CPU i7 960 OC to 4.0 GHZ

[Smiki007]

Hi all,

recently i OC my CPU to 4.00 GHz...

TESTING:

Memtest86+ = pass no errors,

Prime95 all night = pass, no errors,

RealTemp idle = (CPU = 33, core1 = 40, core2 = 36, core3 = 41, core4 = 36),

RealTemp full load 100% = (CPU = 59, core1 = 81, core2 = 77, core3 = 79, core4 = 73),

I wondering if the temps are high or ok?

 

My config:

 

Gigabyte x58A-UD9

Intel i7 960 3.2 GHz (4.0 GHz O/C)

Cooler Master Hyper N520 heatsink

Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333 MHz 10 Gb, (5 x 2 Gb)

Gigabyte GTX 480 1.5 Gb

Corsair HX1000W

HAF X case

BIOS SETTINGS:

CPU CLOCK RATIO: 24X

 

CPU FREQUENCY: 4.08GHz

 

INTEL TURBO MODE: DISABLED

 

INTEL C1E STATE: DISABLED

 

C3/C6/C7 STATE: DISABLED

 

CPU THERMAL MONITOR: DISABLED

 

CPU EIST FUNCTION: DISABLED

 

BI-DIRECTIONAL PROCHOT: DISABLED

 

QPI CLOCK RATIO: 36x

 

QPI LINK SPEED: 6.0GHz

 

UNCORE CLOCK RATIO: 16x

 

UNCORE FREQUENCY: 2672 MHz

 

BCLK: 167MHz

 

SYSTEM MEMORY MULTIPLIER: 8X

 

MEMORY FREQUENCY: 1336MHz

 

PCI EXPRESS FREQUENCY: AUTO

 

CPU CLOCK DRIVE: 800 Mv

 

PCI EXPRESS CLOCK DRIVE: 900 Mv

 

CPU CLOCK SKEW: OPS

 

IOH CLOCK SKEW: OPS

 

MEMORY CHANEL TIMING (A, B, C): 9-9-9-24 (EVERYTHING ELSE AUTO)

 

VOLTAGE SETTINGS

 

CPU VCORE: 1.3375 V

 

QPI/VTT: 1.375 V

 

DRAM: 1.500 V

 

PCIE: AUTO

 

CPU PLL: AUTO

 

QPI PLL: AUTO

 

IOH CORE: 1.18000 V

 

ICH I/O: AUTO

 

ICH CORE: AUTO

 

DRAM TERMINATION: AUTO

 

CH-A DATA VRERF: AUTO

 

CH-B DATA VRERF: AUTO

 

CH-C DATA VRERF: AUTO

 

CH-A ADRESS VREF: AUTO

 

CH-B ADRESS VREF: AUTO

 

CH-C ADRESS VREF: AUTO

 

 

 

ISOCHRONUOS SUPPORT: DISABLED

 

VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: DISABLED

Regards,

Smiki

Edited August 25, 2010 by Smiki007

[Drdeath]

Temps look OK. I think yoir board was a waste of money. I get higher overclocks on a UD3.

Edited August 26, 2010 by Drdeath

[ir_cow]

i'll say, the op better get some Tri-SLI going lol.

[MercuryDoun]

Those temps seem ok to me, nothing that is gonna hurt, but it might not be a bad idea to try and lower them a bit. Im pretty new to overclocking i7's. I got my i7-930(which ive only had for like 7 weeks now) to 4.0Ghz on like 1.26vcore though, but its possible it was 1.28 and my memory just sucks. But my temps were alot lower(like high 60's) Your voltage seems really high to me, and therefore your heat.

 

If you haven't tried already id start experimenting with lowering your vcore. Drop it by a set increment(I use .0125 when im trying to lower vcore) and test Prime95 Small FFT. If you pass an hour, then lower it again by same amount. Once you reach the point that it fails in less than an hour you gotta start bumping it back up in smaller increments and then work on getting it prime stable for 8+hours(preferably overnight) if you can get your voltage to 1.3 or less, and still be stable at 4.0Ghz, i think you will find that any worries you have about heat will go away.

 

I found the Auto setting on my board(Asus board so could be alot different on yours) for my ICH core sucks, manually setting it seemed to help me stablize things. I ended up setting manually to 1.1 but that caused me some problems at 4.0Ghz, so i went with 1.2v(works fine at both 3.6ghz and 4.0Ghz) and been great since. Also i would recommend setting your CPU PLL in the area of 1.8-1.9. This one i actually read on the forums here somewhere. I dont know how much of a difference it made over the auto setting because i changed the IOH at the same time. Ive landed on using 1.88 pll, seems to work just fine for the 3.6ghz that im currently at, and when i run 4.0Ghz it works just as well. I ultimately chose to hang out at 3.6ghz most of the time because i couldnt tell any difference in real world performance or FPS in games. So i managed to get 3.6Ghz at only 1.1vcore which has kept my temps at 60 max on the hottest core, and really brought power consumption down. For me its like the perfect balance of speed and efficiency.

 

Sorry if i just said a buncha crap you already know or have already done/tried, just my two cents.