another overclocking question

[yancovitch]

i7-950.....how high can this be comfortably overclocked......i got it because i thought it could be overclocked higher or more securely than the 920, but it seems i was wrong......had the shop do it for me....seems to be unstable at 20% overclocking....?

[Slotback]

3.8ghz - 4.4ghz depending on the chip and cooling. Depends on what temperatures you feel comfortable with, what voltage you need. Also not all liquid coolers are created equal. I just overclock as far as I can provided that the temperature stays low, under 70 for my processor, and voltage stays low, under 1.375v on my processor and motherboard.

[idahosurge]

I got my i7 950 to 4.2GHz very easily, 100% stable and I am on air with a TRUE Rev C.  My MB is a P6T Deluxe v2.

To go much higher than that you will need a pretty good water setup and you will have to drive your CPU vcore and QPI/Dram a lot higher than what is required for 4.2GHz.

I have had mine to 4.4GHz on air, but it was highly unstable.  Since I did not want to change to a water cooling setup and did not want to drive the voltages to the upper level of their safe limits I decided to just leave it at 4.2GHz.

I you have the money and want to go to 4.4GHz or even 4.5GHz on air get a i7 980x with a Noctua NH-D14 HSF.

[Slotback]

Most awesome thing I've seen was Core i7 980X at 4.7ghz on phase change cooling completely stable.

[yancovitch]

am using a water cooled system on the cpu.. ...at 20%, once a week or two, when i turn on the computer, the monitor doesn't come on...i shut down completely and restart....message overclocking failed......
now the store installed epu-6 engine v1.02.04 program where i can choose between default and control over the amount of overclocking without having to reboot.....(when overclocked my win media center tv, on the computer falls apart)....just thought i'd mention......
at 20%...temp cpu max's at 69 degrees and the gtx 285 air cooled at 59 degrees...i have a feeling this epu thing is not the best idea...but?......original i7 950

[Slotback]

Typically BIOS settings are more stable than software, but if it works then by all means use it. Most extreme overclockers that use liquid nitrogen use software.

[idahosurge]

All of the overclock forums that I visit all say the same thing, overclock in BIOS only, do not overclock in Windows using anykind of software, it causes stability problems!

I have a P6T Deluxe v2 and your system specs say that you have a P6T Deluxe, the two boards are not that different and overclocking in the BIOS is pretty easy.  If you are interested then read these two guides at least twice each, this will give you an overview of the BIOS and the settings.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?boa ... uage=en-us

http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overcloc ... nners.html

Next go read this thread where NickN gave me my initial BIOS settings.  Note that the ram timings are for my Mushkin Redline 6-7-6-18 ram, if you have different ram you will need to adjust your settings for your ram.

http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaB ... 1263037900

Last and not least before you start read the BIOS section in your manual to get familar with your BIOS.  Use that program that you have been using and reset everything to default then reboot and confirm that your clock is at the default 3.06GHz.

Here are my BIOS settings for my 4.2GHz OC
AI Overclock Tuner: Manual
CPU Ratio Setting: 21x
Intel SpeedStep Tech:  Disabled
Intel Turbo Mode Tech: Disabled
BLCK Frequency: 200
PCIE Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: DDR3-1603MHz
UCLK Frequency: 3208MHz
QPI Link Data Rate: Auto (3600 MHz)

DRAM Timing Control
1st Information :
CAS# Latency: 6
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay: 7
DRAM RAS# PRE Time: 6
DRAM RAS# ACT Time: 18

2nd Information :
DRAM Timing Mode: 1N


CPU Voltage: 1.32500
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.82
QPI/DRAM Core Voltage: 1.34375
IOH Voltage: 1.20
ICH Voltage: 1.20
DRAM Bus Voltage: 1.66
Load Line Calibration: Enabled
CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
All Other Settings: Auto

Advance CPU Settings
CPU Ratio Setting: 21x
C1E Suppport: Disabled
Hardware Prefetcher: Enabled
Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch: Enabled
Intel

[yancovitch]

idahosurge...thanks so much for that....i think we got my computer to 3.68 and i don't know if we could go higher...the fellow at the store mentioned something about which batch i got....some are better ...some are worse...but i'll show him your specs..too afraid to try it on my own.....very kind of you....cheers...

[yancovitch]

idahosurge.....just a thought...will your overclocking considerably reduce the life of your computer or parts?

[idahosurge]

As long as you do not overdrive your parts, no.

Intel has recommend "not to exceed" voltages, as long as you do not exceed those voltages you are not going to hurt your CPU or other parts.  If memory serves me right that is 1.375V for the CPU voltage and 1.375V for the QPI/Dram voltage.  All the other voltages have limits, but I would have to look them up on the net.  The voltages that I posted above are all well within the maximum safe limits.

You do have to have an aftermarket CPU HSF "heat sink fan combo" since the stock Intel CPU HSF does not get rid of enough heat when you OC.

When you OC even though you do not exceed the recommend voltages you still have to watch your core temps to make sure that your HSF is getting rid of enough heat.  On an i7 9XX you do not want any of your core temps to go over 80C.  Anything over that and you start exceeding the Intel recommended safe maximum core temps.

[Slotback]

I've never seen actual tests seeing if the life is considerably reduced, but I doubt that so many people would swear by overclocking if it would considerably reduce the life of the processor.

[idahosurge]

Besides what NNNG stated, you do know that Intel knows full well that people are going to OC so Intel would build this into their chips.  If OC'ing a chip was going to destroy it or substantially shorten the life span no motherboard manufacuter would sell MB's with an unlocked BIOS that would allow you to OC and Intel would just come out and flat say "do not do it because this will cause damage that can not be recovered from"