Gigabyte GA-EP45-EXTREME Living Review

[some1]

Ok, this is what i have found out so far.

Everything auto, normal default settings are 9x266=2400mhz right

How come, if i select 9x268 it refuses and defaults back to 9x266, thats mad, how can that be, i mean seriously, an extra 2mhz fsb does not require any adjustments unless something is fundamentally wrong with the default settings on this board.

This must be why overclocking on this board has been impossible for me so far

[supershanks]

does sound strange must admit.

[some1]

Ok, believe it or not, using the clear cmos button fixed this

Currently running prime95 on very conservative overclock, 9x285...

I notice that this board overvolts pretty scarily on the vcore if left in auto, using the manual setting for vore solves this, is it as bad as this for other volts?

[Alcibiades]

Hi some1
Dq6's are great boards, with your parts you should get good o/c
I have same cpu/ram with an x38-dq6 and do the following no problem
Everything in MIT on auto except:
CPU Clock Ratio x7
CPU Host Control enable
CPU Host Frequency 458
(G)MCH Frequency Latch 333
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) 2.40B
Memory timing 5-5-5-14, Trfc 31, Static tRead 8*, leave rest on auto
DRAM Voltage 2.1V

* I use a tRead of 7, but I would even try it with 9 or 10 for starters

[supershanks]

I notice that this board overvolts pretty scarily on the vcore if left in auto, using the manual setting for vore solves this, is it as bad as this for other volts?

Most of the voltages overvolts pretty scarily if left on Auto Alcibiades just proved that here , I repeated his test the PLL & Vtt are eye watering, so be careful That was on ther DDR3 T version , but I don't expect this board to be much different, or indeed other variants.

@Alcibiades , hope you don't mind me following up on this , left a pm on Xs for you yesterday

[Alcibiades]

no problems supershanks m8
you are very right to highlight this of course
they are scary those auto volts

but i've seen too many people running these kind of volts on vtt and pll for weeks now with no problems ...so far

so a WARNING yes I've made my brothers PC a guinea pig
2 days and no phone calls yet, that's a good sign right?

here is an interesting thread about it over at xs that i've been following
The Wolfdale Vtt ( FSB Termination ) game.Place your bet!
this guy has 5 pc's going 24/7 loaded on ridiculously high vtt and pll for 4 weeks now

[supershanks]

so a WARNING yes I've made my brothers PC a guinea pig
2 days and no phone calls yet, that's a good sign right?

does he know
That's a great link thanks
I've nothuing against High volts, It's just bad when you put on high voltages when you don't know you've done it

thanks again for the info

[some1]

I have my first stable tiny overclock on this platform.

After observing how using auto settings set voltages, i was able to achieve 295x9...

Not impressive!

Does anybody know what safe CPU PLL and termination voltages are?

Its seems to me if i try to oc further, i am in unknown territory with these values, i dunno what safe settings for a Q6600 G0 are, i can actually boot into windows at 8x400, but it fails on 1 core quickly, other 3 carry on, so i am gonna assume my memory volts and settings are ok for now, but i gather mch and cpu volts are whats required, just dunno how far to go!

[supershanks]

well 65nm CPUs are a little more robust than 45nm.
Well you shouldn't really need rthat higher CPU reference. I only nered 1.34v to get up to 585fsb.
I would guess on your quad that 1.3~1.32v should be fine , which is well within safe settings.
You should need no more that 1.60v pll if that , max i've run at so far is 1.64v

CPU Reference (GTLref) is linked to Vtt (cpu Termination) & is important with quads Tune it using small ffts , make a note of which core fails & adjust the CPU Ref of the relevent pair. REf1 = core 0 & 2 REF2 = core 1 & 3

[some1]

Thanks for that, got her priming at 8x400, 1.6v PLL and 1.3v termination, about 1.35vcore, although when i set manual vcore it undervolts by quite a margin!

Been priming for just over an hour now, no errors, thats great... 3.2ghz, never been this high before, i wonder if i can go much further...

thanks for the help, feel a little more confident than before about the volts