OCing i7 860 to 3.8, possibly 4 ghz. Can't seem to get anything stable. Few othe

[kallell]

Hi all,

So this weekend i recently cleaned out my entire pc, and re-formatted. My goal after this reformat was to hopefully achieve 4ghz,; however I have had little luck. In fact, i've barely been able to surpass 3.3 ghz. The ONLY luck i've had, is using Gigabytes built in "Easy Tune 6" software pushing it to 3.15 manually. Even using their 3.8 ghz option won't work.

I've been playing around with this for the last few days. In fact, i actually DID manage to surpass 4.0 ghz at one point, had it boot, but upon doing anything  too cpu intensive (namely using WoW on max settings for testing), my system would slowly freeze up. No BSOD or anything; it just would first lock up wow / have the sound get stuck in a continuous "broken record" loop. Then, the rest of the PC would slowly seize up, forcing me to manually power off.

So i guess I seek advice, on what recommendations you guys have voltage wise / multipliers / etc. to get this to a minimum of 3.8ghz.


Setup:
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412
Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz
Patriot Gamer 2 Series 16GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220558
120 gig Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest)  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220558
Heat Sync - Zalman - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223
GPU - EVGA GTX 480
PSU - 700w http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair+-+ATX+Power+Supply/9506778.p?id=1218116489690&skuId=9506778&st=psu&cp=1&lp=6

Few other notable things:
-Only 8 gigs of ram is usable. 16 gigs shows up on the windows overview screen, but it states only 7.99 is usable.  This has been like this for a long while; nothing new.
-My usb 3.0 ports aren't always recognizing upon startup. It seems to be hit or miss if they recognize at all.
-My computer takes TWO tries to boot up. It'll load all the way to the "Loading operating system..." screen, but then power itself off, then back on and boot up fine. This has been doing this for a long time as well.


So again, i think with the heatsync i have and whatnot, 4ghz should be easily achievable, however i'll settle for 3.8 at this point.I listed the above "issues" as well in case someone had some idea on what the hell could be going on with those things (possibly all related?).  

Thanks in advance!

[kallell]

Well this pretty much solidifies the thought that i will never buy a gigabyte product again. Worst mobo i've ever owned, period.