i7 920 overclocking thread

[Wylker]

Sigh, I'm having a hell of a time working on my i7 920 on a gigabyte ex58-ud5 board. It likes to just boot loop a lot

[Extreme Newbie]

I don't think that Intel ever specified that RAM voltage couldn't exceed 1.65v. That number seems to have comes from the motherboard manufacturers.

[the$#!Za.]

Hi all.

Can someone please let me know if it's possible to overclock my 920 to a stable 3Ghz without replacing heat-sink/fan ??

Do I have to overlock my RAM if I overclock my CPU ??
Excuse my overclock knowledge.

Thanx,
the$#!Za.

[45nm]

Originally Posted by Extreme Newbie

Max temp is stated to be 100c so if you can stay between 70c and 80c (Under full load) you should be fine.
You can adjust the various threshold settings in PC Probe to stop alarms from going of when you reach 65c.

@ 3.5 under CinebenchR10 (100% full load) temps reached a maximum of about 71 degrees. I'd say that's fairly decent since I am not using aftermarket cooler.

[nebuchanezzar]

Originally Posted by Extreme Newbie

I don't think that Intel ever specified that RAM voltage couldn't exceed 1.65v. That number seems to have comes from the motherboard manufacturers.

Early on Intel did infact say that exceeding 1.65vDimm could actually kill your processor. That wasn't directly true but close. The recommended default vtt was 1.15-1.20 volts. To keep the vdimm within .5v means a theoretical maximum of 1.65-1.7 and, like always, Intel err's on the side of caution. Until we learned more about the why's that was considered a truth in and of itself. As soon as it was discovered that the damage was related to exceeding the .5v window many many users have benched/tested with much higher ram voltages.

My DFI DK X58 automatically raises my vtt to .5v under my vDimm if I raise my vDimm out range, nice little feature if you ask me

the$#!Za.

Originally Posted by the$#!Za.

Hi all.

Can someone please let me know if it's possible to overclock my 920 to a stable 3Ghz without replacing heat-sink/fan ??

You can overclock however you would like with the stock fan but you will not be happy with your temps. I recommend UNDERCLOCKING if you are staying with the stock fan....I'm 100% serious about that btw. I don't always follow my own advice and was testing many settings in the week or so it took for my water cooling equipment to all get here. In all honesty, I was able to get over 3.0Ghz with less than stock voltage but that in no way implies you or anyone else can. It still raised my temps noticeably though despite running less voltage because frequency(Ghz) also has a residual effect on your heat output.
It's your processor, don't let other people tell you what to do with it, decide yourself. Overclocking of any kind at all risks destroying your processor. If you can't afford to replace it right now why risk it? I highly doubt you need the performance and if you do, then get a real cooling option because the stock one sucks ass at best....

Originally Posted by the$#!Za.

Do I have to overlock my RAM if I overclock my CPU ??
Excuse my overclock knowledge.

No, not really. To make your life easier you will want to use a low memory multiplier and underclock your ram. To raise your CPU speed you must raise your BCLK(baseclock) which overclocks everything. In most cases you will either overclock or underclock your ram on this platform so don't expect to run exactly at whatever it is rated for. Start hitting google and read, read, read, and read some more.

[laxrunner]

Originally Posted by 45nm

@ 3.5 under CinebenchR10 (100% full load) temps reached a maximum of about 71 degrees. I'd say that's fairly decent since I am not using aftermarket cooler.

Wait, you bought a 965 and have it on the stock cooler?! You, sir are doing a grave injustice to that magnificent chip. No processor has any real OC potential on stock cooling, and at $1000 that is just painful to think about.

[Jakethesnake011]

Haha, that is great.

[Patch]

Originally Posted by nebuchanezzar

Correct me if I am wrong but, at +.320 with a default vtt of 1.20 you would be at @ 1.52 vtt voltage. That would somewhat make sense with such a high BCLK but that is a bit over 1.35. If your default is 1.10v then it would be about 1.42 which is back within my personal comfort zone. Can you check that with a multimeter or even in your bios? I'm curious what it is actually at.

I actually made it a minor project to find out my default VTT the other night and gave up. Manual, foxconn/quantum force website, Everest, google search....but now that you mention it, I never tried looking at "hardware monitoring" in my BIOS.

I'll check tonight.

I've avoided overclocking from Windows so far, but maybe I'll give it a try to see if I can break through the under 9 second barrier in Super Pi 1 mil.


On a side note, is there a convention for how to deal with Turbo when we report our clocks?

For example, people seem to use the CPUZ validation for their 24/7 clocks of 4.0 Ghz. That always shows the x21 turbo multi. But, during 2 hours of prime it generally clocks down to x20. Validation at 4.0....stability testing at 3.8ish.....

I've been reporting my 24/7 clock as 4.0 ghz based on where it runs during Prime95, but I have Turbo on and it generally runs at 4.2 most of the time (including Validation).

Does that mean I have a 4.2 ghz 24/7 clock? That would be pretty cool to claim if it's the convention.

[Wylker]

I didn't want to cross post the entire thing, but I'm looking for some help with my ex58-ud5 + ci7 920 OC in this thread:

http://www.overclock.net/intel-mothe...5-oc-help.html

[Patch]

Originally Posted by nebuchanezzar

Correct me if I am wrong but, at +.320 with a default vtt of 1.20 you would be at @ 1.52 vtt voltage. That would somewhat make sense with such a high BCLK but that is a bit over 1.35. If your default is 1.10v then it would be about 1.42 which is back within my personal comfort zone. Can you check that with a multimeter or even in your bios? I'm curious what it is actually at.

1.10v default.