i7 920 Overclock newbie

[rampantandroid]

Hi All!

Just started to OC my 920 finally (yay!) and I'm slowly moving up...but I have some questions. First, my components:

GSkill Ripjaws 1333
i7 920
eVGA 3xSLI

Now...given that, I've read through the XBit guide on this, and they're using a Asus board so they have different BIOS options...what do I want to be setting? I don't think I can set the QPI multiplier - at least, I didn't see the option. However, I did set the uncore to 16x which is 2x more than my RAM freq, I believe. I've got the CPU up to 2.89 ghz and I'm running P95 right now on it's generic benchmark mode:

http://rampantandroid.com/images/OS 2.89.PNG

Am I doing OK so far? Do these temps look OK (the fan isn't at 100% yet, since it goes to 100% when the CPU hits 55C; the fan is at 50%)

Thanks!
RA

 

[drescherjm]

Am I doing OK so far?

You are doing fine. I would up the BCLK to 160 (leaving all voltages at stock) and retest.

I would also include IntelBurnTest into the testing.

Do these temps look OK

Your temps are low. Do not be concerned about any temps under 75C. Even that is fine.

 

[rampantandroid]

So...I'm still at that same speed - haven't had time to OC it any more and I'm stable with P95 and all....however, if I go to bed and leave my computer on, sometimes in the morning it boots up with the "Windows has recovered from a error" and it's clear a warm boot occured. What might be causing this? Should I go run Memtest86+ to make sure my RAM is stable? I've got it set to 1333mhz with the specced 9-9-9-20 timings.

 

[rampantandroid]

Bump.

 

[drescherjm]

I would start by resetting your BIOS settings back to default. Then check your ram at the auto setting. I am not sure what BIOS settings you changed to get to 2.89 GHz however that frequency is very easy to get. All that wold be needed is setting BCLK and not messing with any other BIOS setting.

 

[rampantandroid]

I would start by resetting your BIOS settings back to default. Then check your ram at the auto setting. I am not sure what BIOS settings you changed to get to 2.89 GHz however that frequency is very easy to get. All that wold be needed is setting BCLK and not messing with any other BIOS setting.

So....yeah, this one was user error. I had been playing with my RAM settings earlier and set it to 1333mhz mode - fine. I mean, it was going with 7-7-7-20 when it SHOULD have been going with 9-9-9-24...so I also fixed that. THEN I OCed...and the RAM went above 1333mhz. Yeah...I further OCed and I'd post, but then totally fail to even boot memtest86+

I'm back to auto and it seems to be setting the RAM right...I'm at 638mhz on the RAM, 9-9-9-24 with a BCLK of 160...and I'm running stable (quick snip from my desktop - the highest temps are from an earlier run of the intel burn utility):

 

[Patonb]

Being 5 run stable means nothing in the long run.... You then need to prime95 for an extended time ~15hrs or more.

 

[E4g1e]

Being 5 run stable means nothing in the long run.... You then need to prime95 for an extended time ~15hrs or more.

Two different kinds of CPU stress tests. That Intel Burn Test really needs to be run with the stress level set to "Maximum" and the number of times to run to 15 to 20 times in order to attain a truer picture of stability. 5 runs of LinX via IBT at a stress level of Medium is not enough, IMHO.

 

[wildzcardz]

For your memory just set the timings, do not put it to 1333mhz as when you raise your cpu ghz the memory mhz will raise along with it. I do not know what kind of oc you are trying to reach but I would suggest some 1600mhz for a better overclock potential.

 

[rampantandroid]

Two different kinds of CPU stress tests. That Intel Burn Test really needs to be run with the stress level set to "Maximum" and the number of times to run to 15 to 20 times in order to attain a truer picture of stability. 5 runs of LinX via IBT at a stress level of Medium is not enough, IMHO.

I ended up running about 15 runs on high, not max with no issues. I'll go ahead and bump up to maximum tonight before I try to hit 3.5GHz.

For your memory just set the timings, do not put it to 1333mhz as when you raise your cpu ghz the memory mhz will raise along with it. I do not know what kind of oc you are trying to reach but I would suggest some 1600mhz for a better overclock potential.

Exactly what I realized - I don't know why I didn't just grab 1600 (and it isn't 1600MHz, afaik...the 1600 is not the speed. ) but I may look into picking up the 1600 set of my RAM and putting this ram up on FS/FT.

 

[drescherjm]

Exactly what I realized - I don't know why I didn't just grab 1600 (and it isn't 1600MHz, afaik...the 1600 is not the speed. ) but I may look into picking up the 1600 set of my RAM and putting this ram up on FS/FT.

Are you trying to hit 4Ghz (or greater)? If not I do not believe your RAM will hold you back.

 

[rampantandroid]

Are you trying to hit 4Ghz (or greater)? If not I do not believe your RAM will hold you back.

I mean...I'm on a C0, so I doubt I can even hit 4GHz on a TRUE120 - I'd certainly need to invest in 2 new fans before I even considered it. I'm really just aiming for 3.5GHz, then re-enable turbo mode or something. Would I like to hit 4GHz? Sure...but I'm not sure that I've got the right motherboard for that, or the right CPU revision. I just want to remove any possible CPU bottleneck from my system and make it so that I don't want to go pick up a SB chip or something. I think at 3.5, my 920 could easily keep my system going another two years with no issues. Let Intel figure out their power-user/high end platform in the mean time