Want to get to 3.5 with core i7 920

[Vloglisci]

I read alot of this forums and posts and their all good and all but can someone give me exact numbers to punch in to start. im aware each is diff for peoples cpus.

But if i can get a base and work off of that..it would be greatt..

 

[ameatypie]

Hey there
Sorry i cant help you with specific numbers, but provided you have a decent heatsink you should be able to make it to 4GHz with relative ease. Planning on an i7 system early next year - yay for me!
Good luck

 

[foolycooly]

Hey there
Sorry i cant help you with specific numbers, but provided you have a decent heatsink you should be able to make it to 4GHz with relative ease. Planning on an i7 system early next year - yay for me!
Good luck

lol this isn't very helpful...and getting to 4.0 is processor and heatsink dependent. You could be running a TRUE and still see issues with temps since you might have to bump voltages to near maximums...just a heads up.

@OP, you can generally achieve a 3.5ghz overclock on a 920 on stock voltages. I would suggest you go into the BIOS and make the following adjustments:

set the BCLK to 175
turn speedstep off
turn turbo mode off
leave everything else on auto
double check your RAM multiplier (probably going to need to be x8 since your RAM will probably not run at 1750)

I would then set your RAM timings manually within the BIOS to ensure that they are running at their advertised speed. Boot up to windows and run Prime95 for a few hours with realtemp up. Make sure your temps do not exceed 85 degrees. Check your idle temps as well...they should not exceed 45.

 

[jay2tall]

I just upgraded My PC with an i7 920 and had the same questions. I wanted to start with a moderate OC. I have a Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme cooler on permanent loan from a buddy. I have not touch the i7 yet, but my buddy says he can hit 3.8 with everything on auto, with speedstep and turbo off. Although he is water cooled and has the Extreme Gigabyte board that has a controller on it for OCing.

My test method for the CPU is to run OCCT for an hour. If it passes you are good. Prime 95 is good for memory though. Although now I have 6GB and running this only uses 3GB. Not sure how to test the other 3GB. I'll need to find another app I guess.

 

[foolycooly]

The thing about leaving voltages on auto is that the BIOS can overestimate what is needed, resulting in unnecessary wear on your proc. It's best to key them in manually. When your friend said he hit 3.8 on auto, I assume he meant that his voltages were over stock still. You can hit 3.6 on stock, as I have heard many people do (myself included). You should try setting the cpu core voltage to 1.2v and the QPI/Dram voltage to 1.2 (both stock). Then you can turn speedstep and turbo off, and bump the bclk to 180. This setting passed a few hours of prime95 for me, with temps capping arount 75c. It's idleing right now in the 37-40 range. You will probably see better temps than me though, since the TRUE is the best air cooler out there.

 

[jay2tall]

Is it advisable to leave speedstep on for power saving? I know with my old C2D you HAD to disable this in order to manually enter the voltage. However I have had my i7 since yesterday so im on a severe learning curve. I can see what you are saying about the system overcompensating the voltage.

 

[foolycooly]

I'm actually not sure what kind of ill effects leaving it on/off would have. As far as I know, leaving it on is just fine.

 

[jay2tall]

I'm sure i will stumble upon more answers somewhere. I just got my case today and ran to get it at UPS over lunch. Had about 45 minutes over my lunch to start playing with it. Got the PSU and mobo mounted. I really want to cable manage this one. So ill get to play once it is all together. Last night I had it running on a static bag on the mobo box. Because I am impatient. haha

 

[huskerwr38]

lol this isn't very helpful...and getting to 4.0 is processor and heatsink dependent. You could be running a TRUE and still see issues with temps since you might have to bump voltages to near maximums...just a heads up.

@OP, you can generally achieve a 3.5ghz overclock on a 920 on stock voltages. I would suggest you go into the BIOS and make the following adjustments:

set the BCLK to 175
turn speedstep off
turn turbo mode off
leave everything else on auto
double check your RAM multiplier (probably going to need to be x8 since your RAM will probably not run at 1750)

I would then set your RAM timings manually within the BIOS to ensure that they are running at their advertised speed. Boot up to windows and run Prime95 for a few hours with realtemp up. Make sure your temps do not exceed 85 degrees. Check your idle temps as well...they should not exceed 45.

That is pretty much what I did. But, I didn't leave the Vcore and QPI on auto. I set those at stock manually so that wouldn't go above stock.
RAM timings are on auto.

So my settings are Bclk to 175, RAM multiplier at 8 and Uncore at 16, QPI at 18, Vcore at 1.16, QPI is at stock 1.1 (I have the offset at 0.00). I have been running prime95 for about 9 hours now with temps at 56-58 avg and idle is about 35 or so. Hope that helps. Oh and I have an MSI x58 pro, GSkill DDR3 1600 6GB, i7 920, and a Xigatek 1283 cpu cooler.

 

[foolycooly]

those are awesome load temps! Are you using realtemp to monitor them?

 

[JoeJITSU]

Can I use my stock cooler with these numbers? I just want to hit about a 3.5. Thanks