i7 920 overclocking thread

[gooddog]

Originally Posted by {core2duo}werd

it varies from chip to chip,

I think that is a very important point.

Intel has specs for the "minimum" chip. Some chips are golden and can do a lot more with better stability and no degradation.

People should know at least what Intel recommends and then make their own decisions about whether or not to exceed that.

[{core2duo}werd]

Originally Posted by gooddog

I think that is a very important point.

Intel has specs for the "minimum" chip. Some chips are golden and can do a lot more with better stability and no degradation.

People should know at least what Intel recommends and then make their own decisions about whether or not to exceed that.

exactly

[VulcanDragon]

Man, I must have the worst chip and/or motherboard available, or I am doing something wrong. I absolutely cannot get to the speeds you guys are getting at the low voltages you're using (at all, really). My only stable run so far has been 180 x 20 = 3.6...pretty weak when you read everywhere that it's a cakewalk to get these to 3.8.


Here's what I've set, and only what I've set on my 180x20 run. Someone please tell me if I'm not setting something that I need to to make this work correctly:

• SpeedStep: I tried both ways, on and off; didn't seem to make a difference. I let Prime run for 3 hours with it off and close to 1 hour with it on.
• Turbo: Off, obviously to get the 20 multi.
• BCLK: 180, obviously
• DIMM speed: Set to the lowest speed under my RAM's rated speed (1333)...CPU-Z is reporting it at 543 MHz, so that's DDR3-1086 I suppose.
• CPU voltage: 1.275
• PLL voltage: 1.9 (based on recommendations I've seen, not because I have a clue what this is)
• QPI voltage: 1.275
• DRAM voltage: 1.64 (I question whether I need this, the RAM is rated at DDR3-1333 at 1.5v)
• ACPI 2 enabled based on a recommendation I think I saw here.

I've already tried BCLK 185 at these voltages and got a BSOD...argh. I'm about to start inching up the BCLK one at a time to see what my ceiling is at 1.275v. But I'm just discouraged that I see people killing 3.8+ GHz speeds at apparently less voltage than what I'm currently sending in! Am I overlooking something in my settings?

[dynoman101]

I got my i7 920 build about a week ago, and now that the holiday season is passing I finding more time for my rig. I was somewhat able to overclock the 775 processors, but when it comes to i7, I am not that comfortable. I still have the intel stock heatsink and want to know what overclock I can get with the stock voltage so I dont get higher temps. Also what settings would I have to change to get there? I am reading a lot threads talking about people raising their qpi and qpi voltages, and others overclocking their memory. When it comes to i7 what ratio do you want to keep? Sorry if these questions sound noobish but it cost me a lot to get this rig and dont want to screw things up

[error10]

Originally Posted by VulcanDragon

I've already tried BCLK 185 at these voltages and got a BSOD...argh. I'm about to start inching up the BCLK one at a time to see what my ceiling is at 1.275v. But I'm just discouraged that I see people killing 3.8+ GHz speeds at apparently less voltage than what I'm currently sending in! Am I overlooking something in my settings?

Give the core a bit more voltage. 1.275 is still kind of conservative.

[eflyguy]

1.275 is pretty low, don't be afraid to nudge it up as high as 1.35, just watch the temps. I'm certain you can boot and get it stable just by increasing vcore..
..a

[bulmung]

Originally Posted by VulcanDragon

Man, I must have the worst chip and/or motherboard available, or I am doing something wrong. I absolutely cannot get to the speeds you guys are getting at the low voltages you're using (at all, really). My only stable run so far has been 180 x 20 = 3.6...pretty weak when you read everywhere that it's a cakewalk to get these to 3.8.


Here's what I've set, and only what I've set on my 180x20 run. Someone please tell me if I'm not setting something that I need to to make this work correctly:

• SpeedStep: I tried both ways, on and off; didn't seem to make a difference. I let Prime run for 3 hours with it off and close to 1 hour with it on.
• Turbo: Off, obviously to get the 20 multi.
• BCLK: 180, obviously
• DIMM speed: Set to the lowest speed under my RAM's rated speed (1333)...CPU-Z is reporting it at 543 MHz, so that's DDR3-1086 I suppose.
• CPU voltage: 1.275
• PLL voltage: 1.9 (based on recommendations I've seen, not because I have a clue what this is)
• QPI voltage: 1.275
• DRAM voltage: 1.64 (I question whether I need this, the RAM is rated at DDR3-1333 at 1.5v)
• ACPI 2 enabled based on a recommendation I think I saw here.

I've already tried BCLK 185 at these voltages and got a BSOD...argh. I'm about to start inching up the BCLK one at a time to see what my ceiling is at 1.275v. But I'm just discouraged that I see people killing 3.8+ GHz speeds at apparently less voltage than what I'm currently sending in! Am I overlooking something in my settings?

I need 1.3-1.32 not sure atm to get 3.8ghz stable. My problem is I am afraid to go above 1.3625 to get 4ghz stable.

[gooddog]

Originally Posted by VulcanDragon

[*]QPI voltage: 1.275
[

go with 1.35 at qpi voltage.

[HardwarzFan]

Got a question for the guru's... I'm running 4ghz at 19x212 with CPU Voltage of 1.375v, is this a dangerous amount of voltage for the CPU? In the bios when I raised it the font turned red. is 1.375v CPU really that high?

[bulmung]

so the max vid intel recommends is 1.365 or something really close to that, but is that before or after vdroop? because at 1.35v in the bios my vdroop drops it down to 1.31. Would setting my vcore to say about 1.39 in the bios be safe because after vdroop it would be about 1.35?