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GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 overclocking

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Oct 2, 2011
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317
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H-B3
CPU
i7 2600k
Graphics
GTX 960
Hi there,

I wanted to share my experiences overclocking my i7 2600k CPU on a GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 board (F10 BIOS). The i7 OC SSDT in multibeast makes it really easy to OC up to 4.2GHz simply by installing it and setting turbo ratios in BIOS. Initial testing brought me up to 42-42-42-40 ratios. While benchmarking with 4 cores loaded (multi of 40x) the CPU got really hot though, as in around 80°C. Although I don't have a big fan (Arctic Cooling Freezer 11LP) I still had the feeling it was running too hot. I delved into PC overclocking forums to find info about this board and CPU and found some useful info:

- When overclocking the turbo multiplier ratios while leaving everything else on auto, the mobo will overcompensate the CPU voltages. At 4-cores 40x mine was running over 1.4V into the CPU. This doesn't tell me anything but according to OC forum members this is ridiculously and dangerously high. People are only using these voltages for ultra-cooled mega-overclocks, which explains why my CPU is running so hot... Ref: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=214229&page=2

- It turns out this mobo is underspecified for serious overclocking. There is no option for setting manual/fiexd CPU Vcore voltage, neither for load line calibration and so on. So we have to do with the little auto-voltage parameters we have available in the BIOS. By trial and error I found out that the DVID parameter controls how high the auto-voltage will go. Though it's not clear in the BIOS what the values will be exactly. When I set it to -0.1V the voltage only hits a reasonable 1.24V and the CPU stays way cooler. This allowed me to bump the 4-core multi to 42x as well, giving me a full 4.2GHz overclock. Temperature only hits 75°C in extended benchmark sessions and is way lower in normal use.

So to recap: for overclocking this board I've customized the turbo multiplier ratios and the DVID, all the rest is on auto.

Anyone else got experiences to share?
 
I had to revisit my OC as it turns out stupid me had the case open on both sides when doing it, and that in a pretty chilly room. Temperatures are not quite the same with the case closed...

Now playing with turbo ratios and DVID to keep it under 75°C under Prime95 'blend' test again. I might upgrade my CPU cooler with this Zalman which seems great for a compact mATX case like my LianLi PC-V351: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2657

Btw, here's an informative thread about Z68 OC'ing: http://legacy.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?t=43262&p=283369
 
I now tentatively settled for turbo ratios 40/40/40/39x and DVID -0.16V. Core temps hoover around 75°C under Prime95 blend testing, with an occasional peak to 80°C (VCore maxes to 1.18V, monitored through the TouchBIOS app / 1.20V when monitored through Hwmonitor). As such a load will only be reached when I'm encoding video, which I don't do frequently, this is fine with me for now. Really tempted to get that Zalman though :]
 
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