Greetings all

Got myself:
Gigabyte P55-UD3L rev.2.3 (F1 bios)
i3 530
Team Dark Xtreem 1600mhz DDR3 CL9
CoolerMaster 212+

Spent last night overclocking it to 4Ghz @ 1.26v (LLC ON), 182x22
Rams to 1820mhz (because memory multiplier @ x10, so times this with bclk of 182)

I turned 'on' LLC because when off, the Vcore dips under load which got me felt uneasy with it's stability, with LCC 'on' the Vcore stays a tad constant.



I gotta say, it's pretty easy OC'ing this proc to 4ghz. Right now I'm regularly stress testing the stability with LinX.
Will do 'blend' test with prime95 and memtest to determine whether my rams are stable with 1.68v @ 1820mhz, i manually adjust the timing to default 9-9-9-24 because the bios set it to 10-11-11-28 initially.

The CM 212+ ain't too bad for a sub RM80-90 cooler, performs graciously (50-52c max on LOAD) under LinX's torturous tests.

Haven't yet pushed this proc for benchmarking.
Just wanna see how easy the i3 gets to 4ghz like everyone been hyping about - and it's true!

There's few things I want your opinion on:

1) QPI link - since I'm not using the IGP, should I even bother about it relatively to OC'ing?
2) If question (1) is true, any advantage to matching QPI link and core speed? (in CPU-z), or should I get it back or closer to it's default value OR higher/lower than the proc core speed?
3) QPI MULTIPLIER - I'm at x44, do I yield more performance lowering the multiplier, hence lowering the QPI link speed it self?

Yeah, this QPI/uncore thingy really gets me confuse, I'm pretty new to this architecture.
I got everything else tweak, but don't know how this QPI thingy relatively could improve performance,.


@acelim123

I'm pretty sure your temps has to do with the Vcore, it's higher than any i5 i've seen. Try to lower it in increments and run LinX until you encounter error. When you have encounter error, bump up one increment and see if you still encounter error, if no error, that's a good place to stay.
About cooler, prolly need re-seating or unit good thermal paste like the Tuniq TX-4.
Have you been into the bios yet?
Need to setup couple of things there, routine OC'ing stuff like disabling the Intel' power saving features, etc. LLC, not leaving things on 'AUTO' because it can be dangerous to let the bios handles things at it's own terms.

the temps of IDLE average around 50c and MAX load around 90c is a bit scary, (from: http://img135.imageshack.us/i/resultb.png/)
at least you need to have IDLE temps of 35c-40c and LOAD temps below 75-80cc.

The bios, just match the value from what you set in the EASY TUNER like Vcore, multiplier, etc. first.
Then ask about the other stuff which are still on 'AUTO'.

CM 212 plus is the most bang~for~the~bucks cooler out there for the LGA1156, for it's price range from RM85-100 it's the best compared to other coolers at that price.

I OC my Core i3-530 to 4.004ghz @1.28v and load temps reaches to 60c with Linx with CM212+, I was planning to get more expensive cooler but decide not to since this cooler is good enough. (my previous above post has cooler results because the rig was in an A/C'ed room.)

This post has been edited by JoBigShow: Apr 29 2011, 08:01 PM