cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Old guy coming back to overclocking....a few questions

johnrr654
Level 9
I am an older guy (now retired) coming back to overclocking after a hiatus of about 12 years. (raising kids, work, etc) and brand new to the forum. My two sons bought me a new x99 STRIX Gamer board and an Asus 1070 Strix Graphics card for Xmas and a retirement gift and I am in the process of a new build for the first time in a LONG time LOL.

After all these years, overclocking has changed dramatically from all manual in standard bios to a lot of automation in UEFI and a BLIZZARD of included apps and tools. AiSuite and a TON of included Asus software in particular.

I have done a lot of research but would specifically like to ask questions concerning this board and Asus overclocking UEFI Bios and software. These questions are in no particular order, I have just been jotting them down as I have come across them and have been unable to satisfy through research.

Any help/suggestoions appreciated. System Specs in profile.

1. I have an approx 10% overclock that seems mostly stable but I'd like to step it down just a notch to ensure stability or step up some voltages. I used the Auto Tuning settings in the UEFI Advanced Bios and as soon as I set the XMP swith on the motherboard itself......the system automatically overclocked the 3.4 Broadwell to almost 3.9 with a Bclock of 125 and a multi of 31 on all cores. I did nothing....it just auto set the values and as I said it seems stable, but I have not stress tested this enough to ensure it. If my settings are "mostly good" what areas do you recommend I tweak first and how would I do that? Can I take those existing Auto Tune settings and change a few items to manual? Or does going to manual force me to enter EVERYTHING manually...RAM Speed, all voltages etc.??

2. AiSuite....Where to begin....Phew, a blizzard of information and options but for now: Is there any reason to run the Auto Tuning section of Digi+DRM??

3. AiSuite DIP5 Auto Tuning vs UEFI Advanced Bios Auto Tuning?? Differences?? Is it the same thing just one is run under Windows and other runs under the UEFI Bios??

4. The TONS of Asus utilities such as:
Asus GameFirst
Asus Intel Extreme Tuning Utility
Asus Web Storage
Asus PC Diagnostics
Asus RamCache
Asus Media Streamer
Asus HyStream
Asus AO Help
Asus ROG Connect Plus
Asus Daemon Tools
Asus Overwolf
Asus Boot Setting
Are any of these worthwhile tools (in your opinion) or sheer window dressing and bloatware???

5. I the Intel Turbo Boost Max 3.0. Worthwhile??? Does it cause problems with overclocking and the normal built in Intel Turbo Boost?

6. Since I am not going to use RAID, is there ANY reason to load the Intel IRST Driver and have that setting on in BIOS??

Enough for now and thanks for any help.

John
2,932 Views
5 REPLIES 5

Menthol
Level 14
johnrr654,
Welcome to ROG, hope your enjoying your retirement, I recently retired myself so we must be close to the same age, I am no expert but I would suggest reading some guides on this forum and http://edgeup.asus.com/2016/06/17/broadwell-e-overclocking-guide/
Overclocking will be similar on all boards but bios options can be different and intimidating, but really don't have to change many of the bios options, memory speed and voltage, CPU multiplier and voltage, CPU input voltage, VCSSA voltage, I don't have the same board or CPU so I can't speak to actual specifics of that board
I would suggest all manual overclocking in the bios, the only ASUS software I have installed is ASUS Boot setting (one click from desktop to bios) and Turbo Vcore ( some overclocking tools from withing windows)

Some memory kits XMP profile set the blck to 125, if your kit does this I would recommend setting it uyp manually using a 100 blck and do your CPU overclocking using multiplier
This allows using Adaptive voltage settings for Vcore which will allow the Intel speedstep feature to function correctly, CPU frequency and voltage will auto scale up under load and down when idle to save energy and create less heat when idle

Your cooling will be the limiting factor for overclocking these big chips, they can get hot fast but you should be able to reach 4.0 to 4.4 depending a great deal on luck of the silicon draw, all CPU's are different

if you look here https://siliconlottery.com/collections/2011-3 you can get an idea on voltage needed for frequency

Great info!

I Wondered about that Bclock of 125

When I go manual, do I still leave the XMP profile switch on? and just set the 3000 speed timings to the SPD of that XMP profile?

AND....do I need to set EVERY timing or just the main ones and leave the others to "Auto"

AND.....before I ask any more questions...I will read through the guides you suggested....LOL.

Oh darn it....just one more quick one......Anything special required for the Asus AiSuite removal/uninstall. Is there a special uninstall-cleanup tool somewhere??

Menthol
Level 14
I am not familiar with the Strix, is there an actual switch on the board? If not I don't think it makes any difference, but if there is an actual switch i would turn it off, only need to set the first 4 timings manually, set dram voltage manually, 1.35 to 1.4 volts, a little extra doesn't hurt. both my X-99 boards with BW-E chips need around 1.05 volts VCSSA for memory stability
I am not sure about uninstalling Aisuite, there used to be a special uninstaller to clean it out.

ASUS Realbench is good for testing overall stability download here http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?83393-RealBench-Hwbot-Edition-Insights-and-Discussion
There are numerous memory stability threads and typically memory stability is the biggest issue on the newer platforms, there are just so many combinations of kits and the memory controller being on the CPU, not the motherboard means all CPU's cannot always run all memory kits at XMP rated speeds

It does indeed have an actual xmp switch on the mobo.

And thanks again for the info.

Will study some guides....try a few things and come back with more questions probably....LOL

Have the time now.....feels GOOD!

NemesisChild
Level 12
The IRST driver and bios option is not needed if you're not going RAID.
Easiest to use the XMP profile, otherwise manual settings of the base timings is fine. All other sub timings can be left at default/auto.
Personally, I keep software to a bare minimum. I don't use any of the ASUS utilities mentioned above.

Good luck and most of all, have fun!
Intel i9 10850K@ 5.3GHz
ASUS ROG Strix Z490-E
Corsair H115i Pro XT
G.Skill TridentZ@ 3600MHz CL14 2x16GB
EVGA RTX 3090 Ti FWT3 Ultra
OS: WD Black SN850 1TB NVMe M.2
Storage: WD Blue SN550 2TB NVMe M.2
EVGA SuperNova 1200 P2
ASUS ROG Strix Helios GX601