[Suggestions] I7-860 Overclocking, What am I missing?

[agentsi1511]

I'm by no means an expert, or claim to be anything other than an enthusiast. I know enough to be dangerous and work through most problems on my own. Recently I've really decided to start OC'ing my system, and have came through to very disappointing results.

When compared to other systems with similar speeds, slower/faster, my PC on average is well behind the curve.

Example 1) I use basic benchmark programs to kind of "gauge" where things should be like 3d Mark 11.

My system is about 35-55% slower than similar systems. When I say similar, I mean, same Video card and CPU. I know other factors play into this, but these two are by far the most important. ( As far as I know, if not please someone correct me, I want to learn).

My score with this system on 3d mark 11 - P8877 with it being overclocked.
Stock settings score is P8280.

My basic system specs pulled from my DxDiag

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 8/6/2012, 19:26:53
Machine name: KEVIN-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120503-2030)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 12/16/10 10:26:00 Ver: 08.00.15
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.7GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8190MB RAM
Page File: 2424MB used, 13951MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11

Using a Geforce GTX 670 FTW by eVGA.

I have a 1100 Watt Antec PSU, and my performance in everything I play is fine. But I again, notice people who have slower clock rates, or higher clock rates on their CPU( roughly 200-300mhz) getting almost twice the throughput of their system.

What am I missing here?

 

[inzone]

So you have overclocked your i7 860 from 2,8ghz to 3.7ghz? That's not much of an overclock and some times a standard overclock would be at least 1ghz over stock.
What video card are you using?

 

[agentsi1511]

This seems to be about as far as I can push it without it getting too warm. I had it up to 3.8 but would blue screen from time to time so I dropped it back down.

Using a Geforce GTX 670 FTW by eVGA

 

[inzone]

How much voltage did you add to the cpu with this overclock?

 

[agentsi1511]

1.296V

 

[inzone]

You can go up to 1.38 v without damaging the cpu as long as you have a cpu cooler that can dissapate the heat. When you got ot up to 3.8ghz and it would blue screen then you could have added some more voltage to stabalize it.
What are you using for a cpu cooler?

 

[agentsi1511]

http://www.zalman.com/eng/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=356

 

[inzone]

That is a good cpu cooler and should ave no trouble dissapating the heat geberated bty the cpu.

 

[agentsi1511]

So should I crank it to 1.38 and try 3.8 again you think?

 

[inzone]

No , you never just jump to a voltage setting like that. What you do is take the last voltage setting that you had and increase it by one step and see if that satbalizes Windows (no bsod) if it doesnt then try the next increment. You only want to add enough voltage to make Windows run stable.
I had mentioned that the voltage limit for not shortening the life of the cpu was 1.38v and by no means should you just jump to that voltage setting.