i7 920 3.8ghz feedback please

[kovval]

Hello, so, instead of upgrading to Haswell I decided to overclock my i7 920 for the first time since I bought it 4 years ago. I tried to follow http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/rmp_i7_920_overclocking.

Specs:

i7 920 D0
Asus P6T Deluxe v2
GTX560Ti
2x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600
Hyper 212 EVO

I got it to ~3.8ghz (3.779 to be exact) at 1.2150V, tested it for 22 hours in Prime95 Blend test and didn't freeze, highest temp was 73C on one core in 22-24 ambient temp.

I set Vcore to 1.2150, but it shows 1.208 in CPUID, is that normal?

Should I run any more tests? Or after 22 hours I can assume it's stable?

I mainly play games with 'occasional' photoshopping, I heard disabling HT could inrease FPS in games, should I disable it?

These are my bios settings:

CPU Ratio: Auto
BCLK frequency – 180
PCI-E frequency- 100
Dram Frequency – It was something around 1400,
UCLK Frequency – I chose lowest option, which was atleast 2x Dram Feq
QPI Link Data Rate – I chose lowest option
CPU Voltage – 1.2150v
CPU PLL Voltage – 1.80v
QPI/DRAM Voltage – 1.2150v
IOH Voltage – I chose standard
IOH PCIE Voltage – standard
ICH Voltage – standard
ICH PCIE Voltage - auto (not sure about that one, wasn't mentioned in guide so I didn't touch it)

DRAM Bus Voltage – 1.64v
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHA – Auto
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHA – Auto
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHB – Auto
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHB – Auto
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHC – Auto
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHC – Auto

I crashed at 1.2V after like 4 hours, so I increased CPU and QPI/DRAM to 1.2150V. Are other settings fine? Any room for improvement? My RAM is 1600mhz but I set it to 1400, not sure about that.

I LEFT other options on auto/standard, basically didn't touch anything else, that includes various power saving states, speedstep and turbo and anything else that was mentioned in other guides. Should I disable any of them?

 

[tarmc]

Try running it at 19x200. Youll be abke yo get your mem up to 1600. Not sure if you will have to fiddle with your volts at all though. Aldo i didnt really notice a difference between having ht on or off (left mine on) and am assuming while photoshopping the extra threads would be useful.

 

[tarmc]

Also if you can toss a 3rd stick in there for tri-channel

 

[kovval]

Thanks for your suggestion about ram, might try to get 1600 later.

I'd like to know if I should disable power saving states, speedstep or anything else now that I'm 'stable'.

Also there's this ICH PCIE Voltage, Should I leave it on auto or set something manually?

Should I try to aim for 4.0ghz? or performance boost would be so low it's not worth it?

 

[tarmc]

I left all power save features disabled. Speed stepping? Might be listed as something else in my bios or i overlooked it. Leave disabled id say. Ich pcie leave on auto. I read an aticle a while ago which showed that the performance gains compared to the heat and power consumption beyond 3.8 was not really worth it. But it was done with a c0 chip. If you can get 4.0 or 4.2 stable go for it. But gains may be marginal

 

[2is]

I keep power savings enabled unless they cause me issues. If they aren't causing issues there's no reason to disable them, especially with an OCd 920 which is one of the most power sapping, heat producing processors intel has made.

 

[jacktesterson]

I'm on the "If it passes 2 hours of OCCT" its stable enough for me bandwagon.

No issues yet - I never do anything any more intense than 2 hours at a time.