MSI Command Center for overclocking?

[malessandro]

Hello!

I came here after watching the awesome "Intel 1155 Overclocking Guide" on youtube. I watched several others but this one covered more details so I decided to go with it!

BUT

I am an overclocking Noob who is making first tiny steps into this topic. I am not looking for a quick "do this then that" but I am trying to understand the basics and hope to get some results.

My rig:
Motherboard: MSI X99A Godlike Gaming Carbon
Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W
CPU: i7-6850K
Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer 240
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z DDR-4 F4-3200C14Q-32GTZSW ( 4x8192MB ) CL 14-14-14-34 1.35V
Boot-Drive: Samsung 950 Pro 512GB
Case: be quiet! Dark Base 900 Pro


The MSI board comes with a bunch of shiny tools like the MSI Command Center. The bios is the lastest version of MSI Click Bios 5.

Watching the video made me check after RAM settings in the Bios first and I didn't find the place where to put them in. I found them in the MSI Command Center unter "Advanced Dram Configuration", tho.

On the other hand I cant set some of the stuff to "auto" which was recommended or just left alone in the video.

Now I am pretty unsure which way to go.

Is it appropiate to use these tools?

Have fun!
malessandro

 

[tinytomlogan]

Its good practice as an interested enthusiast to use the BIOS rather than desktop tools.

 

[malessandro]

Thank you. That's what I thought, too. Do you have any experience with the MSI Click Bios 5? Even in Advanced Mode I can't find the RAM settings where to put in the CL values. I'll have another look, tho

EDIT: I found it. I had to change DRAM Timing Mode from Auto to "link" to unlock the DRAM Advanced Setting! "Link" allows to set the values for all memory sticks and "Unlink" allows settings for each of the sticks.

 

[AlienALX]

The MSI command center talks directly with the UEFI bios. So you're basically in bios when you are using it.

I use a spin off with an Alienware skin on and it's very good, but with a board like the Carbon you should really know your way around the bios.

Nice rig though dude.

 

[malessandro]

Thank you.

It's the first rig I put together piece by piece with the thought in mind to step into all the things I had avoided.

I tried some very basic overclocking after I wrote the postings above. I set the memory to XMP because I couldn't find the place to set the volatage for the memory.

I have the Core Volt at 1.33V to get a (till now) stable 4.4 GHz with no core temperature highter than 80°C.

Tho, my monitors on the Zotac GTX 980 Ti Amp! Extreme are turning black for a second or two every other second. GPU Temp was not effected by any testing, tho.

I am not sure what's happening to my memory. The board should handle the 3200MHz but I don't know how the (overclocked) CPU handles it.

I added a screenshot of the OCCT progress:

 

[malessandro]

Hello Everyone,

[EDIT: It repaired itself] But one question remains: I think I could make it better than 1.33V for 4.4GHz. Would you touch the Ring Ratio and could it help with it?

-------

I probably messed up my CPU. Yesterday I set the Ring Ratio to 43 because I read in several places that you can set it one point lower than the Core Ratio.

After this BIOS put me in a reboot loop. After flashing back a new Bios everything worked but now I do not get my Cinebench score I got yesterday. Even with Bios defaults it is lower than with Bios defaults yesterday.

Is there a way to test if my CPU is still intact. It doesnt crash or something. It just doesnt seem to have the same power anymore.

Thank you,
malessandro

 

[AlienALX]

First make sure it is clocking to the correct speed. Load up CPUZ and watch the core speed and run a stress app. OCCT will do it but personally I use Realbench by Asus.

Your board should have saves for the bios state so you can save as you overclock. That's how it used to work on my old MSI BBXPII any way.

 

[malessandro]

Is there something like a manufacturer standard for Ring Ratio speed? I couldnt find anything in the Intel data sheet.

I use OCCT and Prime95 for stress test. With prime the temperatures go higher.