1.45V ok for core i7 960?

[Rustyy117]

Hey guys

As ever I'm trying to get the most out of my system and so am in the process of overclocking my core i7 960, currently I have it at 4.275Ghz at 1.4125V in the BIOS and 1.376V in Windows under Prime.

I'm not really bothered to much about electomigration, just wondering if 1.45V is ok for a few months. Temps at the current overclock are roughly 68C under Prime.

Thoughts, opinions?

Cheers guys.

 

[sportsfanboy]

Electron migration would be the problem if any, so I don't really get your point. Your temps are fine so your good there. The voltage might be a tad high but nothing to worry about in my opinion. My personal belief is Intel understates the max everything for their chips.

 

[Rustyy117]

What I meen is I'm not to bothered if I increase the rate of electromigration so long as the chip lasts a few more months. I do realise that 1.45V will increase the rate of electromigration but is it likely to kill my chip in a day/week/month?

Thanks for your reply.

 

[sportsfanboy]

I think for a month or two,or three it will be fine. You not that far off max volts that it should make a huge difference. Maybe if you ran it like that for a year or two, it would knock some time off the life of the chip. Most enthusiast upgrade every two to three years anyway. I would be willing to bet it would last two years or more with the voltage your using,but that's just an opinion.

 

[Rustyy117]

I'll most likely upgrade when Ivy bridge comes out.

Testing at 1.45V in BIOS (1.408 in Windows under Prime95) @ 4.35Ghz... may go higher.

 

[wolfram23]

Question, do you have load line calibration turned on (aka vdroop off)? Because the voltage should be pretty stable under load, seems to drop a fair bit.

 

[Rustyy117]

Yes, LLC is enabled, my board has terrible Vdroop unfortunately. Wish I had an Asus board

 

[wolfram23]

Heh no kidding. Well I guess since it's under 1.4V under load it should be fine. Isn't the max on these i7's like 1.55V? If you're only looking for months of usage out of it I doubt there'll be any issues whatsoever.

 

[A_Real_Overclocker]

Hey guys

As ever I'm trying to get the most out of my system and so am in the process of overclocking my core i7 960, currently I have it at 4.275Ghz at 1.4125V in the BIOS and 1.376V in Windows under Prime.

I'm not really bothered to much about electomigration, just wondering if 1.45V is ok for a few months. Temps at the current overclock are roughly 68C under Prime.

Thoughts, opinions?

Cheers guys.

I personally have 2 processors that have both seen 1.45volts both now are DEAD. I have a Q9650 that I mainly ran at 1.35volt at 3.6Ghz I tried a few short times of 1.45volts trying to get stable at 3.8. Now it won't even run stable at 1.40 volts stock chip just kept getting more unstable day by day. Same thing for my 45nm Q9450 I did try 1.50 volts once on it trying to get 3.6 but only got a best of 3.4Ghz. Motherboard was a Asus Maximus 2 and a thermalright IFX-14 heatsink temps never exceeded 70c in realtemp. Like i said the chips ran fine for a year or so the suddenly started getting unstable had to keep reducing my o/c till not even stable at stock settings.

I would like to see a poll on older o/c systems as to just how long they really last from the forum. I feel that at least with the 45nm intels 1.35 is max core voltage for any hope of life over 2 years. My 2 cents worth take it or leave it. By the way i have a I-7 920 at 3.8 with 1.28v and I am not going to push beyond 1.35 in bios anymore myself.

 

[sportsfanboy]

what were the cpu's and what other settings did you run,and how hot. There is more than one way to kill an i7 chip. QPi to dram shouldn't be more than .5 from each other or you can damage the chip. So if your Ram bus voltage is 1.65,the qpi has to be at least 1.15

 

[Rustyy117]

I personally have 2 processors that have both seen 1.45volts both now are DEAD. I have a Q9650 that I mainly ran at 1.35volt at 3.6Ghz I tried a few short times of 1.45volts trying to get stable at 3.8. Now it won't even run stable at 1.40 volts stock chip just kept getting more unstable day by day. Same thing for my 45nm Q9450 I did try 1.50 volts once on it trying to get 3.6 but only got a best of 3.4Ghz. Motherboard was a Asus Maximus 2 and a thermalright IFX-14 heatsink temps never exceeded 70c in realtemp. Like i said the chips ran fine for a year or so the suddenly started getting unstable had to keep reducing my o/c till not even stable at stock settings.

I would like to see a poll on older o/c systems as to just how long they really last from the forum. I feel that at least with the 45nm intels 1.35 is max core voltage for any hope of life over 2 years. My 2 cents worth take it or leave it. By the way i have a I-7 920 at 3.8 with 1.28v and I am not going to push beyond 1.35 in bios anymore myself.

I noticed slight degradiation on my old Core i7 920, Was taking part in a competition here on Toms for maximum overclocks. I pushed my 920 to just over 4.6Ghz @ 1.55V... Didn't bench or anything, just got a CPU-Z screenie, after that I but it back to my 4Ghz settings and every few months I'd have to increase the Vcore to re-gain stability.

Like I said before, I'm just after a few months use.

 

[Rustyy117]

running at 4.4Ghz now, 1.440V in Windows 1.48V in BIOS.... QPI is 1.355V DRAM is 1.68V, Other voltages are pretty much stock.

One of my Fans has died on my second raditator so my temps aren't great, tocuhed 78C under prime last night.

 

[sportsfanboy]

Nice...Internal or external rad?

 

[Rustyy117]

Nice...Internal or external rad?

2 Internal 360 RADs in a modified Silverstone Tj07

 

[sportsfanboy]

Keep that bad boy cool and I think you'll be fine. I do however take no responsibility for that last statement if your stuff were to blow up

 

[sportsfanboy]

Oh pics of that double rad and mod would be cool

 

[wolfram23]

I'd say you're definitely getting into risky territory... 1.55V? Yikes man.

 

[Rustyy117]

Pics up tomorrow, I'm getting a replacement fan and 5.25" to 3.5" drive bay adapter tomorrow (as my case doesnt have a place for HDD's lol)

@wolfram23 yes 1.55V is high, but it was for a competition!, I came third I think, reached the limit of my motherboard at 222blck.

 

[wolfram23]

Nice! These first gen i5/i7s OCed well, but nothing like SB! I reached my highest of 4.29ghz (in my sig) but that was just for fun. I guess if I was in a competetion I might try pushing it higher lol. Get's pretty crazy at that point though.

 

[Rustyy117]

Nice! These first gen i5/i7s OCed well, but nothing like SB! I reached my highest of 4.29ghz (in my sig) but that was just for fun. I guess if I was in a competetion I might try pushing it higher lol. Get's pretty crazy at that point though.

Haha, yeah it does get crazy, I do the same with graphics cards and memory... anything I can overclock really, nothing remains stock...