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Need some advice about overclocking my i7 920... (Read 121 times)

Mar 7^th, 2009 at 4:55pm

RIC_BARKER Offline
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"Shazzam"

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Posts: 842

Hi guys,

I'm hoping to tap into your expertise here.

I've just bought and built a new system, (Gigabyte EX58-UD5, Intel i7 920, Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme, GTX 260, 3x1GB Kingston HyperX 1800MHz DDR3 RAM).

It's running pretty well at a stable 3.2Ghz, but I want more.

Here is where I currently am as regard voltages etc.

CPU clock Ratio = 20x
QPI Link = Auto
QPI Spd = 5.76Ghz
BCLK = 165
Memory multiplier = 10 (1066 - 1600)
Uncore Freq = 20x (3200mhz)
CPU Core = 1.3v
QPI/VTT 1.34v
IOH = Auto
Dram = 1.5v

I'm kinda stuck here though. If I raise the BCLK to 170 I can boot into Windows but it crashes when running Prime 95. At these setting I'm running cool still, 32 Deg C @ idle, 55 Deg C under load, is this ok?

I want to get to around the 4Ghz mark...I assume this is possible with this gear?

So I'm looking for suggestions as to what to try next, and where the limits are. I would experiment myself more blindly, but I'm worried I might break something!

Thanks in advance.

Ric B.

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Reply #1 - Mar 7^th, 2009 at 10:16pm

SubZer0 Offline
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Congratulations on the new system Wink

Wink

Overclocking i7s aren't hard at all. Try leaving everything on auto and set the CPU multiplier to 20x and the BCLK to 190. The memory should be run at its default timings and as closest to its rated speed as you can get it (1800mhz)

See what that does

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Reply #2 - Mar 8^th, 2009 at 5:32am

Ulf B Offline
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Fly FS
Sweden

Posts: 35

Article on OC:ing the 920: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2008/11/06/overclocking-intel-core-i7-920/...

Ulf B
Asus P6T Deluxe, Intel Core i7 940 @4.1GHz
OCZ Platinum XTC DDR3 1600MHz 3x2GB
ZOTAC GTX 480 AMP!
Vista Home Premium 64 SP1, FSX SP2 on VelociRaptor, NOD32

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Reply #3 - Mar 8^th, 2009 at 1:17pm

RIC_BARKER Offline
Colonel
"Shazzam"

Gender:
Posts: 842

SubZer0 wrote on Mar 7^th, 2009 at 10:16pm:

Congratulations on the new system Wink

Wink

Overclocking i7s aren't hard at all. Try leaving everything on auto and set the CPU multiplier to 20x and the BCLK to 190. The memory should be run at its default timings and as closest to its rated speed as you can get it (1800mhz)

See what that does

Andy,

Thanks for the tip, leaving everything in auto seems to have done the trick, I'm now up to 3.6Ghz with a bclk of 180, any higher and it fails to boot.

One thing I have noticed, in auto my mobo seems to shift the multiplier around on it's own, it went up to 21x at one point. I didn't think the 920/940 could do this (well, I thought they could only go down, not up)?

My temps at 180 seem to be up around the 80 Deg C mark, is that ok? I know the max is 100, but I assume that's a peak temp, not an "everyday" temp?

Also, Andy, thanks for your help and clarification about what an i7 system could do, I'm glad I took your advice and went down this route, FSX is really coming alive now!

Ric B.

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Reply #4 - Mar 8^th, 2009 at 1:51pm

Ulf B Offline
Colonel
Fly FS
Sweden

Posts: 35

RIC_BARKER wrote on Mar 8^th, 2009 at 1:17pm:

SubZer0 wrote on Mar 7^th, 2009 at 10:16pm:

Congratulations on the new system Wink

Wink

Overclocking i7s aren't hard at all. Try leaving everything on auto and set the CPU multiplier to 20x and the BCLK to 190. The memory should be run at its default timings and as closest to its rated speed as you can get it (1800mhz)

See what that does

Andy,

Thanks for the tip, leaving everything in auto seems to have done the trick, I'm now up to 3.6Ghz with a bclk of 180, any higher and it fails to boot.

One thing I have noticed, in auto my mobo seems to shift the multiplier around on it's own, it went up to 21x at one point. I didn't think the 920/940 could do this (well, I thought they could only go down, not up)?

My temps at 180 seem to be up around the 80 Deg C mark, is that ok? I know the max is 100, but I assume that's a peak temp, not an "everyday" temp?

Also, Andy, thanks for your help and clarification about what an i7 system could do, I'm glad I took your advice and went down this route, FSX is really coming alive now!

Ric B.

Read that article and get your BIOS settings right. You must disable speedstep and such in BIOS to prevent your BIOS from changing multiplier.

Ulf B
Asus P6T Deluxe, Intel Core i7 940 @4.1GHz
OCZ Platinum XTC DDR3 1600MHz 3x2GB
ZOTAC GTX 480 AMP!
Vista Home Premium 64 SP1, FSX SP2 on VelociRaptor, NOD32

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Reply #5 - Mar 8^th, 2009 at 2:57pm

RIC_BARKER Offline
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"Shazzam"

Gender:
Posts: 842

Ulf,

I googled around when I built this thing last week, and that article was the 1st one I found. I followed it to the letter but didn't have much luck. No matter what I try I can't seem to get my bclk past 170-175. My main issue is I don't know what it's failing on, CPU, ram etc. Is there any way to set this up so everything can be individually tested for speed/stability.

Oh, by the way, yes, this is my first OC, so thanks for the help/advice!

Ric B

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Reply #6 - Mar 8^th, 2009 at 3:35pm

Ulf B Offline
Colonel
Fly FS
Sweden

Posts: 35

Quote:

One thing I have noticed, in auto my mobo seems to shift the multiplier around on it's own, it went up to 21x at one point. I didn't think the 920/940 could do this (well, I thought they could only go down, not up)?

That happens when you haven't set up BIOS correct. You have to disable settings in your BIOS that automatically changes the multiplier settings, core voltage etc. Read that article and study the BIOS images carefully.

Quote:

My temps at 180 seem to be up around the 80 Deg C mark, is that ok? I know the max is 100, but I assume that's a peak temp, not an "everyday" temp?

What program do you use to read the temps? Download RealTemp v2.90 and set TJ Max to 100. This will give you correct readings of the temp. If the temp is about 80C when running the CPU on 3.2GHz I would suspect that the cooling isn't working as it should. What environment temp do you have (room temp)? Is the cooler mounted towards the rear end chassi fans? It's important that the cooler blows the air out of the chassi.

Ulf B
Asus P6T Deluxe, Intel Core i7 940 @4.1GHz
OCZ Platinum XTC DDR3 1600MHz 3x2GB
ZOTAC GTX 480 AMP!
Vista Home Premium 64 SP1, FSX SP2 on VelociRaptor, NOD32

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Reply #7 - Mar 8^th, 2009 at 7:21pm

RIC_BARKER Offline
Colonel
"Shazzam"

Gender:
Posts: 842

Ulf B wrote on Mar 8^th, 2009 at 3:35pm:

Quote:

One thing I have noticed, in auto my mobo seems to shift the multiplier around on it's own, it went up to 21x at one point. I didn't think the 920/940 could do this (well, I thought they could only go down, not up)?

That happens when you haven't set up BIOS correct. You have to disable settings in your BIOS that automatically changes the multiplier settings, core voltage etc. Read that article and study the BIOS images carefully.

Quote:

My temps at 180 seem to be up around the 80 Deg C mark, is that ok? I know the max is 100, but I assume that's a peak temp, not an "everyday" temp?

What program do you use to read the temps? Download RealTemp v2.90 and set TJ Max to 100. This will give you correct readings of the temp. If the temp is about 80C when running the CPU on 3.2GHz I would suspect that the cooling isn't working as it should. What environment temp do you have (room temp)? Is the cooler mounted towards the rear end chassi fans? It's important that the cooler blows the air out of the chassi.

Ok, yep, I'll make sure that's off next time.

As for cooling - I have the system set up inside a modified antec 900 case, I have 3 fans in the front.

The Cooler is mounted vertically so it exhausts out of the 200mm fan at the top, it lines up perfectly. I using realtemp. I'm at 80 degrees while running at 3.6, not 3.2.

Room temp is quite high, around 24 degrees C.

Ric B.

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Reply #8 - Mar 9^th, 2009 at 1:16am

Ulf B Offline
Colonel
Fly FS
Sweden

Posts: 35

Quote:

The Cooler is mounted vertically so it exhausts out of the 200mm fan at the top, it lines up perfectly. I using realtemp. I'm at 80 degrees while running at 3.6, not 3.2.

Room temp is quite high, around 24 degrees C.

Ric B.

Ric,

I'm not sure but something is wrong here. You shouldn't have that high temps with that cooler. Do you get these temps while running OCCT? What are the your idle temps?

You have Hyperthreading disabled in BIOS? If not, this will increase the temps, but wont make FSX run any faster.

Ulf B
Asus P6T Deluxe, Intel Core i7 940 @4.1GHz
OCZ Platinum XTC DDR3 1600MHz 3x2GB
ZOTAC GTX 480 AMP!
Vista Home Premium 64 SP1, FSX SP2 on VelociRaptor, NOD32

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Reply #9 - Mar 9^th, 2009 at 12:03pm

SubZer0 Offline
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Posts: 3882

Hey Ric,

Your room temp seems to be a bit high to me. I like to keep my ambient temps at no higher than 22.2c/72fahrenheit. That will help lower your temps a little bit.

The max for the i7 is actually 80c. If you go above that while stress testing, you need to back down on your clock a little bit.

Ric, have you disabled any of the 'advanced' cpu functions in the BIOS? Just disabling HyperThreading alone will lower your temps dramatically. FSX and many other programs don't even use HT. It's only really useful if you're doing anything audio/video related such as encoding or rendering. I myself have all of these advanced CPU functions DISABLED and that's how I manage to keep my temps well under 80c with a BCLK of 190.

OK, so you've hit 3.6ghz safely with everything on auto. I don't think I was able to get above 3.8 without manually changing the CPU voltage. I have mine at 1.2875 for 3.8ghz. Try running that, or maybe a little big higher if it doesn't boot. See what happens. Whatever you do, make sure you have the DRAM voltage at 1.64 or no higher than 1.66! I believe that has to be manually set in the BIOS.

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Reply #10 - Mar 9^th, 2009 at 1:18pm

RIC_BARKER Offline
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"Shazzam"

Gender:
Posts: 842

Ok, thanks for the info, I guess my room temps are pretty high. I'll turn HT off, and all the other "power management" features too.

It was my understanding that RAM voltage should be below the specified max for the stick but also within 0.5v of the QPI/DRAM voltage? I'm a little confused about the specs of my ram, I see more than one voltage listed here: http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KHX14400D3_1G.pdf (see description, voltage ranges from 1.5-1.9v) Can anyone clear this up for me?

I'm actually away from home at the moment, I'll try out your suggestions and report back!

Thanks,

Ric B.

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Reply #11 - Mar 9^th, 2009 at 1:56pm

SubZer0 Offline
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RIC_BARKER wrote on Mar 9^th, 2009 at 1:18pm:

Ok, thanks for the info, I guess my room temps are pretty high. I'll turn HT off, and all the other "power management" features too.

It was my understanding that RAM voltage should be below the specified max for the stick but also within 0.5v of the QPI/DRAM voltage? I'm a little confused about the specs of my ram, I see more than one voltage listed here: http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KHX14400D3_1G.pdf (see description, voltage ranges from 1.5-1.9v) Can anyone clear this up for me?

I'm actually away from home at the moment, I'll try out your suggestions and report back!

Thanks,

Ric B.

If you're running an i7, the voltage of the RAM should never be agove 1.66v period. You WILL BURN YOUR PROCESSOR if you do. I guess if the memory is rated at 1.5v then go ahead and do give it that voltage and leave the QPI at auto.

I think what was said in the link you gave was that they tested the memory up to 1.9v and it was stable, but it's standard rating is 1.5v

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Reply #12 - Mar 9^th, 2009 at 3:16pm

Ulf B Offline
Colonel
Fly FS
Sweden

Posts: 35

SubZer0 wrote on Mar 9^th, 2009 at 1:56pm:

If you're running an i7, the voltage of the RAM should never be agove 1.66v period. You WILL BURN YOUR PROCESSOR if you do. I guess if the memory is rated at 1.5v then go ahead and do give it that voltage and leave the QPI at auto.

I think what was said in the link you gave was that they tested the memory up to 1.9v and it was stable, but it's standard rating is 1.5v

Actually you may exceed 1.65V as long as you have no more than 0.50v difference between the DRAM voltage and the QPI/DRAM bus voltage (uncore voltage). The QPI/DRAM voltage is pretty low by default, that's why memory specs say 1.65V.

Ulf B
Asus P6T Deluxe, Intel Core i7 940 @4.1GHz
OCZ Platinum XTC DDR3 1600MHz 3x2GB
ZOTAC GTX 480 AMP!
Vista Home Premium 64 SP1, FSX SP2 on VelociRaptor, NOD32

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Reply #13 - Mar 9^th, 2009 at 7:48pm

jwenham Offline
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sure?

Posts: 266

RIC_BARKER wrote on Mar 8^th, 2009 at 1:17pm:

SubZer0 wrote on Mar 7^th, 2009 at 10:16pm:

Congratulations on the new system Wink

Wink

Overclocking i7s aren't hard at all. Try leaving everything on auto and set the CPU multiplier to 20x and the BCLK to 190. The memory should be run at its default timings and as closest to its rated speed as you can get it (1800mhz)

See what that does

Andy,

Thanks for the tip, leaving everything in auto seems to have done the trick, I'm now up to 3.6Ghz with a bclk of 180, any higher and it fails to boot.

One thing I have noticed, in auto my mobo seems to shift the multiplier around on it's own, it went up to 21x at one point. I didn't think the 920/940 could do this (well, I thought they could only go down, not up)?

My temps at 180 seem to be up around the 80 Deg C mark, is that ok? I know the max is 100, but I assume that's a peak temp, not an "everyday" temp?

Also, Andy, thanks for your help and clarification about what an i7 system could do, I'm glad I took your advice and went down this route, FSX is really coming alive now!

Ric B.

Make sure you do these settings in the BIOS

LOAD LINE CALIBRATION - Set to Enable

Set the following to Disable
CPU Spread Spectrum
C1E Support
Intel Virtualization Tech
CPU TM Function
Hyper Thread Technology
C-State Tech

The above will keep your mult steady as well as yout CPU voltage

Intel i7 940 2.93 clocked to 4.0ghz Asus P6T Deluxe 6gb OCZ 1600 8-8-8-24 EVGA GTX 260 Superclocked Edition Thermalright 120 CPU Cooler Power PC & Cooling 750w PSU 1 tb Seagate Barracuda HD 500 gb Seagate Barracude HD 22" Viewsonic Widescreen Track IR 4 XP Pro x64 www.fairtax.org

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Reply #14 - Mar 10^th, 2009 at 6:45pm

grizzard Offline
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If it helps this is what works for me. I'm running at 3.6 and can get to 3.7, but I feel I have a little more headroom at 3.6. My temps run 67 - 70 and I've passed a "Torture Test" using OCCT (1 hour)

______________________________________________________
My system:

proc Intel i7 2.6 GHz (Overclocked to 3.6 GHz)
cpu fan Zalman 9700
mobo MSI X58 Platinum
hd VelociRaptor WD3000
psu OCZ 700 Watt GameXstream
mem 6 GB OCZ DDR3 1600
video GeForce 8800 GTX
_______________________________________________________

My settings:

Hyperthread disabled
Spread Spectrum disabled
cpu overspeed disabled
C-State disabled
Turbo Boost disabled
EIST auto
QPI links speed full speed
Freq auto

base clock 180
cpu increase +0.120 (bios setting shows an increase - +0.160)
cpu Vcore 1.152v (Cpuz indicates 1.112v)
PLL 1.80
QPI +0.050
Mem ratio 4
DDR3 1.65v
Adj Mem Freq 1440 Mhz
Adv DRAM all auto

Intel i7 920 @ 4 Ghz- Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Fan - MSI X58 Platinum- MSI Geforce 285 GTX 1 GB - 6 GB OCZ 1600 DDR3 1600 - WD VelociRaptor 300 GB - OCZ 700 Watt GameXstream - Samsung SyncMaster 2493 HM - Vista Home Premium

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