Over-clocking an I7

[daw123]

Hello guys and grils,

I'm dabbling in over-clocking my I7 950. I've read quite a few guides, but the voltage people use vary dramatically.

Here's the general spec for my rig:

• I7 950
  GA-EX58-Extreme
  6x 2GB Corsair XMS3 DIMMs 9-9-9-24

I've flashed the BIOS to version F7 whereby D0 I7's are supported (using the previous F4 was a waste of time with a D0).

My question is what is the maximum voltages in BIOS, you guys are willing to use for:

• CPU VCore (I figure 1.38 - 1.4V)
  QPI/VTT (I know this has to be within 0.5 Volts of DRAM Voltage, so the max will be 1.6V for my DRAM Voltage)
  IOH Core
  DRAM Voltage (1.6V for my RAM running at spec speeds)

My next question is what do you enable / disable in BIOS?

I reckon from what I've read that (and correct me if I'm wrong):

• QPI Link Speed: X36
  BCLK Frequency: (hopefully 200MHz)
  Uncore Frequencyr: x16 (2x DRAM multiplier or depending on what you read, 2x DRAM multiplier +1)
  System Multplier: x8 (= 1600MHz RAM speed)
  PCI Frequency: 100MHz

Do you guys disable:

• Turbo
  CPU Multi-threading (or H.T.)
  C1E (power saving option)
  C3/C6/C7 State Support (power saving option)
  Thermal Monitor (everywhere I've read this has been disabled, but I thought this was a bad idea??)
  EIST Function (power saving)
  Virtual Tech. (I don't know what this is)
  Bi-Directional PROCHOT (I don't know what this is)
  C.I.A.2 (Gigabyte's own Turbo-type doo-hickey)
  Loadline calibration (enabled = inputting manual VDroop)

And leave the following enabled:

• Isochronous Frequency

I think that's everything guys. I know different MB manufacturer's BIOS will call the same thing by different names.

I only want my CPU to last 2-3 years (and I know you can't say at X VCore over the Intel spec, the CPU will last Y years).

Thanks,

daw123

Edit: A call-out to Aigo; you've over-clocked quite a few of these suckers; what the heck do you use? Or what is your methodology?

 

[daw123]

Any one?

 

[Shmee]

I have a UD5, I can help

First, lets consider HT. HT will limit extreme overclocks. Turn it off, and it should go higher. So, would you rather have lower clock speeds and 8 threads, or 4 threads and higher clocks? I turned it off, as I mostly game, and it seems most games actually due worse with HT on.

Turbo you can leave off or on, but it may effect stability at high OC's. I turn off power saving features. Leave VT on, you need it for virtual machines, such as winxp mode in win7. I try to improve vdroop with LLC, but the board still droops a bit anyways, one of the few downsides of the UD5.

Also, what is the multiplier on the 950? I would leave it at highest without Turbo, and up BCLK bits at a time, while stress testing. 200 may be too high to start with. Also what is your cooling?

And you shoulnt need more than 1.35 V on a D0 until well above 4 GHz. Start at a good safe point, MB 1.3, and up as needed if you get failures or BSOD's. At you may also need to up QpiVTT for uncore and QPI and Ram stability, plus, you have 6 sticks.

I have no idea what the CIA2 is, MB not on the UD5.

So, for finer tuning, and actual voltage recomendations, I would still need to know what cooling and what is your 'goal'?

Anyways, take it bits at a time, working and tweaking. Good Luck!

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: Shmee
I have a UD5, I can help

First, lets consider HT. HT will limit extreme overclocks. Turn it off, and it should go higher. So, would you rather have lower clock speeds and 8 threads, or 4 threads and higher clocks? I turned it off, as I mostly game, and it seems most games actually due worse with HT on.

Turbo you can leave off or on, but it may effect stability at high OC's. I turn off power saving features. Leave VT on, you need it for virtual machines, such as winxp mode in win7. I try to improve vdroop with LLC, but the board still droops a bit anyways, one of the few downsides of the UD5.

Also, what is the multiplier on the 950? I would leave it at highest without Turbo, and up BCLK bits at a time, while stress testing. 200 may be too high to start with. Also what is your cooling?

And you shoulnt need more than 1.35 V on a D0 until well above 4 GHz. Start at a good safe point, MB 1.3, and up as needed if you get failures or BSOD's. At you may also need to up QpiVTT for uncore and QPI and Ram stability, plus, you have 6 sticks.

I have no idea what the CIA2 is, MB not on the UD5.

So, for finer tuning, and actual voltage recomendations, I would still need to know what cooling and what is your 'goal'?

Anyways, take it bits at a time, working and tweaking. Good Luck!

Thanks for the response.

My goal is to go as high as I can whilst still being within 'reasonable' voltages (I'm willing to go a little above Intel specs). If I can hit 4.4GHz ish with 1.4V VCore in BIOS, I'll be really happy (I'm not sure if this is feasable though).

My CPU is water-cooled. These are the specs for the W.C. loop are:
MCR320 Rad with 3x Yate Loon high speed fans
EK Supreme water block
MCP355 pump with XSPC res and top
1/2" ID tubing

The 950 has a CPU multiplier of 23x (or 24x with Turbo on).

Oh and my second HD4870 X2 turned up the other day, so I will be going Quad-fire. I'm not sure how this affects the voltages (I believe it affects IOH and few others).

 

[Shmee]

Don't put money on it, but you may be able to hit 4.5 with < 1.4 V, since you have a good D0 chip. It is really the C0's, like mine, that have trouble getting over 3.8-4 Ghz, and need more voltage. So, for starters, I would say 23x, turbo off, HT off. BCLK: 180-190 for starters. Vcore: 1.3-1.375, (may be able to lower later, or increase for stability at higher speeds.) QPI VTT: 1.3-1.36. If you get bsod's not related to cores, you may have to go a bit higher. Also, you can try lowering it later. I believe 1.35 is intel max spec, but my C0 requires about 1.4 @200x19.

So, start with said voltages, BCLK say, 185, use linx, if stable, up BCLK, and repeat. If not stable, up related voltages at discretion, or back down.

 

[daw123]

Thanks.

What BIOS revision are you using?

 

[Shmee]

F6 I believe. Keep in mind I have the UD5 and a 920 C0.

 

[imported_Shaq]

A 950 will be nice to OC with that 23 multi. Most chips reach a QPI or motherboard limit having to run a high BCLK but you will be under 200. Most motherboard BIOS's actually unlock the extra turbo multi so it is on all the time and is a true 1x multiplier that way. But since you probably won't need it I would leave it off. Try 22 multi at 200 BCLK and 8x memory. I would start at 4.0 and test 20 LinX passes at a time and keep going up as long as it passes. Keep an eye on temps and try not to exceed 85C when stability testing ....100C is TJMax. Add CPU or QPI if it fails and make sure you set RAM to 6X when testing for max CPU frequency. 1.55 is max voltage spec so you won't even get close to that unless you switch to DICE or LN2 cooling and do suicide benchmarking runs. 1.38 is max VID and is all you should need. 1.35 is max QPI voltage so I wouldn't run ultrafast RAM for an extra 1% speed. Try to shoot for less than 1.3v and should be doable with RAM at 1600 with BCLK at 200 with a D0. Did you OC it over the weekend? Did I miss the fun?

 

[gorgid]

Hello Daw123!!! With core i7 950 i could get 4.5 ghz stable( 23 x 196). WATERCOOLED

VOLTAGE BIOS CPU 1.47 UNDER THE LOAD 1.38 CORES DON'T HEAT MORE THEN 80C UNDER THE LOAD PRIME 95 40MIN

VVT/QPI VOLTAGE 1.48 V DO NOT USE 1.6 SETTING. YOU WILL BURN YOUR MEMORY.
I BURN CORSAIR SET ( ONE OF THE MODULES GOT FAULTY, SENT IT BACK) WHEN YOUR VVT/QPI IS TO HIGH YOU CAN SEE SOMETIMES THAT YOUR BIOS SEE JUST 4GB INSTEAD OF 6GB. IF YOU SEE THAT CONSIDER IT AS A WARNING SIGN.

SET PCI FREQ TO 105 MHZ

DDR VOLTAGE 1.65V IF YOU WANT TO OVERCLOCK IT YOU CAN USE IT UP TO 1.7V
I PREFER TO USE LOW MEMORY FREQUENCY WITH LOW LATTENCY SETTINGS
ALL OTHER VOLTAGE DEFAULT. YOU CAN GIVE IOH (NORHBRIDGE) LITTLE MORE (1.25V)

TO BE HONEST WITH YOU I WASN'T HAPPY WITH CORE I7 950 I SOLD IT OUT. WAS EXPECTING ~ 4.6-4.7

I HAVE CORE I7 920 D0 STEPPING 4452 MHZ 21 X 215 WORKING STABLE THE SAME VOLTAGES. IT COST $250 LESS.

MY HARDWARE IS:
ASUS RAMPAGE 2 EXTREME CORE I7 920 DO 4452 GHZ, CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB GT 1866GHZ 7-8-7-20 , VIDEO ATI 4870 X 2, RAID0 RAPTORS X 300GB , COOLER MASTER PWS 1250W

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: gorgid
Hello Daw123!!! With core i7 950 i could get 4.5 ghz stable( 23 x 196). WATERCOOLED

VOLTAGE BIOS CPU 1.47 UNDER THE LOAD 1.38 CORES DON'T HEAT MORE THEN 80C UNDER THE LOAD PRIME 95 40MIN

VVT/QPI VOLTAGE 1.48 V DO NOT USE 1.6 SETTING. YOU WILL BURN YOUR MEMORY.
I BURN CORSAIR SET ( ONE OF THE MODULES GOT FAULTY, SENT IT BACK) WHEN YOUR VVT/QPI IS TO HIGH YOU CAN SEE SOMETIMES THAT YOUR BIOS SEE JUST 4GB INSTEAD OF 6GB. IF YOU SEE THAT CONSIDER IT AS A WARNING SIGN.

SET PCI FREQ TO 105 MHZ

DDR VOLTAGE 1.65V IF YOU WANT TO OVERCLOCK IT YOU CAN USE IT UP TO 1.7V
I PREFER TO USE LOW MEMORY FREQUENCY WITH LOW LATTENCY SETTINGS
ALL OTHER VOLTAGE DEFAULT. YOU CAN GIVE IOH (NORHBRIDGE) LITTLE MORE (1.25V)

TO BE HONEST WITH YOU I WASN'T HAPPY WITH CORE I7 950 I SOLD IT OUT. WAS EXPECTING ~ 4.6-4.7

I HAVE CORE I7 920 D0 STEPPING 4452 MHZ 21 X 215 WORKING STABLE THE SAME VOLTAGES. IT COST $250 LESS.

MY HARDWARE IS:
ASUS RAMPAGE 2 EXTREME CORE I7 920 DO 4452 GHZ, CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB GT 1866GHZ 7-8-7-20 , VIDEO ATI 4870 X 2, RAID0 RAPTORS X 300GB , COOLER MASTER PWS 1250W

Thanks for the reply.

I thought the max. 'safe' Vcore was around 1.4V in BIOS? What do you use to test stability?

I'm replacing the standard Lian li case fans with Yate Loon high speed fans. I'm also adding three more Yate Loon fans to the rad for a push-pull config. This should improve temps a bit.

 

[imported_Shaq]

1.55v is max vcore. 1.4 is completely safe. 1.38 is max VID so some of the CPUs (C0's for sure) will be stock at 1.38v. Mine is 1.2875v stock. I wouldn't go over 1.3v QPI/VTT if you will be running this rig for 2 years or more though....1.35v is max.

 

[daw123]

I think one of my RAM DIMMs could be different to the other five:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2313341&enterthread=y

 

[gorgid]

I'M USING PRIME95 FOR WIN 64BIT! 45 MIN RUN.
3DMARK 2006+ VANTAGE SEVERAL TIMES IN A ROW. GAMING....
I'M ON THIS SETTINGS ALMOST A MONTH NEVER HAD A BSOD.
TEMPS ARE FINE AS WELL CORES AROUND 50C IDLE AND AROUND 80 LOAD (KOOLANCE WATER SET UP) IT'S COOLING CPU, VGA CARD(LOAD 45C),NORTH+SOUTH BRIDGE ( LOAD 42C)

YOU HAVE TO REALLY SPEND TIME WITH THAT. YOU CAN NOT GET STABLE SYSTEM RIGHT AWAY. I NEED ABOUT A WEEK 2 HOURS A DAY.( ABOUT 14 HOURS) TO GET GREAT AND STABLE RESULTS.

YOUR CORE7 950 IS D0 STEPPING. YOU WILL GET YOUR 4.4GHZ FOR SURE.

DON'T WORRY ABOUT YOUR MEMORY SCALING . YOU HAVE 12 GIG. FIRST SECURE YOUR MAX CPU STABLE SPEED.

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: gorgid
I'M USING PRIME95 FOR WIN 64BIT! 45 MIN RUN.
3DMARK 2006+ VANTAGE SEVERAL TIMES IN A ROW. GAMING....
I'M ON THIS SETTINGS ALMOST A MONTH NEVER HAD A BSOD.
TEMPS ARE FINE AS WELL CORES AROUND 50C IDLE AND AROUND 80 LOAD (KOOLANCE WATER SET UP) IT'S COOLING CPU, VGA CARD(LOAD 45C),NORTH+SOUTH BRIDGE ( LOAD 42C)

YOU HAVE TO REALLY SPEND TIME WITH THAT. YOU CAN NOT GET STABLE SYSTEM RIGHT AWAY. I NEED ABOUT A WEEK 2 HOURS A DAY.( ABOUT 14 HOURS) TO GET GREAT AND STABLE RESULTS.

YOUR CORE7 950 IS D0 STEPPING. YOU WILL GET YOUR 4.4GHZ FOR SURE.

DON'T WORRY ABOUT YOUR MEMORY SCALING . YOU HAVE 12 GIG. FIRST SECURE YOUR MAX CPU STABLE SPEED.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm going to have to RMA my RAM. I've ordered some 3GB OCZ 1333MHz RAM tide me over during the RMA procress.

So the over-clocking is going have to wait for a week.

 

[imported_Shaq]

I didn't see that you had 12GB of ram. To get 4.4 you will have to exceed the max on QPI to get 1600 unless you use 23x with turbo. It takes a lot of voltage to stabilize 12GB when OC'd as it is very stressful on the memory controller. At 200 BCLK your QPI is at 3600 and most won't get 4000 stable at sky high qpi voltages. I would suggest 24x(23x with turbo)X183 BCLK X8 memory (1464). You won't get that psychological boost that 1600 gives but you won't notice the difference in speed and your QPI can be kept within max specs. My .02.

 

[terentenet]

I am also in the process of overclocking my i7 D0 chip. I am overclocking with HT on and Turbo off. My system is preety loaded, so my overclock will not be comparable with others. I run 12Gb ram at 1600 8-8-8-24, 3 gtx285's in SLI, 2 SSDs in RAID0, other 4 HDDs in RAID0, optical on the JMicron controller. Everything is watercooled.
I am currently 24h Prime95 stable on all 8 cores at 4GHz with these settings and voltages:
BCLK: 200
CPU Multi: 20x
DRAM Multi: 8x
Uncore: 16x
QPI: 7200MT/s
CPU Vcore: 1.26v
CPU pll: 1.84v
QPI DRAM: 1.35v
RAM: 1.65v
PCIe @ 100MHz
NB: 1.179v
SB: 1.53v

I am currently running Prime95 Blend on all 8 cores together with Furmark on all 3 video cards, for maximum load on the PSU and system (system running in the office, 12h with air conditioning on, 12h off). I want to get that 24h stable as well before I move forward. My temperatures, when the A/C is off, with a 30-32 degrees (86-90F) ambient are 65 (149F) tops on the CPU and 55 (131F) tops on the GPU. I still have some headroom left. I will try to push as high as 4.4GHz with HT on.

 

[deputc26]

Dang terentenet! what are you running on that? and what PSU are you using? depending on your cooling 4.4 should be fully doable.

Edit: I see your on water, why not go for 4.5? actually I guess it depends on whether or not you have the 3 285s on the same cooling loop.

 

[gorgid]

Originally posted by: terentenet
I am also in the process of overclocking my i7 D0 chip. I am overclocking with HT on and Turbo off. My system is preety loaded, so my overclock will not be comparable with others. I run 12Gb ram at 1600 8-8-8-24, 3 gtx285's in SLI, 2 SSDs in RAID0, other 4 HDDs in RAID0, optical on the JMicron controller. Everything is watercooled.
I am currently 24h Prime95 stable on all 8 cores at 4GHz with these settings and voltages:
BCLK: 200
CPU Multi: 20x
DRAM Multi: 8x
Uncore: 16x
QPI: 7200MT/s
CPU Vcore: 1.26v
CPU pll: 1.84v
QPI DRAM: 1.35v
RAM: 1.65v
PCIe @ 100MHz
NB: 1.179v
SB: 1.53v

I am currently running Prime95 Blend on all 8 cores together with Furmark on all 3 video cards, for maximum load on the PSU and system (system running in the office, 12h with air conditioning on, 12h off). I want to get that 24h stable as well before I move forward. My temperatures, when the A/C is off, with a 30-32 degrees (86-90F) ambient are 65 (149F) tops on the CPU and 55 (131F) tops on the GPU. I still have some headroom left. I will try to push as high as 4.4GHz with HT on.

24H STABLE? DOES IT MAKE DIFFERENCE IF YOU WILL HAVE BSOD IN 10-20 HOURS?

WITH THIS REQUIREMENTS IT WILL TAKE A YEAR TO GET MAXIMUM RESULTS. YOU ARE PROBABLY NOT RAN THE SERVER ON YOUR SET UP. MOST LIKELY YOU ARE USING IT FOR GAMING BENCHING AND CASUAL USE.
I WOULD TWEAK IT TILL POSSIBLE MAXIMUM. THEN WOULD RAN PRIME 95 FOR AN HOUR. THEN WOULD BENCH HELL OUT OF IT FOR SEVERAL HOURS. IF I WOULD NOT HAVE BSOD AFTER THAT I WOULD CONSIDER MY SELF HAPPY MAN. BUT IT'S YOUR RIG AND YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH IT. I JUST CAN SAY GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR RESULTS.

 

[terentenet]

My rig is mostly for show... I will try 4.4 or even 4.5, but I want that with HT on. Not that I use HT, but since it's there, I might as well keep it on. I have a water cooling setup, with 3 loops. My PSU is Enermax Revolution 1250W. I originally started with a Thermaltake 1500W unit, but exchanged it due to having the cold boot issue with the Rampage II Extreme board. I traced the issue down to the PSU. Exchanged the unit, problem is gone.

I will present my watercooling setup. It may look huge, but it's built with noise in mind... so I opted for low speed fans. Here are some pictures of my rig: http://www.mypicx.com/06202009/i7_975ee/
1 pic of it under my desk... finalized: http://www.mypicx.com/06262009/final/

The loops are configured as follows.

CPU loop (2 x TFC 480 rads, 3 DDC Ultra pumps in series): RES -> Ultra DDC EK X-Top V2 -> Dual Ultra DDC pumps with Watercool Dual top -> TFC 480 -> TFC 480 -> Koolance 350 CPU block -> RES

GPU loop (2 x TFC 480 rads, 2 DDC Ultra pumps in series): RES -> Dual Ultra DDC pumps with Watercool Dual top -> TFC 480 -> TFC 480 -> GPU1 -> GPU2 -> GPU3 -> RES

MB & HDD loop (1 x HWLabs GTX480, 2 DDC Ultra pumps in series): RES -> Dual Ultra DDC pumps with Watercool Dual top -> HWLabs GTX480 -> MOSFET1 -> MOSFET2 -> SB&NB -> HDD1 -> HDD2 -> HDD3 -> HDD4 -> RES

So, there's a total of 5 480 rads, 20 Noctua fans on the rads, 1 fan on the system, 2 60mm fans on the memory. 7 Laing DDC Ultra pumps. The system is very quiet... whisper quiet. I couldn't be happier.

 

[Bullmecha]

Guess I will have to follow this thread as well. Moving to water cooled system soon so I will need the settings input =D

 

[daw123]

Well I have had a stab at O/Cing this chip. Can't get it stable and I'm bored now. I'll try again later, perhaps tomorrow.

Here's the stock and o/c settings in BIOS:
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...ilson123/Untitled2.jpg

I've created a table to monitor what settings I've used (specifically CPU Vcore and QPI / VTT Voltage).
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...lson123/Untitled-1.jpg

This is with BCLK set to 190MHz (CPU Frequency = 4,370MHz).

With HT on, I cannot get the bastard to post.

Any ideas what to try next?

Temps seem to be ok; for the short time I was able to run Prime / OCCT the max temps under full load were only 60C (using CoreTemp). Even if it increases by another 10C under load, I'll be happy.

I've returned the BIOS settings to stock (the save / load profiles in the BIOS is useful).

It's also useful having the reset CMOS button on the rear of the case.

Edit: Re-read Shaq's post and I will try it with Turbo mode on and a lower BCLK multiplier. I'm still open to suggestions.

 

[daw123]

Bump. Anybody?