i7 920 to 3.4 question

[Chronictee]

Hello, I am a first time overclocker. I plan to Oc my i7 920 at 3.2ghz or 3.4 nothing too high. I have 6gigs of ram ddr3 1333 and a 1000w PSU and i have tons of fans and an aftermarket cpu fan. I was wondering if my ram is good enough to oc? and does anyone have any stable numbers i could use in bios. I have been looking at guides. but they all lead to 4.0ghz i just want 3.2 or 3.4.
thanks

 

[Rifter]

you can run at 4Ghz and keep the ram under 1333 so your ram is fine.

Lower the ram divider by one step and then start raising the bclock. For that low of a overclock you will probably not need to adjust any voltages at all, or any other settings.

 

[Ben90]

What Rift said. DDR-1333 will allow an 920 to go up to 4665Mhz before its even 1Hz out of spec.

 

[Chronictee]

okay so if I want to overclock to 3.6, I would disable the turbo, set cpu ratio to 20. BCLK: 183. CPUV: 1.15 (I have D0 processor) do i leave the ram auto? or set it to the lowest? and whats the maximum voltage the cpu can handle?
thanks

 

[Ben90]

Basically. I think 1.15v may be a little low though, my i7 needs around 1.225v to do 3.6 with HT on. Depending on your cooler most people use 1.4v as the upper voltage limit. Definitely do not go higher with this, and if you have a less effective cooler, maybe max out at something a little lower.

I would set the RAM to the lowest multiplier to start off with just so you know that any problems are with the CPU/Mobo. Later if you feel comfortable you can raise the multiplier to x4 and have a slight overclock to your RAM as well.

When overclocking, I personally do not like to leave any voltages on Auto. Some mobos tend to push voltage really high as you start to raise that Bclock.

 

[mutz]

What Rift said. DDR-1333 will allow an 920 to go up to 4665Mhz before its even 1Hz out of spec.

how did you come up with that ben?

 

[Chronictee]

okay, so what other voltages should i change?

 

[Ben90]

how did you come up with that ben?

First I took DDR-1333 and divided by 6 to account for DDR being double pumped (2) and the lowest memory multiplier available (3). That gave me 222.166, which is the highest Bclock possible while still running the RAM at DDR-1333.

Now for the CPU multiplier I used 21x because most boards allow you to lock the turbo multiplier effectively raising the maximum multiplier up to 21. If your board does not support this, you have to use the 20x multipler.

Then I just multiplied the max Bclock by the max CPU multiplier (222*21) giving me ~4665Mhz after rounding errors.

okay, so what other voltages should i change?

With that mild of an overclock, you can probably get by with just the CPU and RAM voltage. If you decide to push your Bclock a little harder, you may find instability until you raise the VTT/QPI slightly. Other than that I believe you can leave everything else on default.

I do have a question for you seasoned overclockers though. Does the mobo only change certain voltages (such as only VCC) that are set to Auto when upping the Bclock, or is every voltage fair game? My current reccomendation is to just go and set every voltage manually to the default, but this may be a little superfluous if the board only changes a few voltages dynamically.

 

[Chronictee]

okay so for a 3.6ghz o/c i would disable turbo, cpu ratio: 20 BCLK: 183, CPUV 1.25 and what for the ram voltage? and is there anything else
thanks

 

[Rifter]

I do have a question for you seasoned overclockers though. Does the mobo only change certain voltages (such as only VCC) that are set to Auto when upping the Bclock, or is every voltage fair game? My current reccomendation is to just go and set every voltage manually to the default, but this may be a little superfluous if the board only changes a few voltages dynamically.

I think when set to auto they are all fair game. I agree about setting them manually. I usually set them all manually to whatever the recommended stock settings are. Then when overclocking I start upping them from stock as needed .05v at a time.

 

[Rifter]

okay so for a 3.6ghz o/c i would disable turbo, cpu ratio: 20 BCLK: 183, CPUV 1.25 and what for the ram voltage? and is there anything else
thanks

whats your ram rated for? 1.5v is pretty normal for 1333 but your particular ram may be different.

 

[Chronictee]

in the program CPUZ it says my ram is at 1.5v. so i guess its at default settings? but other than that 3.6ghz isnt too risky? i got it at 3.2 right now, and everything seems fine

 

[mutz]

First I took DDR-1333 and divided by 6 to account for DDR being double pumped (2) and the lowest memory multiplier available (3). That gave me 222.166, which is the highest Bclock possible while still running the RAM at DDR-1333.

ohh, so this is not going by the actual *8 DDR3 speed,

that is strange, DDR 3 is operating 8 times it's original frequency yet by the BIOS it goes by DDR only and the multiplier..

in the program CPUZ it says my ram is at 1.5v. so i guess its at default settings? but other than that 3.6ghz isnt too risky? i got it at 3.2 right now, and everything seems fine

3.2 is not risky, 3.6 either and not even 5.0,
it's all about the Voltage applied to the parts,
you don't want generally to pass 1.4 with the CPU for 24/7 and ~1.8 or so with RAM,
other than that you can operate at every speed the chip is capable of achieving with safe voltages (and keep your temperatures down ).

 

[Chronictee]

should i change the QPI/Dram voltage or the Dram Bus voltage or just the Dram voltage?

 

[Chronictee]

I overclocked to 3.6 and ran prime 95 while a slept. it ran for 11 hours and the highest temp was 78 lowest was 70 and the average was about 73-75. i set the CPUvoltage for 1.25. the Cpuid program shows the cpu is using 1.256v is that okay? and i set the ram at 1203, i only have 1333, but the next setting up from 1203 is 1603 or something, so is it bad i set the ram lower, or should i set it higher? at 1603mhz
thanks

 

[fluffmonster]

Temps are higher than they should be. Do you have HT on? Turn it off unless you know of a specific reason to need it. What cooler are you using on the cpu? If its the stock cooler, get rid of it and buy a better one. Try nudging cpu voltage down too, you do not necessarily need it that high. Leave the ram where it is for now. You can try buming it up later when the rest of the OC is squared away.

 

[Chronictee]

I have a thermaltake frio cpu cooler, and is HT hyperthreading? and where do i disable this and what do you think i should lower my voltage too

 

[fluffmonster]

HT = hyperthreading, and you can disable it in bios. That should deal with the high temps.

For the voltage, just creep it down by .01v until its not stable (then set at last good value), or you get to 1.2v.

 

[Ben90]

And what magic happens at 1.2v? If my processor runs my overclock at 1.0v I don't think I would stop at 1.2v

 

[Rifter]

And what magic happens at 1.2v? If my processor runs my overclock at 1.0v I don't think I would stop at 1.2v

if you get a i7 to run overclocked at 1.0v you are my goddamn hero.

 

[Chronictee]

Would hyperthreading be in the advanced options menu in BIOS? and i set my CPUvoltage at 1.21 and it seems to be getting the lowest temperature in cinebench 11 stress program i scored 6.17(highest was 65c at 1.21v). is that the best way to test? or what would be an efficient way of knowing what is okay voltage.
and how do i tell i didnt do my overclock properly? high temps?

thanks

 

[Rifter]

prime95 is a great way to find if its stable, if you can run prime95 for 12-24 hours and it doesnt crash, or get over 85c then you are fine.

 

[fluffmonster]

And what magic happens at 1.2v? If my processor runs my overclock at 1.0v I don't think I would stop at 1.2v

simplicity, nothing more. OP is obv a new learner at this so advising rigorous voltage minimization seemed a little premature to me.

 

[miahallen]

Hey Chronictee....a lot of good questions...most of which I think I've addresses in my new OCing guide (linked in my sig).

Tempuratures will be pushed highest with a stress testing program like Prime95 as Rifterut mentioned, or IntelBurnTest even a bit higher.

Nothing you do day to day should ever reach similar levels, so most people consider your temps under control if you can run these tests and maintain the desired level.