Thanks all! 4ghz stable i7-920

[klocwerk]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone at Anandtech in the various forums.

I rebuilt the core of my rig for the first time in about 4 years, came back to the forums after a long time away and found that it's still one of the best places to get a wide range of info for rig building.

Ended up with:
Asrock x58 Extreme - newegg open box, $118
Intel core i7-920 - microcenter $199
GSkill 3x2gb 1600 RAM - newegg $160ish
Megahalems cooler - newegg $70

Hitting Prime95 stable 4ghz (1.29v) with a quad on quiet air cooling - $547

I'm a happy camper.
Thanks again to all for tips, tricks, and advice.
My SSD should be here today and I can get cranking on the OS/software side of things, so I'll likely fade into the background of contented users soon.

See you again when this rig gets old and slow in 3-4 years.

 

[SunnyD]

Gratz.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Nice. Next stop... 980 CPU's @ 5.5Ghz!

 

[alyarb]

wow, on an open box mobo. what a relief eh?

 

[klocwerk]

wow, on an open box mobo. what a relief eh?

You're tellin' me.
That gamble totally paid off.

 

[Anubis]

nice, waiting for my 920 to actually get here, heres hoping i have similar success

 

[Markfw]

You're tellin' me.
That gamble totally paid off.

Not much of a gamble. Gillbot and I both have those same open box mobos, and no problems. They even came with all accessories...I think we told him that while he was deciding.

 

[klocwerk]

Not much of a gamble. Gillbot and I both have those same open box mobos, and no problems. They even came with all accessories...I think we told him that while he was deciding.

Indeed, and it was a positive factor in my decision to give it a shot.
Still a gamble though, as they specifically state that you may just get a bare board.

 

[Anubis]

Whats are the rest of your Settings on that OC cause i'm curious

 

[klocwerk]

Whats are the rest of your Settings on that OC cause i'm curious

No clue as to most of it. I think I saved it as a user preset... can check tonight.
RAM was at it's rated 1600 9-9-9-24. I think most of the rest was on auto. Had speedstepping/HT/etc. turned off.

Didn't try higher, just wanted to see if I could get a stable 4.0ghz. I have a nexus 120mm fan undervolted on the megahalems, so when it leveled out at 70C i didn't want to push it further since I'm too lazy to dig out a higher airflow fan.

If I get ambitious later I'll underclock the ram and unclock and see how far I can push just the CPU, but I doubt I'll bother. Just wanna get back to using my desktop. Heh.

 

[M0RPH]

Congrats... but by overclocking that high you're really just burning power excessively for very diminishing returns.

Overclocking Core i7: Power Versus Performance

We wanted to know how far users should overclock a modern Core i7 system before the main disadvantage of overclocking—high power consumption and processor overheating—would outweigh the benefits of higher performance, by reducing the performance per watt results. What we found was not too surprising.

Hardcore Overclocking is Not Practical

The 4.0 GHz setting came out as pretty much useless for anyone who remotely cares about heat dissipation and especially power consumption. Efficiency, measured in performance per watt-hour as used in the PCMark Vantage benchmark, even decreased by 17%, while all other overclocks increased in power efficiency. The benchmark required 50% more total and also average power than the 2.66 GHz default speed. The 95% increase in peak power would still appear somewhat acceptable for enthusiasts, but the 36% increase when idle is not, as this is the minimum power the system will require at any time it is running.

Stay Reasonable for Best Results

In the case of the Core i7 920, the best setting was 3.66 GHz—at this level, the CPU delivered a massive performance boost when compared to the 2.66 GHz stock speed, while still not introducing excessive power consumption.

EDIT: Looks like they had to use 1.5V to get their 4GHz overclock so I guess this doesn't apply to you.

 

[klocwerk]

Congrats... but by overclocking that high you're really just burning power excessively for very diminishing returns.

Overclocking Core i7: Power Versus Performance

Note my sig.
4ghz was just to see if I could. =P

 

[alyarb]

that article from tom's is over a year old. they're using C-step silicon at 1.5 volts to get through their high-freq tests. none of the OCs they showed were 24/7 worthy and the power consumption data they showed are not representative of the low-voltage overclocks people are getting today.

4 GHz at 1.29 vcc is perfectly safe for 24/7 usage and nehalem-generation EIST ensures efficient idle consumption. Under a full CPU load this machine at 1.29v will consume less power than the 3.8 GHz (1.336v) i7 at tomshardware. i wouldn't worry about running your chip, if you really wanted, at 4 GHz. The only important thing to take away from the article at toms is that your chip does require excessive power as you approach its frequency limit. If you can do 4 GHz at 1.29, perhaps you can do 3.8 GHz at 1.25 or less; it's worth looking into.

 

[Thor86]

Hyperthread on? Max temps measured with Coretemp, using P95 LargeFFT testing for max heat?

 

[Rubycon]

Hyperthread on? Max temps measured with Coretemp, using P95 LargeFFT testing for max heat?

Actually if you want max heat use LinX with as large a problem size as your free memory permits. Set to run for 300 minutes.

 

[Axon]

I resolved my RAM issue (to an extent) and keep my ASROCK Extreme and 920 at 3.466 @ 1.18v. 100% stable with everything I've thrown at it. Temps at 46c idle and 65c load, sometimes a bit higher, but never past 70. Will post all settings tonight.

 

[Markfw]

I resolved my RAM issue (to an extent) and keep my ASROCK Extreme and 920 at 3.466 @ 1.18v. 100% stable with everything I've thrown at it. Temps at 46c idle and 65c load, sometimes a bit higher, but never past 70. Will post all settings tonight.

I am at 1.3 vcore, but never over 59c full load with HT on.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Welcome to the >= 4GHz club bro
Here's mine (1.052 Vcore after a little droopage) :

 

[M0RPH]

Welcome to the >= 4GHz club bro
Here's mine (1.052 Vcore after a little droopage) :

Isn't that LESS than the default voltage? How the heck did you do that?

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Isn't that LESS than the default voltage? How the heck did you do that?

*shrugs* My stock voltage (as auto-detected in BIOS) was ~0.99V. Also don't forget that 1.052V is with some Vdroop, even with LLC enabled.

 

[Axon]

I am at 1.3 vcore, but never over 59c full load with HT on.

Every single chip I've had for the past 5 years has been hotter in comparison to other users. I think it's a combination of two factors: (1) my apartment is brutally hot (I live in a co-op littered with old folks who demand 75+ degrees F even in Spring and Fall) and (2) that I'm simply not that pro at air flow in casing. I'm not a tard, I can make wires flush and such, but I've never bothered putting in more than 1 additional fan or whatever.

Anyway, here are my BIOS settings. Please feel free to offer any additional advice, or utilize them if you're new to OCing and looking for some detailed guidance. YMMV of course, and oh, if you see this post? UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU PAIR THE OCZ OCZ3G1600LV6GK WITH THE ASROCK EXTREME X58. Ty

3.446 w/ OCZ "Gold" DDR3 1600 MHZ (lies!) OCZ3G1600LV6GK

BCLK Frequency (MHz) [165]
PCIE Frequency (MHz) [105] (Increases stability for this build, I don't know why)
Boot Failure Guard [Enabled]
Spread Spectrum [Disabled]

CPU Ratio [21]
DRAM Freqency [666MHz (DDR3 1333)]
I can't recall Uncore or QPI off the top of my head

▶DRAM Timing Control [8-8-8-24 CR-1T] (Sometimes I have to loosen the timings)

ASRock Vdrop Control [Without Vdrop]
CPU Voltage [Manual]
Voltage Value [1.18V]
DRAM Voltage [1.654V]
IOH Voltage [Auto]
VTT Voltage [1.340V]
ICH Voltage [Auto]
IOH CSI Voltage [Auto]
IOH/ICH PCIE Voltage [Auto]
CPU PLL Voltage [1.88V]


CPU Settings

CPU Ratio [21]
Enhanced Halt State [Disabled]
Intel Virutalization Tech[Disabled]
CPU Thermal Throttling [Disabled]
No-Exeute Memory Protection [Disabled]
Hyper Threading Technology [Disabled]
Active Processor Cores [ALL]

3.6 OC with 4 GB Gskill RAM

BCLK Frequency (MHz) [180]
PCIE Frequency (MHz) [100]
Boot Failure Guard [Enabled]
Spread Spectrum [Disabled]

CPU Ratio [20]
Uncore Freq. [6.480 GT]
QPI Freq. [2880 Mhz]
DRAM Freqency [720MHz (DDR3 1440)]
I can't recall Uncore or QPI off the top of my head

▶DRAM Timing Control [8-8-8-24-88 CR-1T]

ASRock Vdrop Control [Without Vdrop]
CPU Voltage [Manual]
Voltage Value [1.21V]
DRAM Voltage [1.654V]
IOH Voltage [Auto]
VTT Voltage [1.350V]
ICH Voltage [Auto]
IOH CSI Voltage [Auto]
IOH/ICH PCIE Voltage [Auto]
CPU PLL Voltage [1.88V]


CPU Settings

CPU Ratio [21]
Enhanced Halt State [Disabled]
Intel Virutalization Tech[Disabled]
CPU Thermal Throttling [Disabled]
No-Exeute Memory Protection [Disabled]
Hyper Threading Technology [Disabled]
Active Processor Cores [ALL]

 

[Markfw]

Maybe because I have a megahalem cooler on it ? What do you use to cool yours ?

 

[Axon]

Maybe because I have a megahalem cooler on it ? What do you use to cool yours ?

Megahalem

It's funny - I RMAed my first Extreme because of an irritating reboot loop (I realize now it was the RAM, or at least almost certainly so), and that board listed the same chip's temps under the same cooler as 39c idle (lower than current) and 70c load (higher than current). Maybe I have bad sensors?