Core i7 920 Overclocked to 3.2 GHz on Stock Cooler

[mintsmike]

Hello everyone.

 

I have recently undertook in the process of overclocking my new core i7 920.

 

I used the stock cooler and chose the following options:

 

D.O.C.P Overclock Mode

with BCLK at 160 MHz

multiplier at x20

SpeedStep on

Turbo Boost on

 

Also my memory is XMP crucial 6GB and it has been clocked to ~1500MHz (cant remember exact figure) and CPU-z shows my QPI link at 3840.1 MHz.

 

The QPI/DRAM voltage setting in the BIOS is at 1.65 V.

 

I have acheived 3.2Ghz with the followin core temperatures:

 

58oC - 57oC - 59oC - 58oC

 

I wish to know what the overclocking experts think of this setup and if my system is stable, will last me the amount of time it should using stock settings or whether its life span will be cut short.

 

Thanks in advance

Michael Renfrew

[RJR]

Hey Michael,

 

Couple of things to consider, the i7's are very hot running processors, so, I wouldn't recommend doing ANY OCing on the stock Heatsink.

 

You give your core temps but don't say if that idle or load? If it happens to be idle, PLEASE go into your BIOS and return to default settings.

 

The stability of your system can only be ascertained by you. You must run a stress program (Linx,Prime95, etc.) to see if your system is stable.

[Ste]

^^ I would get a better heat sink first before going further. I think the maximum safe load temp is around 75C, so keep load temps under that and it should be fine.

 

Heatsink suggestions:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835207006

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835233029

 

You can disable turbo boost, EIST and C1E, other CxE states, virtualization technology and set the RAM multi so it is running under it's rated speed.

 

It is suggested to loosen ram timmings when running above rated speeds.

 

Read some OC guides first.

 

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/...alem_its_limits

 

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/displ...erclocking.html

 

http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclockin...-beginners.html

Edited January 1, 2010 by Ste

[mintsmike]

I gave those temperatures on near 0% load and when i added a simple SiSoftware Sandra Benchmark of Processor Arithemtic the temperatures soared to around 82oC, which convinced me to restore default settings

[tkrow21]

I gave those temperatures on near 0% load and when i added a simple SiSoftware Sandra Benchmark of Processor Arithemtic the temperatures soared to around 82oC, which convinced me to restore default settings

 

Yeah, 82C isn't good.

[dling]

Here are what my temps look like. This is with both the hs and cpu lapped. I'm at 20x201 vcore 1.4.

These temps are still a bit high in no load.They do start getting to 80deg c if I run OCCT (100%)It takes about 5-6 minutes.

Not likely to see 100% cpu usage for that long in normal use.

Edited January 2, 2010 by dling

[rourkchris]

First I'd say you've been given excellent advice so far. You really need to replace the stock heatsink with a quality aftermarket cooler to overclock that i7 to it's potential. I'd also get my cable management in order to increase airflow. I use a Prolimatech Megahalems with 2 fans in a push/pull configuration and couldn't be happier.

 

Here's my temps today at 4Ghz under 100% full load just as an example

[dling]

First I'd say you've been given excellent advice so far. You really need to replace the stock heatsink with a quality aftermarket cooler to overclock that i7 to it's potential. I'd also get my cable management in order to increase airflow. I use a Prolimatech Megahalems with 2 fans in a push/pull configuration and couldn't be happier.

 

Here's my temps today at 4Ghz under 100% full load just as an example

 

HERE,HERE!!! That is correct. Stock fans are for stock users.