Core i7 Overclocking thread

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

Are you guys using stock cooling? How efficient is stock cooling for these cpu's?

You need more than the stock cooler for 3.4ghz+.

Originally Posted by methimpikehoses

You need more than the stock cooler for 3.4ghz+.

but 3.4 is doable?

With a good chip it is doable, I think. Try it and see. I would recommend getting an after-market cooler either way.

[nekrosoft13]

i think i found the problem, guess the new PSU has issues.

will try to get a new one tomorrow.

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by sillyeagle

Noctua NH-U12P, HT off, Turbo on, 4.2GHz, 100% stable, acceptable temps. Everest tells me it's not optimized for i7, so the bandwidth results are low.

what settings do you have in bios?

[mudkip]

Hey guys,

I'm making a list of Core i7 batches so we can have a good view on which batches are good and which are bad.
Therefore I'd like your batch numbers , your highest STABLE overclock ,and your Vcore and QPI/VTT (QPI/DRAM) voltage.

E.G.

Core i7 920 #3838B153 Stable @ 1.35 Vcore , 1.32v QPI/VTT

This will also be posted on others forums. I'll keep the list up-to-date myself.

Thank you guys and don't forget to post your Core i7 batches!

[Toss3]

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

but 3.4 is doable?

Depends on how much voltage is needed, but the stock coolers are much better than the last generation's.

[Ninjaman09]

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

but 3.4 is doable?

I'm using a Zalman CNPS9700 and seeing Prime95 small fft temps of about 80C or so after 30 minutes at stock voltage (1.24) and 3.36 GHz (160x21). I've read that these chips start to lose stability at around 90C or so. Not really sure how high the temps would get with the stock cooler, but I'm sure the Zalman is far more effective so you might have issues. However, normal use temps hardly go above 40-45C even under load in games. Crysis and WoW (yes seriously) are the only games that have stressed the chips to the point they'd hit 50C under load so far. Speedstep works very well.

In my opinion you'd be fine using the stock cooler for normal everyday use with a mild overclock. You might not have a 100% stable 24-hour Prime95 test, but games never stress your CPU cores like that. Using a 160 base clock and auto voltages (except 1.55 V on the DRAM bus), I've had 100% stability. IMO get some good DDR3-1600 RAM to make it easier on yourself and mess around to see what the best overclock you can manage is.

[fasedww]

Originally Posted by mudkip

Hey guys,

I'm making a list of Core i7 batches so we can have a good view on which batches are good and which are bad.
Therefore I'd like your batch numbers , your highest STABLE overclock ,and your Vcore and QPI/VTT (QPI/DRAM) voltage.

E.G.

Core i7 920 #3838B153 Stable @ 1.35 Vcore , 1.32v QPI/VTT

This will also be posted on others forums. I'll keep the list up-to-date myself.

Thank you guys and don't forget to post your Core i7 batches!

Core i7 920 #3838B552, at 3.78GHZ,(189X20), Stable intelburn test 1.8, 10 runs, 1.41 volts cpu, 1.43 Qpi/dram volts,

[nekrosoft13]

Originally Posted by methimpikehoses

This is a good OC link if you haven't seen it already:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=716108

I had to start from scratch a few times with this chip, it's way harder than 775's. And I think the chips are more varied from chip to chip, so just copying and pasting other people's templates doesn't seem to work.

It's odd that you have crashes in games but not in stress testing, though.

Originally Posted by fasedww

Must be his videocard overheating or something on it isn't right.

I think I really found the issue now, still need to do few more test to confirm.

System was Prime, Linx, OCCT stable at 4.0, 3.8, 3.6, and stock. (those are CPU, Memory street apps)

but at all those settings I still kept getting lock ups while doing these tasks.
1) playing games
2) watching videos, movies
3) while lisening to music

All these lock-up issues involved sound, computer usually locked up few minutes when doing anything above.

Today I removed the X-Fi, and turned on the onboard sound, and so far 3+ hours and no lock-up. Still at stock setting, soon will jump to 3.8 and to more test.

It seems that after about 3 years my X-Fi kicked the bucket.

How'd it go, nekro?

[Thunderbolt56]

Originally Posted by methimpikehoses

How'd it go, nekro?

Yeah, and how does that onboard sound compare in games?