My Core i7 920 Overclocking Experience

[palladium]

^ Ran fine ( everything at stock), but had to disable Windows Audio Service.

Going to try OC now...

Interestingly, I keep failing the validation test on super pi's website.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: palladium

BTW Dadofamunky, do you mind doing me a small favor? Can you try running super pi 32M (on vista 64) to see if it will work? Thanks

EDIT: Really sorry OP for hijacking your tread.

Will be happy to do so as soon as I get the repairs done (I have to do a motherboard replacement GRRRR! :disgust🙂

 

[palladium]

OCed to 145*21 ( 3.05GHz), 1.152V, running prime for 9 hours so far without problems ( sometime around noon the temp got up to 75, but after improving ventilation it managed to settle at 72. I don't think 75 is hot enough to damage the chip, though) . However, Super pi 32M still crashes if Windows Audio is not disabled.

 

[Duvie]

wow the stock cooler really sucks!!!!

I assume the tjunction is 100c on these chips?

Unless you are happy with 3ghz I would expect your ocing is over...get a better cooler....

 

[palladium]

yep, stock cooler is hopeless. Aftermarket coolers are still out of stock in NZ, looks like they won't be in till after xmas. Coming from a 2.8GHz Prescott, I am VERY happy with 3GHz ( though more wouldn't hurt I guess). The whole system is still snappy even with 8 threads of prime running.

 

[Duvie]

I imagine so....what are you looking at for aftermarket coolers?

 

[palladium]

Probably the one OP is using, or Thermalright 120 - haven't really researched it yet. My GB board doesn't like big coolers, so it has to be at most the size of the stock cooler. Any recommendations?

 

[Duvie]

well I am not versed on i7 motherboard layouts but I assumed the TRUE120 would fit....I would couple that with an 120mm antec tricool.....

 

[palladium]

sounds good. I have an Antec 900 case so I guess I have enough fans...

I'm worried about my board though... not sure if it can take 1.35V QPI and IOH ( stock is only 1.2V for both of them). Mine is a GA-EX58-DS4.

 

[ayabe]

Been lurking in this thread for a while just wanted to chime in with my results.

These are at stock clocks on my 920.

I got one of these in the mail yesterday - TRUE-120 1366.

With the stock cooler I was idling around 42C and Prime would push me into the 70's after an hour.

With the TRUE/IC7 I'm idling around 30-31C and Prime never broke 45C lastnight after running 4-5 hours.

I'm pretty impressed with this cooler and it's dead silent.

I'll be trying some overclocking over the holiday weekend and will post my results here, I think 3.6 is definitely within reach.

Here's the rest of my rig:

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5
Corsair 6GB
EVGA 260GTX
Antec 850 Signature
Lian Li PC-A7110B
2x750 WD Black HD's

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: palladium

Yeah thought so too. Will do it tonight. So, I take it that low voltage will not damage your CPU?

No, absolutely not. I cannot think of a single scenario where undervolting a CPU would damage it. Now. remember that your OC will be limited by the undervolting. I would run it at stock, myself, but if you're stuck with the stock cooler for right now then it makes sense to undervolt. However. you're doing very well (as is the OP). It's fun to see people playing around with these new rigs.

Once I've got my box out of the ICU and fully brought up again I'll be running the full test suite. It's the same exact motherboard, just a much newer one. Love the E8600, it's fast as snot, especially OCed. In the synthetic SpecPerf2007 it's still one of the fastest CPUs in existence. I have hopes many of my OC issues will go away. Such as, not being able to run my memory at DDR2-1000 speeds. A new Northbridge HSF will probably help. I have my work cut out for me this coming holiday weekend.