Core i7/X58 Overclocking Thread

[dejanh]

I would seriously ask you to marry me if you could make a Core i7 overclock calculator that takes into account all the factors and variables you described.

I understand what you said, but it's just too much info for me to remember when sitting down at the BIOS, unless I have a printed copy of what you wrote on hand, a scratch sheet of paper and an algebraic function calculator such as the TI-34.

Hehe, I can try but I do not have access to all the chips and a few boards. I only had access to the non-extreme parts and a R2E board (mine). I would need to know all of the multipliers that are available for all chips and boards to make it a trully reliable calculator.

In the meantime, you can also see what will be fixed in the next stepping of Core i7 here - http://download.intel.com/design/pro...pdt/320836.pdf

Nothing that will improve overclocking though...

That's some excellent observations there dejanh.

So what we need is lower QPI multis to really push Core i7 to it's full potential.

I kinda miss the independent memory handling of nVIDIA chipsets.
The limited multis of intel chipset(and i7's mem. controller) are somewhat frustrating.

How you got your Corsair Dominators to 1800mhz baffles me; I cant even get an extra 50mhz out of my 1600MHZ kit.

Yeah, lower QPI multipliers would really help. But ideally, whatever is imposing the QPI limit needs to be removed. I doubt it is the CPU itself. I'd be betting it is the X58 chipset.

On the note of the Dominators, to get 1800MHz out of the Dominators I had to drop the BCLK to 180MHz, use a 22x muliplier for Core i7 940 (default), use a 10x multiplier for DRAM, set Uncore to 3.6GHz, and set QPI multiplier to 22x. This nets me 3.96GHz core (4.14GHz turbo), 1804MHz DRAM, 3.6GHz Uncore, 3.96GHz QPI all on healthy voltages and air. My ratio of QPI to Uncore is sitting at 3.96:3.6 or 1.1 which is not ideal but likely stable enough for long term use without any noticable glitches.

I am keeping turbo off now however, as I do not like its unpredictability.

Here is a screenshot showing BIOS voltage settings. Particularly interesting is the QPI/DRAM as it is right in line with Intel's data sheet that specifies the maximum QPI/DRAM voltage for non-failure conditions. I measured them with a MM however directly on the board and they fall a bit below what is stated here (about 0.02V - 0.03V less). Better cooling and a cooler room (21C ambient) would also yield lower voltages for me, but hey, cheap and chic Also, I could do 181 BCLK to just get that every bit extra, but I like round numbers haha