Forget Overclocking, I want to see how low that Vcore can go!

[Wanescotting]

Well, in my previous thread I wanted help overclocking. Changed my mind.

Out of curiousity, I lowered my vcore to 1.26 before I left the house 7 hours ago. I left Prime 95 running, and it was still going when I returned!

This has peaked my interest! Let's see just how low we can go shall we?

I am shooting for 1.20............

Phenom 2 x4 955 Black @ 3.2 GHZ (stock)
Asus M3n72 - D (750a)
Phenom 2 x4 955
8GB Patriot LL KIT 4-4-4-12 @800 MHZ (DDR2)
EVGA 9800, erm GT250........... Stock
Corsair 750HX (moment of silence for my retired Pc Power and Cooling 510, she gave me 5.5 years of great service)

 

[postaled]

I'm definitely interested in seeing how low you can get it

Myself I'm running my i7 920 on 1.15V at 3.8ghz

http://imgur.com/hw8vW

 

[SlowSpyder]

I wonder if you'll be able to give the multiplier a nudge with a voltage drop, that would be pretty nifty.

 

[Rubycon]

Technically insufficient VCORE will produce the same symptoms (sans heat!) that overclocking and can corrupt your OS! Image/backup regularly to stay sane.

 

[Mothergoose729]

Underclocking is much more fun. I have my E2180 in my hackintosh OC'ed to 2.7ghz undervolted to 1.15v (from 1.3 stock). It consumes about 70 watts to the stock 65, and for whatever reason actually behaves cooler under prime95. My phenom II 940 can do 3.0ghz at 1.2125 volts, just short of 1.2v stably. If I underclock to 2.5ghz goes down to 1.1 volts. Very fun to experiment.

The great thing about underclocking is, unlike over clocking, the lower you go the easier it is to get stable. Processors become remarkably more efficient at lower clock speeds and wattage. Your processor produces less heat, which cause errors in the CPU to be less frequent, meaning you can often lower the voltage in such a way that is disproportionate to the amount of clock speed sacrificed. I have a max OC for all of my computers that I run if I need too, but most of the time I keep them underclocked at a speed closer to stock, where I have found the right balance of performance and power consumption. Rubycon is right, you still run into the same problems with OS instability and data corruption, but if you are just a little careful you won't have any problems, just like with overclocking.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Phenom 550BE (0922cpmw):

- unlocked to a quad
- undervolted -.125
- old Opty copper heatpipe cooler, 4-pin fan and OCZ Freeze
- NB at 2411MHz
- idles 804MHz at 0.832v and 25c
- load 3.114GHz at 1.184v and 48c





Total system power draw was 126w at load. It will throw a blue screen at the -.125 undervolt coming out of sleep around 1 in 5 times.

No problems with a -.1v undervolt: 0.848v at idle and 1.2v at load, 129w total system power draw. No errors in Linpack.

AMD specs the minimum voltage at 0.875.

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[MrK6]

I can run my i5 750 @ 2.6GHz with Turbo disabled at 0.95625V. 0.95V isn't stable and it'll start freezing (hell, might not be totally stable at 0.95625V either, I didn't really test completely). When I last set up my parent's computer, I had the E6400 in it going at 1.0V (VID of 1.325V), and it's still going strong.