First off, my ram is OCZ Reaper HPC 4 gig edition. It's clocked at 1066mhz and voltage is 2.1 – 2.2 as per their website. Default timings are 5-5-5-18, though actually many people report that left to default the ram sets itself to 5-5-5-15

Now there have been some interesting (and discouraging developments) for me as of last night. Basically I got tired of trying to get an OC an wanted to make sure my stock settings were alright (really I should have done this at the beginning). If I set all in bios to default, or even clear the CMOS my ram gets automatically set to 800mhz, with 1.81V and 5-5-5-15 timings.

But, my system is not stable at default settings. My CPU VID is 1.1625, and from what i have heard that is a really good VID. My Bios shows the default voltage at 1.11V. Lower then the VID, I can boot into Vista fine, but core 4 always fails immediately in Prime95. However I think this is just by board setting the voltage to low, when in Vista using CPU-Z I see a idle voltage of about 0.929. Though it is strange, because if I go into the bios and change my cpu vcore to 1.125, suddenly (despite being higher then what the bios showed the vcore as when left to default) the bios shows the actual voltage as being 1.08. And then that matches with CPU-Z. Either way, my chip is stable at this voltage while RAM is set to 800mhz. If I try to get my ram up to 1066, I loose stability. It doesn't seem to matter how much vcore I pore into the chip (still raising it though). It's kinda a bumber, I mean at stock I should be able to use my ram at full speed, especially since my old q6600 ran at 3.0ghz with the ram at 1066mhz on this board. But I'm thinking that I'm just not gonna be able to do that with this chip and 8gigs.

I have read many places, as you say, that the combination of the 780i chipset and 8gigs of ram can be trouble. I guess I’m hoping to find out that if having 8gigs at 1066 is causing instability in an overclock (or even at stock settings as is my case) and if I have put the max green value for my NB voltage, if for a moment we disregard cpu heat, if I keep upping the vcore, should I eventually get stability?

Or, am I simply sunk, is it just a case that with this particular board, like maybe even just my particular board, that I will never get a stable OC (or even stock settings) with my ram at 1066. Any help would be appreciated.

And yea, I get huge vdroop with this board too. My heat is defiantly an issue, when I was testing in the vcore(actual via cpu-z) up around 1.31 when Prime95 hit it's 8k iterations I was about 70C tcase, my cores were around 60 – 70C. I bought, what I hope is a better heat-sink and I'm putting it on tonight, hopefully this will let me up the voltage some more without worrying bout heat as much.

As for GTLvREF's all I can say is that everywhere I read it seems that quad cores are much more picky about their settings. Esp the GTL's. And from my experience, playing with them (though it INCREDIBLY time consuming) has mad the difference between less then a minute Prime95 stability, and 3 – 4 hours Prime95 Stability. That being said I still haven't managed to get a stable OC

Hey, thanks for the info. I have actually read that guide, actually thats what let me get my original 6600 to 3.0ghz. As for the voltage recommendation, for the q9650 the max voltage intel recommends for no shortening of the processors life, is 1.3625 (if I remember correctly). Now from what I have read while doing research is there is alot of debate how much voltage is 'safe'. And alot of people run their Q9650 above 1.3625. But I try to stick to what's on the intel site, esp since my cooling is not that great.

I know my ram is causing problems, its rated at 1066 at 5-5-5-18, but with my q6600 I was running it at 5-5-5-12.

Thing for me is actually I got a Q9650 with a decent VID. My VID is 1.1625. So after doing alot of research I am seeing people getting 4.05 overclocks with this chip with bios voltages under 1.3 (actual I don't know about you but my board has alot of vdroop(as in the vcore I set in my bios is much higher then what actually goes to the chip, which you can see with cpu-z in windows). GTLvREF's can play a huge roll, this guide http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=476249&mp... is really really useful.

as for my system specs I have:

Q9650 – CPU
EVGA nforce 780i – Motherboard
8gigs DDR2 1066MHz – Memory
EVGA GTX 280 – GPU
Auzentech Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 – Sound Card
Antec Signature 850W – power supply

thanks again for the info, I'm just trying to see what voltage settings people with my board and cpu are using

I know intel recommends not exceeding 1.3625 but on my board the vdroop is incredible. I have cpu voltage set to 1.4 but the bios reads as 1.37. Since you do not have liquid cooling I would suggest not exceeding 65c (not sure what intel recommends) under full load. If you have good air cooling this should be ok. What temps do you have now anyway?

Try these options:

OPTION 1
link and sync, set ram timings to optimal, try 1.38v on the cpu, up your mcp to 1.525. Put your NB to 1.45v
check your recommended RAM voltage by manufacture. I would set it to the max voltage (not above 2.1v) that your ram is recommended for. My case it was 1.9v.

Option 2:

Unlinked, Set ram timings to the recomended values (5-5-5-18) and voltage. Up your fsb to 1800 (QDR).
and just play with your cpu voltage only.

I think link/sync is the best way to determine cpu stability without worrying about ram but for me this did not work. I had to unlink and it worked.

It is either cpu voltage, ram timings, or ram voltage (assuming you have all the other voltage settings set to the values specified in pwnzors oc guide.

Another interesting aspect is you have 8gigs…I read some articles where people had major issues overclocking on 8gigs with the 780i and this chip. But there are some who have done it without a single issue. I have heard the best ram for this 8gig setup on this board is Gskill..the same brand I bought.

What brand is the ram? Your power supply should be sufficient.

I know intel recommends not exceeding 1.3625 but on my board the vdroop is incredible. I have cpu voltage set to 1.4 but the bios reads as 1.37. Since you do not have liquid cooling I would suggest not exceeding 65c (not sure what intel recommends) under full load. If you have good air cooling this should be ok. What temps do you have now anyway?

Try these options:

OPTION 1
link and sync, set ram timings to optimal, try 1.38v on the cpu, up your mcp to 1.525. Put your NB to 1.45v
check your recommended RAM voltage by manufacture. I would set it to the max voltage (not above 2.1v) that your ram is recommended for. My case it was 1.9v.

Option 2:

Unlinked, Set ram timings to the recomended values (5-5-5-18) and voltage. Up your fsb to 1800 (QDR).
and just play with your cpu voltage only.

I think link/sync is the best way to determine cpu stability without worrying about ram but for me this did not work. I had to unlink and it worked.

It is either cpu voltage, ram timings, or ram voltage (assuming you have all the other voltage settings set to the values specified in pwnzors oc guide.

Another interesting aspect is you have 8gigs…I read some articles where people had major issues overclocking on 8gigs with the 780i and this chip. But there are some who have done it without a single issue. I have heard the best ram for this 8gig setup on this board is Gskill..the same brand I bought.

What brand is the ram? Your power supply should be sufficient.

This is what I go by:

CPU ~1.4v (actual via CPUid) a good starting point for Kentsfield >3.2Ghz…faster=more***
RAM Run at manufacturers specified voltage only.
FSB 1.3v….(1.4v ~1600QDR+)
SPP/NB 1.4v…(1.45v ~1700QDR+)
MCP/SB 1.525v
HT 1.25v (aka MCP<>SPP)
AUX 1.5v(auto) (not applicable on 680i)
GTRLEDs (auto) (not applicable on 680i)

Check out this thread on evga's forums (chances are you may have already)

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=222688
what are your sys specs?