Anyone running their i7 as a dual core?

JonJ678 · 31 Jul 2009 at 01:06

I've discovered the option in the gigabyte bios to disable cores. Quite excited about this, as it should significantly reduce the heat thrown out by the chip. I fear i7's are board limited (around 220 bsck isn't it?) so the possible increase in frequency doesn't look like much.

However for running 24/7 ish without consuming ridiculous amounts of power this looks like a brilliant trick. No ram yet, but initial thoughts run to a much undervolted 2ghz dual core for browsing and music, cooled by the psu fan and a single 7V fan on a radiator.

Yes, I'm aware that an e8400 would be better for this. I don't always need a fast quad core, but it's good to have it available when required.

MikeTimbers · 1 Aug 2009 at 11:30

Don't the cores basically shutdown when not needed? I'm confused here. I don't own an i7 (too expensive!) but surely like all recent processors they have a C0 state where they shutdown when not used.

D D Danneh · 1 Aug 2009 at 13:35

You could probably set it as a profile in the BIOS, for your browsing needs, and then when you need performance, just whack it up to quad 4GHz with another profile.

JonJ678 · 3 Aug 2009 at 22:22

Two bios profiles are what I had in mind. I can say that I'm now running mine as a dual core, because the stock cooler is shameful and this is one way to keep noise and temperatures down.

Trying to get it undervolted enough that the stock cooler can cope with intelburntest without going over 70.

.:SAmSuNG:. · 3 Aug 2009 at 22:23

Whats wrong with it going over 70?

bulldog147 · 3 Aug 2009 at 22:26

How to deleted profiles in the bios like F11 and F12 ?

JonJ678 · 3 Aug 2009 at 23:26

70 seems a fair limit to set, aiming to be conservative there. It's currently hitting a maximum of 43 under prime 95, ibt is refusing to run so I'm using the slower one. I'm not aiming for a 24/7 clock here, can't really judge that one until I get it back underwater.

I'm at 16x125=2000 MHz, 0.8V bios, two cores disabled. I've discovered I can undervolt almost everything on this board, but only really taken the processor down so far. 32M and half an hour of prime stable, it'll run overnight.

I think underclocking is too often dismissed. It's a good way to learn a new bios, and means the overclocked monster shuts up for a bit while watching films.

Using F11 and F12 yeah. I now have defaults, stock, underclocked available for selection. The board looks fairly solid, but I'm pretty sure the chipset receives negligible cooling if you use a tower heatsink.