Help on settings to use for o'clocking an i7 950

Ylurien

Member
Jul 26, 2007
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I am wondering if anyone could tell me what my bios settings should be for a modest air-cooled overclock with the following components:

-i7 950 (with Thermalright Ultra-120 rev. C hsf)
-Corsair DDR3 1333 Mhz RAM. I forgot, but I think this is the one I have:

http://www.corsair.com/memory/xms-classic/xms3-ddr3-memory/tr3x6g1333c9.html


I realize there is a lot of information about overclocking i7s out there, but some of it seems to be conflicting and I really know little about the whole process and want to make sure I get a decent overclock that won't kill my CPU or RAM.

Overclocking used to be so much simpler back in the days of the Pentium and Celeron. Now you have to know about the QPI multiplier, Vcore, VTT, Vdimm, etc. and it's all just over my head!

Thanks for any help.
 

Diogenes2

Platinum Member
Jul 26, 2001
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For modest, I would just bump the FSB to 150 - 155, and drop the memory multiplier to 8 .. You shouldn't have to worry about other settings.

If you want to go higher, then you will have to sort through all that conflicting information ...

There is a decent guide right here.. It doesn't specify the 950 but the principles are the same ..

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=230509
 

Ylurien

Member
Jul 26, 2007
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Thanks for the info, guys! I will have a read through those.

One problem, though: There doesn't seem to be an option for changing the BCLK speed in my bios under the Ai Tweaker tab. I am using an ASUS P6X58D-E motherboard, btw.
 

Bartman39

Elite Member | For Sale/Trade
Jul 4, 2000
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You have to set the AI Overclock tuner to (manual) in order to see it...:thumbsup:

Got this from the manual online but have had several ASUS boards so kinda know their tricks...:)
 

Ylurien

Member
Jul 26, 2007
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lol Yeah I... uh... knew that! Just testing you guys! And you... uh... passed!

So I pushed the BCLK to 155 and now I'm getting max load temps of 85C. Too high, or should I reseat my HSF and reapply some thermal paste?
 

d4a2n0k

Senior member
May 6, 2002
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What voltage are you running? If you have it on auto, try changing to manual and set it at 1.25v and try again.
 

cubeless

Diamond Member
Sep 17, 2001
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these chips are hot, but that seems a little much for no voltage boost (at least i figure no voltage boost if u r only going to 155 bclk)...

i'd have a peek at the hsf seating, as that hsf ought to be able to keep the thing in the 70's with a decent fan...

my 930 @ 200x20 and 1.28v (with droop) under a dh14 stays under 80c...
 

Diogenes2

Platinum Member
Jul 26, 2001
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Using a 212+ on my 950 .. Just bumping BCLK to 155 gets max vcore of 1.26 and max temp of 60 .. 80 sounds a bit high ...