i7-920 Question

[radiskull666]

I have a:
i7 920 CPU
Gigabyte MOBO EX58-UD5
12GB Dominator Corsair RAM
1000Watt Corsair PSU
AMD Radeon 7900 Series Video Card
and a pretty huge after market CPU cooler I forgot the name of it LOL.

But my question is I've never been able to successfully over clock this CPU, the MOBO software always had problems like hangups and freezes. I have an itch and feel like getting a new MOBO that's easier to OC and upgrade my CPU (Actually I'm not sure if this CPU I have is a good CPU)

Should I go for a i5 or i7 or just wait for the new Intel CPU's to come out, or just get a new bad ass MOBO from my 1366 i7-920, not sure here what to do.

I run 3 monitors in crossfire and use Win8, I use CS6 a lot and everything runs fine, but I want things to move faster and want a better gaming experience. Money is not an issue but I'm also not wanting to just throw $$ down the drain.

I''ll upgrade the case and move to water cooling later on for now just would like to know what to do with my CPU and MOBO situation.

Any advice would be highly appreciated guys and gals.

Thank You!

[riversend]

Do you still have any interest in getting an OC on your 920? If so you should post on the CPU and OC forum here at Anandtech. If it still is not meeting your needs then POP back over for the upgrade discussion.

OR.... elaborate a bit on what it is you want to be faster and smoother. Putting in a new 3570k/z77 mobo / SSD should do the trick. Live near a microcenter?

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Do you have an SSD drive in that machine?

Do you have the latest motherboard bios installed?

What is your current OC?
you should be able to get atleast 3.6hz on that chip - an overclocked i7 920 is still a formattable chip and can run the toughest game engines no problem

What is your memory divider at?
the lower the better for overclocking

[radiskull666]

Originally Posted by riversend

Do you still have any interest in getting an OC on your 920? If so you should post on the CPU and OC forum here at Anandtech. If it still is not meeting your needs then POP back over for the upgrade discussion.

OR.... elaborate a bit on what it is you want to be faster and smoother. Putting in a new 3570k/z77 mobo / SSD should do the trick. Live near a microcenter?

Absolutely, I would love to OC and get this CPU to run at a higher Ghz if possible. Like I said I've tried before and have not been very successful, mainly because of my limited skills, and second because the OC software the board came with is pretty outdated and I'm sure it has compatibility issues with Win 7 & 8. I have upgraded to the latest BIOS.

Every time I tried OC the machine would not boot or it would run for a few days and have start up issues. I do not have a SSD but rather a 7200 RPM HD. I do not live near a Micro Center or Fry's I do all my shopping online. I appreciate the response.

[Mr. Pedantic]

I would get an SSD first.

Originally Posted by radiskull666

Absolutely, I would love to OC and get this CPU to run at a higher Ghz if possible. Like I said I've tried before and have not been very successful, mainly because of my limited skills, and second because the OC software the board came with is pretty outdated and I'm sure it has compatibility issues with Win 7 & 8. I have upgraded to the latest BIOS.

Every time I tried OC the machine would not boot or it would run for a few days and have start up issues. I do not have a SSD but rather a 7200 RPM HD. I do not live near a Micro Center or Fry's I do all my shopping online. I appreciate the response.

What did you do? Did you start right off the bat and raise the BCLK to 300?

[radiskull666]

Originally Posted by BTRY B 529th FA BN

Do you have an SSD drive in that machine?

Do you have the latest motherboard bios installed?

What is your current OC?
you should be able to get atleast 3.6hz on that chip - an overclocked i7 920 is still a formattable chip and can run the toughest game engines no problem

What is your memory divider at?
the lower the better for overclocking

I do not have an SSD but a 7200 RPM HD
The latest BIOS has been installed
It's currently running at stock
The memory has not been tweaked at all (I don't know how)
Its the TR3X3G1600C8D X.M.P DDR3. The tested latency is 8-8-8-24 and SPD latency is 9-9-9-24 (Not sure what that means)
That's about all the information I have, but, I sure do appreciate the help!

[masteryoda34]

I have the same CPU and motherboard as you. Overclocking works great here. Have been running at 4.2 GHz for 3.5 years.

Do the overclocking from the BIOS is my recommendation.

[radiskull666]

You know I think that's just what I did, because I could not really find any clear instructions on how to do so, the BIOS had too many options, don't know what I'm doing. If you know of any clear cut instructions with this CPU and MOBO for a newB kindly send it my way!

Thanks!

[radiskull666]

Originally Posted by masteryoda34

I have the same CPU and motherboard as you. Overclocking works great here. Have been running at 4.2 GHz for 3.5 years.

Do the overclocking from the BIOS is my recommendation.

It would be awesome if you could send some of those guides and instructions my way it would help a lot!

[masteryoda34]

Originally Posted by radiskull666

It would be awesome if you could send some of those guides and instructions my way it would help a lot!

Just search "nehalem overclocking" and you'll find everything you need. Here's one: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea...lem_its_limits

[radiskull666]

Thanks for all the help I'm looking at some articles right now.

Thank You.

Originally Posted by masteryoda34

Just search "nehalem overclocking" and you'll find everything you need. Here's one: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea...lem_its_limits