Official GIGABYTE Forum

BIOS Help Needed to OC Intel i7 970 @ 4.3 GHz or Higher on GA-X58A-UD7 MOBO

Hello to all:

About a year ago I decided to build my own Mac Hak Pro and started jumping on the forums to figure out how to get this done. I received quite a bit of help and along the way was able to help others. I've been very satisfied with my system, but lately I wanted to make some improvements with my current setup. Here is what I had installed on my system:

- i7 930 Intel processor
- GA-X58A-UD7 Gigabyte Motherboard
- 12GB Corsair Dominator RAM
- Nvidia 280 GTX Graphic Card


Like I said before, I did whatever I could to get my i7 930 (OC'd) and running stable (24/7) to 4.2 GHz. Well, I stumbled across this website:

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,1707.0.html

and decided to try out this persons BIOS. As you probably can read in my reply to this person (with the link provided above), his BIOS worked perfectly for my set up; as we basically shared the same hardware set up. Everything is been working fine, but now I decided to upgrade my equipment. I just recently purchased a new i7 970 Intel Processor as well as the new Koolance CPU-370 water block to replace the CPU-360 water block. From what I've read in one of the reviews, the water block is less restrictive and is able to drop the temperature about 3 to 4°C lower. We'll see if that is attainable when I install it.

The main thing that I would like to see in this particular forum is for someone to kindly provide their BIOS set up (as complete as you can like in the web link above) so I can install my new i7 970 Intel processor and OC it to 4.3 GHz. From the few forums and YouTube videos, it seems like 4.3 GHz seems to be the sweet spot that you can run stably 24/7 (like with the i7 930 @ 4.2 GHz). I'm sure there are people out there that can run their i7 970 at 4.4 or 4.5+ GHz (and I would be open to that too), but whoever can provide their personal BIOS I would be very grateful to see what you have so I can try it on my setup.

By the way, here is my UPDATED system set up:

- i7 970 Intel processor (NEW)
- GA-X58A-UD7 Gigabyte Motherboard
- 24GB Kit - G. Skill Ripjaws (NEW)
- Nvidia 280 GTX Graphic Card


I hope I've provided enough information for my request and look forward to anybody's feedback here soon. Thanks in advance for your help… PNugg… :-)

P.S. I've included some pics and hope you like the unit (since it was my first build).
« Last Edit: May 30, 2011, 04:17:18 am by PunkNugget »

Dark Mantis

  • *
  • 18405
  • 414
  • 10typesofpeopleoneswhoknow binaryandoneswhodont
    • Dark Mantis
Hi I can't help you with the BIOS but I just wanted to congratulate you on your build. It looks amazing now. Is the tubing Tygon 3603 ?
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

First, Thank you for the BIG-UPS on the Mac Hak Pro,and YES it is Tygon 3603 - 3/8" ID / 5/8" OD and I'm using Feser One Cooling Fluid; and NO it doesn't discolor the tubing. Even if it did, isn't that the color you wanted anyway? LOL! Even though that is not what you mentioned, I'm only saying this because there have been so many websites that I've been on when I did my research on what tubing to buy and came across so many other people saying they're issues that they've had with discoloration inside the tubing because of poor quality cooling fluid. Well, Feser seems to be holding up just fine with this particular tubing...

Also, when it comes to water cooling aspect of it, I have had not one problem so far with it and have been extremely grateful for all the help and input that I have received from others to get me to this point in my life to be able to build such a sharp looking PC/Mac like this one. Even though I put this together from scratch I was not the one who built the tower, motherboard, processor, hard drives, water cooling parts, etc.. To all the companies that have helped me with their preconfigured PC parts and supplies and all the online and on the phone technical help, that is who I give ALL the CREDIT to. Me, I'm just a guy that put it together. But again, I do appreciate the compliment...  ;D

P.S. I did have a guy (about 50 miles away from where I live) digitally etch (inscribe) the Hackintosh logo onto the board itself; basically they just shaved off a thin layer of the paint, so that is a permanent design.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2011, 12:52:57 am by PunkNugget »

Dark Mantis

  • *
  • 18405
  • 414
  • 10typesofpeopleoneswhoknow binaryandoneswhodont
    • Dark Mantis
I did you Feser1 coolant for as while but had a lot of problems after a couple of months or so with bacterior/algi which stared clogging up some of the fine matrix in some of the blocks. I had a devil of a job cleaning it all out and since then have only used distilled water with a few drops of Mayhems if I require some colourant.

You really can't beat the Tygon 3603 for quality even though it is a bit pricey. Thing is though that you only buy it once(or at least not very often) so a couple more quid is no big deal. I am just starting doing a review of all the tubing that Alphacool distributes and will be testing one against the others.
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

Really? You had bacterial and algae problems? That's amazing. Because with the ingredients that the Feser product line has (and the particular coolant that I'm using), I have not had one issue so far. Everything from my plexiglass tank to the tubing is clean as a whistle. When I change out my Koolance CPU–360 to install my new Koolance CPU–370 water block, I will then look inside the 360 to see if there's anything bacterial inside the water block that I've been using for a whole year now. I don't think that I will see any issues, but then again who knows…

I'm curious where did all this bacteria and algae settle, within the tubing itself, the holding tank or inside the radiator? Let me know, I'm curious… :-\

You know what's funny, the whole time I've been hoping for some help with this new i7 970 processor that I'm going to be getting soon and so far on some of the other forums I've been getting all kinds of other topics to talk about (like the current one that were discussing about your coolant issue), LOL!

I think maybe what I should've asked for is if anyone has been able to get their i7 980x up and running at 4.3 GHz or higher instead of asking for help on the i7 970. Because that too many people own that processor and that processor is $500 less and does exactly the same thing that the 980x does when it comes to overclocking. I've seen a few YouTube videos like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BD-sEluShs

and this one:

http://www.youtube.com/user/chiefgeargrinder?blend=9&ob=5#p/u/0/CZrN8ZlRzCc

and still am trying to figure out how to use my gigabyte bios and not another companies bios. Although things are pretty similar, I know there are a few slight differences from one Mobo bios to another and don't want to mess things up. I guess what I'm going to do is start to utilize more YouTube and other forum sites that talk about overclocking the 980x instead of the 970 chip. Like this site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bcbhqet-ow

Now that's more like a speed that I'm looking for and I think I might start with this video, as it deals with a familiar interface that I understand... :-)
« Last Edit: May 31, 2011, 03:39:27 pm by PunkNugget »