Discussion Red Line Overclocking

jnjnilson6

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What're the maximum overclocks you've managed (regarding any hardware component)? Were they stable? How did it go? Did you use water cooling? What interesting changes did you make in the BIOS?

In my case:

Celeron 420 1.6 GHz to 3.0 GHz (normal cooling; stable performance and good temperatures)
Core i7-3770K 3.9 GHz to 5.0 GHz (Corsair H110 water cooling) / generally stable performance under stress for hours / temperature may remain at 99 C
Corsair DDR3 1600 MHz RAM (2x 8 GB) to 2133 MHz (stable)
Sapphire Radeon HD 6770 --
Core: 775 / Memory: 1000 to
Core: 970-980 / Memory: 1380-1390 (stable)

Would be glad to hear about it and

Thank you!
 
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my best and still favorite OC was my Intel i7-950

Asus rampage 3 extreme with Danger Den full block with Danger Den slim 240mm rad push pull Scythe Ultra Kaze 133.6 CFM
Intel i7-950 @ 4.9Ghz under aDnager Den water block and Danger Den Black Ice Extreme 480x80mm radiator running push pull Scythe Ultra Kaze 133.6 CFM
12GB mushkin blackline 1600MHz 6-8-6-24 best 2032Mhz
2 Zotac AMP GTX 480's @ 903Mhz memory 2220MHz under DD water blocks and Danger Den Black Ice Extreme 480x80mm radiator running push pull Scythe Ultra Kaze 133.6 CFM
A year later i swapped out for 2 MSI GTX 580 @ 990Mhz memory 2360Mhz, I probably went thru a dozen cards till i found a matching pair that overclocked well together.

Yeah it sounded like a jet engine when it was running, but it was fast :D
omVzRA2.jpg

UPCQH5w.jpg


Had a xeon x5690 @4.2Ghz but could only run 1333Mhz ram :( Switched it our for a i7 980x @ 4.4GHz, its till on the rampage 3 extreme in my server rack.

Had a few i5-2500k @ 5.1Ghz
a i7-2600k @ 5.2Ghz
a i5-4670k dont think i ever overclocked it
and my i7-8700k de-lidded and liquid metaled @ 5.1Ghz
 
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jnjnilson6

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my best and still favorite OC was my Intel i7-950

Asus rampage 3 extreme with Danger Den full block with Danger Den slim 240mm rad push pull Scythe Ultra Kaze 133.6 CFM
Intel i7-950 @ 4.9Ghz under aDnager Den water block and Danger Den Black Ice Extreme 480x80mm radiator running push pull Scythe Ultra Kaze 133.6 CFM
12GB mushkin blackline 1600MHz 6-8-6-24 best 2032Mhz
2 Zotac AMP GTX 480's @ 903Mhz memory 2220MHz under DD water blocks and Danger Den Black Ice Extreme 480x80mm radiator running push pull Scythe Ultra Kaze 133.6 CFM
A year later i swapped out for 2 MSI GTX 580 @ 990Mhz memory 2360Mhz, I probably went thru a dozen cards till i found a matching pair that overclocked well together.

Yeah it sounded like a jet engine when it was running, but it was fast :D
omVzRA2.jpg

UPCQH5w.jpg


Had a xeon x5690 @4.2Ghz but could only run 1333Mhz ram :( Switched it our for a i7 980x @ 4.4GHz, its till on the rampage 3 extreme in my server rack.

Had a few i5-2500k @ 5.1Ghz
a i7-2600k @ 5.2Ghz
a i5-4670k dont think i ever overclocked it
and my i7-8700k de-lidded and liquid metaled @ 5.1Ghz
It would be cool if you could share the temps you were getting on the i7-950 and on any of the other components you've mentioned if you remember. :)
 
I only ran 4.9Ghz on the computer during the winter, normal was 4.6Ghz and it topped out in the mid 70's.

Now for winter.....and probably not the smartest thing to do, with the giant box on the side of the computer, 1 radiator did the CPU the other did the dual GPU's. I would open the bottom half of the window and duct air into the side radiators, then lower the top half of the window and duct the air out the top of the case to the top of the window.

With all that running benchmarks i was seeing 18c max on the CPU and 8c on the GPU's I only did that for a year and only for the winter months as i was still getting air leakage out of the case and the room would be cooler then the rest of the house.


Like i said this is probably the most fun i've had with a build and my favorite. I had an excel sheet that i kept track of BCLK, multiplier, and voltages for the CPU, one for ram speed, timings, and voltages, and another for my GPU's. I knew exact setting from a stock CPU to 4.9GHz with ram speed and timings, spent weeks tuning and benching to find every little setting.

Once the 2nd gen cpu's came out it was way to easy to hit 5ghz and kinda lost interest, i still dabbled in water cooling but only because i had the parts.

I ran the i7 980x at 4.4GHz at work up till 2018 when i replaced it with an AMD 3600x, this was it in its last glory days
H01jcEk.png

Asus Rampage 3 extreme
I7 980x @ 4.4Ghz
Mushkin Blackline 12GB @1600Mhz 6-8-6-24
4 EVGA GTX 760 superclocked, later switched out to 4 GTX 780 Ti Kingpins

:( now it sits in a 4U server case at the bottom of my rack with a LSI megaraid 16 drive card in it for backups
 
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jnjnilson6

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I only ran 4.9Ghz on the computer during the winter, normal was 4.6Ghz and it topped out in the mid 70's.

Now for winter.....and probably not the smartest thing to do, with the giant box on the side of the computer, 1 radiator did the CPU the other did the dual GPU's. I would open the bottom half of the window and duct air into the side radiators, then lower the top half of the window and duct the air out the top of the case to the top of the window.

With all that running benchmarks i was seeing 18c max on the CPU and 8c on the GPU's I only did that for a year and only for the winter months as i was still getting air leakage out of the case and the room would be cooler then the rest of the house.


Like i said this is probably the most fun i've had with a build and my favorite. I had an excel sheet that i kept track of BCLK, multiplier, and voltages for the CPU, one for ram speed, timings, and voltages, and another for my GPU's. I knew exact setting from a stock CPU to 4.9GHz with ram speed and timings, spent weeks tuning and benching to find every little setting.

Once the 2nd gen cpu's came out it was way to easy to hit 5ghz and kinda lost interest, i still dabbled in water cooling but only because i had the parts.

I ran the i7 980x at 4.4GHz at work up till 2018 when i replaced it with an AMD 3600x, this was it in its last glory days
H01jcEk.png

Asus Rampage 3 extreme
I7 980x @ 4.4Ghz
Mushkin Blackline 12GB @1600Mhz 6-8-6-24
4 EVGA GTX 760 superclocked, later switched out to 4 GTX 780 Ti Kingpins

:( now it sits in a 4U server case at the bottom of my rack with a LSI megaraid 16 drive card in it for backups
A momentous machine. Sure looks breathtakingly captivating! A great piece of work. You should be very proud; this will catch the eye in the hardware sphere eternally and by monumental margins; it's just the portrayal of it that is cool as cool. (y)
 
I dont remember full system specs but here are a few more i had over the years
i5-2500k @5.1GHz moved to i7-2600k at 5.2Ghz
Dual GTX 560TI cards
8GB 1600MHz
This one had a nice death when the pump failed and the hose sprung a leak and had coolant all over the place. Rebuilt it and used for a few years.
7ewmHd9.jpg

F0Bqkhs.jpg


Think this one used the i5-2500k of the other build
GTX 670
8GB 1600Mhz
v6qJ78U.jpg


This one in now air cooled and has a Quadro 600 card on it used for streaming on my tv. 3D printed a motherboard tray/ PSU bracket for it, if i remember i'll try and get a picture of it tonight.
 
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