Why is 90 degrees for i7 considered reasonable?

[Myshkin]

Nope I haven't done anything to it - it was a pre-clocked bundle and this is how it arrived, I wouldn't want to risk changing settings I don't understand!!

Should I send it back to OcUK to have it redone?

EDIT: the CPU has D0 (not that I understand what that means, except that it's probably better than C0)

 

[WJA96]

Nope I haven't done anything to it - it was a pre-clocked bundle and this is how it arrived, I wouldn't want to risk changing settings I don't understand!!

Should I send it back to OcUK to have it redone?

EDIT: the CPU has D0 (not that I understand what that means, except that it's probably better than C0)

Well, if it's a pre-overclocked bundle then it's guaranteed for 2 years under EU legislation and it's unlikely you'll keep it much longer than that anyway, so fair enough.

That CPU voltage is EXTREME though.

Do you have a CPUz screenshot showing the CPU VCore?

 

[Myshkin]

Sorry in my newbie-ness I quoted the wrong vcore reading. I think the right one is 1.23v, have edited the original post accordingly

 

[D D Danneh]

Vid range for i7 920 is 0.8v to 3.75v, with a D0, try to keep within these limits, DO NOT overvolt your i7 to 1.5v. You can disable thermal throttling in bios, but its not recommended.

Below 1.375v is intel's recommended (and what I'd recommend too), but 1.5v, or it could be 1.45v, is the max safe voltage. If left on auto at stock, my board cranks the volts up to 1.47, so I should think it must be safe.

Nope I haven't done anything to it - it was a pre-clocked bundle and this is how it arrived, I wouldn't want to risk changing settings I don't understand!!

Should I send it back to OcUK to have it redone?

There's nothing wrong with the settings, you just quoted speedfan's Vcore2 reading, which is the RAM and not the CPU. The RAM can operate at 1.63v, the CPU can't, so it got us all a bit worried there

I think the problem is the heatsink. There may be too much thermal paste, or it may not be attached correctly. You can send it back to OCUK to get them to reseat it for you, but it's an easy job you should be able to do yourself. Did OCUK send all the manuals and thermal paste with the build?

Well, if it's a pre-overclocked bundle then it's guaranteed for 2 years under EU legislation and it's unlikely you'll keep it much longer than that anyway, so fair enough.

That CPU voltage is EXTREME though.

Do you have a CPUz screenshot showing the CPU VCore?

He quoted the wrong one. Look in speedfan, Vcore1 (CPU voltage), is at 1.23

 

[WJA96]

You can disable thermal throttling in bios, but its not recommended.

The BIOS thermal throttling is just a tidy way of shutting down. It shuts down the PC down at the TCase, not the Core Temperature, effectively like pressing the power button. The system state is saved to disk and you can recover nicely. You can't turn off Thermal Throttling in the CPU.

Plenty of people have tested this by starting their systems up without a CPU cooler at all. The system just shuts down.

 

[WJA96]

so I should think it must be safe.

Not really, the motherboard manufacturer doesn't give two hoots about the CPU, they'll protect the motherboard, but the CPU? I reckon that's open to destruction. They have all sorts of disclaimers in their manuals.

 

[D D Danneh]

Not really, the motherboard manufacturer doesn't give two hoots about the CPU, they'll protect the motherboard, but the CPU? I reckon that's open to destruction. They have all sorts of disclaimers in their manuals.

Surely they wouldn't be allowed to sell a motherboard which would destroy a CPU. It must be within some sort of specification. I know Asus boards overvolt if you overclock with voltage on auto, but this is at stock settings. What if someone bought an off-the-shelf system only for it to break a week later?

 

[gurusan]

The board should not send that kind of voltage through the CPU at stock auto settings. If it does then there's some sort of BIOS problem I reckon.

At stock settings the board should send voltage according to the CPU VID...with vdrop/vdroop and stuff it's usually a bit less.

 

[Gaidin109]

Below 1.375v is intel's recommended (and what I'd recommend too), but 1.5v, or it could be 1.45v, is the max safe voltage. If left on auto at stock, my board cranks the volts up to 1.47, so I should think it must be safe.



QUOTE]

1.55v is the absolute max that Intel say the cpu can take, but that will damage the cpu. you have to also take spikes in voltage into consideration especially if using Load Line Calibration. Stay within the vid range and you will not have any problems.

 

[Myshkin]

Ok maybe I'll consult my techie friend about reseating the heatsink - I didn't do that before because I don't trust him not to go all geeky on me and max out the system by overclocking everything

Of course I want games to run fast, but not in overdrive at the expense of overheating and reducing lifespan significantly.

No, they didn't send the thermal paste or documentation for the CPU - I have the boxes & manuals for the motherboard and the graphics card, but that's it.

 

[mmj_uk]

It's down to the manufacturing, GPU's have been running 90-100c under load for a few years and there's no reason CPU's can't if they're built for it.

 

[WJA96]

The board should not send that kind of voltage through the CPU at stock auto settings. If it does then there's some sort of BIOS problem I reckon.

It's not at stock settings though. It's overclocked with voltage options left on [AUTO]. All three of my X58 motherboards (XFX, P6T, UD5) will exceed 1.375V VCore if you crank up the BCLK with VCore on [AUTO].

At stock settings the board should send voltage according to the CPU VID...with vdrop/vdroop and stuff it's usually a bit less.

Indeed, my understanding is that, assuming you don't set the BCLK to [MANUAL], that's exactly what will happen.

 

[JonJ678]

Could you clarify WJA96, are you running at 200bsck and auto vcore and seeing over 1.375V, or are you running over 200 with it on auto?

At default bsck and auto voltage, it'll feed the chip the vcore it requests at stock, this vid is burnt in during testing in manufacture.

The range of allowable voltages, 0.8 to 1.375V, is not what intel recommend you run the chip at. It is the range in which every chip vid will fall. They test the chips to determine what vid is required for it to run at stock speeds in their test platform, probably overestimate it a bit then burn this into the chip. So all you can say is that intel are prepared to sell a chip with a vid of 1.375V, not that Intel think your 1.05V vid chip will run just fine at 1.375.

I suspect there to be more to it than just 'anything up to 1.375' is good, especially when starting out from a very low vid chip. However this seems a fairly safe range to work within

 

[WJA96]

Could you clarify WJA96, are you running at 200bsck and auto vcore and seeing over 1.375V, or are you running over 200 with it on auto?

210 x 20 gives 1.48V reported in CPUz on the P6T Vanilla on a C0 CPU (I only have C0's).

200 x 20 gives 1.46V reported in CPUz on the UD5.

195 x 20 gives 1.47V reported in CPUz on the XFX.

The really odd thing is that the XFX will only overclock on full [AUTO] settings. I suspect it probably goes mad and overvolts everything massively, but it's completely stable at 3.9GHz. Likewise the P6T will do it completely on [AUTO], but you can manually set the dividers and drop the voltage and it's still pretty stable. The Gigabyte needs the full adjustments to be made to get it cool and stable, but they all get there in the end.