i7 920 overclock settings

[sgrinavi]

Xeon W3520 on Rampage II Extreme with the 14.03 BIOS - HT on
200x20
QPI x 18 (3600)
UnCore x19 (3800)
Memory @ 1603 (9,9,9,24)

Core voltage 1.192
Ram 1.65v

Idles in the mid/high 40's, loads in the mid/high 60's

I had it at 200x21 for a while, but I had to add voltage to keep it stable so I backed it down.

 

[arkcom]

i7-920 on ga-ex58-ud3r
200*19
core 1.25v (1.232 in Windows)
pll 1.88v

idles high 40s hit 79 in LinX :shocked:. I think my Cooler is alright because my temps drop about 17 degrees between runs.

The stock fan on my cooler (Xigmatek Red Scorpion) maxes out at 1500 rpm.

 

[cboath]

I've got:

P6T Deluxe V2
6GB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600
Noctua NH-U12P
Antech 902

Very new (like 36 hours) to i7 OC'ing.

I've got it at 3.2 (160x20). Set the RAM to 1604, UCLCK to 3207 (CPUid shows it at 800mhz). Set the QPI voltage to 1.3. Everything else is Auto/default.

Idle temps are about 40, load under prime is 72-75.

That good, bad, or middling? Room temp is probably pushing 80F in here and outside is in full summer mode at 95F or so.

On this board, is all the OC'ing handled in the AI Tweak section, or is there more?

Thanks

 

[imported_Shaq]

75 under Prime load at 3.2 sounds high. My Linx load is under 70C at 3.7. If you have hyperthreading on that elevates temp about 7C but still sounds high. Are your voltages as low as they can go and still be stable? Or are you going to go higher than 3.2?

 

[arkcom]

Originally posted by: cboath
I've got it at 3.2 (160x20). Set the RAM to 1604, UCLCK to 3207 (CPUid shows it at 800mhz). Set the QPI voltage to 1.3. Everything else is Auto/default.

Idle temps are about 40, load under prime is 72-75.

My guess is your motherboard is running you vcore very high.

I've backed off my settings I posted above for the summer.
Right now I'm at 3.2 with a substantial undervolt.

1.235 qpi
1.10625 vcore
1.0000 ioh core
everything else at default

idles at room temp and maxes out at about 60c in linx

 

[cboath]

I'm not at home right now, but as I recall, the core voltage was at 1.24 according to cpuid, i'd have to verify it though. The though of undervolting it hadn't occurred to me, though. I'll definitely give that a shot. I also think i'll stick the 2nd fan on the noctua. I didn't earlier because it was getting late and i was very tired and it wanted to get it going

I want HT on because I'm going to be doing a lot of rendering and it makes a big difference. The difference from my AMD opteron at 2.8ghz is gigantic. Frames that took 45-55 seconds took 7 seconds on this thing, before starting to OC.


I'll definitely be trying those settings for undervolting soon!

 

[aigomorla]

no one will tell you a overclock is bad.

Infact any full stable overclock is a plus because your running higher then stock settings.

Unfortunately people look at the upper 1% and think thats the majority.

Rule of thumb:

1. The faster the overclock, more life u eat out of it. (you play a balance of upgrade time vs longivity)
2. The cooler you can run the cpu overall extends the life of it. I heard the number is almost double life for every 10C u can knock it down.
(my 975 is @ 4.435ghz and doesnt break 65C under full load) <-- i want that 4.5ghz barrier for 24/7.

If your after overclocks on an i7 a D0 stepping is mandatory as it is significantly better in overclocking at lower vcore voltages.

 

[cboath]

I just noticed I forgot to list my chip It is a 920 D0...

I haven't had a chance to change anything since my original post. I wrote that and head out to my parents for fathers day and got home late. We shall see about the undervolt hopefully tonight.

While i'm thinking about it, any chances is the thermal paste? I used the stuff that came with the noctua. Looked it up a couple places and it graded out as well as AS5 in those articles. Also use the 4-5mm bead method. Read a couple other places recommending a line method. Not sure which is better, really.

 

[cboath]

Just got home and did the following:

Undid my settings and set just the following:

Turbo =off
CPU ration = 20
Bckl 160
dram freq = DDR3-1600
CPU volt = 1.225
PLL = 1.8
qpi=1.225
Dram bus voltage = 1.6

Everything else was auto

Idles were 34-35
Prime95, all 8 threads running large FFT's temps were 64 62 64 62.

Can anyone tell me what's different? My ambient temp is down 3-4 degrees F, that shouldn't equate to 10 degrees lower load temps, though, should it?

Would setting the CPU ratio to AUTO lower ambients a couple degrees more or is that more of a power saving thing?

I'm really trying to undestand more and more of this

----------------------
Edit: Update
I tried the same settings with a BCLK of 170 and by the time i returned to the room 15 minutes later, it rebooted itself. Could've take 30 seconds, could've take 14.5 minutes - I don't know.

So I upped teh vcore and qpi voltage to 1.25

Completed 15 minutes of prime with temps going 70-71, 68, 68, 68.

Ambient temp in front of machine is 77.1F.

Do you think the machine was upping voltage on it's own to create the higher temps from saturday/sunday?

2nd question, with OCZ gold DDR3-1600 RAM, do I need to throttle it back a bit? It's list at a freq of 850 in CPUZ. I thought i read somewhere 1600 should be 800.

 

[arkcom]

I'd say it's a combo of your slightly lower qpi voltage and the thermal paste breaking in.

 

[imported_Shaq]

Lower your memory multiplier to 8 for now. You are at 10x170=1700/2=850. You will need it at 8 to go much higher than 170 and will save you headaches later as the ram will make testing fail. You can then go up to 200x8=1600 which is the rated frequency of your ram. You shouldn't need too much more voltage to reach 200x20 with the lower ram divider.

 

[MikeS3000]

I just built my rig this past weekend. Got an i7 920 for $199 at Microcenter and this thing overclocks like a beast! I used a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R rev 1.0 board. I am using a Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 for cooling. I am running 4.0 ghz stable. 200X20, vcore 1.3025. Runs prime stable for hours and intel burn in test for 20 rounds without crashing. Load temps are mostly in the mid-70s. Peak was 79 on one of the cores. I am running Corsair DDR 1600 ram at the rated speed. I guess I got a lucky overclocker with only minimal bump in vcore.

 

[Ben90]

4 ghz @ stock voltage with stock cooler
asus p6t se less than 200$
3x2 gb crucial ddr3 85 bucks

i think its mostly a ymmv situation

*edit* oops i was supposed to be quoting someone who said that most of the people getting 4ghz+ on i7's were the ones with high end mobos/ram sticks on extreme cooling

 

[AdamK47]

I was running at 4GHz with my 920, but it required 1.35V. I have since dropped it down to 21 x 180 for 3.78GHz at 1.25V. It runs much much cooler. Running the 180MHz base clock also allows me to run my Mushkin Redline at 1800 DDR with only 1.60V and 7-8-6-18-1T timings.

 

[NotquiteanooB]

Here's a link to a great video about OC'g the i7 920 in a ASUS P6T Dlx.

http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/asus-p...cing/12157000

It's the method I used to OC my rig.

Mine is fluid cooled by a CoolIT Domino and at a moderate OC of 3.2ghz it is cool at 34*c to 36*c underload.
Corsair 1000w PS.
6Gb Ram G-Skill 1600 DDR3
2x EVGA GTX285 SLI
2x 1Tb WD HDD's in Raid 1
Vista Ult. 64 bit
CoolerMaster HAF case

 

[kyotousa]

3.6 ghz @ 1.23v with Scythe Mugen 2

40C idle 56C load with IntelBurn Test

mobo - Giga UD3R
ram - OCZ 3x2gb 1800 platinum rated CL8 @ 1.65v.
Running 1600 CL8 1T @ 1.6v

System stable with IntelBurn setting High (5 trials)

 

[Shmee]

I have a D0 920, 4 Ghz is easy on it. Already at 4.2. 21x200.

My goal is 4.6 GHz. my true is lapped with push pull. Using a 6x mem multi and a 15x uncore. Due to lower vcore, it runs like 20C cooler at 4.2 than my C0 did at 4. Linx maxes around 63 C.