Dell XPS 730x overclocking frustration?

Why can I run my games and desktop fine, but when i do a stress test it reboots?

First of all, if your PC runs fine while gaming and on the desktop, why are you running a stress test? 

Before you overclock anything, you need to find out what your RAM voltage is supposed to be.  When you raise the CPU BClk (base clock), it also overclocks the RAM.  If you have RAM that isn't overclock friendly, that will cause instability issues.

This is what I have my settings at and my PC has yet to give me any issues.

Try these settings -

CPU Bclk - 160

Dynamic CPU Vcore Offset - +20mv

DDR3 Memory Voltage - 1.65v

IOH Voltage - 1.10v

QPI & Uncore Voltage - Default

Intel Turbo Mode Tech - Enabled

Multiplier - 20

Speedstep - Disabled

XMP Support - Disabled

QPI Frequency - Auto

Memory Ratio - 8

C-State Tech - Disabled

P.S. - There is an XPS 730x General Hardware Discussion thread located here - Dell XPS 730x General Hardware Discussion Thread

If you'll read through it, you may find the answers to a lot of your questions.

Very good question. I was told to run prime 95 to see if the overclock was stable. I am using realtemps and temps are in the low to mid 40's. Sometimes reaching 50 celsius. I ran my Asquared spyware program and one of the cores went to 65 celsius but then went back down,  Do you recommend any tests to make sure I am running everything ok? It shows 3.2 in teh BIOS and memory is 1280mhz. I put the fans at 20% and seems to be working ok. Shoudl I run prime 95 to test or do you recommend anything else? I really appreciate the advice and setup info. Your system sounds awesome!! I hope to add a GTX 285 in SLI soon.

ski747,

Understand, we ship it already overclocked to 3.2 from 3.0. 3.6 is really pushing it.

I have to disgaree that chip should be able to do at leats 3.8Ghz and even 4Ghz witha bit of tweaking,

+1 on what HBK123 said above.  I've read more than one account where users have pushed the 920 beyond 4Ghz with a good water cooling setup.  However, don't expect to do that with the H2C unit because you'll risk burning something up.

I've pushed mine as high as 3.6ghz and my idle temps were 43-45C and my load temps were 45-55C.  It's all about having adequate cooling.  If you have proper cooling, the sky is the limit as to how far you can push your CPU.

Wow, mine is currently on 3.75Ghz (and considering the H2C is meant to be BETTER), my idle temps are 45-55C and load is easily into the 60's. On the old XPS 730 the H2C unit was actually good, this new 'revised' model dosent seem up to scratch at all!

I have to disgaree that chip should be able to do at leats 3.8Ghz and even 4Ghz witha bit of tweaking, proven by dozens of other usres, just go to www.rampantspeculation.com, who will be more the willing to help increase your overclock to its potential

I think 3.2ghz is the sweet spot. I took your settings PH3NOM and everything worked perfect. I even did prime95 and not one error. With prime the temps got to about 87-89 celsius under 100% load. I have read that is a good and bad thing. I only ran for about 2 hours so everything seems to be working ok.  My temps stay around mid to high 40's with the overclock and when I game about mid to high 50's celsuis. Do you think the temps are good?

Your temps are well within the safe zone.  Anything under 70C is safe but when you hit 70 and higher, you're taking a change of damaging your components.  I read several reviews on the Core i7 CPUs and from what I found, the Core i7 is safe UP to 100C (212F) at which point the CPU will take control of the cooling and lower the clock speed.  The room you have your PC in will also greatly affect the temperature of your CPU.  I keep my room at 70F so my rig stays pretty cool.