Very nice clocks, Anth, you've got a winner there!
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Absolutely you are right. I have thermal issues in this case even with the Xigmatek HDT-1284EE air cooler that I thought was supposed to be pretty good at lower price than the Thermalright True 120. This is also an awesme all aluminum Lian-Li V1200 Plus case that has a lot of great thermal management features. Check that thread I linked to above.
One thing that I have to try is setting the Asus BIOS Q-fan setting from Standard to Turbo to see if the motherboard will pump some more voltage to get the fan RPMs higher.
I am a very experienced computer user and admin but frankly overclocking has never been my forte since I do not want to invest in water cooling seeing as I am happy with how quiet my system is now on air. It is a big jump to move from air to water and to do it properly with good quality equipment.
I am going to try a little more to push this chip on air at least to 3.8 GHz but frankly I will not be truly diappointed if 3.6 GHz is the max for me.
I can just say one thing. Invest in a really really good cooler and call it a day if water cooling is not for you. for example a TRUE with high flow fans in push and pull. You can hook up the fans to a controller so that you can turn them down and enjoy from a quite PC. If you want to do some benches or what not, you can turn them up and enjoy a bit of benching. Can't go wrong with that.
Thing with i7's, even if you go water its not enough, there is never enough radiator to cool an i7. Check out the thread below its got a few pages, but go through it. Its my i7 watercooling thread . Its got pictures and info bout my watercooling setup. If you have any questions feel free to PM me bro ;)
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=82607
I hear you and you have a nice setup from what I see. The thing is that I am just not convinced that water cooling is a worthwhile endeavor for me because I do not get the thrill from benching or overclocking anymore. Back in the days I was happy to push my system and get nice benches but as I started using the computer more I want more features and software and I am not too concerned about speed. Due to this I cannot justify the expense and effort of setting up water cooling on my system when the clocking rewards will be so small.
Of course I like to run my favorite games like STALKER with smooth frame rates but the hell of a nightmare that my DFI nForce4 motherboard and AMD Opteron 175 gave me now make me want to ensure absolute consistency, stability and reliability from my system more than slightly higher clocks on a system that would flake out on me.
Due to these facts I am going to try and stick to air in my system and optimise the setup I have with my cooler. I might by another fan to mount it on the other side to give it a push and pull config but I do not want to switch heatsinks because I don't think that a different one will give me any significantly better thermal reduction than the four heatpipe with direct contact on that I have now.
I just hope that I don't find out that I got another gimped chip with my batch that only is BLCK stable below 200. But even if that is the case then I will still keep this CPU even at the 3.6 GHz I was able to reach since a different batch will get me to maybe at 3.8 GHz before the thermals get out of control.
I will play with the system when I come back after the weekend. Posting from the road.
oh ok, I completely understand what you are saying bro and I agree. Me myself haven't overclocked in months. just been using the computer and enjoying it. Just if you can getting two high flow fans push and pull with a fan controller, will be great. you can turn them down for daily use. Whenever you wanna have some fun and bench, just crank them up and have the fun you wanna have. That sounds like a winner.
Got a 3845B260, anybody with any info regarding how OCable this batch is?
i bought a w3520 batch 3903A and it's on the way, anyone know this batch ? i hope it perform well
I've got a W3520 batch 3849A773 here. Seems to do ok @180 x 21 (3780mhz) @ 1.18 VID, 1.23 VTT, 1.65 VRAM and runs at around 80 degrees C with the stock cooler. (A tripple and double rad will be cooling this thing soon).
Anyone else have the the same batch as me and what are your temps and voltages like?
Just got this little baby.......i7 920 batch#3845b260 doing 4.05g on 1.25v in bios on [r2e mb] 213bclck 1700m
Thanks will give it a try later............
I got 4.5ghz stable on water with my 965 Batch # 3836a767 but it needs 1.5v core
has anyone tested 3903A468 yet?
well i have w3520 3903A937
here's a quick result
http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/o...3A937-crop.jpg
i think it's not too bad
i haven't test it further, so i don't know how it perform on a higher clock.
4.0ghz with 1.2xx V isnt bad at all.
however, i think yours might be little different than mine.
this guy has exact same one as mine.
http://forums.overclockersclub.com/?showtopic=165856
maybe you can post yours :D
i see that batch better than mine.
nyeah, whats your lowest vcore 4GHz stable?