you make any changes. And check your temps too.

Your mobo will automatically increase core voltage as you increase BCLK.
This is why you want to set this voltage. Set it lower than stock by a little.

I have the P6T Deluxe V2, I was like you at first, I set the OC just a little ahead each time.
When you get further, there are other voltages you will want to set or the mobo will set it too high.

I got to 3.6 real easy.
Now I am at 21x190 with core voltage of 1.264 and temps of ~73*C on a TRUE with one fan and the side of case off, ambient ~74*F.

Have fun with it, only go as far as you are comfortable!

 

[Zap]

Your mobo will automatically increase core voltage as you increase BCLK.

This is interesting... do all/most X58 boards do this or just Asus? I thought I was pretty hot stuff hitting 4GHz (on a 965 ) without having to touch voltage, but if the P6T was increasing voltage on me "on the sly" then my e-peen just experienced shrinkage.

Speaking of auto voltages... I just had some Corsair RAM and a Core i7 CPU die after enabling XMP - no overclocking even! System started crashing and then wouldn't POST. CPU was dead and one of the RAM sticks was dead.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Speaking of auto voltages... I just had some Corsair RAM and a Core i7 CPU die after enabling XMP - no overclocking even! System started crashing and then wouldn't POST. CPU was dead and one of the RAM sticks was dead.

Ouch!! That's bad news. I wonder how common that is.

Maybe this is like the A64, if your vdimm is too high, compared to your core voltage, it burns things out? Maybe you would have had less trouble, had you been overclocking your CPU, because the core voltage would have been higher?

 

[GLeeM]

I just had some Corsair RAM and a Core i7 CPU die after enabling XMP

Is XMP the auto ram clocker?
It might change lots of other things automatically also?

 

[v8envy]

I can report that the Gigabyte 'auto' voltages are... nutty. Like Zap, I thought I had the world's best E2180 when it booted up at 3.2 ghz with no voltage changes. However, it was being juiced up to over 1.4 volts under load (in Windows) courtesy of auto voltage!

Making sure *that* feature is always disabled from now on.

 

[Zap]

Ouch!! That's bad news.

I'll say. The chip was a 975.

Is XMP the auto ram clocker?
It might change lots of other things automatically also?

Supposedly it is just more memory profiles stored in the SPD.