Legit Reviews

Hi I just finished building a nice gaming rig and am looking to overclock it but am having some issues. I am new to this so I have certainly done my research and read the long guide at the top of these forums version 1.4 and it definitely helped. The setup I am running contains the following...

qx6850
evga 680i a1 series board
2x1024 corsair dominator 1066mhz ram
2x147gb raptor dr raid 0
1 evga 8800gtx

now I took the guides advice and went to start overclocking and bumped the processor up to 3.3 ghz just to see if it would post and left all else on auto except memory timings 5 5 5 15, crashed going into windows everytime, maybe once i barely got into it. this was with the cpu core autoset to 1.4 (I left everything on auto except the ram). Then i bumped the processor down to 3.15 ghz same thign would not post.
I left it there and started testing diff mem settings ie. linked 1:1, unliked @ 800mhz, and unlinked @ 1066mhz and all produced the same thing the computer would not load all the way into windows and if it would it would reboot after a minute or so into it. I tried constantly going through and trying different cpu voltages and nothing worked.

Then I tried just bumping the cpu multiplier by 1x so 10x total putting me @ 3.33ghz and everything has been stable under stress tests for a couple hours. temps are a bit high but not the issue atm at least its running, the cores are around 27 idle 57 full load... I am using a Coolitsystems Eliminator water cooler on my cpu which I just installed.

I just want to know what I should try to do to be able to bump my FSB up because it seems as soon as I move it up at all it will not run anywhere close to stable.

Thanks for the help.

other than the cpu voltage, you may have to adjust other voltages such as teh cpu vtt as well. aslso make sure that you have all the cpu limiting features disabled. if your bios is similar to mine, they should be under advanced bios settings, cpu features. disable the ones called spread spectrum, c1e and speed step. and depending on how confident you are you can also disable thermal control, but i dont recomend it

I've heard 680i boards tend to not overclock quadcores very well. (?)

also, update your bios, 680i boards have a fsb hole around 400 mhz, which sounds like around where you are. one last thing, make sure your cooling system is functioning correctly, ive heard about alot of problems with the coolit eliminators. and the last last thing make sure you are using a quality thermal interface material such as artic silver 5, not the cheap white silicon paste that might have come with your cooling system or cpu

Zertz wrote:I've heard 680i boards tend to not overclock quadcores very well. (?)

oh yeah and that too, i have similar problems to you with anything above 3ghz on my quad even under water, it posts but wont load windows. so if you really want to oc that quad, if you can return your mobo and pick up a p-35 or x38 chipset board

I was just checking around a few OC data bases and the Quads seem to do just fine on Nvidia based MoBos, some as high as 4.0+ with 3.6 being around the average with ref 680i boards under water cooling......... You might want to check around say the XS or [H] forums for some quad help, they are turning in some great results.

is there some sort of problem with windows xp and overclocking with this setup because I cant even boot if i put the FSB from 1333 to 1375.... It will post just fine but once it gets into windows boom crash. Just seems weird to me.. also I am running the p31 bios does anyone know if thats a problem or worse than the one before it.