Nick is taking some well-deserved time off after completing  GEX Europe.  He'll be back, just hang tight for the time being.  I don't have the guide for you either but if you search here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/index.php

or here:

http://www.overclock.net/

You will find a lot of information you are looking for.  If you have specific questions on specific settings maybe I or others here can help you.  It's not easy to write a comprehensive guide but the steps you need to take are not overly complicated.  I would advise however that you read up on the general core i7 BIOS settings. 

-Jim

My motherboard is an ASUS P6T Deluxe and the settings in the BIOS (AI Tweaker) are as follows.

                                AI  Tweaker

AI Over Clock Tuner                   [Manual]
CPU Ratio Setting                         [Auto]
Intel (R) Speedstep (TM) Tech      [Enabled]
Intel (R) Turbo Mode (TM) Tech      [Enabled]
BCLK Frequency                  [182]
PCIE Frequency                  [100]
DRAM Frequency                  [DDR3 - 1459 MHz]
UCLK Frequency                  [Auto]
QPI Frequency                  [Auto]

CPU Voltage                  [1.375]
CPU PLL Voltage                  [Auto]
QPI/DRAM Core Voltage            [1.375]
IOH Voltage                  [Auto]
IOH PCIE Voltage                  [Auto]

I have researched many procedures for over-clocking the i7 920/940 CPU. As a result I have come to the following conclusion.

For the i7 920 CPU and probably for the i7 940, using a multiplier of 21 gives you the most stable operation with FSX. To achieve this, you must enable Turbo Mode which will automatically apply a multiplier of 21 when a load is applied. When there is minimal load, your PC will go into idle with a multiplier of 12. Setting your BCLK Frequency to 182 will give you a 3.82 GHz over-clock (21x182=3.822). This will automatically set your DRAM frequency to 1459 MHz. The only other two settings I changed are the CPU (Core) voltage and QPI/DRAM voltage both set to 1.375 v. With the above settings when running a prime 95 and/or OCCT stress test at a 99% load,  my Vcore Temp stays below 80 degrees.

I have run my i7 920 at 4 GHz however, stability was a problem. Also note that my RAM is Corsair with a CL9 latency. When I first designed this PC about six months ago I researched the different latencies of RAM and the effect it has on performance. I found then that yes CL6 is better than CL9 but the increase in performance would only amount to 1-3 percent. So I ended up buying 12 GB of CL9 Corsair RAM on sale for $200. Since then I have had doubts about this decision and was able to acquire 6 GB of Corsair CL7 RAM on loan to determine if it would perform better with FSX. The result was probably yes but I could not visually see any difference. So I am back with my CL9 12 Gigs.

To summarize, you should not have any problem running your i7 940 CPU at 3.8 GHz or even higher.  I am running my i7 920 at 3.82 GHz with optimized settings for FSX max performance. All flights throughout the world are realistically smooth and the scenery is fantastic.

I am not sure what your system specs are but most BIOS can be entered by pressing Del when booting up. Also, the information above applies to my motherboard BIOS and system specs.

I hope you will find this helpful.

macca22au wrote on Jan 9^th, 2010 at 6:51am:



I do believe that this is what you were looking for:
http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1234623532/0

Here is the link to Simforums that NickN posted on Page 2 of the above link, this one has all the settings:
http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=30486&PID=174227#174227

If this is not the one that you were thinking about let me know and I will search some more since I am interested in this to.  My i7 950 is running at 3.61GHz and I am debating with myself whether or not to go higher.  I am undecided at this point, everything is working great so as the old saying goes "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!:.

Rod

idahosurge wrote on Jan 15^th, 2010 at 11:58am:

Rod,

I have not found an Intel document that gives a table of safe temps to run its processors. If someone has, please point me to it. However, I have read enough background documentation to know that Vcore temps of 60 - 65 degrees are normal for running most games including FSX. I just ran a temp check with FSX using RealTemp and the highest reached was 62. And this was at an over-clock to 3.82 GHz. Further reaching temperatures of 80 degrees plus (even spiking to 100) during a torture test without damage is a design feature of the i7 processor and its silicon content. Even RealTemp sets its TJ Max to 100.

As for your question, what is really the vcore temp for a recommended not to exceed temp, 73, 80, close to 100? I don't believe there is any one answer but will vary depending on your PC spec, over-clock, and Vcore voltage to sustain a stable run.

Regards,

Flight Ace

yes, there is an answer and it is 80c

Listen up..   Those intel chips will begin their internal shutdown process when the temp hits 80c. Its a internal thermal limter which slows the process down as the temp moves past 80c

How do I know? Because I know how to calculate the Intel tJunction correctly based on the tCase/tjMax specifications

Intel provides temp specs based on engineers using the i7 white papers to calculate where the thermal shutdown phase programmed into the processor begins. Intels tCase spec is always lower than that point as any good enginnering firm would design into their hardware specs

What you are seeing at Xbit is because he SHUT DOWN all the safety features of the processer for testing purposes. DO NOT RUN A i7 PROCESSER THAT HOT



80c is your MAX target... do not exceed it



you can not instantly damage a i7 by going over 80 however you could shorten its life if you ran for very long periods of time well over 80c

100c is the end of the line..    as in bye-bye birdie




and honestly?!   CL9 and CL7 is a huge difference in memory communciation speed..    if you dont see any difference between them you need me to come to your house and show you what you are doing wrong and why you are not seeing a difference

after that visit you will want the CL7 and CL6 1600 memory

NickN wrote on Jan 17^th, 2010 at 10:34am:

NickN

Your welcome anytime to come to my house and run FSX. You would find that it is set up in a way to get the best from FSX. Best - meaning smoooooth, anywhere from 25 to 150 FPS, and great graphics. And with the settings optimized for best performance. Could not be happier.

As for your answer of 80c, the question was about, and I quote, "I have yet to find an actual Intel document that says XX." unquote. He did not say a NickN document but an Intel (the CPU manufacturer's) document. If you know of one, please point idahosurge and me to it. I also use 80c as a guide when fine tuning (Stress Testing) my PC but do not get overly excited about it spiking over. Silicon can take temperatures above 150c and will melt the container before the chip. And remember spiking over at 99% load in a stress test is a short period of time compared to the life of the computer. Many home computers are lucky to get to 50% load.

As for RAM latency - The following is a conclusion from one of many RAM latency studies I have researched - titled "Computer Memory - Does RAM Latency Matter".

Quote: "Without getting super technical here, when tests were conducted on various high end systems, which is where you need your highest performance boost, the improvements with low latency RAM chips came out to a meager 1% improvement in speed over regular RAM chips for the cheapest of the low latency chips and only a 3% improvement in speed over regular RAM chips for the most expensive. These tests were conducted on numerous high end systems with similar results for all." Unquote

I remembered something you said in the past where you indicated CL9 RAM was not good for the i7 920. I simply did not agree so I did some research and found that CL6/7 to provide only a minimal increase in performance. That's when I bought my 12 GBs of Corsair CL9 on sale for this latest build of mine. I still wasn't satisfied until I compared a lower latency with identical settings on my PC. The 2% increase against 50 FPS is 1 and of 100 FPS is 2 which visually shows no difference and as I stated before CL7/6 is better (faster) than CL9 but for the improvement in performance, for me, not worth the added expense.

I am not doubting or criticizing anything you say as I do compare what you have written in the forum to a number of other expert opinions and studies before taking an action. I, like you, am an engineer, have a graduate degree from the University of Southern California in Aerospace, Operations and Management, a graduate of USC's Aviation Safety Course, A graduate of the Army's Aviation Maintenance Officer's Course, served in the capacity of a Maintenance and Flight test Officer, and have been president of an Accident Investigation Board. I have flown approximately 5,000 hours half in single and multi engine fixed wing and the other half in light and cargo helicopters. When leaving the Army I worked for Computer Sciences Corporation as their Director for Office Information Systems and later joined Xerox.

I have always and will continue to admire you for the help you continue to give on this forum. However, your statement that implies a huge difference in performance from CL9 to CL7/6, does not hold water with my computer or with my research. With my CL9 RAM, I have over-clocked it to 4 GHz with a few stability issues, then backed off to 3.82 to a perfectly stable system. Changing to CL7 RAM, resulted in minimal improvement. And going over 100c is not the end of the line. In most instances the test will be stopped. And going over 80c in a stress test with a few higher spikes is not going to harm or lesson the life of the computer. A stress test is only one or two days in the overall life of the computer.

idahosurge wrote on Jan 18^th, 2010 at 10:25am:



They DID say it..   just not in linear terms. Intel is never going to post 80c as the max operating temp of their i7 tick processors. The do not post that value for any of their processors because of design and warranty reasons

Instead they provide tCase and tJunction specs where a user must know how to calculate and calibrate in order to find the value where the proc will function with no internal limter protection in play. For i7 that value is <80c.

You also do not want to exceed QPI/DRAM past 1.42-1.44v and if you go over 1.37 make sure the tower has very good airflow. That will add heat to the mix that is not monitored by the proc or the system.


As for 4GHz.. thats easy enough but you must test for stability and temps yourself to confirm


ASUS P6T DELUXE V2 Template 920 4 GHz DDR3 1600 6-7-6-18

If I didn’t post it, leave it on AUTO


JumperFree Configuration Settings
AI Overclock tuner: MANUAL
CPU Ratio Setting: 20x   note: this can also be higher with a lower BLCK
Intel (R) SpeedStep (TM) Tech:  DISABLED
Intel (R) Turbo Mode Tech: DISABLED
BLCK Frequency: 200
PCIE Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: 1600
UCLK Frequency: 3200
QPI Link Data Rate (AUTO)

BCLOCK x CPU Ratio = CPU SPEED
BCLOCK x MEMORY MULT = DRAM FREQ
DRAM x 2 = UCLK

Note that BLCK is not 133, its XXX.33 or XXX.66 depending on how high you go, therefore a setting of 20 x 200 will be just over 4GHz as well as just over 1600 memory speed


Some find its better to run a lower BCLOCK with a higher CPU RATIO

Some variables to try
20 x 200 BLCK
20 x 199 BLCK
21 x 191 BLCK

NOTE that as you lower BLCK you lower the memory speed, which is normal. Set it as close to 1600 as possible and UCLK is ALWAYS 2x the DRAM FREQUENCY after you have made a change.

However there is a bug in some BIOS that may cause 6GB to be read as 4 when BCLOCK is 182-199. You must watch out for that.

I reported this issue to Asus many months ago and there is a new BIOS available for the P6T but just getting back from Asia I have not tested it as of yet.


DRAM Timing Control:


===========================


1st Information :

CAS# Latency: 6
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay: 7
DRAM RAS# PRE Time: 6
DRAM RAS# ACT Time: 18

2nd Information :

DRAM Timing Mode: 1N


CPU Voltage: FIND LOWEST STABLE VALUE - 4GHz typically 1.30-1.35v (MAX Intel spec = 1.375 but this can go to 1.4 if the HSF is good)
CPU PLL Voltage: (AUTO)   also try 1.80 to 1.88
QPI/DRAM Core Voltage: 1.35-1.40 (note: Do not exceed 1.40 without very good tower cooling as this temp can not be monitored. Most find 1.35 is fine and 1.45 is the max I would use)
IOH Voltage: AUTO  1.12 to 1.23 (try 1.20 if stability is an issue)
ICH Voltage: AUTO  1.20
DRAM Bus Voltage: 1.64-1.65 (note: this is actually safe to 1.68 but I have never needed that voltage except for OCZ memory product)



Load Line Calibration: ENABLED
CPU Spread Spectrum: DISABLED
PCIE Spread Spectrum: DISABLED


Advance CPU Settings
CPU Ratio Setting: 20x (or what ever you use for above, will change automatically)
C1E Suppport: DISABLED
Hardware Prefetcher: ENABLED
Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch: ENABLED
Intel® Virtualization Tech: DISABLED
CPU TM Function: (ENABLED = PROTECTED - DISABLED = ALLOW FULL FUNCTION WITHOUT PROTECTION) Typically DISABLED for stable clocking
Execute Disable Bit: DISABLED
Intel (R) HT Techology: DISABLED (ENABLED FOR APPLICATIONS THAT USE HYPERTHREAD -WILL HEAT PROC AND FSX WONT USE IT!)
Active Processor Cores: ALL
A20M: DISABLE
Intel (R) SpeedStep (TM) Tech: DISABLED
Intel (R) Turbo Mode Tech: DISABLED
Intel (R) C-STATE Tech: DISABLED




Under Advanced MENU: PCIPnP
PNP OS = YES



The goal to find the highest CPU/memory speed and remain UNDER 80c in a 1hr OCCT CPU load test within the voltage limits posted

It is possible to PASS all stress tests and still crash in FSX with the clock. When this happens you need to trim CPU or one of the other voltages a touch, reconfirm temps and stability and try FSX again.