Getting more out of my 920

[aztroy]

Hey everyone,

I upgraded my system about a month ago to an i7 920 and I'm loving it. I've been running at 3.8GHz on air without any problem. I've had a room ac unit for my office and I've decided to use it to cool the pc directly rather than the entire room so it will run cooler and should be a little cheaper since it's doing less. The temps are great as even under load I haven't topped 60c. The problem is when I tried to increase the speed at 20x200 it will lock up. I've tried to keep the cpu voltage low so maybe that's the issue.

Pic's of cooling and CPUz

http://s45.photobucket.com/alb...=view&current=CPUz.jpg

i920
p6t Deluxe
Patriot pc3-12800 (3x 2GB)
Cooler Master V8
BFG 280

Setting for cpu
1.280v
rev c0/c1
Core speed - 3784.9MHz
multiplier x20
Bus Speed 190.0MHz
QPI Link 3420.2 MHz

Temps hang right around 40c and the highest so far is 59c.

I've run 3dmark vantage and I get scores of 14198 (GPU-11459 and CPU-50165). Windows runs like a champ, I can run my database work without issue, Photoshop etc. So any thoughts on getting prime95 to run?

Any suggestions on getting more out of this box? Am I at the limit of what I can get out of it even with AC cooling?

Thanks
Troy

 

[exar333]

Once you hit 3.8 and up (you seem to have a great 920) a bump in voltage is often needed to keep the system stable. You could try incrementally upping the voltage to around 1.36 and see if it gets stable along the way. As long as you don't cross 1.4 and your temps are acceptable, you could hit 4.0ghz.

It is possible that you may also need to tweak some board voltages as well as QPI voltage to hit 4.0. On the i7, getting to 4.0 can be a chore and isn't nearly as easy as it is to hit 3.6-3.8 with a simple bump in the BCLK.

 

[aztroy]

Great! I'll give it a shot and see.

Thanks
Troy

 

[Denithor]

Be careful there, several of the sites have seen chips that they simply could not get working at 4GHz even with major voltage boosts. But minor bumps should be fine, especially with a room AC unit cooling your system...

 

[JMapleton]

lol at the room ac unit cooling the system.

 

[ajaidevsingh]

Thats really nice OC for 24/7 system the i7 we have dies due to heat around 4ghz and at 3.8Ghz runs really on the edge and sometimes we even got a BSOD after gaming a bit. At 3.6Ghz the system handles very good no temp problems what ever it run's very smooth and cool BTW the cooler is a ULTRA 120.

 

[Denithor]

What's next, buy a small refridgerator to keep your PC in?

Hmmm...??

 

[aztroy]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

On the cooler, the Fry's guy gave the Ultras 120 to me but it didn't have the 1366 mounting bracket so that's why it's in the first pic but if you look at the top of the cooler you'll see the V8 imprint on it.

I'll be trying to get it higher this weekend and let you know what I can get to. The AC unit was just under $500 at home depot so it's actually half of what a full water cooling rig costs. I'm in Arizona right now so humidity isn't an issue but when the AC unit cools it's also pulling the water out of the air which will be nice if I move to a less dry area.