OC steps for my i7 920

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:36 pm

I saw a brief videoon OCing the i7 920 with the P6T mb and it sure seems easy.

I'd like a little more umph from my system, so I'd like to OC it.
Before I do, I thought I'd get the input from the DBB Tech Gurus.

Here's my specs:
Win XP sp3, Asus P6T, i7 920 @2.66GHz stock w/Vigor Monsoon 3 cooler, Corsair XMS3 6gb RAM,
My ram specs are:

Brand CORSAIR
Series XMS3
Model TR3X6G1333C9
Type 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM
Tech Spec
Capacity 6GB (3 x 2GB)
Speed DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
Cas Latency 9
Timing 9-9-9-24
Voltage 1.5V
Multi-channel Kit Triple Channel Kit
Heat Spreader

I saw some basic instructions, which basically coincide with the video. Here they are:

1. Turn OFF Turbo and speedstep
2. Set Vcore to 1.35v
3. Set RAM voltage to 1.66v (yes, there will be a warning as MS only suggests 1.65, but it's o.k.) and make sure it's listed at the only supported setting for the i7 920, 1066mhz. This way as you overclock your cpu, the RAM will step with it. My RAM is at a Bclck setting of 190 (x20 = 3800mhz), the RAM sits at 1523mhz thus I don't even have to oc my RAM. If your RAM spec is lower than 1600mhz, though, you may have to either oc your RAM a little or settle for a slightly lower CPU oc.

Using simple math, if you step your Bclck in increments of 5, that will represent 100mhz on your oc (i.e. 175 = 3.5ghz, 180 = 3.6ghz, 185 = 3.7ghz, 190 = 3.8ghz)

Anything I should keep in mind before the OC?
I'd be happy with 3.4 ...I should be able to get that w/o OCing my ram, right?
Should I even worry about OCing my ram? I'm willing to give it a try. It's decent and was listed as \"high performance gaming memory\" back when I bought it.

Thanks for any input!

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:47 pm

Cant edit the post for some reason. It keeps telling me there's an error with the page (wonder if this is related to my freezing issues...).

Just wanted to add, though, that my CPU cooler is a MONSTER. Made for OCing....if that makes a difference.

Spidey · Post by **Spidey** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:00 pm

No, your editing problem is related to this site.

Lots of people are having problems editing posts over a certain unknown size.

Sickone · Post by **Sickone** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:06 pm

Ready,
depending on the cooler/heatsink you should be able to hit 3.6 - 3.8GHz (180 - 190base clock)

I chose to just stay at 185, since on mine that require no overvoltage. and the difference between 3.7 and 3.8... who cares.

The RAM you can selct different dividers, but I left mine so it is at 1.85GHz.

Have something loaded like the Asus Probe program and get something like Prime95 and run to test under load and make sure your temperatures remain safe.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sat May 01, 2010 1:51 am

thanks SickOne.

I prefer to just leave my RAM alone, so I'll try to just adjust the cpu speed and see if I can get a stable 3.6 or 3.7

The cooler will do great.

I was unsure about what to do with the RAM. Leaving it alone is a good option

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Mon May 03, 2010 9:52 pm

So basically, I should just set the bclk freq. to 185 and leave everything else at auto?

I'm a bit confused.
The guide says to put the CPU voltage to 1.35 (ok)
put the Bclk freq. at 180 - 190 (got it at 185)

Here's where I get confused. The guide says put the Dram Freq. to 1523, but I dont have that option. I have 1113, 1483, 1854, 2226, 2596, 2967.
Which should I choose, if any? (My ram is posted above)

Then the last step is the DRAM bus voltage to 1.66
It says that 1.64 will take, but 1.65 wont (but 1.66 gets the warning note about it being too high).

I'm happy to just set the bclk freq and walk away....just want it to be stable.

Help?

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Mon May 03, 2010 10:13 pm

I see that adjusting the BCLK frequency also adjusts the DRAM Frequency.
If my RAM is rated at 1333, then should I try to get as close to that number as possible by adjusting the BCLK until I get a mhz that is close?

I guess I dont understad what the mhz of the ram has to do with the cpu OCing.
In my old AMD setup, it was just a matter of upping the multiplier.

Sorry for being such a noob...but I appreciate any assistance.

-RM

Sickone · Post by **Sickone** » Mon May 03, 2010 10:36 pm

this is where the question of how good your RAM is for overclocking comes in.

The base clock is used to determine the CPU clock
(base x 20 = cpu) but it also determines the RAM, in the same fashion. I think the default is (base x 8 = RAM clk)

So the default CLK of 133MHz x 20 = 2.66GHz CPU
and 133MHz x 8 = 1.066GHz RAM.

If you bump the clock to 166MHz you are going to have
166MHz x 20 = 3.33GHz CPU and 166MHz x 8 = 1.333GHz RAM.

So assuming the RAM will do more than it's rated speed (just like the CPU) you can take it beyond that 166MHz.

I am not sure on P6T board, but my P658X has a multiplier setting for the RAM, so you can change it
from 8 to I think 4, 6, 8 or 10 (I am not sure - I'd have to check).

I would think you can hit the 166MHz with no issue, then you will just have to see where it will go beyond that, Or if you'll have to step the RAM down to a 6x multiplier to get the CPU higher, etc.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Mon May 03, 2010 10:42 pm

Setting the BCLK at 166 puts my DRAM freq. at 1331mhz.

So what you're saying is, is that this should be pretty stable, and if I put the BCLK to say 185, then the DRAM freq goes to 1483mhz, and even tho its rated at 1333, it *likely* can go higher ?

The CPU voltage: do I need to boost that to 1.35?

The DRAM Bus Voltage, do I need to boost that to 1.66?

Thanks

Sickone · Post by **Sickone** » Mon May 03, 2010 10:51 pm

boosting the voltage of the CPU or the RAM can help it overclock more and remain stable. It will also produce more heat. That is why I avoided that for the little bit of gain that remained.

I am running a 185 CLK, and a RAM Multiplier of 10x.
so I am getting 3.7GHz(3.885 in turbo) and 1.85GHz on the RAM with no overvoltage. Now my RAM is rated for 1600MHz... but who knows.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Mon May 03, 2010 11:13 pm

Well, I'm starting at a BCLK of 166 which puts my DDR3 at1331mhz
I also put the CPU voltaget at 1.35

I did the torture tests for 16 minutes with no errors or warnings.
Temps were all in the high 80s and one core hit 93 degrees.
That's too hot, right?

Makes me wonder if I should just bump the cpu voltage back down to auto...

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Mon May 03, 2010 11:44 pm

My temps run in the 40s on all cores when not testing.
Question #1--should I worry/monitor the temperatures when testing with prime95, or just be focused on if it's stable or not?
(when should I monitor the temps then?)

My cooler is a monstrousity and made for OCing
Vigor Monsoon 3 cooler
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6835702007

I put the voltage back on \"auto\", so the only adjustment I made was the 166 BLCK.
(which puts the ram still at 1331mhz)
Prime 95 ran smoothly, with temps on all cores in the mid 70s. No errors or warnings after 12 minutes.

In light of that, question #2:

Do you think that I can bump up the BLCK to 175 or 185 with this RAM (yes I now see why I should have gone with better ram....just had no idea what to look for when I built this system) which would put the ram at 1483?

It's a matter of stability at this point, right?
and finally Question #3:
Will bumping up the BLCK only increase my temps?

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Tue May 04, 2010 1:17 am

--still having trouble editing posts--
those temps are celsius, btw.
dunno what I should be looking for.

Running the system at the regular clock speed of 2.67 with no OC, and running prime95 gives me temps between 65 and 71 celsius.

So the system doesnt run *that* much hotter with the mild OC.

Tho it seems that the heat sink isnt doing its job. Must not be seated well enough.

Sickone · Post by **Sickone** » Tue May 04, 2010 9:41 am

It is a matter of stability and heat. Getting into the 90 is likely way to hot.

I can run prime95 and not break 65c.

Now... when I first built the system I tried a couple of air coolers \"MADE FOR OVERCLOCKING\"
one which promised to handle 180watts. I think they were in the 50 and then the 80 dollar range.

The better gave me temps that would 74c in prime95
The newer one I have \"Prolimatech Megahalems rev B\" droped that 10 degrees. If you go by the couple of bench marks I found it is top notch, even against the self contained water cooler (in fact out performs it by a bit)

I would certainly look at the heat paste and seating if you were seeing in to the 90's.

The RAM may or may not make it at higher speeds(BCLK).
If your RAM won't make it, you can change the RAM multiplier (asuming your boards supports it).
On my board it doesn't actually show your the mutiplier, it just lists the RAM clk speeds available with the current BCLK.

In any case you could select a lower RAM clk and you could take the CPU higher (maybe)

In short... with 1333 RAM I would think it is likely you can hit 175 or 185 BCLK.

flip · Post by **flip** » Tue May 04, 2010 9:47 am

If your temps are that bad you need a new cooler or to reseat it again.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Tue May 04, 2010 7:45 pm

Turned on the pc today and it wouldnt awake from the log off position. I had it on this morning with no issues. Had to hold the power button for 5 seconds to get it to shut down and then I restarted it, only to get a message \"your overclock failed\".

I put the bclk down to 150, which reduced the ram speed to 1080 or something like that...and it booted right up.

I think the RAM is probably not all that great, and with my cooler not seated well, I'm irritated.

I have to take the mb out to reseat the cooler (it's THAT big), so it's a big hassle.

I think I'll keep it at 150 (3.0 ghz) for now. The temps are low on the most demanding games I have tried, so heat shouldnt be an issue like it was during the prim95 testing.
btw, last night I put the cpu back to 2.66 and ran prime95. The temps stayed at about 50-60. Seems safe enough at regular speeds, so just a mild OC should do it (tho now I'm frustrated enough to question the value of OC'ing it in the first place).

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Wed May 05, 2010 2:07 am

Decided to run some more tests.

I ran the BCLK at 150 (Ram at 1202) for over an hour and the highest temp. was 79 degrees.

Then I ran the BCLK at 160 (Ram at 1282) for an hour and a half and the highest temp. was 82 degrees.

When I ran the system with the most demanding game I have (Rise of Flight), the temps stayed in the 60s.

Since it's only a couple of degrees difference, and these tests are more stress than I'll be putting the system thru (normally), the BLCK of 160 seems good (as long as it doesnt crash), right?

At this point, I dont want to reseat my cooler, as I have to take the mb out of the case to do it. I'm happy with the 3.0 and even the 3.2 OC.

Newegg has 6 gigs of OCZ 2000 RAM for $200, but that's another step I'm not ready to take (I think I'd rather upgrade to a SSD with win 7 if I was going to make another upgrade move).

opinions?

flip · Post by **flip** » Wed May 05, 2010 5:37 am

Man honestly with todays clock and bus speeds OC'ing is just for bragging rights. I built an AMD system based on the black 550 cpu and 790gx chipset and was lucky enough to unlock all 4 cores. I left it at that. It chews up everything I throw at it and the less heat the better. I idle around 32-33c and never go above 48-49c.

Sickone · Post by **Sickone** » Wed May 05, 2010 9:23 am

Ready,

1) Many cases allow you to remove the left side panel and get to the under side of the MB to install/uninstall the heatsink without yanking the MB.

2) I would certainly check out the seating/heat paste/etc - just the right amount - enough to cover, thats all.

3) If youy were running at 166 OK, I wouldn't worry the one bad boot. You can likely go right back to 166

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Wed May 05, 2010 12:45 pm

Sickone wrote:Ready,

1) Many cases allow you to remove the left side panel and get to the under side of the MB to install/uninstall the heatsink without yanking the MB.

2) I would certainly check out the seating/heat paste/etc - just the right amount - enough to cover, thats all.

Do I have to clean the existing paste off (scrape it, or ??). I dont have any here, so I'll have to order some and have it shipped.

3) If youy were running at 166 OK, I wouldn't worry the one bad boot. You can likely go right back to 166

Heat is the big issue (and l live in a warm place, on a warm island). I idle at about 40 degrees (real temp says 40, asus probe says 44 degrees), and gaming brings it up into the 60s.
I dont think the prime95 heat temps are realistic since I dont put the system under that much load.

Flip--that's a good point. This flight sim I'm flying is pretty demanding though. If it wasnt for that, I'd probably just leave it at the stock speed. It does make a difference though...

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Wed May 05, 2010 5:12 pm

You were right SickOne. I put it back up to 166 and played for a few hours...everything ran smoothly. Temps were hovering at 60 during the whole time.

I guess prime95 really overheats a cpu...I didnt get over 65, and that for only a moment.
Prime 95 had me in the 70s and low 80s.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Wed May 05, 2010 6:11 pm

If prime leads to overheats, anything else that brings the CPU up to 100% utilization will also cause the system to overheat. Right now you are in a situation where you have a big engine that can only run at idle without it burning up.

Also what version of prime are you using? Not all versions are equal and you want one that can spawn 4 threads and test all 4 cores at the same time. Most versions of prime are single threaded and only operate on a single core which doesn't really help figure out if it is good or not.

Sickone · Post by **Sickone** » Wed May 05, 2010 6:12 pm

prime95 is a tool to make sure you know what the
\"TOP\" temperature you will hit.

If you get the max there down at a safe level - you know you will always be safe.

Certainly it appears for your needs, you are keeping a safe temp. and you got a free 25% speed increase.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Wed May 05, 2010 6:18 pm

LinX can potentially make CPUs run even hotter than prime, and is an equally good program for stability testing.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Wed May 05, 2010 6:21 pm

for the sake of sanity... prime95 running 4 threads on my phenom II x4 never went past 60c, using stock HSF... so I think readyman has something wrong with his setup

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Wed May 05, 2010 6:29 pm

Remount that cooler.
When u take it off, snap a picture of old thermal paste spread, so we can see if maybe u put too much or not enough.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Wed May 05, 2010 9:23 pm

I'm running the latest version of prime95 (just dl'ed it the other day from their site). It runs 8 tests on all cores. It's the \"torture test\".

And I'm using the \"blend\" option (tests some of everything, lots of RAM tested)
and it's version: v25.11, build 2

It's gonna take a bit to get the thermal paste here....

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Wed May 05, 2010 9:42 pm

ReadyMan wrote: It's gonna take a bit to get the thermal paste here....

You don't have any left over from the syringe that came with the cooler?
By the looks of the syringe in the picture on newegg there should be enough to do 20 CPUs in that thing.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Wed May 05, 2010 10:10 pm

I looked but couldnt find it. ;(

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Wed May 12, 2010 11:42 am

Yesterday I had another \"your overclock has failed\" message when trying to resume the PC from sleep mode.
I just hit OK, and restarted and it booted up just fine.
This morning, same thing happened, so I lowered the clock to BCLK 150.

Not sure why it works sometimes and not others.

I've monitored my heat temps while gaming, and with everything running full out, the system never hits 70 degrees. So heat seems good.

Also, thinking about the heat sink being properly seated, I've noticed that my tower doesnt have very good airflow. It might be that the tower just runs hot. I'm going to try removing the side window and see what the temps are like.

OC steps for my i7 920

OC steps for my i7 920

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