Need some advice for Overclocking using Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD motherboard

I am a hardware enthusiast. I have tried building custom motherboards using peripherals of different types and manufacturer. At present I have built a motherboard consisting of GAZ68XP-UD3-iSSD motherboard, Intel i5 2500k processor, 8 GB Mushkin Redline 2133 RAM, 2x Mushkin Chronos 120GB SSD's (Raid 0), ATI Radeon 6950 2GB GPU, Antec 750 Tru-Power SMPS & Corsair H80 CPU cooler. This experiment I did was success but I had to face many problems regarding stability. The BIOS menu that this system provides is quite different and I am having problem understanding much of its contents. Can anyone help me with overclocking the BIOS menu for i5 processor?

I have tried overclocking i5 processor. I can’t help you with step to step process but I can give you some tips while overclocking to maintain stability. First thing you should see is that the bclk frequency should be kept at 100. Perform all the coverclocking on CPU using multiplier. The value of DRAM should not be set at higher value than 1.5750v. The value of qpi/vtt for the integrated memory controller inside the CPU should not be higher than 1.2 V. CPU voltages should be applied through voltage offset. The stock voltage hat you are using should be +0.01000v at load so stock cpu voltage of 1.9000v will be 1.2000v with dvid applied.

One of the hardest thing that I ever encountered during overclocking i5 is working out the function of loadline calibration and how much voltage adds to each level to avoid drooping for 4.5ghh/4.6ghz. I usually keep it at 1.36 V with 2500k less for avoiding multithreading. While loading the xmp profiles, set the value to 2133 as it is enough for memory controller. For proper operation of CPU use the power supply at 45x. In the voltage setting, I use 1.29 V and LLC level 6. But according to the configuration that you have mentioned frequency might reach 4500 while using 1.3 V.

I too suggest you to set xmp profiles at value of 2133 with 4 GB module and xmp set at easy. I recommend you to do all the settings manually as it provides better control over the peripherals in further processes. You also need to find the voltages needed for IMC system agents and QPI/Vtt appropriate for your CPU. You might need to use 1.1-1.2 for QPI/Vtt and 1.0-1.24 for the System Agent, to make 2133 work efficiently.

Another problem you might face is that of setting bclk at max for testing it with LinX. Once you test bclk at max 3 times using LinX, it means you are close to achieving stability for your system. You can try testing bclk on Socket 775, 1156, 476, 754, 939, 940 or AM2. First test each socket individually and then all sockets together. If any of the tests fails then it is confirmed that there is problem with bclk. If you are using lynefield method for backtracking, then you have to try voltages at Vcore, QPI/VTT, CPU PLL, VDIMM & RAM Timings for fixing Uncore Multi.

You should also run 12 hours of both large and small FFT. This should be followed by Blend, and then extraction of some large RAR files of different file sizes. You should pass your system through 24 hours Prime Stability tests and LinX 50 Stability test. Many times your system will pass 24 hours stability test but will not pass linX 50 stability test. At this point the extraction of RAR files will be stopped with claims of RAR file being corrupt will be shown even though none of them are.

I had many stability problems running xmp profile running which was built in memory. On analysis, found that I needed to dial the memory FSB back to the value of 1333 MHz. I tried turning on the turbo mode and running CPU at 3.2 GHz. I was using 20 GB SSD for storing memory cache. If you have worked with overclocking process of Core 2 Duo, I assure you that you will not have any problem working with the issues related to multiplier, memory FSB and voltage settings in i5 processor as the both are almost one and the same.

I have built many systems which involved i3, i5 & i7 processors. Based on my experiences, I will recommend you to do stability testing on basis purpose for which the system will be used. Stability testings should vary according to the need of processor. Tests will differ if the processor is being used for 3d modeling or gaming or simple browsing and text editing. I emphasize on vigorous testing regime of 50 IBT runs and 24 hours total of Prime 95 as a minimum. You should also use more than 1 RAID array with redundancy. This is usually needed to take backups of your data. Remember, you are doing stability checks and chances of losing data are highest at this point.

I was performing 24 hour Prime Blend, 12 hour large AND small FFT stability tests along with 50 IBT tests when the RAR files failed to extract. On further research I found out that it needed minor tweaking with CPU Reference voltage which caused problems in Quad and MCH Ref voltage in the processor. I was doing stress test on the system for overclocking it for using it as a high end gaming machine.