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Need help optimizing bios for x58a-ud5 rev2.

Need help optimizing bios for x58a-ud5 rev2.
« on: January 13, 2011, 09:50:17 pm »
Hey guys,

Just got my new x58a-ud5 rev2. last week from newegg and have a day off today and tommorrow. Hoping to get everything set up.  I have the newest bios and was looking for help installing everything.  My configuration is below:

Silverstone FT02-B - GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5 - Core i7 930 - Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme-1366 RT Rev. C CPU Heatsink - Corsair 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 RAM @ 7-8-7-20 - SAPPHIRE Toxic Radeon HD 5850 - SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W Power Supply - OCZ Agility 2 120 GB SSD - Western Digital Black 750GB HDD - Western Digital Green 2TB HDD - Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/100/1000Mbps PCI-E NIC - Windows7 x64 - HP LP2465 24" S-PVA LCD @ 1920x1200

Basically, I am looking for optimized settings.  Then I'll work for a decent overclock that allows me to keep power saving and sleep working.  Hope you can help.

Re: Need help optimizing bios for x58a-ud5 rev2.
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2011, 01:18:18 am »
Also what fan pin should I connect my case's fan header to in order to dynamically control fan speed?  It is a 3 pin fan header.

What setting should I use in bios or program in windows to throttle the fan speed?

jimx

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Re: Need help optimizing bios for x58a-ud5 rev2.
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2011, 12:12:24 pm »
I have the same board as you but a i7-950 cpu rather than a 930. So you won't be able to run exactly the same settings as me (I use a 23x multiplier) but it should be fairly close for most things because both cpu's overclock pretty well.

I'll answer your second questions first.Connect your cpu fan to the cpu header, it should be the only one with 4 pins on it. You can use your 3 pin fan no problem, the bios defaults to "auto" to adjust the fan speed, but I set mine to "voltage" anyway for my 3 pin fans (connected with double adapter) and they work great. No need to use software to regulate your fan speed with your cooler, if the fan is too loud on the TRUE then you need a quieter fan/fans.

Ok, to my system settings. Basically I am running the CPU at 4.07GHz at a bit above default voltage. Here's what I have and I'll put notes where you might need to change things.

CPU clock ratio.........23x      - obviously you'll need to lower this for your 930
QPI clock ratio.........x36 = 6.37GHz
Uncore clock ratio.....x21 = 3717MHz
Spread Spectrum.....disabled
BCLK freq.................177
PCI-e freq................101
CPU clock drive........800mV
PCI-e clock drive......900mV

RAM settings - PX7312G2000ELK Viper Xtreme Series DDR3 12GB 2000MHz EL Kit
XMP...................disabled
Mem multi............10
Mem freq.............1770MHz
Memory timings.....8-9-8-23
Perform. Enhance..Extreme
Other settings.......auto

I found the above setup for my ram to be just as fast or faster for benchmarks than the default 2000MHz and 9-11-9-27 timings, but it also required much less voltage especially on CPU VTT, so it was much easier to get stable and not run as hot. Even though your ram settings will most likely be different, I've put them here so you can see the basic principles of what can be changed and what can be left alone for good overclocks with less heat/voltage.

Voltage Control
Load-Line Calibration.....Level 1 - This is the best option, standard moves voltage the wrong way, and level 2 wastes too much power at idle.
CPU Vcore.................[Normal] - CPU idles at 1.040V (2.1GHz)
Dynamic Vcore............+0.08750V - CPU at 100% load is 1.216V, you might need a little more here, 1.25-1.30 is normal to hit 4ghz
QPI/Vtt.....................1.36V - my XMP profile sets this to 1.6V! I ran this for a couple of weeks and t didn't kill anything but I didn't like it still and found I could run it much lower. But it shows you can crank it really high without damaging things (I think).
CPU PLL....................1.50V - I was running this at 1.40V and I'm fairly sure it was just as stable. Very weird how low this can go.
PCIE.........................1.50V \
QPI PLL.....................1.10V  \
IOH Core...................1.10V   | This section is all stock, but I manually set them to this instead of using Auto.
ICH I/O.....................1.50V  /  You may have to increase something here if you want to run bclk >180 or so,
ICH Core...................1.10V /    probably QPI PLL and IOH Core one bump each.

DRAM Voltage.............1.66V - This is just under 1.65 when running, set it to 1.68 if you really need at least 1.65V in your ram. Safe to go up to 1.70V or more as long as you keep your QPI/VTT above 1.20V which you'll need to anyway for other reasons.
Other settings.............Auto

HPET Mode.................32 bit

Even though I run 64 bit Windows, I'm fairly sure having HPET set to 64 bit was the main thing causing my PC to not wake up from sleep properly when overclocked. Either the keyboard USB ports didn't wake up, or the whole PC didn't wake up, or it blue screened when I tried to reboot after wake up. I changed it to 32 bit HPET and so far I think it's woken up properly every time (I only changed it a couple of days ago, so I don't know for sure yet). It doesn't affect my running stability in either mode, it seems to only affect waking up from sleep mode (for me, anyway)


CPU settings
Intel Turbo Boost....................Disabled
CPU Cores Enabled.................All
CPU Multi Threading................Enabled
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E).........Enabled
C3/C6/C7 State Support..........Enabled
CPU Thermal Monitor...............Enabled
CPU EIST Function...................Enabled
Virtualization Technology..........Enabled
Bi-Directional PROCHOT...........Enabled

Yes, everything except turbo boost is enabled here and my rig is still 100% stable!  Most people tend to disable the power saving options for high overclocks, but as mentioned above I suspect it is the HPET in 64 bit mode causing the problem, and even then I think it only affects stability when waking up from sleep mode. When experimenting, i was never able to get more stability by disabling anything here except turbo mode. and even then it was only to lower the top speed of my CPU without slowing down my RAM, and not because turbo mode is inherently unstable.

That's all I got for now. Hope it helps.