Core i7 4Ghz Club & Overclocking Guide

[4hams]

I don't think any Platform released will ever compare to this first generation i7 platform as far as sheer number of users worldwide. Hence the reason the 4GHz club is so large and still growing! This platform will be around for a long time with folks buying up used systems and parts who are still using older platforms.

[SkorpinokNOR]

What is the max temp i should allow for a stable 4,2ghz? i got one running for half an hour before i went to bed that touched 78c, 79c for a brief second, thenafter that it fell to 75c-77c. is that ok, or should i just leave it be? i mean, it must be a pretty powerful game og program to hit those temps and percentage pf load, right?

[Deton]

Intel max recommended Tcase temps (the temperature measure at the center between the CPU's heatspreader and heatsink) is 68c and the core temp would be around 78-80c.

So your current 4.2Ghz temps have reached its threshold, now you will find it's hard to keep 4.2Ghz to stable than when you were at 4Ghz. If you want 4.2Ghz for 24/7 usage, I would advise you to go with the exotic water cooling method or just stay with 4Ghz and call it a day.

No other applications or games will tax your CPU at 100% like P95, IBT, OCCT or LinX therefore your daily temps wouldn't never reach its threshold. It's up to you to stay at 4.2Ghz or not.

[SkorpinokNOR]

i think i may leave 4.2 be for now, maybe i'll for watercooling some time in the future, i don't know. don't have the time yet, but maybe i'll try 4.1. how's the heat development from 4 to 4.1? obviously not as much as to 4.2 (lol), but do you think the d14 can handle it? and the voltage?

[Deton]

TBH, it's worth, you can't tell the different with 100Mhz or even with 200Mhz. You only can tell the different when benchies but it's definite can tell with the heat though.

[SkorpinokNOR]

i see.. ah, well... ran prime now for 30 minutes at 4.1, touched 77c at max... i'll leave it be for now. if there's no perfomance gain noticable, then there's no point for me..hehe. pretty much just gaming. but anyway, thanks for all the help i've gotten so far. got me at least 4ghz with nice temps, so i'm pretty happy. oc'ed like a charm pretty sure that more questions will pop up, though, in time. hehe.

[Deton]

thanks for all the help i've gotten so far. got me at least 4ghz with nice temps, so i'm pretty happy. oc'ed like a charm pretty sure that more questions will pop up, though, in time. hehe.

No problem!

Go enjoy your toy

[SkorpinokNOR]

hey, i'm back again. hehe

i've formatted my sysart two days ago, found my oc settings, and found even better temps on lower vcore. it ran stable at late 60c's and early early 70c's for a cuple of hours, so i thought i'd leave it over night. the next day (today) i found my system had rebooted, and had recovered from a blue screen. obviously i didn't see it, but the info i've got from the recovery message was this:

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: BlueScreen

OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1

Locale ID: 1044


Additional information about the problem:

BCCode: a

BCP1: 00000002366B5BD1

BCP2: 0000000000000002

BCP3: 0000000000000001

BCP4: FFFFF8000320B6ED

OS Version: 6_1_7600

Service Pack: 0_0

Product: 256_1



is there any info here that helps? and is it possibly just the voltage that didn't hold up?

[Deton]

get LinX or IBT, run for 20 runs or 10000 problems, keep an close up to it. It takes about a couple minutes, if it is crash then pump up the Vcore.

[SkorpinokNOR]

Ah, thnx. will do that as soon as i'll gget down in my cave. :-)

[SkorpinokNOR]

I tried downloading linx from the link in the general software thread, all i get is linked to white page that sais welcome to ginx or something.. any ideas?


edit. never mund. found it.

[SkorpinokNOR]

ran linx for 20 passes and 10000 problems, passed with no errors in 5.5 minutes... top temp, 72c in one core.. think i'm gonna try running prime through the night, just to check it out that way too..



thanks though

[SkorpinokNOR]

is it normal to pass LinX as you said deton, for 20 passes 10000 problems, but then have a reboot from running prime95?

system had rebooted some time during the night..but still passes linx, at vcore 1.2 even. even 150 passes...didn't get the message about recovery from an unexpected reboot, though... i must be missing something..

[SkorpinokNOR]

Finally.. had a run at LinX with 150 runs, and then topped it off with a 24hour run with prime95. top temp was 76, but was mostly early 70's. no bugs, no crashes, nothing. Gonna go back on vcore just to see if i can drop the temps a little bit more, but at least now i have an oc profile thats stable. lovely.
thanks to everyone who took the time to answer my questions.

all the best..

[SkorpinokNOR]

hey guys.

i'm on again with another question (big surprise) hehe
i've run Prime95 for 8 hours now, seems to be running pretty smooth, but i've noticed towards the end that core #0 (or nr 1) suddenly dropped to 50% load. does this mean i have to up the vcore one more notch, or is it something else? i've seen it once or twice before, but somehow forgot about it.
any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ramstrong]

Hi Guys,
Have reached 4Ghz on my rig with the following specs:
Core i7 960 D0; Thermalright silver Arrow with 3 14" fans; ASUS Rampage 3 Extreme MoBo;
G'Skill Sniper 1600MHz CL-9 4GBx6 Sticks=24GB RAM; Corsair AX 850 PSU; CM HAF X Case (with 6 Fans);
MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II/OC Edition; WD Cavier Black SATA3 64MB cache 1TB x2 HDD.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2117858

Used OCCT v3.10 Torture Test (8hrs 35mins) & CPU LINPACK Test (1hr 5mins) successfully. PC very very stable and very fast.

ASUS Rampage III Extreme
Member ramstrong
Processor - i7 960 D0:4.02GHz
RAM - G'Skill Sniper 1600 CL9
Cooling Method - Air
BIOS Version - 1401 dtd 12May2011

Extreme Tweaker
Overclock Tuner - Manual
OC from CPU Level UP -Auto
CPU Ratio Settings - 24
Turbo Power Limit - Enabled
BCLK Freq - 167
PCI-E Freq - 100
DRAM - DDR3-1339MHz
UCLK - 2678MHz
QPI Link Data Rate - 6027MT/s
DRAM Timing Control - Manual
CAS Latency - 8
RAS to CAS Delay - 8
RAS to PRE Delay - 8
RAS to ACT Time - 22
RAS to RAS Delay - 4
Refresh Cycle Time - 100
Timing Mode - 1N
Other DRAM Settings -Auto
CPU Differential Amplitude - 900mv
CPU Clock Skew - Delay 100PS
IOH Clock Skew -Normal

Extreme Engine Digi
Digi+ PWR Mode - X-PWR
PWM Volt Control -Auto
Load-Line Calibration -Full Calibration
CPU Voltage OCP -Enabled
CPU PWM Frequency -Auto
Extreme OV -Enabled
Extreme OC - Auto
CPU Voltage - 1.27500v
CPU PLL Voltage - 1.81525v
QPI/DRAM Core Voltage - 1.25000v
DRAM Bus Voltage -1.44425v

DRAM Ref. Voltages
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on Ch A - +0.0000mv
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on Ch A -+0.0000mv
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on Ch B -+0.0125mv
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on Ch B - +0.0125mv
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on Ch C - +0.0250mv
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on Ch C - +0.0250mv

IOH Voltage -1.113v
IOH PCIE Voltage -1.5105v
ICH Voltage - 1.113v
ICH PCIE Voltage -1.5105v
CPU Spread Spectrum -Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum - Disabled

Advanced(CPU Configuration)
CPU Ratio Setting - 24
C1E Support - Disabled
Hardware Prefetch - Enabled
Adjacent Cache Line Pref. - Enabled
MPS and ACPI MADT ordering - Modern ordering
Intel Virtual Tech. - Enabled
CPU TM Function - Disabled
Execute Disabled Bit - Enabled
Intel ® HT Technology - Enabled
Active Processor Cores - All
SpeedStep - Disabled
Intel C-STATE Tech - Disabled
A20M - Disabled

Power
Suspend Mode - Auto
Repost Video On S3 Resume -No
ACPI 2.0 Support - Enabled
ACPI APIC Support - Enabled
EuP Ready - Disabled



Hope these settings are useful.