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Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:00 am
by fvjuke
Hello guys,
I need some guidance in overclocking my i7 940.
I want to start slowly and as my knowledge increases, I want to bring it close to 4ghz.
I have started to read some of the posts from NickN (bit-tech guide and video from NCIX) and am starting to be a bit familiar.
I want to start on stock cooling until my TRUE 120 arrives.
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:02 pm
by NickN
Use this beta of RealTemp to confirm the temps on the processor
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... count=2735link is in the post
Confirm the readout on the Palm matches Realtemp. If it does under a full load the Palm readout is correct.. if it doesnt, use the reading in RealTemp instead
There has been some discussion about i7 and the temps sensors out there. Coretemp will not read the i7 CPU correctly and even some BIOS have been said to report temps incorrectly
As for clocking it.. what you said is that simple... raise BCLOCK, vcore if necessary, confirm the memory is running the correct or close to the correct speed and the temps under full load are in order..
thats it
As for it it will be stable without raisng vcore.. that is problematical and I cant guess about it... If its not stable then start bringing vcore up in values of .05 till it trims in. Most should be able to run a 940 at 1.35-1.40v Vcore
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:24 pm
by NickN
forgot... In realtemp Properties.. change the tJMAX to 100 for all 4 cores in the SETTINGS so the readout is calibrated correctly.. make sure to apply the change
after that, keep the temp at a MAX of 78c under a full OCCT load test
FSX will never, ever run that processor that hot so if you are under 78c with OCCT 1hr test with the tJMAX set to 100c in Realtemp,... your good to go
I could guess that you would either
A: Not need to raise vcore
B. Need to raise vcore just a tad
to do 3.4.. probably not at all
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:38 pm
by fvjuke
Great Thanks again NickN.
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:27 pm
by fvjuke
Ok, I did some test with occt using bclock of 145 and not changing anything else.
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:59 am
by NickN
you cant damage the CPU unless it hits 100c
The lower value is what we use becasue the thermal limiting system will kick in right around 80-85c and slow the processor down to keep it cool
If you were hitting those 80c+ temps and did not change Vcore (set to AUTO) and only running 3190 then I suspect the heat sink may not be sitting on the CPU correctly.. thermal compound was too thick, PSU is too weak (would eliminate that if a decent 750watt unit is installed) or the tower airflow is very poor with a high room ambient temp
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:30 am
by fvjuke
Hello NickN,
thanks for your reply.
My room is at 21c, my tower airflow seems very good with this Antec 900 (all the fans are running), my PSU is a good Corsair 750W. RealTemp is giving me 34c at idle.
Don't know what is wrong with that. I will have to go back to my shop and see if they can help. May be the heatsink was not installed correctly.
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:01 pm
by fvjuke
Ok, I just installed a Thermalright 120 and my temps are great.
Need some help here.
I increased the bclock to 155
Set the multiplier to 22
Set vcore to 1.225v
passed occt with temps below 60c.
How do I know if my RAM is running ath the right speed ?
CPUz tells me it is running at 465mhz with FSB/DRAM ration of 2:6 and NB frquency of 2480mhz.
Do I need to play with the RAM settings in the bios ?
Looking forward to your help.
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:48 pm
by NickN
Ok, I just installed a Thermalright 120 and my temps are great.
Need some help here.
I increased the bclock to 155
Set the multiplier to 22
Set vcore to 1.225v
passed occt with temps below 60c.
How do I know if my RAM is running ath the right speed ?
CPUz tells me it is running at 465mhz with FSB/DRAM ration of 2:6 and NB frquency of 2480mhz.
Do I need to play with the RAM settings in the bios ?
Looking forward to your help.
Get the latest version of CPUz which updates for Bloomfield because something is not right with those numbers
You should have QPI LINK in CPUz showing
http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpuz_149.zippost the CPU and MEMORY tabs here
On that heat sink you should have no problem going to 4GHz but Vcore will need to come up to somewhere between 1.28 and 1.40, lower is better
The memory multiplier in the BIOS will set the memory speed with BCLOCK check the ratio and it should display a value close to 1600, perhaps a little under. Memspeed in CPUz should read 800MHz for DDR3 1600
DRAM Frequency - 1600MHz in the BIOS if BCLOCK is 200
Look here.. this is 920 on P6T but it is similar
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/1 ... e-i7-920/3
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:28 pm
by raptorx
Guys, I just got an unexpected Christmas boner..ah, I mean bonus

and I'm seriously thinking of taking that + selling off my MB, CPU, RAM (done!) to get one of these i940s.
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:03 pm
by fvjuke
Ok guys, I have been doing some tests and I will need you help again.
Nick, I used the settings mentionned in your link (bit-tech) but I had to increase the vcore to 1.4v for it to boot into Vista and it did not pass the occt test, I had a BSOD as soon as it started to push the cpu.
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:11 pm
by NickN
[quote]Ok guys, I have been doing some tests and I will need you help again.
Nick, I used the settings mentionned in your link (bit-tech) but I had to increase the vcore to 1.4v for it to boot into Vista and it did not pass the occt test, I had a BSOD as soon as it started to push the cpu.
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:11 pm
by fvjuke
Hello Nick,
Yes I had disable the turbo mode and tried disabling the TM function but again it failed the OCCT 1 hour test.
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:36 am
by NickN
hmmmmmm
I would think that would have been stable
You may want to go over to the OCZ forums and post this to Tony or one of the other devs.. I am not sure what they are suggesting for QPI/Dram voltage on those sticks..
Re: Need help overclocking i7 940

Posted:
Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:11 pm
by fvjuke
Hello nick,
I will go on that forum and see what they have to say about this.
According to CPU-Z, my memory is at 760mhz 9-9-9 25 on 1T.