Newbie advice needed...

[tickleonthetum]

I've just built my new PC with the following:

i7 920 D0
Asus P6T Deluxe V2
Thermalright ultra Extreme 120 with 2 x 120mm 1600rpm fans in push pull
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Goop
6Gb (3 x 2Gb) Corsair Dominator DR3 1866 (9-9-9-24) RAM
CM Storm Sniper case
CM Real Power M1000 1000W PSU
plus some other bits.

Now my question is: What are considered good temps for over clocking this sort of set up. I've never Overclocked before so it is all bewildering to me.

I have tried 3.7GHz (186*20), temps: I = 40C, L = 75C (the odd 80C for a second)
then I tried 4.0GHz (200*20), temps: I = 46, L = 79C (the odd 84C for a second here and there) with HT on

This was tested using Prime95 (64bit) and OCCT under Win7 64bit.

Are these temps good? Bad? Oh my god it's gonna blow!!!!!? Is it OK that every core is at a different temp at any given moment?

Also can someone explain why when the BCLK is 200 with a 20 multiplier the Frequency reported by the likes of CPUZ & Core Temp fluctuates around 3999.89 but never settles. Is it because I've done something wrong?

HELP!!!!

[staffsMike]

I've not read much about i7 as I prefer AMD currently but those load temps sound awful to my core 2 ears lol Might be wrong but I wouldn't want to go much over 60 degrees on a CPU.

[tickleonthetum]

From searching the forums the i7 can run in the 80's quite happily as it's max is 100C. I just can't work out if what I'm getting is good temps for a 4GHz OC on air.

[Phage]

From what I have read a spread of 40-80+ is just fine.
My set up @3.8Ghz idles at 44, with a Noctua. I haven't done a full burn test, but the highest I've seen when converting some files is 70. I expect that I would see 80+ in OCCT or similar.
Anything over 90C would worry me, but your temps, even at 4Ghz, look good.

[nightkhaos]

I agree, everything looks perfectly fine. Even the frequency flucations are normal, it will only stay at full multiplier if it is actually required, that's SpeedStep at work for ya.

If you are worried about temps I would recommend culling back to around around 3.6 or getting a better cooler. The i7 920 D0 handles find up around 85 degrees.

[scaryjim]

Each core will be doing slightly different amounts of work, so yes, you'd expect them to have slightly different temperatures. If you ever find that your cores have *massively* different temperatures then you need to worry about whether your cooler is seated properly / thermal paste applied correctly, but as long as they're within a reasonable margin (say ~ 10%?) of each other there's no worry about the cores being different temperatures.

You'll find the base clocks for most motherboards are subject to tiny fluctuations in frequency - your variation is < 0.003%, which is pretty high tolerance

[nightkhaos]

Each core will be doing slightly different amounts of work, so yes, you'd expect them to have slightly different temperatures. If you ever find that your cores have *massively* different temperatures then you need to worry about whether your cooler is seated properly / thermal paste applied correctly, but as long as they're within a reasonable margin (say ~ 10%?) of each other there's no worry about the cores being different temperatures.

You'll find the base clocks for most motherboards are subject to tiny fluctuations in frequency - your variation is < 0.003%, which is pretty high tolerance

Indeed, it is! Remember the days of 0.1% clock tolerance...

[tickleonthetum]

Thanks for all the answers!

@nightkhaos, I have SpeedStep disabled. It only fluctuates by +- 0.20 at most.

At the mo I have Vcore at 1.35v, but am going to try dropping that a smidge and see if it is still stable.

The highest temperature I've seen doing "Office" work type things is 65C. But only for a second.

When running Prime95 or OCCT it averages at 80C at full load.

I've tried using Intel BurnTest but it produces confusing results?!

[scaryjim]

Indeed, it is! Remember the days of 0.1% clock tolerance...

Dunno - I'll have to have a look on my old A7V8X-X and see how that varies (curiously for an ASUS motherboard though, it tends to be spot on with frequencies *except* at defaults like 133 and 166, where it runs about 1MHz *slower* than rated - very frustrating for acheiving a good overclock... )

[nightkhaos]

Thanks for all the answers!

@nightkhaos, I have SpeedStep disabled. It only fluctuates by +- 0.20 at most.

At the mo I have Vcore at 1.35v, but am going to try dropping that a smidge and see if it is still stable.

The highest temperature I've seen doing "Office" work type things is 65C. But only for a second.

When running Prime95 or OCCT it averages at 80C at full load.

I've tried using Intel BurnTest but it produces confusing results?!

I see. I thought when you ment flutuations you meant going from 4.0 down to 2.6 at low load. I HIGHLY recommending renabling SpeedStep. It will reduce the thermal load on your CPU when at idle, thus increasing the life of your CPU.

Your Vcore is way too high. Even my Vcore, at 1.25 V is to high, You can drop it down to 1.23 and still be stable @ 4.0GHz. I recommend you do so.

Oh and have you manually defined memory timings, see my guide in my sig for more advice.

[tickleonthetum]

OK, I'll drop it and run some tests...

[nightkhaos]

OK, I'll drop it and run some tests...

Good luck.

[tickleonthetum]

Good luck.

OK, tried it at 1.300 and Windows BSODed. I gues my chip needs that much to run at 4GHz.

My BIOS has the option to set the i7 multiplier at 21. Would this help as then the BCLK would be 190 or 191 to get around the 4GHz mark.

[nightkhaos]

OK, tried it at 1.300 and Windows BSODed. I gues my chip needs that much to run at 4GHz.

My BIOS has the option to set the i7 multiplier at 21. Would this help as then the BCLK would be 190 or 191 to get around the 4GHz mark.

Interesting... every other system I have worked with has managed to get to 4GHz at less than 1.3 volts.

No, that isn't that useful, as it uses Turboboost, which tends not to play well with overclocks.

Right, do you mind telling me all the settings you have changed from stock? Might needa ask my friend Andi a few questions about his BIOS (he has a P6T V2 as well) but I'm sure I might be able to help. And I assume your memory timings, voltage, and multipler (in order to get it the required frequency) are all corrrect?

[tickleonthetum]

I've just tried it with CPU Ratio 21, BCLK 190, VCore 1.300V and it seems stable so far. The reported CPU speed is 3989.97 (which twitches up and down by 0.1) so not bad. Te temps are a few degrees lower as a result.

The Asus P6T Deluxe V2 BIOS (as far as I know) has the 21 multiplier unlocked so you can have it permanantly on, instead of Turbo Boost. I have only seen an option for Speed Step in the BIOS, none for Turbo Boost.

I will post the settings in a while... dinner time!

[tickleonthetum]

Just a quick update while dinners cooking:

CPU Ratio = 21 (IE Turbo Boost permanently on]
BCLK = 190
Vcore = 1.3000v
QPI/DRAM Core = 1.4000v
Final Frequency = 3989.97MHz (3.9Ghz)

Temps Idle = 37C, Load = 77C (average = 72C)
Stable running Intel BurnTest at maximum/16 threads.

Hopefully the CPU will survive at least 3 years at these settings!