How do i OC my i7 950 to 4.5 or 5GHz on a H70??

[molesy]

Hello all,

This is my first post so sorry if this is a noob question.

i have a i7 950 being cooled by a H70 currently oc to 4GHz. i was wondering if anyone knows how i can OC this to 4.5 or even 5 GHz on the H70 I will be changing the stock fans of the H70 to CoolerMaster 120mm Silent Green LED Fan which has 90CFM

my mobo is a

18Gb DD3 RAM in tri-channel 1333MHz
H70 cooling
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 rev 2.0

i can give any other info if you want :thumbsup:

thanks for the help in advanced :thumbsup:

 

[Makaveli]

You will be lucky to get 4.5 out of that chip and forget about 5GHZ not happening!

Most Bloomfield chips top out around 4-4.2 before you need insane amount of voltage.
If you want a chip that will hit the 4.5-5.0 range you need to buy Sandy bridge!

 

[john3850]

You may need 1.4v-1.47vcore to hit 4500mhz in Chinebench best I could get was 4300mhz.
If your system is to be used daily at 4500mhz it wont happen.
A H70 does not have enough radage to cool with a high vcore.
The only way to hit 5000mhz is with dice.
Many people have gone to sb 2600k in order to hit 5000mhz.

 

[molesy]

Hello,

thanks for the quick response!!. I have seen the i7 970 OC to 4.8 GHz to 5GHz with the H70 and they are not sandy bridge cpu's i have also see a i7 965 oc to 5GHz.

also what happens if the Vcore is set high eg 1.59 or eve 1.6+ why cant the H70 handle it it has a massive radiator with 2 fans pulling 90CFM through it ??

also i my current Vcore is set to 1.4v at 4GHz and temps are 74-77 Tops these were the temps even when not OC so i thought i could get a high clock.

THANKS FOR YOU HELP

 

[molesy]

Here is the link for the i7 965 to 5GHz
http://uneit.com/2008/11/02/intel-core-i7-at-5ghz/

 

[molesy]

here is the like for i7 970 to 5GHz on air not fully stable though

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/i7_970_-_the_search_for_5ghz_review/1

 

[biostud]

why don't you just use the voltages used in their CPU-z screenshot.....

...and try to fry your CPU?

 

[RussianSensation]

Core i7 950s won't operate at those speeds within safe voltages on air/water cooling. The official safe spec for the 950 is 1.375V. Perhaps there is another 5-10% "safety margin" built in. However, I imagine that after 1.45V, you are starting to seriously degrade the life of your CPU. If you already require 1.4V just to get to 4.0ghz, then your chip is just average. So I don't think you have a lot of headroom left.

Think about this, going from 4.0 to 4.2ghz is only a 5% performance boost; and to get there, you'll already be above Vcore spec. If you don't intend to keep this system for a long time, just keep increasing the VCore and the vTT voltage and see how high you can get (of course, we are not responsible for your hardware with such an advice).

here is the like for i7 970 to 5GHz on air not fully stable though

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/i7_970_-_the_search_for_5ghz_review/1

i7 970 is a 32nm hexa-core. i7 950 is a 45nm quad-core. Estimating a 4.5-5.0ghz overclock for a 45nm chip based on how a 32nm chip overclocks is misleading/inaccurate.

Here is the link for the i7 965 to 5GHz
http://uneit.com/2008/11/02/intel-core-i7-at-5ghz/

1.544 Vcore.

 

[AdamK47]

Short answer: Not going to happen.

 

[Soccerman06]

Hello,

thanks for the quick response!!. I have seen the i7 970 OC to 4.8 GHz to 5GHz with the H70 and they are not sandy bridge cpu's i have also see a i7 965 oc to 5GHz.

also what happens if the Vcore is set high eg 1.59 or eve 1.6+ why cant the H70 handle it it has a massive radiator with 2 fans pulling 90CFM through it ??

also i my current Vcore is set to 1.4v at 4GHz and temps are 74-77 Tops these were the temps even when not OC so i thought i could get a high clock.

THANKS FOR YOU HELP

90 cfm isn't that much for 2 fans honestly. To be honest, the hx0 series coolers are nice but usually aren't as good as the high end air coolers with a decent fan. The difference in heat output from 1.4v to 1.6v is enough to require either exotic or lower than ambient temp coolers. A 950 is a completely different CPU than the 970+ models. You will be lucky to even hit 4.5ghz without a dedicated water system.

 

[TemjinGold]

The sad thing is even if you do hit 5.0 ghz, you won't really notice the speed in everyday use unless all you do is benchmark. What you will notice is how much more quickly your cpu would die out.

 

[996GT2]

Even with newer Sandy Bridge i7s it's hard to hit 5 GHz unless you have a good chip. Pretty much impossible with an i7 950 unless you got extremely lucky with the chip you have.

I'd say 4.0-4.2 is a practical limit for an i7 950 in terms of everyday use. You might be able to hit 4.5 GHz if you really push the voltages, but the huge increases in power draw/heat output are simply not worth it for the small performance you gain going from 4.2 to 4.5.

Btw, putting 1.6V through an i7 950 is a very bad idea for daily use. You're going to seriously reduce the life of your CPU. Benchmarkers pump these kinds of voltages through their chips in short runs only, and they have exotic liquid nitrogen cooling. Also, they don't really care if they fry a chip or two while going for that WR 3DMark run.

 

[Minerva]

The H70 is a POS no better than a TRUE or other higher end air cooler. It's nowhere near in the land of true water cooling so forget that you will get better overclocks because you have "water cooling".

Second, you are setting the bar way too high. Unless you have an LN2 pot and want to try for benching, forget about anything over 4.4GHz on these chips. It only happens with cherry picked ones. Even if you go to microcenter and buy everything they have and try your best luck chances are the best chip MIGHT do 4.4 with 1.4V or so.

Even if it did that measly H70 will NOT keep it below 95C at full load using Linx. Not going to happen. I know because I've tried.

 

[996GT2]

The H70 is a POS no better than a TRUE or other higher end air cooler. It's nowhere near in the land of true water cooling so forget that you will get better overclocks because you have "water cooling".

Second, you are setting the bar way too high. Unless you have an LN2 pot and want to try for benching, forget about anything over 4.4GHz on these chips. It only happens with cherry picked ones. Even if you go to microcenter and buy everything they have and try your best luck chances are the best chip MIGHT do 4.4 with 1.4V or so.

Even if it did that measly H70 will NOT keep it below 95C at full load using Linx. Not going to happen. I know because I've tried.

QFMFT. I don't know why so many people with H70s think they can get huge overclocks suddenly just because they have "water cooling."

H70 is not even close to a true water cooling setup!

H70 cannot even begin to compete with the best air coolers like the Noctua NH-D14 or TR Silver Arrow (both with their stock 1200-1300 RPM fans) unless you use 1980 RPM fans on the H70.

 

[happinessism]

well if you're not scared to fry it or are planning to move onto sandy bridge instead, wait for the h100 or get the h80 and try it.

 

[molesy]

90 cfm isn't that much for 2 fans honestly. To be honest, the hx0 series coolers are nice but usually aren't as good as the high end air coolers with a decent fan. The difference in heat output from 1.4v to 1.6v is enough to require either exotic or lower than ambient temp coolers. A 950 is a completely different CPU than the 970+ models. You will be lucky to even hit 4.5ghz without a dedicated water system.

I see ok the fans pull 90cfm each not all together but i see that i7950 cant exactly oc past 4.2 on normal. at the time the h70 got the best review it was almost equivalent to the nouta.

but i think i will just wait till the LGA2011 chips come out or the 22nm ones i might just upgrade my ram and get a SSD

 

[AdamK47]

QFMFT. I don't know why so many people with H70s think they can get huge overclocks suddenly just because they have "water cooling."

H70 is not even close to a true water cooling setup!

H70 cannot even begin to compete with the best air coolers like the Noctua NH-D14 or TR Silver Arrow (both with their stock 1200-1300 RPM fans) unless you use 1980 RPM fans on the H70.

This is one of the reasons I replaced my H70 to a Thermalright Silver Arrow for my 980X. Perhaps the H100 is better. Haven't read any reviews yet.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I'd say 4.0-4.2 is a practical limit for an i7 950 in terms of everyday use.

Sadly, the higher Nehalems have about the same limitations as the venerable 920.
Honestly OP, it's not worth it, not even with several of my 920 D0s running on pretty low voltage with Dark Knights.

 

[Minerva]

That looks OK but you should really be using something else to test stability. Prime95 lost its appeal when Nehalem came out.

There is a new version of OCCT that I've seen produce an error in seconds on a system that could prime for many hours.

 

[lsv]

Sadly, the higher Nehalems have about the same limitations as the venerable 920.
Honestly OP, it's not worth it, not even with several of my 920 D0s running on pretty low voltage with Dark Knights.

Looks identical to my i7 temps Though for some reason my idle is 40-45c but max never goes above 70c. Kinda strange tbh.

 

[molesy]

Hello again,

Thanks for you help guys!
since it is clear i cant get 4.5GHz stable daily could you help me refine my current settings.

firstly what is the main difference between 1333,1600,2000 MHz DDR3 ram. i currently have 1333. is it better to have 2000 for oc or 1600for oc.

my vcore is 1.376 does that sound ok or to high???

my DRAM frequency is 696MHz is that ok to low or to high???

my FSB:RAM is 2:8

and clocks are 10-10-10-26

any other info you need to help refine this oc is greatly appreciated

 

[RussianSensation]

Your Ram is rated at DDR3-1333. Why are you running such high timings of CL10? What are the rated timings for your RAM exactly? Is this a limitation you are facing since you have all DIMM slots populated with RAMs?

I think if you want more snappy performance out of your system, get an SSD for your OS. Do you play games?

You can try lowering your VCore slowly and using LinX or other stability test to see if your computer remains stable at 4.0ghz.

Xbitlabs was able to get 4.0ghz overclock on the i7-950 with 1.30V core and 1.26 Vtt:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/power-consumption-overclocking_11.html#sect0

I think that's a good starting point.

 

[molesy]

the ram i got says CL9 but i set timings to auto and it put it to CL10.

which is better the higher the number or the lower? so is CL10 good for DDR3-2000

i have tri channel one set with 2gb modules and the other with 4Gb modules

yes i do gaming, rendering not so much now. i was thinking of upgrading the ram to higher frequencies but i was not sure if that would help so i did not spend the money.
thanks for the tip with Xbitlabs will try them when i am next free

 

[Ayah]

Lowest is best.

 

[molesy]

lower what CL or frequency