I7 920 on ASUS P6T Deluxe First Time OC'er

[Micktorious]

OK, this was the first time I have built a comp from scratch, and also my first attempt at OC'ing, so I wanna ask some safety questions to make sure everything I am doing looks alright.

Setup:
ABS Black Pearl Full Tower
Core i7 920 2.66 OC'd at 3.4
Noctua NH-12P cooler
ASUS P6T Deluxe v2
3x2 G.skill 1600
EVGA GTX 280
950W Rosewill D-B (i know, everyone says rosewill sucks, but it was cheap)

I am currently OC'ing my 920 at 3.4 and it seems stable, using BurnIn Test I came up with these results:

CPU(min/avg/max): 41/68/75

I ran the test at full load for 10 minutes and it seemed to be fine, but didn't know what the temps would mean to me(thru research it SEEMS normalish) Just wondering if anyone has any input or anything else, I can put down voltages later, but don't see the need for that yet. Please respond and lemme know how this looks to someone who has done this before. Again, first time OC'er, so I might not be the most informed about what to do Thanks.

 

[Maziar]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/221745-29-core-core-temperature-guide

 

[jay2tall]

I found setting my vcore to the stock 1.2 allowed it to run cooler. If you left it on auto, it manages the voltage and I found it usually gives it more than it needs and runs hotter.

Is it a C0 or D0 stepping 920? you can find this out by running CPU-Z. A C0 should hit 3.8 and a D0 4.0+. These Cpu's seem to be pretty consistent with those OC ranges. Granted the C0 does hit 4GHZ but it takes work and really good cooling.

 

[foolycooly]

+1 to jay's suggestions.

Your temps are acceptable though.

 

[Micktorious]

I found setting my vcore to the stock 1.2 allowed it to run cooler. If you left it on auto, it manages the voltage and I found it usually gives it more than it needs and runs hotter.

Is it a C0 or D0 stepping 920? you can find this out by running CPU-Z. A C0 should hit 3.8 and a D0 4.0+. These Cpu's seem to be pretty consistent with those OC ranges. Granted the C0 does hit 4GHZ but it takes work and really good cooling.

It's a C0

 

[Kill@dor]

If you overclock your CPU, you MUST overclock your RAM too. Just an FYI bud ^_^

It doesn't really matter if its a D0 or C0...it really depends on how high you are looking to overclock. Most people will tell you 4.0 is the sweet spot for an O.C., but if you want your computer to get incredible performace, your RAM is the ticket. 4.0 acutally bottlenecks the PC in some applications or games...and some applications don't even utilize 4.0GHz LOL!!! You have pretty good RAM so far and you should hit 3.6 or 3.8 with an 8 memory mulitplier and stable OC and temps with low voltage. ^_^

 

[Kill@dor]

Look up your RAM calculator online...i would give you a link if i had one for it but i don't 🙁

 

[foolycooly]

If you overclock your CPU, you MUST overclock your RAM too. Just an FYI bud ^_^

It doesn't really matter if its a D0 or C0...it really depends on how high you are looking to overclock. Most people will tell you 4.0 is the sweet spot for an O.C., but if you want your computer to get incredible performace, your RAM is the ticket. 4.0 acutally bottlenecks the PC in some applications or games...and some applications don't even utilize 4.0GHz LOL!!! You have pretty good RAM so far and you should hit 3.6 or 3.8 with an 8 memory mulitplier and stable OC and temps with low voltage. ^_^

Overclocking your CPU does not mean you have to overclock your RAM. In many cases, it means your RAM will end up being underclocked. Your RAM speed is determined by your RAM multiplier times your baseclock. Increasing your baseclock in many cases leads to a RAM speed that is too high on the generally defauled 10x RAM multiplier. This means you will have to change your RAM multi to 8x which could lead to speeds under the manufacturer's specs.

For example, I have my i7 running at 3.8 with a 190 bclk. If i were to leave my RAM multi at 10x, I would be running the RAM at 1900...way over its rated 1600 speed. I changed my RAM multi to 8x, giving me a speed of 1520...underclocked...which allowed me to tighten my memory timings.

Also, I would be interested to know how an increase in CPU speed to 4.0Ghz would create a bottleneck...I'm not saying you're wrong (I'm pretty sure you are), but I would like to see where you are getting this info from.

 

[3dguyx]

many thanks perfectly done

 

[Micktorious]

Overclocking your CPU does not mean you have to overclock your RAM. In many cases, it means your RAM will end up being underclocked. Your RAM speed is determined by your RAM multiplier times your baseclock. Increasing your baseclock in many cases leads to a RAM speed that is too high on the generally defauled 10x RAM multiplier. This means you will have to change your RAM multi to 8x which could lead to speeds under the manufacturer's specs.

For example, I have my i7 running at 3.8 with a 190 bclk. If i were to leave my RAM multi at 10x, I would be running the RAM at 1900...way over its rated 1600 speed. I changed my RAM multi to 8x, giving me a speed of 1520...underclocked...which allowed me to tighten my memory timings.

Also, I would be interested to know how an increase in CPU speed to 4.0Ghz would create a bottleneck...I'm not saying you're wrong (I'm pretty sure you are), but I would like to see where you are getting this info from.

Tomshardware actually has an atricle talking about this bottleneck on the i7 920, how when put up to 4.0, it will throttle itself due to built in temp controls that won't allow it to destroy itself, it's just a that running at 100% load at 4.0 will cause it to pull itself back, plus they also showed that the watt/per hour relationship to increase in performance went DOWN 17% when running a 920 at 4.0

 

[foolycooly]

yeah I actually read about that Mick. However, if your temps are under control, an increase in clock speed can do nothing but increase the speed of tasks. I do agree though that pushing to 4.0 drastically reduces incremental gains.

 

[Micktorious]

yeah I actually read about that Mick. However, if your temps are under control, an increase in clock speed can do nothing but increase the speed of tasks. I do agree though that pushing to 4.0 drastically reduces incremental gains.

yea, i forget about cooling sometimes cause I have no way to upgrade my air cooling on my 920 unless I got liquid, cause I am using the Noctua Nh-12P(i think) unless someone knows a better air cooler?

I see your point if it was liquid cooling, then it would def. make sense that 4.0 is better