i7 920 D0 @ 4Ghz on UD5

FaceplantSi

FaceplantSi

FaceplantSi

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18 Feb 2009
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PorthEmmet, Cornwall
Well, I took the i7 plunge recently getting a D0 stepping 920 to go into a Gigabyte UD5 with 6Gb OCZ Blade PC3-16000 RAM.
I already had a Noctua NH-U12P cooler so figured I'd use that.
I used another rig to flash my Vertex's to the latest v1.10 firmware, so they'd be 'as new' for the new setup as I'd be running Win7 RC 7100.

Got it all setup and tidied away into my Silverstone Fortress with the Noctua running with 2 of their NF-P12 fans in push/pull.

First run was promising - everything at stock gave idle temps max 28 and under Prime95 Blend load of max 58. So time to OC it...

I'd read loads of posts etc about OC'ing the i7's so set to and have tried several combinations etc along the way but have eventually arrived at what I hope to be my 24/7 OC at 4GHz - getting such an OC at low voltages these chips are simply stunning!

With the OC at 4GHz a run of Prime95 Blend test gives this
a1prime95blendoccpu.jpg


Temps never go above max 81 no matter how long i leave Prime running (or which Prime test I run) so I'm quite happy with the cooling on that.

Win7 is new territory for me so I tested my SSD's and HD Tach gives this
a1hdtachlargetest250509.jpg

What can I say - Win7 & SSD's seems to be a perfect match - well chuffed with the results!:D

And ATTO shows this
a1attoscreeniei7.jpg


Bit of a blip here at 16k - not sure why this is at the mo, poss needs ICH10R drivers updating but having trouble finding newer for Win7 (currently on 8.8.0.1038)

Anyhow, gonna tweak a little more to see if I can get my RAM to run at it's full 2000MHz (and might play with the timings some too), thought I might try higher BCLK with a lower multi.

Overall, I am very glad I bought the i7 bits as I think they have allowed the rest of the rig to really perform to it's max.
I can thoroughly recommend mixing an i7 CPU with some SSD's and Win7!

Any comments, suggestions etc welcomed!

Cheers
Si
 
Some very nice results there. I do have a request, would it be possible for you take some pictures of your BIOS to show what you have changed and what it's set at? Reason I ask is because I will be attempting the same sort of overclocking with that board at some point next week, and it would be nice to have some form of reference!
 
I double simons sentiments on the bios settings, im currently primeing @ 4ghz with that board and proc but having some problems, im @ 20x200 with turbo off tho
 
I won't be able to give pics of BIOS till tomorrow evening I suspect, but the settings I changed were basically these:

CPU Clock: 20x
Advanced CPU: Turbo enabled, multi-thread enabled, all energy saving disabled.
QPI link: Auto (gives QPI link speed 6.87GHz)
Uncore freq: x21 (gives 4011MHz)
BCLK: 191
Performance Enhance: Turbo (means the multi is set to turbo mode x21)
Sys RAM Multi: 10.0 (gives RAM freq 1910)
CPU Vcore: 1.23125v
QPI/Vtt: Auto
Load line cal: enabled
RAM voltage: 1.64v
Memory timings: Auto

Mobo BIOS ver: F5


As I said though I am looking to take a few more settings off Auto and try to get the RAM running at it's full 2000MHz at rated timings. Not sure how successful this'll be, but at least I've got these settings to fall back on if needed. I suspect that I may need to use a higher BCLK to achieve the RAM frequency required and hence might try a lower multiplier to get 4GHz OC stable again. I have to say I was amazed at how low the Vcore could be for a stable OC at this speed! I did try over 1.3v during testing but found that temps shot up and hit 90! Needless to say I stopped that pretty damn quick - didn't want to damage my shiny D0:eek:

Am gonna run it like this for a few more days before trying any other settings - that'll give the AS5 a chance to cure properly too which might help if I try higher volts.
 
your temps match mine @ load but im having to run a higher vcore of about 1.38 (need to check) how stable is your system? had some issues but mines been running prime for about 4.5 hours without a problem atm. Ive tried getting my voltage down but i just get errors at much lower. Any tips?
 
Xink said:
your temps match mine @ load but im having to run a higher vcore of about 1.38 (need to check) how stable is your system? had some issues but mines been running prime for about 4.5 hours without a problem atm. Ive tried getting my voltage down but i just get errors at much lower. Any tips?
Click to expand...

Hi Xink. I had probs with temps too when trying 4GHz using 20x 200 BCLK as I needed higher volts for this - iirc it was around 1.35 so not far off where yours may be, found that running a lower BCLK with turbo forced on to give the 21x multi was the way to go. I need to get the BCLK up a bit to run the RAM faster as I can only select RAM multi's in steps of 2, so currently set at 10x (so speed now is 1910MHz) with next step 12x which would put RAM way over its rated speed. May have to try a lower CPU multi and higher BCLK to achieve this. I'll post up some more tweaking results as and when I try it! I might also decide to put the performance enhance down to 'normal' setting so the rig should then run 20x multi as standard and go up to 21x when turbo kicks in - not sure yet if 4GHz needs to be my 24/7 speed!:)

JonJ678 said:
That's quite a system Si. What do you use it for if you don't mind me asking?
Click to expand...

Cheers JonJ!:) Although I am a network admin at work I have been off sick for several months so have had the time to upgrade and tinker as much as I want! The SSD's were an experiment really as I wanted to see if they were ready for our workplace yet - we have a lot of mining engineers, geologists etc who travel extensively into some very remote parts of the world so having reliable, rugged and above all low power consumption laptop drives is a real bonus. (Also I really fancied them!:D) As for myself I'm into freeride mountain biking and have had a helmet cam for a few years now so needed a decent video editing rig, I also do still photography and have started diving too, so want to expand into underwater video and stills - a fast rig really helps for processing all stuff I come back with!:)
 
I have not had any problems with mine running at a stable OC of 4.0, have set my case fans onto the high setting, so currently its running at 4.1, and will be pushing it further to the 4.2 setting that I can have if need be, also when pushing it to 4.2, my Ram should be at the fully rated 2000mhz, as at 4.1 its rated at around 1953mhz, so there is still a small increase here. With my ASUS Extreme II Rampage and the Noctua, I have no problems whatsoever with reaching extreme speeds with my chip :D
 
You can do better than that :)

I have a very similar setup to you only I use the EVGA Classified motherboard and 12GB of the Blade Ram.

I'm stable at 4.4Ghz though :)
 
Hi Guys, thanks for the comments - I do hope to go further but if I can't due to temps then I'll still be happy with 4GHz! I have considered going to water cooling but I've never dabbled in that before and to get a decent setup I suspect the cost will be more than my missus would stand for - especially after all my recent upgrades!

I'll keep tweaking and see what I can get it to, will post back with results!
 
Is everyone using realtemp to monitor things? Is it supposed to be really erratic (i.e. the temp reading jumps from 40c to 60 in a second?

I'm having huge difficulty in overclocking at all - temps idle at 37-40c stock and load around 57-60c. However upon overclocking to say 4Ghz, temps reach nearly 95c!!

I've tried with all fans at 1200rpm (i.e. fast as possible) and 2 on the TRUE in push/pull but still much the same with it topping out just over 90c.... I don't quite understand how everyone is maintaining such low temps i.e 75-80's at 4GHz on air without either ridiculous amounts of noise or cases the size of rooms?!
 
pioneer2000 said:
Is everyone using realtemp to monitor things? Is it supposed to be really erratic (i.e. the temp reading jumps from 40c to 60 in a second?

I'm having huge difficulty in overclocking at all - temps idle at 37-40c stock and load around 57-60c. However upon overclocking to say 4Ghz, temps reach nearly 95c!!

I've tried with all fans at 1200rpm (i.e. fast as possible) and 2 on the TRUE in push/pull but still much the same with it topping out just over 90c.... I don't quite understand how everyone is maintaining such low temps i.e 75-80's at 4GHz on air without either ridiculous amounts of noise or cases the size of rooms?!
Click to expand...


What settings have you tried? Specifically Vcore; Multiplier and BCLK?
 
The best way to get reasonable temps for a 4.0-4.2 overclock is to buy a massive case with good airflow, like my Antec 1200 case, and then a Noctua cooler, and then you should have no troubles reaching the mentioned speeds with no worries about the temps reached
 
pioneer2000 said:
Is everyone using realtemp to monitor things? Is it supposed to be really erratic (i.e. the temp reading jumps from 40c to 60 in a second?

I'm having huge difficulty in overclocking at all - temps idle at 37-40c stock and load around 57-60c. However upon overclocking to say 4Ghz, temps reach nearly 95c!!

I've tried with all fans at 1200rpm (i.e. fast as possible) and 2 on the TRUE in push/pull but still much the same with it topping out just over 90c.... I don't quite understand how everyone is maintaining such low temps i.e 75-80's at 4GHz on air without either ridiculous amounts of noise or cases the size of rooms?!
Click to expand...


I would say, you either have some of the other voltages too high... the CPU temp is not just affected by vCore on i7 or, and in my opinion more likley, you do not have a good CPU to Heat Sink connection.

I suggest removing the HS and looking at the TIM to see if it seems to be making good contact. If not... check the HS is not warping the motherboard and try reseating. I find I need a lot of TIM on i7. Also my 920 D0 had such a bad top that I needed to LAP it, but thats only because i wanted the highest overclock, you should not need to go this far for a 4Ghz clock if you have a d0
 
As the others have said 4GHz should be fairly easily achievable on a D0 chip, so sounds like something else isn't quite right.
 
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Its true, the overclocking speed of 4.0 is easily achievable, and probably would stick my neck out to say this is the easiest chip to overclock that Intel have made to date
 
Admittedly with a smaller case like mine i'm always going to have trouble BUT i've tried running at 200Bclk with auto settings for voltage and with similar settings to FaceplantSi as above (i.e. 191). Both of these are resulting in temps in the 90's at load and 50's at idle.
 
Or, (and I know this is a pain in the...) you could try an 'out of the box' build to see what temps are like - that would be a definitive way to check if your case airflow is causing issues. I wouldn't have too many things set to auto though as the voltages could be doing all sorts of things! My RAM was set to auto till I used the Gigabyte Easy Tune util to check and saw it was putting 1.77 volts through my RAM! I immedieately set that manually to 1.64v!
 
danceMB said:
:eek: That is seriously way too high for your temps to go. Have you considered upgrading your case to something with better airflow?
Click to expand...

lol- I only just got this one! :eek: I imagined it would be quite a cool case considering it's a lian li and it has two 120mm fans - I want a quiet smallish case and this was the only one that would fit everything I needed in without going for a full tower.

I'll check the voltages when I get home but thought I remembered seeing 1.360v in cpu-z when at 4ghz? That's pretty high isn't it?
 
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