APEX ENCORE +14900KS +Dominator Titanium 7200 stability help.

[SinisterDev85]

Long time no see folks! 

Got this new build together and I've been riding the struggle bus trying to get a modest overclock stable.

Im honestly a bit overwhelmed with all the new settings this board has vs my previous Z590 Apex. Unfortunately it doesn't seem i hit the silicon lottery this time. My cpu scores a mediocre SP93/MC 75.

After some recommended voltage tweaks I've successfully been able to get the memory running stable in XMP Tweaked profile. Ran memtest in the bios and it did 7 passes with 0 errors.

I decided to tweak just a few familiar settings and see how good a job the AI overclock does. Made it into windows and ran Cinebench 24 and followed the usual routine for the AI to set a decent OC.  However, trying ro get that OC to run while on an XMP profile is where I've hit a roadblock. After about 5-10 seconds of running Cinebench, the program freezes and I need to force close it.

So here's so more details. I feel like im close to discovering stability. Im using the new TG Contact Plate and TG Kryosheet. This is my first time using a contact plate. At first I tightened down the thumb screws too much and that was causing instability issues. Cpu would thermally throttle instantly upon starting Cinebench, however my H170i would bring the temps down quick, but temps did spike high throughout the test. After redoing the thumb screws by hand only, not using a screwdriver, the difference was night and day!! Cpu never thermally throttled during the benchmark and temps overall were much lower. Lesson learned!

So now im trying to get a decent cpu overclock with the ram running in one of the 3 xmp profiles, and that's where I hit a wall. I think im going to have to abandon the AI OC and start manually tweaking the cpu. Which has been a little intimidating cuz i havent done this since the 11900k lol. Sooo many more options now.

Anyone have any advice, or could point me in the direction of a good video guide to watch? Im not seeking the highest OC available. I just wanna get a nice moderate cpu oc, hopefully with ram running one of the XMP's, and perform an undervolt (which i also need some direction on how to do properly.)

Im having trouble finding a helpful guide for my specific configuration. If anyone has any advice or can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it! 

Btw, it's good to be back, fam!

[SinisterDev85]

I had tested the setup with and without the TG contact frame. Much better results with the contact frame installed. The 2nd generation of TG's frames are much better and less problematic than the previous one. 

[SinisterDev85]

Starting to think this build is cursed! I was getting really close to my stability goals. Got really tired while working on it one night and shut it town. Started it back up today and now my screen is green and all the text is pink! It's like that as soon as the PC starts up, even in the bios. I've checked windows updates. Used DDU in safe mode and reinstalled all the gpu drivers. I reseated the GPU. Changed hdmi cables. No change. I have no idea whats going on. Online research points to hardware problems if doing all the aforementioned troubleshooting fails. This is a brand new Strix 4080! I've barely gotten to use it.  I really hope I don't have to RMA this GPU. I've been without a PC for far too long...😮‍💨

[SinisterDev85 · Accepted solution]

So, MAJOR update here. I found the source of all my stability frustrations! This whole time it was the TG Contact Plate! The V2 of the contact plate is deceptively simple compared to the precision required to properly torque down the screws on the V1. Literally all it says in the V2 instructions is "hand tighten only". So I tightened the new screws down gently until they stopped. Apparently this is far too much pressure!

I found a discussion on Reddit in forming people to not use the new screws that come with the plate and instead use the original ones that came off the board. And to loosely screw them in. So I gently let the threads line up, and gave each screw about half a turn. Then I checked to see if the plate felt loose or wiggled at all. I tightened it down just enough for the plate to feel solid. I reassembled everything, loaded up the bios and set memory to XMP II. And VIOLA! windows loaded up and OCCT didn't find any memory errors after half an hour! Then I ran the large system stress test and had no crashes no errors for another half an hour! The difference was night and day!

I can't believe a little bit too much contact plate pressure was the source of all this frustration! Lol. So now I can finally start tuning the system properly! So far XMP I and II worked with no errors.