Core i7/X58 Overclocking Thread

[liftedcj7on44s]

im gonna keep it around for a bit longer and see if MSI will release a proper bios for it. If not then im gonna hit up the EVGA board.

[T_Flight]

I just flashed my Rampage II Extreme to 0903 Official. It's up on the Asus site. Again, that is an official BIOS. I'll post about in the RIIE thread also, but wanted to make sure people saw it in case they didn't have it yet.

[Brahmzy]

Well, I finally figured out this i7 thing, ha. It helped when I finally got the math right on my memory. I was trying to run my memory at ridiculous speeds with ridiculous timings (new to the whole DDR3 thing.)

So, I've settled on 4.0GHz (211x19x) HT ON @ 1.375 VCore - 4+ hours with simultaneous LinX + Prime is good enough for me. My biggest issue getting stable was the memory timings / speed part of it.

I can't believe the difference in my rendering times between my daul core and this 8 "core" i7... WOW. I went from a 4.4GHz E8600 to a 4.0GHz i7 w/HT and my bench render went from 6m 6s to 2m 2s!!

That's HUGE. Money well spent! Very happy. Now I'm back in the "in" crowd, haha.

[FragMagnet]

Well, I finally figured out this i7 thing, ha. It helped when I finally got the math right on my memory. I was trying to run my memory at ridiculous speeds with ridiculous timings (new to the whole DDR3 thing.)

So, I've settled on 4.0GHz (211x19x) HT ON @ 1.375 VCore - 4+ hours with simultaneous LinX + Prime is good enough for me. My biggest issue getting stable was the memory timings / speed part of it.

I can't believe the difference in my rendering times between my daul core and this 8 "core" i7... WOW. I went from a 4.4GHz E8600 to a 4.0GHz i7 w/HT and my bench render went from 6m 6s to 2m 2s!!

That's HUGE. Money well spent! Very happy. Now I'm back in the "in" crowd, haha.

Nice ! What batch # ?

[systemviper]

Well, I finally figured out this i7 thing, ha. It helped when I finally got the math right on my memory. I was trying to run my memory at ridiculous speeds with ridiculous timings (new to the whole DDR3 thing.)

So, I've settled on 4.0GHz (211x19x) HT ON @ 1.375 VCore - 4+ hours with simultaneous LinX + Prime is good enough for me. My biggest issue getting stable was the memory timings / speed part of it.

I can't believe the difference in my rendering times between my daul core and this 8 "core" i7... WOW. I went from a 4.4GHz E8600 to a 4.0GHz i7 w/HT and my bench render went from 6m 6s to 2m 2s!!

That's HUGE. Money well spent! Very happy. Now I'm back in the "in" crowd, haha.

Super, that i some great news, love to see those render time gains

[T_Flight]

Well, I finally figured out this i7 thing, ha. It helped when I finally got the math right on my memory. I was trying to run my memory at ridiculous speeds with ridiculous timings (new to the whole DDR3 thing.)

So, I've settled on 4.0GHz (211x19x) HT ON @ 1.375 VCore - 4+ hours with simultaneous LinX + Prime is good enough for me. My biggest issue getting stable was the memory timings / speed part of it.

I can't believe the difference in my rendering times between my daul core and this 8 "core" i7... WOW. I went from a 4.4GHz E8600 to a 4.0GHz i7 w/HT and my bench render went from 6m 6s to 2m 2s!!

That's HUGE. Money well spent! Very happy. Now I'm back in the "in" crowd, haha.

These things seriously are Monsters! Nothing will compare to them. If you are running 4GHz you have more power than a QX9770 at over 5GHz. With the HT it's even more. Wait until you try some video stuff. These CPU's were definitely not hype. In fact, I don't think many except for us types that have tested with stuff even realize how powerful these things really are.

Even with benchmarking programs I don't think we are testing the full capabilities of them yet. Chess I think does, but I don't think some of these applications are even pushing these CPU's at all. I can game for hours at 4GHz and the thing only goes up 2 or 3 dgrees from ilde on stock cooling. My games aren't even phasing the CPU. Prime95 and stuff like that is an entirely different matter. When i get water on mine I'm gonna see what 4.2GHz is like.

I sure hope the game devs got with the prgram early on, because when they get optimized titles for these CPU's out there is gonna be some amazing stuff happening. After I get my water on, I plan to test MSFS alot more at these higher clocks I'm running now. It uses the CPU alot more so I want to get my water going. I'm ordering the rest of my stuff tomorrow.

[GenTarkin]

Well, Ive managed to get 3.8ghz @ 1.22v stable out of this thing. I disabled HT for this and have my RAM running at only 1080mhz 6-6-6-17 or so for now.
I noticed there was a setting in BIOS another PLL I did not touch when trying to OC this thing before... QPI PLL stock its 1.1v Ive raised it to 1.16v is this a setting you guys are changing at all?
I have my QPI set to 1.33v running this @ 181/x21 for 3801mhz.... Stable 45min prime95 (way further than it has gone before)

Surprisingly, I messed with different uncore multipliers and having it any lower than QPI does not seem to help stability, so I am running uncore @ same speed QPI bus is at and its just as stable so far...
Max temps have hit 80C so, Im not sure if I wll enable HT from this point or not, knowing it generally makes processor hotter and is known to slow down gaming (primary function of this computer)

[Brahmzy]

Nice ! What batch # ?

3841A432
Not even close to some of these amazing chips y'all are using. 4GHz with such low volts - I don't know how y'all are doing it! Most of the 4.2GHz+ are using water apparantly.
But yeah, this i7 is pretty awesome. Now I just need some SSD action...

[anzial]

Some early results for 920 #3836B043 on stock cooler. This chip needs around 1.15v for 21x170bclk with HT enabled, temperatures hit 75C @70F ambient with prime95. I think I'll stop at this, need better cooling

[GenTarkin]

Some early results for 920 #3836B043 on stock cooler. This chip needs around 1.15v for 21x170bclk with HT enabled, temperatures hit 75C @70F ambient with prime95. I think I'll stop at this, need better cooling

Let us know how it goes, I and derektm have that same chip and having problems with it doing anything decent. What board you using?

[derektm]

Some early results for 920 #3836B043 on stock cooler. This chip needs around 1.15v for 21x170bclk with HT enabled, temperatures hit 75C @70F ambient with prime95. I think I'll stop at this, need better cooling

Yeah. It's not a great chip... sorry

[FragMagnet]

Meant to post this here, but stuffed it into the UD5 thread by mistake, anyways.
Well I grabbed another 920 today, the batch # was close to a couple of decent ones on here. 3837A908 seems to be a lot more playful than the last one. First thing I noticed was the default vcore, 1.275v vs. 1.325v of my other one. I did the basic setting in the bios, left turbo and HT on, booted right into windows and started priming at 1.232 under load at 3780, lasted about 2 minutes then rebooted. Turned off turbo, and it's about 10 minutes into prime as I type this. Temps are 54-60c in a 22c ambient, VTT is at 1.15v, but it looks good so far. There's one more of these at another retailer across town, for those in Winnipeg, pm me and I'll give you the location.
edit: actualy it's going between 1.232 and 1.216v under load with LLC enabled, I think I'll do the vdroop mod that dinos22 mentioned.
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=487878

[GenTarkin]

question, should I or should I not have LLC enabled for this chip?
Also, my BIOS has a setting called performance mode and options are: standard, turbo, extreme the last one I think is that I know its something greater than turbo....But, gigabyte is not to clear about what this setting actually is. Anyone have any ideas?
Its not intels turbo either.

[anzial]

Yeah. It's not a great chip... sorry

I would disagree. It does 3.6ghz with very little tweaking, at 1.15v set in bios and with stock cooler it stays under 75C. I can't push it more since I don't have a good cooler (damn D-tek still hasn't come out with 1366 bracket). You might be right for the chips in your possession but they are not always equal

[GenTarkin]

Meant to post this here, but stuffed it into the UD5 thread by mistake, anyways.
Well I grabbed another 920 today, the batch # was close to a couple of decent ones on here. 3837A908 seems to be a lot more playful than the last one. First thing I noticed was the default vcore, 1.275v vs. 1.325v of my other one. I did the basic setting in the bios, left turbo and HT on, booted right into windows and started priming at 1.232 under load at 3780, lasted about 2 minutes then rebooted. Turned off turbo, and it's about 10 minutes into prime as I type this. Temps are 54-60c in a 22c ambient, VTT is at 1.15v, but it looks good so far. There's one more of these at another retailer across town, for those in Winnipeg, pm me and I'll give you the location.
edit: actualy it's going between 1.232 and 1.216v under load with LLC enabled, I think I'll do the vdroop mod that dinos22 mentioned.
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=487878

You know whats funny, as I recall it my motherboard...with different BIOS version ran this chip at both 1.2815v vcore & 1.32v vcore STOCK between the different bios versions. Most of the bios's Ive tried have ran the chip at 1.28v stock though =)
I am still under the 1.2815v default vcore for 3.8ghz =) Im at around 1.23v or so...

[T_Flight]

I would disagree. It does 3.6ghz with very little tweaking, at 1.15v set in bios and with stock cooler it stays under 75C. I can't push it more since I don't have a good cooler (damn D-tek still hasn't come out with 1366 bracket). You might be right for the chips in your possession but they are not always equal

Somebody said something about Dtek having a supplier issue. That's just a rumor though and I did not hear that directly from them, so take it for what it's worth. I hope they get that issue sorted soon. I'm gonna have to buy the GTZ block tomorrow because they didn't come through on the hardware. I was gonna buy the DTek fusion. If they don't get that thing out soon they're gonna loose all their sales. I know a bunch of people that have jumped ship already. They even had a thread specifficly about that, and there were like 30 or 40 people in that thread that replied they went and bought a GTZ...even people that had DTek blocks already. They *need* to get those Pro mounts out *now*. It was announced those thing would be out shortly after release. We're over 2 months after release now.

Heck, if I could get somebody to plate stuff I'd have a freind machine and bend the things out myself and start selling them. Write them about it. Other people have, but haven't heard anything. Hopefully they are receiving e-mails. Maybe if enough people e-mail them they'll respond about it, or at least let people know what's going on.

I know how you feel though. I've been waiting on stuff trying to get it on one order for months now, but the wait is over. I'm gonna get what I can tomorrow, and whatever is not in stock I'm gonna have to order somewhere else. I must get my machine under water and get it in the case. I have an office that is a mess in this house, and I wanna get rid of the clutter.

[RealTelstar]

3841A432
Not even close to some of these amazing chips y'all are using. 4GHz with such low volts - I don't know how y'all are doing it! Most of the 4.2GHz+ are using water apparantly.
But yeah, this i7 is pretty awesome. Now I just need some SSD action...

3841A is a very good batch (i'ts actually my second choice in what i want to pick). Don't be so sure of the superiority of the older B ones.

[The-Fox]

Well at least not on stock VTT (which is 1,21 with the DFI), no.
And no, I didn't just change my sig, changed it last week already to i7

OK, I get it.
btw, I thought my IMC was crappy but apparently it was the ram giving me hard times.
Yesterday I got a new set of sticks for a review, the G.Skill Pi Black 1600 Mhz CL8.
Boy, how easy it was to hit 4Ghz Uncore/Dram 2Ghz with QPI setting on AUTO, although the board did increase the QPI voltage to about 1.475v, and I only used DRAM voltage 1.64v.
And this time the run was even better when the CPU multi on x21 than x19
Right now I topped at about 210 Bclk, x10DRAM/x20Uncore, 1.65v QPI/1.80v Dram and 21x CPU with Turbo and HT=on.
It was unstable for SuperPi32M but I managed to Pull SuperPi8M and wprime 1024M.
If I could just hit 215 bClk with the same multies and run SuperPi32M I bet I can go sub 8M
Too bad those ram just don't like anything above 1.8v !, this is the sweet spot for these sticks.

Bottom line, A crappy ram can also be a burden on your IMC so try to use different ram and see if its your IMC or just bad ram.

[eva2000]

OK, I get it.
btw, I thought my IMC was crappy but apparently it was the ram giving me hard times.
Yesterday I got a new set of sticks for a review, the G.Skill Pi Black 1600 Mhz CL8.
Boy, how easy it was to hit 4Ghz Uncore/Dram 2Ghz with QPI setting on AUTO, although the board did increase the QPI voltage to about 1.475v, and I only used DRAM voltage 1.64v.
And this time the run was even better when the CPU multi on x21 than x19
Right now I topped at about 210 Bclk, x10DRAM/x20Uncore, 1.65v QPI/1.80v Dram and 21x CPU with Turbo and HT=on.
It was unstable for SuperPi32M but I managed to Pull SuperPi8M and wprime 1024M.
If I could just hit 215 bClk with the same multies and run SuperPi32M I bet I can go sub 8M
Too bad those ram just don't like anything above 1.8v !, this is the sweet spot for these sticks.

Bottom line, A crappy ram can also be a burden on your IMC so try to use different ram and see if its your IMC or just bad ram.

For i7 it's alll in the ram

[Postmodum]

Ok, here's the new rig

i7 920 @ 3.6





Idle Temps after adding extra fan in the bottom.




I will do some rounds of benchmarking later today.

[Hooti3]

hey i might actually get a reply here, as tweaktown is pretty useless for X58 related stuff...

Hey, get this "BF" error code on my motherboard when i try for 200BCLK on my board...does so even @ 190...barely does 185BCLK...

Board is Gigabyte X58-UD5.

Just wondering if someone can give me a reason it is coming up?

BF error i know is floppy controller (but i have it disabled in bios)

If someone can help me solve this problem...it would be greatly appreciated.

It doesn't power cycle with BF it just hangs until i reset.

Cheers.

[Pisklink]

I'm planning to switch to i7 but there are still some things I don't understand. Could anybody give an answer on my following questions:

- What could be max. OC when I want RAM to run at least at 1600Mhz? Are there RAM multipliers or something? How can one calculate the RAM speed when you know blck speed?
- What is max. temp. these CPU's are allowed to run at?
- Is there a good OC guide available on the net to come to a better understanding of the new bios terms and there relations?
- Is the P6T Deluxe board mature enough (e.g. bios) to use with i7?

Thanks in advance.

PS For all the D-tek Fuzion version 1 users:
See this thread for custom made brackets.

[The-Fox]

- For running Ram at 1600 Mhz I like 200 bClk and CPU x21 (Dram x8) so it runs on 4200 Mhz. its a great 24/7 configuration if you can cool the chip.
There are various multipliers (QPI/Dram/Uncore/CPU) to work with, some are locked, some are open downwards and some are free, you do have Dram Multiplier however.
ram speed is calculated in the following way: "bclk x memory multiplier=Memory speed".
- Max temp for i7 is 100c degrees, buy you better stay below 90c degrees for daily use.
- I think dejanh's (a member here in XS) guides are quite nice for starters, try this this and that.
- The Asus P6T Deluxe is a great M/B though currently it has an issue with the turbo which scales down(x20/x20.5 CPU multy) when you hit high temps.
I would wait for the DFI motherboard If I was in your place, it looks like a great M/B to me.

[D3mon_Hunt3r]

I'm soon going to change too. I'm just wondering if a GTX240 will be enough to cool it OC'ed. :P

[The-Fox]

I would suggest a triple as mandatory for i7, or you will have to settle for moderate OC and high temps.