OC my i7 [email protected] to 3.0+ *If possible*
Igor Shabunko
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#1
Hello:
Im new to techspot-and Ok @ the OC stuff. I would like to see what advice you guys can give in regards to possibly overclocking my i7920.
PC STATS:
Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced — High Air Flow Full Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0 and All-Black Interior (case has 4 fans) 2 Large 2 small)
Intel i7 [email protected]’z (intel x58chipset)
core voltage: 0.936v-1.1v
core speed 1600-2500Mhz
bus speed 133.6Mhz
20GB RAM
64bit OS
Motherboard: P6T Delux V2
Graphics card: Radeon HD 5770
Based on the above information: I would like to know/get feedback if. …..
A. is it possible to overclock to 3.0+ without having to much heat problems or melting my CPU.
B. if possible. where can I find a good guide? or tech support??. here?!
C. what other options do I have? if not the OC option
** Thank you for your time and replies **
cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,439
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#2
Intel Core i7-920 Overclocking Guide. Page 5 (ASUS P6T Deluxe Mainboard
Conclusion
Let’s see what we ended up with here. Our today’s test session proved that new Core i7 processors overclock not any worse than their predecessors. We took the first mass production Core i7-920 CPU we came across and managed to increase its clock speed by 40% reaching 3.8GHz. We didn’t involve any special cooling solutions, just used a mass production air cooler. We also didn’t push the voltages to any dangerous limits.
Click to expand…
Igor Shabunko
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#4
cliffordcooley said:
Intel Core i7-920 Overclocking Guide. Page 5 (ASUS P6T Deluxe Mainboard
Click to expand…
Thanks for the swift reply and note.
slh38
Posts: 1,703 +172
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#4
Download CPU-Z and see which stepping your i7 920 is. D0 will be much easier to overclock and will get better results than C0, although both should get well above 3Ghz easily.
St1ckM4n
Posts: 2,887 +628
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#5
I have D0 stepping running at 3. 6-3.8GHz, on ASUS P6T. I can show you exactly which BIOS settings I used, although I have a nice guide I can link too.
Do you have an aftermarket CPU cooler? And what exactly is your RAM configuration?
Igor Shabunko
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#6
Slh38: appreciate the feedback. will do with the d0.
St1ckM4n: Id appreciate the full BIOS troubleshoot if you wouldn’t mind. All the PC parts were aftermarket. Although the fan is basic Intel Cooling fan for the CPU.
St1ckM4n
Posts: 2,887 +628
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#7
Stop right here and get a custom CPU cooler. Cooler Master Hyper 212 or whatever, if you have to. I’m not going to suggest any form of O/C to a first-gen i7 with stock cooler, sorry dude.
I’ll post the guides later, but I definitely do not recommend doing anything while on stock.
Overclocking Intel’s Core i7 920
The Core i7 920 has a 4.8GT/s QPI and a slower northbridge/Uncore frequency than the Core i7 965, which gives it plenty of overhead to dive into. The Core i7 920 CPU is multiplier locked (only the Extreme Edition 965s are unlocked), so we’ll have to increase the QPI frequency to get more MHz.
Addendum March 2009: It’s come to our attention that retail Core i7 920s now have unlocked memory and QPI buses, although OEM CPUs apparently do not. The CPU multipliers are still locked but the retail CPUs now offer a wealth of higher performance memory and QPI options which we certainly feel are worth investing in.
AI Overclock Tuner — Manual: Although if you’re lucky enough to have XMP ready memory you might want to try that — 1,600MHz sets the QPI link to 200MHz — just what we needed for 4GHz, but we still did it manually anyway.
Intel Turbo Mode — Disable: We disabled it so as it would not interfere with the overclock, however we left on the new Intel low power states. Normally this affects how the CPU overclocks and in extreme cases we expect it will, because the on/off effect to the CPU frequency and voltages as the C-state changes.
Intel has stopped multiplier dropping its CPUs like it does with Penryn, instead it just turns the clocks and cache off in stages to reduce power of the cores. However considering the CPU has a 130W TDP before overvolting and overclocking, we didn’t quite fancy running it all guns blazing all the time (we still need the CPU for future testing!). We found the on-board power microcontroller built into the Nehalems seems to handle its C-state changes far more stably than Penryn (which requires more motherboard intervention), even when the overclock is 50 percent.
Click to enlarge
BCLK Frequency — 200(MHz): BCLK = Base clock. This affects the QPI and uncore (L3 cache, northbridge) frequency too — some motherboards like the Intel Smackover allow the ratios to be adjusted, but the Asus does not. Here the ratio is 18x for the QPI and 16x for the uncore (northbridge/L3 cache). The uncore frequency must also always be below the QPI, we’re told.
DRAM Frequency — 1,600MHz: Although if you don’t have uber-ram, set it to the lower frequency as the bandwidth will still be super-sized regardless.
CPU Voltage — 1.35V: We found this was plenty, depending on your own CPU’s needs, it might be happy using less.
CPU PLL Voltage — 1.96V: In all honesty, we’ve got to play with this function more, but a 0.16-0.2V increase worked for Penryn so we’re also using it here.
Click to enlarge
QPI/DRAM Voltage — 1.35V: This is poorly worded by Asus — it should read uncore or QPI/memory controller voltage so not to confuse it with the actual memory voltage. Increasing this is also necessary as it helps overclock the base frequency as the uncore area overclocks increase in relation to the CPU core overclocks. This voltage is tied to actual DRAM voltage — the two are directly connected on the motherboard. You’ll need to increase this to keep the CPU safe.
While Asus and Intel (rightly) scare everyone (read: uneducated) into thinking that 1.65V on the DRAM voltage should be the absolute limit before you reach for the fire-blanket, all that’s really needed it to obey this: keep the CPU uncore voltage within 0.5V difference of the DRAM voltage and there’s no problem. Over this potential difference and you’ll greatly increase the chance of CPU death, but it certainly won’t happen instantly in a big ball of fail fire if you make a mistake.
DRAM Voltage — 1.66V: This is the closest to the 1.65V the Corsair Dominator DIMMs wanted and it’s within the 0.5V Uncore difference.
If you are familiar with Intel systems, the best thing to do is treat QPI frequency like you would Front Side Bus and cranking up the QPI also levies another advantage — increased memory frequencies. Because the Core i7 920 uses the basic 4.8GT/s QPI frequency there is no option available here to adjust it, so you don’t have to worry about it, however being able to see what its «final frequency» post-overclock would be incredibly useful.
A little extra differential amplitude because Asus claims in the BIOS that it helps with overclocking and perhaps turning off some unused features like Virtualisation is worth it as well, but keeping the pre-fetchers and HyperThreading on will improve performance.
We found that enabling the HPET (High Performance Event Timer), or as Asus label it, APCI 2, is critical for keeping the clocks on Core i7 CPUs accurate. Without it turned on, the multiplier jumps around crazily if we watch CPU-Z, but with it on, the multiplier reading is solid and the clock frequency only jitters very slightly according to fractional variations in the base clock.
1 — How to overclock the Core i7 9202 — Asus P6T Deluxe, MSI X58 Eclipse — Installation3 — Asus P6T Deluxe — BIOS Setup4 — Memory Performance — Lavalys Everest5 — Memory Performance — Sisoft Sandra6 — Crysis7 — Far Cry 28 — Half-Life 2: Episode Two9 — Image Editing and x.