Core i7 Overclocking Guide For Beginners

[affiliate13]

Originally Posted by znw

Hey clunk, can you help me? I'm a newbie at overclock... and I want do put my i7 at 3.6ghz.

Can you show me the settings that I have to change in bios like you did here with 3.3, 3.8... etc?

My relevant specs are: i7 920 D0 (noctua nh-u12p), asus rampage II extreme, 6gb 1600 ocz xmp (8-8-8-24), corsair 1000W psu.

I live in a very hot city and at stock speedy i'm getting 39º idle and 66º after one hour running prime95, so I am aiming at 3.6 at most...

thanks in advance.

znw,
Welcome to the forums.
What BIOS are you using? and what stepping does CPUz report your 920 as being (C0/1 or D0)?

Please use the link in my sig to add your system spec to your profile.

[znw]

affiliate13, I wrote in my previous post, its a D0, and I'm using the BIOS that came in the board, I think its 1306..

and CLUNK, at first I did the @ 3360mhz tutorial, I did exactly as you told... it booted without any error and my CPUZ shows just like yours, just one think I've noticed different. When in IDLE my cpu voltage shows 1.088v and yours shows 1.080v. In full load yours shows 1.088 and mine shows 1.088 too. Is this ok?
I ran prime95 for one hour without any error... maximum temp 60C.

[yawie]

Hello everyone.
First, thanks for this guide. As i7 is not a mainstream CPU, there were not so many good O/C guides for it.

My goal is to be able to get some more power when I need to without consuming more than normal in idle.

In your screenshots, I cannot see that the cpu voltage is changing according to multiplier. Is there a way to overclock the CPU and keep turbo and speedstep acting normal ?

I don't remember the exact value but with an Asus P6T dlx (without palm) when I let the voltage on auto and push Bclck, voltage increases quite a lot.

Thanks

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by yawie

Hello everyone.
First, thanks for this guide. As i7 is not a mainstream CPU, there were not so many good O/C guides for it.

My goal is to be able to get some more power when I need to without consuming more than normal in idle.

In your screenshots, I cannot see that the cpu voltage is changing according to multiplier. Is there a way to overclock the CPU and keep turbo and speedstep acting normal ?

I don't remember the exact value but with an Asus P6T dlx (without palm) when I let the voltage on auto and push Bclck, voltage increases quite a lot.

Thanks

Welcome to the forums

I'll double check on this later when I get back, but speedstep and Turbo mode were enabled, you can see the multi dropping, so you'll save power there. Leave this with me and I'll se what I can come up with later today

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by znw

affiliate13, I wrote in my previous post, its a D0, and I'm using the BIOS that came in the board, I think its 1306..

and CLUNK, at first I did the @ 3360mhz tutorial, I did exactly as you told... it booted without any error and my CPUZ shows just like yours, just one think I've noticed different. When in IDLE my cpu voltage shows 1.088v and yours shows 1.080v. In full load yours shows 1.088 and mine shows 1.088 too. Is this ok?
I ran prime95 for one hour without any error... maximum temp 60C.

Yes, that's fine.

[yawie]

Originally Posted by Clunk

Welcome to the forums

I'll double check on this later when I get back, but speedstep and Turbo mode were enabled, you can see the multi dropping, so you'll save power there. Leave this with me and I'll se what I can come up with later today

Wow, that's a quick answer

At the present time I do not have my computer but here are the tests I've done :
I don't remember the actual voltage, so let's say low is 1.1v, normal is 1.25v and overvoltage is 1.30

No O/C :
idle : cpu voltage low cpu multiplier low
full : cpu voltage normal multiplier x21

O/C with voltage auto :
idle : cpu voltage normal multiplier low
full : cpu voltage overvoltage, multiplier x21

What you achived from your screenshots :

O/C with voltage manually set :
idle : cpu voltage low multiplier low
full : cpu voltage low, multiplier x21

or :
idle : cpu voltage normal multiplier low
full : cpu voltage normal, multiplier x21


What I would like :
O/C with Idontknowwhatoptionyet :
idle : cpu voltage low multiplier low
full : cpu voltage normal, multiplier x21

[capeli]

Clunk you are the man!

Your guide is the shiznit!

I spent the whole weekend trying to get stable at 4ghz (200 blck x 20) without any success. Blue screens within 10 mins of OCCT. Got to about 2hrs with Prime95 (64 bit) before BSOD. Funnily enough I passed 7hr memtest and 10 pass of IBT 2.3 (64 bit) @ Maximum setting.

Temps were no problem. Hottest core did not exceed 77c load and hovered around 73c. Idled at about 40 - 41c.

Read numerous guides and tried to copy settings from others with similar hardware as a template. Fiddled with everything, but nothing seemed to work; much dissapointment ensued... sucks when you spend top dollar and can't get the results you were hoping for. I was getting so desperate that I was ready to crossflash the P6T Deluxe v0006 bios as I'd seen some people at extremesystems had been having good results with it.

With your guide I managed to finally get through a 1hr OCCT test. Still gotta Prime (small ftt) overnight, but I'm much more hopeful that it will be error free. Keep it simple is the lesson learned here.

You sir are a gentleman and scholar. Thanks again.

System, Settings & Temps below...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

P6T Deluxe V2 (0504 bios)
i7 920 DO (Batch #3907A58)
TRUE 120 in Push Pull Config with 2 Noctua NF-P12s (LGA 1366 bolt thru kit)
TR3X6G1600C7 (6GB DDR3 1600Mhz C7)
Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W
Coolermaster CM690 (7 1000rpm case fans)
Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe 4870x2
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM

=======================
Ai Overclock Tuner

Ai Overclock Tuner: X.M.P. Mode
(Memory profile 1600Mhz 7-7-7-20 2N 1.66V)
CPU Raio Setting : 20
Intel SpeedStep Tech: Enabled
BCLK: 200Mhz
PCIE: 100Mhz
DRAM:1603Mhz
UNCLK: 3208Mhz
QPI Link Data Rate: 7218MT/s

====================

CPU Voltage: 1.268V (Any lower and I fail Prime95)
CPU PLL Voltage: Auto
QPI/DRAM: Auto
QPI/DRAM: 1.30625V
(**This is what was giving me the stability issues. XMP automatically sets to 1.35V in bios, but in windows Turbo V showed 1.375.** Seems I need less rather than more. Will try to lower to see most stable**)

IOH Voltage : Auto
IOH PCIE Voltage: Auto
ICH Voltage : Auto
ICH PCIE Voltage: Auto
DRAM Bus Voltage: 1.66V
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHA: Auto
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHA: Auto
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHB: Auto
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHB: Auto
DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHC: Auto
DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHC: Auto
Load-Line Calibration : Enable
CPU Differential Amplitude: Auto
CPU Clock Skew : Auto
CPU Spread Spectum : Disable
IOH Clock Skew : Auto
PCIE Spread Spectum : Disable

====================
Advanced

C1E : disable
Hardware Prefetcher : Enable
Adjacenct Cache : Enable
Intel VT : Disable
CPU TM : Disable
Exceute Disable Bit : Enable
Intel HT : Enabled
Active Processore Cores : Enable
A20M isable
Intel Speed Step : Enable
Intel C-STATE isable

====================
Power

Suspend Mode: Auto
Repost Video on S3 Resume: Yes
ACPI 2.0 Support: Enabled
ACPI APIC Support: Enabled

====================
Temps (Real Temp)

CORE IDLE 40°c
CORE LOAD 72-76°c

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by capeli

Clunk you are the man!

Your guide is the shiznit!

I spent the whole weekend trying to get stable at 4ghz (200 blck x 20) without any success. Blue screens within 10 mins of OCCT. Got to about 2hrs with Prime95 (64 bit) before BSOD. Funnily enough I passed 7hr memtest and 10 pass of IBT 2.3 (64 bit) @ Maximum setting.

Temps were no problem. Hottest core did not exceed 77c load and hovered around 73c. Idled at about 40 - 41c.

Read numerous guides and tried to copy settings from others with similar hardware as a template. Fiddled with everything, but nothing seemed to work; much dissapointment ensued... sucks when you spend top dollar and can't get the results you were hoping for. I was getting so desperate that I was ready to crossflash the P6T Deluxe v0006 bios as I'd seen some people at extremesystems had been having good results with it.

With your guide I managed to finally get through a 1hr OCCT test. Still gotta Prime (small ftt) overnight, but I'm much more hopeful that it will be error free. Keep it simple is the lesson learned here.

You sir are a gentleman and scholar. Thanks again.

Thanks, I'm glad it was of use

Spread the word

[znw]

Thanks Clunk, next step: 3600mhz.

[sluke101]

Hey,

first off thanks for the great guide, it's my first overclock so something simple like this was awesome

I managed to overclock to 3.36 no problems, but got a BSOD when trying for 3.8, temps were averagin 65 in all cores.

After the guide for overclocking to 3.36 you said you can bump the core up to try and get it stable, what should I put it to to try and get it stable at 3.8? And if I go to 4, what can i take it up to safely 2.5 yeah?

Cheers again