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Need Help Overclocking i7 965EE


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Hi,

 

So I have an old i7 965 Extreme processor C0 stepping...it's stock clock is at 3.2Ghz and I overclocked it to 3.8Ghz.

 

I did a prime 95 blend test yesterday for around 5 hours 35 mins, there was no BSOD, no errors or warnings.

 

The Max temp recorded via Real Temp was on core 1 was 82C, the rest of the cores was below that.Ambient room temprature is 23C.

 

I started another prime 95 blend test again today morning for 6 hours there was again no BSOD and no errors, and the test is still on going..I guess it's almost 9 hours now, it'll pass 12 hours when I come back from work. I checked the temps before I left work and max temp was 87C.

 

So, my question is since I got no BSOD and no errors in prime 95....does this mean that my overclock is stable? and are my temps fine considering its running on 100% load all this time and i'm on air cooling. My case is a HAF-X with a True 120 Heatsink fan that is almost 3 years old or more along with the stock HAF-X fans and the motherboard is an EVGA 4-Way classified board (E762).

 

I'll post my bios template when I get back from work along with temps from Real Temp.

 

Sorry for making this long and thanks in advance :)

 

 

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For a C0 stepping id say you're doing pretty well. Personally 87c is too high for me, but you'll never reach that kind of 100% load that prime95 does even while gaming. So you're probably ok. Especially being that its several years old now, it'll be nice to have it overclocked to keep it extremely competitive with current hardware.

 

Now i personally dont let mine break 75c for 24/7 stability under prime95, but my i7-930 is a D0 stepping and the voltage required to over clock the D0's is significantly lower than the C0's which is likely why you're getting higher temps. I have an air cooler as well its a Megahelams which is only just a step above the True 120.

 

My only real concern would be what voltage are you pushing through your i7 at the moment? Just want to make sure you aren't slamming 1.6v or something through it as voltages that high regardless of temps/cooling will causes some pretty serious degradation within your processor very quickly. In general, for those first then i7's anything at or under 1.375v is good for 24/7 operation but once you start getting up past 1.4v id say you'd have to weigh the possibility of significantly reducing the life span of your processor.

 

But what would i know, i rather recklessly pushed my i7 to 4.6GHz on only air cooling. :whistling:  Granted it was only for a few minutes to run a few benchmarks and i closely monitored temps to make sure they didn't get too crazy.

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@MercuryDuon,

 

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I forgot to mention that i'm on 1.4v. I'm planning to push the overclock to 4 or 4.2Ghz but worried about the temps. Don't worry I won't slam to 1.6v as I know this is too high as you mentioned. I also don't keep my pc on 24/7.

 

I'm thinking to replace the True 120 with a new heatsink fan, maybe Megahalems or Noctua, not sure yet. Any suggestions on which HSF to replace the 120?

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Also you might want to consider reseating your heatsink, cleaning it up real well, and putting some fresh thermal paste on.

 

Oh yeah, just now I thought of doing this. Now I need to get  a small dust blower and some thermal paste.

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@MercuryDuon,

 

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I forgot to mention that i'm on 1.4v. I'm planning to push the overclock to 4 or 4.2Ghz but worried about the temps. Don't worry I won't slam to 1.6v as I know this is too high as you mentioned. I also don't keep my pc on 24/7.

 

I'm thinking to replace the True 120 with a new heatsink fan, maybe Megahalems or Noctua, not sure yet. Any suggestions on which HSF to replace the 120?

 

I dont keep my pc on 24/7 either, but the ideology behind the term 24/7 stable is that if you wanted, you could run your computer 24/7 doing anything, everything, and nothing... And it would remain 100% stable.

 

As for your current temps, I honestly wouldn't push your overclock any higher without increasing your cooling, either by new HSF, or if your reseating offers a moderate increase in cooling. Your temps as they are, are acceptable, But any higher eh... Maybe if it was like a brand new CPU id be really concerned but 3 years... Meh worst case is you break it and have to upgrade :D Lol, and who doesn't love a good upgrade!

 

Well the Megahalems is way behind current gen heatsinks. You'd want to look at the Phanteks or one of the high end closed loop water coolers. In my opinion those will be the only ones worth spending money on to upgrade from a True 120 since it was a beast back in the day and is still on par with all mid-range coolers of today. The giant Phanteks, Antec 920, Corsair H80/H100/H110 come to mind for something that would be a significant upgrade. Anything less and it just doesn't seem worth the money. 

 

 

Also you might want to consider reseating your heatsink, cleaning it up real well, and putting some fresh thermal paste on.

 

Oh yeah, just now I thought of doing this. Now I need to get  a small dust blower and some thermal paste.

 

 

Yeah give it a shot! I good cleaning and reseating can make a huge difference in performance.

 

Also i forget, is the True 120 a dual fan cooler, or does it only use a single fan? Or rather if you only have a single fan, would adding a second fan for push/pull be an option? A fan that only costs a few $ could prove to be a pretty significant and cost effective solution to your temp problem.

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@MercuryDuon,

 

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I forgot to mention that i'm on 1.4v. I'm planning to push the overclock to 4 or 4.2Ghz but worried about the temps. Don't worry I won't slam to 1.6v as I know this is too high as you mentioned. I also don't keep my pc on 24/7.

 

I'm thinking to replace the True 120 with a new heatsink fan, maybe Megahalems or Noctua, not sure yet. Any suggestions on which HSF to replace the 120?

 

I dont keep my pc on 24/7 either, but the ideology behind the term 24/7 stable is that if you wanted, you could run your computer 24/7 doing anything, everything, and nothing... And it would remain 100% stable.

 

As for your current temps, I honestly wouldn't push your overclock any higher without increasing your cooling, either by new HSF, or if your reseating offers a moderate increase in cooling. Your temps as they are, are acceptable, But any higher eh... Maybe if it was like a brand new CPU id be really concerned but 3 years... Meh worst case is you break it and have to upgrade :D Lol, and who doesn't love a good upgrade!

 

Well the Megahalems is way behind current gen heatsinks. You'd want to look at the Phanteks or one of the high end closed loop water coolers. In my opinion those will be the only ones worth spending money on to upgrade from a True 120 since it was a beast back in the day and is still on par with all mid-range coolers of today. The giant Phanteks, Antec 920, Corsair H80/H100/H110 come to mind for something that would be a significant upgrade. Anything less and it just doesn't seem worth the money. 

 

 

Also you might want to consider reseating your heatsink, cleaning it up real well, and putting some fresh thermal paste on.

 

Oh yeah, just now I thought of doing this. Now I need to get  a small dust blower and some thermal paste.

 

 

Yeah give it a shot! I good cleaning and reseating can make a huge difference in performance.

 

Also i forget, is the True 120 a dual fan cooler, or does it only use a single fan? Or rather if you only have a single fan, would adding a second fan for push/pull be an option? A fan that only costs a few $ could prove to be a pretty significant and cost effective solution to your temp problem.

 

 

Sure i'll do clean it up when I get the time for it during the weekend. The 120 is a dual fan cooler but i'm using a single fan, I can add another one for push/pull as you mentioned.

 

I just came back from work and prime 95 still rock solid after 14 hours 24 mins no errors whatsoever ! Max temp was on core 1 @ 88C the rest were 85,84,80

 

Maybe I should reduce my v-core or something...i'll post my Bios template in a bit

 

Thanks again Mercury ;)

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MotherBoard ( EVGA X58 4-Way Classified E-762 )

Bios ( 74 )

CPU ( 965EE )

CPU Cooler ( True 120 )

Memory (Mushkin XP3 7 8 7 20 )

PSU ( Corsair AX1200 )

GPU ( GTX580x2 )

Drivers ( 270.61 )

Operating System ( Windows 7 64 Ultimate )

 

 

Frequency Control

CPU Clock Ratio (29x)

CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) ( 133 )

MCH Strap ( 1600mhz )

CPU Uncore Frequency (3200 mhz { 24x} )

CPU Clock Skew ( 0 )

Spread Spectrum ( Disabled )

PCIE Frequency (Mhz) ( 100 )

 

Memory Feature

Memory Speed ( Standard )

Memory Control Setting ( Enabled )

Memory Frequency ( 1600Mhz / 2:12 )

Channel Interleave Setting ( 6 Way )

Rank Interleave Setting ( 4 Way )

Memory Low Gap ( 2.5 )

tCL Setting ( 7 )

tRCD Setting ( 8 )

tRP Setting ( 7 )

tRAS Setting ( 20 )

tRFC Setting ( 88 )

Command Rate ( 1t )

 

 

Voltage Control

EVGA VDroop Control ( With VDroop )

CPU VCore ( 1.41250v )

CPU VTT Voltage ( +150mv )

CPU PLL VCore (1.725v)

IOH PLL VCore (1.500v)

DIMM Voltage (1.650v)

DIMM DQ Vref (+0mv)

QPI PLL VCore (1.100v)

IOH VCore (Auto)

IOH/ICH I/O Voltage ( Auto )

ICH VCore ( 1.050v )

BR04 ( NF200) Voltage ( Auto )

VTT PWM Frequency ( 250 KHZ )

CPU PWM Frequency ( 800 KHZ )

CPU Impedance ( Less )

QPI Signal Compensation ( Less )

 

 

CPU Feature

 

Intel SpeedStep ( Disabled )

Turbo Mode Function ( Enabled )

CxE Function ( Disabled )

Execute Disable Bit ( Disabled )

Virtualization Technology ( Disabled )

Intel HT Technology ( Enabled )

Active Processor Cores ( All )

QPI Control Settings ( Enabled )

QPI Link Fast Mode ( Enabled )

QPI Frequency Selection ( 6.800 GT/s )

OC Recovery ( Disabled )

Turbo Performance ( Enabled )

 

PnP/PCI PCI Express

Maximum Payload Size ( 4096 )

 

Power Management Setup

ACPI Suspend Type ( S1 (POS) )

HPET Support ( Enabled )

HPET Mode ( 64-bit )

Edited by XeroHertZ

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Temps are fine.. I run a C0 920 oc'ed to around 3.4ish if I recall.. it's been folding (100% load) for a couple years and temps during the summer averaged in the 90C's, normally it's in the 80's. I keep waiting for the thing to die but it just keeps ticking along :)

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IMO get a better cooler like Noctua U12P-SE2 or some other cooler having equivalent or high er power than it before you plan to push your 965EE.

 

Yes that's what I'm planning to do..I'll get a better cooler

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Temps are fine.. I run a C0 920 oc'ed to around 3.4ish if I recall.. it's been folding (100% load) for a couple years and temps during the summer averaged in the 90C's, normally it's in the 80's. I keep waiting for the thing to die but it just keeps ticking along :)

 

So, what about my Bios template..is there anything that I should change..something that doesn't look right? I wanna try to push it to 4.0Ghz...any suggestions?

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