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[antonz]

From what I am hearing looks like the new Sandy Bridges MOBO will be starting to be available March 1st. Will have to see how long it takes for them to be widely available as Im sure plenty of manufacturers have replacement boards to ship etc

 

[AceBandage]

So I'm thinking about getting started on overclocking my GPU (this 6850) but I'm a little intimidated by the whole process. Should I do some sort of a stress test? If so, any recommendations?

And I think I can overclock with the CCC but not sure.

Most 6850s are really good at OCing.
I have mine at 880MHz Core and 1140MHz memory with no problem. I could probably go higher but I don't really need to yet.
And yeah, you should be able to use CCC for it.

 

[Zabojnik]

So two days ago I ordered a i7 2600K processor, a Gigabyte mobo and 4Gb of RAM. Should I be worried about the recalls? As I understand it the fault isn't really that significant and I really don't feel like waiting a month or so. How wrong am I?

 

[mrklaw]

So two days ago I ordered a i7 2600K processor, a Gigabyte mobo and 4Gb of RAM. Should I be worried about the recalls? As I understand it the fault isn't really that significant and I really don't feel like waiting a month or so. How wrong am I?

not wrong at all. How many SATA drives you planning to install?

 

[wandering goat]

So I'm thinking about getting started on overclocking my GPU (this 6850) but I'm a little intimidated by the whole process. Should I do some sort of a stress test? If so, any recommendations?

And I think I can overclock with the CCC but not sure.

OCing the 6850 is as simple as can be. Just slide the bars in CCC and boom, done. I don't know if all 6850s can have their voltages changed (I have an Asus which has a program allowing that), but I've done my OCing at stock voltage anyway, and it seems most people don't need to raise it except for really extreme clocks.

What I'd do is put it to 860 or 880 MHz and memory to 1100 to start with. You can use Furmark to stress test, but to test for the artifacts that would show if you're pushing it too far, I use ATI Tool, which has a button "Scan for Artifacts". It also stresses it, though less than Furmark, but you can easily see artifacts in its window if you don't have enough voltage / too high an overclock. They show up as yellow marks for me.

I have my Asus at 920 MHz and 1150 MHz memory, and it's good at stock voltage (1.15) and a little bit lower, as a comparison.

 

[Grimm Fandango]

OCing the 6850 is as simple as can be. Just slide the bars in CCC and boom, done. I don't know if all 6850s can have their voltages changed (I have an Asus which has a program allowing that), but I've done my OCing at stock voltage anyway, and it seems most people don't need to raise it except for really extreme clocks.

What I'd do is put it to 860 or 880 MHz and memory to 1100 to start with. You can use Furmark to stress test, but to test for the artifacts that would show if you're pushing it too far, I use ATI Tool, which has a button "Scan for Artifacts". It also stresses it, though less than Furmark, but you can easily see artifacts in its window if you don't have enough voltage / too high an overclock. They show up as yellow marks for me.

I have my Asus at 920 MHz and 1150 MHz memory, and it's good at stock voltage (1.15) and a little bit lower, as a comparison.

In my CCC, the GPU clock is capped at 850. How can I boost that?

Also what are the advantages to setting the manual fan control speed? Shouldn't the fans crank up automatically when heat builds up? Mine's at 73% and I've noticed my card hasn't really gone above 50 degrees Celsius when gaming with intense graphics (max Splinter Cell Conviction and high Crysis at 1080p).

 

[rocK`]

So two days ago I ordered a i7 2600K processor, a Gigabyte mobo and 4Gb of RAM. Should I be worried about the recalls? As I understand it the fault isn't really that significant and I really don't feel like waiting a month or so. How wrong am I?

Any ideas where to get a good/great mobo for a 2600k? Newegg doesn't sell them anymore..

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Any ideas where to get a good/great mobo for a 2600k? Newegg doesn't sell them anymore..

I just went to amazon. Back in the last page I posted the link to my MB. They are processing it now and it says I can't cancel it and it's due to arrive Feb 8-11. I hope they ship it in light of the recall and all.

I linked an ASUS board. I believe it has the newer EFI bios. They look great and much easier to use.

 

[wandering goat]

In my CCC, the GPU clock is capped at 850. How can I boost that?

Also what are the advantages to setting the manual fan control speed? Shouldn't the fans crank up automatically when heat builds up? Mine's at 73% and I've noticed my card hasn't really gone above 50 degrees Celsius when gaming with intense graphics (max Splinter Cell Conviction and high Crysis at 1080p).

Oh, I didn't know that could even happen. You could try doing it from a third party program like MSI Afterburner and OCing from there. Based on this article, it looks like you may have to configure it a bit first.

As for the fan speed, I kept it on auto because it does a pretty good job. I think manual is more for controlling fan noise by keeping it steady or low, or making it extra cool, as auto should adjust pretty well based on temps. Mine never really went above 50% fan speed, but I believe that's because it kept it cool enough at that level, and it would have gone higher if needed.

 

[Cipherr]

Can someone recommend a computer desk?

When I finished my build I went to craigslist and found an IKEA jerker.

These desks have long been discontinued but work perfectly for my setup, the guy was selling two of them. They were both identical. And I love the freaking black and grey set. There are some wooden brighter versions also but I prefer this form. The desk is extremely deep. Like 40 inches in fact. And VERY wide. So much room for all your equipment. And the shelves that it has are amazing to but Im not using all of them.

Most of all its built like a tank. No wobble, no nothing. Solid as a rock.

I dont like the desks with pull out trays. Not enough moving room for me for my mouse. Feels restricted, I need a large wide open space for my keyboard and mouse to lay on. That and I dont like sitting right up on my monitor. Hate being extremely close to the display like that.

 

[K.Jack]

At first glance, I thought you had a small mountain of blow on your desk.

I was like sheeeeeiiit this dude probably goes ballistic online.

 

[Cipherr]

At first glance, I thought you had a small mountain of blow on your desk.

Ahaha no, its not my desk btw, just an image of the same make and model I googled up real quick (I would never put my case in a space like that, my case has a top exhaust). Great desk though.

 

[TheExodu5]

When I finished my build I went to craigslist and found an IKEA jerker.

These desks have long been discontinued but work perfectly for my setup, the guy was selling two of them. They were both identical. And I love the freaking black and grey set. There are some wooden brighter versions also but I prefer this form. The desk is extremely deep. Like 40 inches in fact. And VERY wide. So much room for all your equipment. And the shelves that it has are amazing to but Im not using all of them.

Most of all its built like a tank. No wobble, no nothing. Solid as a rock.

I dont like the desks with pull out trays. Not enough moving room for me for my mouse. Feels restricted, I need a large wide open space for my keyboard and mouse to lay on. That and I dont like sitting right up on my monitor. Hate being extremely close to the display like that.

Good stuff. Any desk that uses something other than a keyboard tray gets my vote. Keyboard trays just don't do it for gaming...not enough mousing space.

 

[TheExodu5]

So two days ago I ordered a i7 2600K processor, a Gigabyte mobo and 4Gb of RAM. Should I be worried about the recalls? As I understand it the fault isn't really that significant and I really don't feel like waiting a month or so. How wrong am I?

Basically, the SATA II ports (usually 2-5) have a 5-15% of failing within 3 years. If you only plan on having 2 SATA devices connected, connect them to ports 0 and 1 and you're fine. If you have 4 SATA devices, then get an Asus board that has the additional 2 Marvell SATA III ports, and you'll have 4 usable ports.

Personally, I have a Gigabyte motherboard with only 2 SATA III ports, and am currently using 5 SATA devices. I'm going to live with it. If the SATA ports fail, I'll RMA or upgrade at that point. I'm not going to obsess over a small chance of the ports failing, unless there's risk of the ports damaging my hard drives.

 

[Grimm Fandango]

Oh, I didn't know that could even happen. You could try doing it from a third party program like MSI Afterburner and OCing from there. Based on this article, it looks like you may have to configure it a bit first.

As for the fan speed, I kept it on auto because it does a pretty good job. I think manual is more for controlling fan noise by keeping it steady or low, or making it extra cool, as auto should adjust pretty well based on temps. Mine never really went above 50% fan speed, but I believe that's because it kept it cool enough at that level, and it would have gone higher if needed.

Oh okay.

I set it at 850 and 1200, the max in CCC. Anything beyond that sounds like messing with the voltage which I don't yet feel comfortable with.

Using Furmark and with 1080p, 8x MSAA, I got a bump of 5 FPS over the stock 775/1000. I think I'm satisfied

 

[ZZMitch]

Is now a good a time as any to buy an SSD?

I have come across a bit of extra money these days and was thinking of purchasing an SSD because I want the extra speed and better reliability that they offer, I was planning to do a full windows restore soon anyway for it seems like a good time to get an SSD!

I have probably around 150$ I could spend, what do you all recommend?

 

[LiquidMetal14]

This was posted earlier, a lot of people have used the lines between the copper pipes method with the 212+.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...ask=view&id=170&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=5

I'd give this video a watch before/while installing, since the instructions aren't the clearest...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSq_xbxsm7Q

Thanks for the links. The second one was on the Newegg product page so I already watched that. It seems to me that it's best to spread the compound onto the heatsink then make the two lines like was shows in the guide on the second page. Am I correct in assuming that?

And while I'm at it I had a couple of questions regarding parts and putting it all together. Should I starts slow and put the CPU/HEATSINK/FAN and and try that? Or should I just put everything in and let it rip? Does it really matter? I want this to go as smoothly as possible and I'm only worried about MB and CPU HEATSINK mounting.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Man, I hope there will be no issues with my ASUS motherboard.

Long story short, I ordered it 2 days ago and there was like 5 left. My order says it cannot be canceled and is being processed. I checked today and the page says temporarily out of stock. I hope this means I got my order in and others just bought and they're out of stock. I emailed the seller and told them that I hope this means that they are still going to ship it. I'm getting all paranoid since I have all the parts ordered and need that MB to get the ball rolling.

Also, a question about RAM. I ordered the G SKILL dual channel kit. Regarding the placement of RAM. Am I going to put these in ports 0 and 2 or can they just be in the first 2 slots closest to the CPU?

1 more thing to add as I am going to bed but am hoping for someone to humble me here. I got the SB and the Radeon 6950 coming. 600w PSU will be enough for some moderate overclocking I hope? I'm running basics outside of those 2 higher end components.

 

[rocK`]

Basically, the SATA II ports (usually 2-5) have a 5-15% of failing within 3 years. If you only plan on having 2 SATA devices connected, connect them to ports 0 and 1 and you're fine. If you have 4 SATA devices, then get an Asus board that has the additional 2 Marvell SATA III ports, and you'll have 4 usable ports.

Personally, I have a Gigabyte motherboard with only 2 SATA III ports, and am currently using 5 SATA devices. I'm going to live with it. If the SATA ports fail, I'll RMA or upgrade at that point. I'm not going to obsess over a small chance of the ports failing, unless there's risk of the ports damaging my hard drives.

Which gigabyte mobo? are you overclocking? I'm looking for a mobo for my new i7 2600k, but obviously having issues finding a retailer...

 

[knitoe]

Man, I hope there will be no issues with my ASUS motherboard.

Long story short, I ordered it 2 days ago and there was like 5 left. My order says it cannot be canceled and is being processed. I checked today and the page says temporarily out of stock. I hope this means I got my order in and others just bought and they're out of stock. I emailed the seller and told them that I hope this means that they are still going to ship it. I'm getting all paranoid since I have all the parts ordered and need that MB to get the ball rolling.

Also, a question about RAM. I ordered the G SKILL dual channel kit. Regarding the placement of RAM. Am I going to put these in ports 0 and 2 or can they just be in the first 2 slots closest to the CPU?

1 more thing to add as I am going to bed but am hoping for someone to humble me here. I got the SB and the Radeon 6950 coming. 600w PSU will be enough for some moderate overclocking I hope? I'm running basics outside of those 2 higher end components.

For dual channel, ram needs to be separated. Asus suggest away from CPU A2 & B2 slot.

Depending on how good the PSU is, 600W should be plenty for 1 video card. When you run two, then, you are looking at 750+ W.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Ugh, really? I'm in the same position, but the receiver costs as much as just getting a wired controller! Stupid MS...

look on new egg or amazon, they sell the wireless controllers. they also have on amazon the wireless receiver. well worth it, IMO. also buy the $20 recharger.

 

[Hazaro]

Mobo manual tells you were to put the sticks.

look on new egg or amazon, they sell the wireless controllers. they also have on amazon the wireless receiver. well worth it, IMO. also buy the $20 recharger.

But for $20 you can get 4 AA Eneloops and a charger.

 

[BloodySinner]

Any deals on gaming mice lately? Like under $40? My Razor Copperhead is done.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Mobo manual tells you were to put the sticks.
But for $20 you can get 4 AA Eneloops and a charger.

yeah, any good rechargeable batteries I guess. those look interesting, what's different about them?

 

[Hazaro]

yeah, any good rechargeable batteries I guess. those look interesting, what's different about them?

One of the first low discharge AA's on the market. Just about every brand has them now though.

Basically the capacity of the batteries doesn't tank massively after a year.

 

[Zabojnik]

Basically, the SATA II ports (usually 2-5) have a 5-15% of failing within 3 years. If you only plan on having 2 SATA devices connected, connect them to ports 0 and 1 and you're fine. If you have 4 SATA devices, then get an Asus board that has the additional 2 Marvell SATA III ports, and you'll have 4 usable ports.

Personally, I have a Gigabyte motherboard with only 2 SATA III ports, and am currently using 5 SATA devices. I'm going to live with it. If the SATA ports fail, I'll RMA or upgrade at that point. I'm not going to obsess over a small chance of the ports failing, unless there's risk of the ports damaging my hard drives.

The DVD drive counts, right? So I guess I'll be using three SATA devices. A SSD as the boot drive, a secondary HDD and a DVD burner. I'm not exactly sure what the SATA II to SATA III ratio is on the motherboard, but I'm guessing it's something like 3 to 2 or maybe 2 to 3 ports. I should be fine and in three years I'll more than likely have upgraded again.

How can they predict with the failing rate with such (almost) precision anyway?

 

[Hazaro]

Standard for 1155 is 2 SATA6gbps, 4 SATA 3gbps (affected).
Some boards have another SATA controller (Marvell) so you can have another 2 SATA *6gbps ports.

 

[Cipherr]

Also, a question about RAM. I ordered the G SKILL dual channel kit. Regarding the placement of RAM. Am I going to put these in ports 0 and 2 or can they just be in the first 2 slots closest to the CPU?

You will definitely use one slot from both of the two sections for your dual channel. And as a standard Im pretty sure the board makers have all now adopted the primary ram slots to be the ones that will position the ram away from your cpu slot. They all do this because of the size of aftermarket coolers. Every inch matters when your jamming a big ass cooler on the board. Ram can easily get in the way.

 

[TheExodu5]

How can they predict with the failing rate with such (almost) precision anyway?

They just take a sample of boards, and run burn-in tests on them, which simulates long periods of wear. Say they ran 100 boards to sample, maybe 10% of them failed with an additional 5% degree of uncertainty.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Huge thread is huge. Best monitors out there?

 

[mrklaw]

1 more thing to add as I am going to bed but am hoping for someone to humble me here. I got the SB and the Radeon 6950 coming. 600w PSU will be enough for some moderate overclocking I hope? I'm running basics outside of those 2 higher end components.

better be, I got recommended a 520W for a 6950 + 2500K setup, and I'm hoping to overclock.

PSU is one area where you tend to get mixed messages - 'oh go for a 650-750' and people buy big. Thats probably them either future planning for SLI, or just overkill.

Most of the benchmarks I've read had total power around 350W or lower at full load

 

[MedIC86]

Huge thread is huge. Best monitors out there?

need more info? size? price range? purpose? etc?

 

[Corky]

Huge thread is huge. Best monitors out there?

Samsung SyncMaster 820TSn

 

[Stop It]

Standard for 1155 is 2 SATA6gbps, 4 SATA 3gbps (affected).
Some boards have another SATA controller (Marvell) so you can have another 2 SATA 3gbps ports.

Just so you know, the Marvell controller that provides extra SATA ports is SATA 6gbps rather than 3gbps. Doesn't stop the ports being rubbish, and not really suited to fast SSDs but still.

In my case (I have a ASRock P67 Extreme4) I have 4 unaffected ports and 3 SATA devices so this whole SATA bug doesn't mean much to me, but f I can get a Z68 chipset board out of this debacle I wouldn't complain at all.

 

[Hazaro]

Just so you know, the Marvell controller that provides extra SATA ports is SATA 6gbps rather than 3gbps. Doesn't stop the ports being rubbish, and not really suited to fast SSDs but still.

In my case (I have a ASRock P67 Extreme4) I have 4 unaffected ports and 3 SATA devices so this whole SATA bug doesn't mean much to me, but f I can get a Z68 chipset board out of this debacle I wouldn't complain at all.

Ah, you are right.

As you said I wasn't using them since they aren't as good. I will just stick my DVD drives on them so no problem for me.

 

[Stop It]

Ah, you are right.

As you said I wasn't using them since they aren't as good. I will just stick my DVD drives on them so no problem for me.

That is exactly what I have done, let the thing do something even it cannot suck at, my DVD writer!

Anyway, my experience with the new Sandy Bridge architecture has been so strange it's not even funny. I can get my i5 2500k stable at 4.5Ghz @ 1.33v (100% load vcore, also at 4.6Ghz at 1.38v) using Prime Blend for 5hrs +, OCCT and IBT, but the thing intermittently BSOD's when not doing anything. The BSOD code suggests Vcore or VTT, yet upping the latter does nothing, and the former should be fine if it can cope with 100% load without issues.

I am currently using a slightly different strategy now. 4.4Ghz, 1.30vore on load, but I am now using the loosest LLC settings. At idle, my Vcore is 1.35v, but at Prime/IBT load it drops to 1.30v. Basically it means that it minimises load voltage & thus temperatures, and hopefully keeps stability at idle where the system has been failing.

If this strategy works (No crashes for a couple of days now), I will try 4.5 and possibly 4.6Ghz & beyond and see how far the theory goes.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

better be, I got recommended a 520W for a 6950 + 2500K setup, and I'm hoping to overclock.

PSU is one area where you tend to get mixed messages - 'oh go for a 650-750' and people buy big. Thats probably them either future planning for SLI, or just overkill.

Most of the benchmarks I've read had total power around 350W or lower at full load

Sounds like I got the right one then. I got a 600w about 3 weeks ago and have been running it in my current old PC to test it out. No issues at all.

You will definitely use one slot from both of the two sections for your dual channel. And as a standard Im pretty sure the board makers have all now adopted the primary ram slots to be the ones that will position the ram away from your cpu slot. They all do this because of the size of aftermarket coolers. Every inch matters when your jamming a big ass cooler on the board. Ram can easily get in the way.

Thanks for clearing that up. I've read several things but I think I will do what you said and put it on the second bay of each set of slots. The RIPJAWS look like the stick out a little more so I hope that's not a big issue. I'm more concerned with just getting the board at this point lol

Thanks for the followup gentlemen

 

[LiquidMetal14]

1 last question about overclocking.

I'm not looking to push the boundaries but what is a good safe overclock on the 2500k's? I don't really want to push it to the limit but something like 4ghz is fine. And when you OC, does that correspong to the turbo boost too? Or do I relinquish that once I device to OC? And going back to the PSU, I assume the 600w that I have would be enough?

More or less, if I OC to 4ghz, does that mean the boost would be 300-400 more mhz over that?

 

[Stop It]

1 last question about overclocking.

I'm not looking to push the boundaries but what is a good safe overclock on the 2500k's? I don't really want to push it to the limit but something like 4ghz is fine. And when you OC, does that correspong to the turbo boost too? Or do I relinquish that once I device to OC? And going back to the PSU, I assume the 600w that I have would be enough?

More or less, if I OC to 4ghz, does that mean the boost would be 300-400 more mhz over that?

It seems like it is motherboard dependant. On my particular motherboard, setting a manual Multiplier limit seems to disable Turbo, but I think that may also be because I have overclocked beyond the maximum Turbo bins.

I think, up to a certain point (And 4.0Ghz is a very modest OC for the SB K chips), that the Turbo should still work, but check the manual of the mobo you have just to make sure. One thing too, make sure to update your BIOS/UEFI to the latest version. All of the mobo makers have been updating these things a lot recently as they learn more about the SB architecture.

 

[knitoe]

That is exactly what I have done, let the thing do something even it cannot suck at, my DVD writer!

Anyway, my experience with the new Sandy Bridge architecture has been so strange it's not even funny. I can get my i5 2500k stable at 4.5Ghz @ 1.33v (100% load vcore, also at 4.6Ghz at 1.38v) using Prime Blend for 5hrs +, OCCT and IBT, but the thing intermittently BSOD's when not doing anything. The BSOD code suggests Vcore or VTT, yet upping the latter does nothing, and the former should be fine if it can cope with 100% load without issues.

I am currently using a slightly different strategy now. 4.4Ghz, 1.30vore on load, but I am now using the loosest LLC settings. At idle, my Vcore is 1.35v, but at Prime/IBT load it drops to 1.30v. Basically it means that it minimises load voltage & thus temperatures, and hopefully keeps stability at idle where the system has been failing.

If this strategy works (No crashes for a couple of days now), I will try 4.5 and possibly 4.6Ghz & beyond and see how far the theory goes.

Instead of using LLC, CPU Pull and etc., I would disable or set them to least / standard. With them, you get huge voltage spikes that could happen so quickly that even the monitor apps can't show because they are too fast to register.

Instead, for 24/7 overclock, I only use the voltage offset instead. For me, I am using .040V offset for 4.5GHz@1.27V loaded and 1.6GHz@ ~1.05V idle.

 

[Hazaro]

For my future overclocking (Haven't yet, waiting on newer BIOS) I'll be sticking to 1.25V on core, 1.5V for memory, 100.0 for FSB.
I'm expecting around 4.4, but 4.0 will be fine by me.

 

[knitoe]

1 last question about overclocking.

I'm not looking to push the boundaries but what is a good safe overclock on the 2500k's? I don't really want to push it to the limit but something like 4ghz is fine. And when you OC, does that correspong to the turbo boost too? Or do I relinquish that once I device to OC? And going back to the PSU, I assume the 600w that I have would be enough?

More or less, if I OC to 4ghz, does that mean the boost would be 300-400 more mhz over that?

Limit to overclocking are voltage and temperature. For sandy bridge CPU and 24/7 overclock, most people say to stay under 1.35V and <75C. So, you can push as far as you can to upto those limits. Personally preference, I'll stay under <1.30V.

When you overclock, you loose turbo boost. Speeds will be 1.6GHz (idle) or X overclock speed.

 

[Stop It]

Instead of using LLC, CPU Pull and etc., I would disable or set them to least / standard. With them, you get huge voltage spikes that could happen so quickly that even the monitor apps can't show because they are too fast to register.

Instead, for 24/7 overclock, I only use the voltage offset instead. For me, I am using .040V offset for 4.5GHz@1.27V loaded and 1.6GHz@ ~1.05V idle.

I've heard so many conflicting reports about LLC it's not even funny any more. I've tried with it at its most aggressive and vice versa and both have their drawbacks it seems. As for PLL, I am leaving that at auto for now, same with VTT until I can estabilish a correlation between either of them and instability in my CPU.

As for VCore offset, I'm afraid my motherboard is completely insane and thus this isn't an option. I either use a low offset and get 1.4Vcore on load @ 4.5Ghz, or a high one and have the system BSOD at idle because the Vcore is dangerously low, that said it was with an older BIOS so I will keep playing. Still, I've only had the thing for less than 4 weeks, and I am still experimenting, so I'm sure I can find something that'll make this thing nice and stable.

 

[Hazaro]

I'd cap voltage at 1.3, preferably 1.25
People shoveling 1.4V into 32nm are crazy imo.

 

[knitoe]

I've heard so many conflicting reports about LLC it's not even funny any more. I've tried with it at its most aggressive and vice versa and both have their drawbacks it seems. As for PLL, I am leaving that at auto for now, same with VTT until I can estabilish a correlation between either of them and instability in my CPU.

As for VCore offset, I'm afraid my motherboard is completely insane and thus this isn't an option. I either use a low offset and get 1.4Vcore on load @ 4.5Ghz, or a high one and have the system BSOD at idle because the Vcore is dangerously low, that said it was with an older BIOS so I will keep playing. Still, I've only had the thing for less than 4 weeks, and I am still experimenting, so I'm sure I can find something that'll make this thing nice and stable.

I would only use LLC, PLL and so on for extreme overclocking 4.8GHz or greater. They aren't needed for 4.5Ghz and below. Having voltage spikes could cause instability and high temperature.

As for your "weird" voltage with offset, it's because you are also using other settings, ie PLL. In that case, for example, use -0.040V offset will get you 4.5GHz @ 1.360V. Increase it to go lower and vice versa.

 

[Stop It]

I'd cap voltage at 1.3, preferably 1.25
People shoveling 1.4V into 32nm are crazy imo.

Well, official Intel guidance (As reported on the OCUK forums) states that anything up to 1.35v Vcore should be OK for long term use, so I think you're being a little cautious there, but of course there is nothing wrong with that.
Anyway, I fully expect a massive BSOD any time now, but I just tried -0.30Vcore offset and LLC Level 5 (Which is basically off on the ASRock systems). The idle Vcore is now 0.976V, which is a little scary, but if it works, great, but the loading Vcore is 1.25V in IBT. I was fully expecting a BSOD when I saw that but it passed a quick 5 pass run at Standard settings with no issues.

If this works, I will begin to question how a much higher Vcore and aggressive LLC is like a time bomb, but as I said, I fully expect a BSOD right about now to push me back to square one!

I would only use LLC, PLL and so on for extreme overclocking 4.8GHz or greater. They aren't needed for 4.5Ghz and below. Having voltage spikes could cause instability and high temperature.

As for your "weird" voltage with offset, it's because you are also using other settings, ie PLL. In that case, for example, use -0.040V offset will get you 4.5GHz @ 1.360V. Increase it to go lower and vice versa.

Actually, I believe it to be linked to LLC rather than PLL or VTT as those 2 should have little effect on Vcore. Using a stricter LLC keeps the Vcore higher at load, so using it with Vcore offset means a higher range between idle and load, which is not what I require it seems. I'm going to continue testing, but for now, I'm just waiting for the blue

 

[rocK`]

Hey guys, could really use your help. Still looking for a top tier mobo for my 2600K, I've seen quite about about the P8P67, but heard some bad stories (outside of the recall issue which DOES NOT BOTHER ME as I won't go outside SATA0, SATA1).

Thoughts??

 

[mrklaw]

as all of those numbers sound like crazy talk. I'm just going to use the ASUS board's auto overclock and see what I get.

 

[knitoe]

Well, official Intel guidance (As reported on the OCUK forums) states that anything up to 1.35v Vcore should be OK for long term use, so I think you're being a little cautious there, but of course there is nothing wrong with that.
Anyway, I fully expect a massive BSOD any time now, but I just tried -0.30Vcore offset and LLC Level 5 (Which is basically off on the ASRock systems). The idle Vcore is now 0.976V, which is a little scary, but if it works, great, but the loading Vcore is 1.25V in IBT. I was fully expecting a BSOD when I saw that but it passed a quick 5 pass run at Standard settings with no issues.

If this works, I will begin to question how a much higher Vcore and aggressive LLC is like a time bomb, but as I said, I fully expect a BSOD right about now to push me back to square one!


Actually, I believe it to be linked to LLC rather than PLL or VTT as those 2 should have little effect on Vcore. Using a stricter LLC keeps the Vcore higher at load, so using it with Vcore offset means a higher range between idle and load, which is not what I require it seems. I'm going to continue testing, but for now, I'm just waiting for the blue

If you BSOD, lower the -offset by 0.010 = increase voltage until you get stable stress test. Then, you should be close to what CPU really needs. Next, increase -offset by 0.005 = decrease voltage, test and repeat.

 

[knitoe]

as all of those numbers sound like crazy talk. I'm just going to use the ASUS board's auto overclock and see what I get.

Using the auto overclock will give you lower speeds and/or overvolt the CPU. That's the price you pay for simple one button solution. Start with that, but longterm, it's better to read up and do it yourself manually.