Safe Core i7 OC BIOS settings?

spitzoid

spitzoid

spitzoid

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Hi,
I will recieve my components for my new PC tomorrow and after I have put it together I want to OC it.

I have never done OC'ing before (I've never even built a PC before) but I have heard that it is relativily straightforward to get a safe and stable OC on the Core i7 920.

I don't want to beat any records, and I only have air cooling, but I want to get at least 3.2Ghz (maybe 3.5Ghz) out of it and was wondering if anyone out there could reccommend some settings for me to try?

Any help and advice is appreciated.

Core i7 920
Asus P6T
6GB Corsair 1600Mhz
 
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Smaller transistor sizes mean i7 will be more prone to degradation due to overvolting than the overclock-friendly 60nm quads (anyone who screwed their 45nm E8600 shortly after release will testify to this!)

I'd say play it safe, boot at stock. You're using a new motherboard which has a release BIOS and a new processor. There are almost certainly glitches and kinks to be worked out. Boot at stock and test your load temps, then look at bumping the FSB to its max before you even touch core voltage.

What are you using for air cooling by the way?
 
For the air = Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 + Antec 1200 case.

Might get a couple of spot fans to help if that proves inadequate.
 
If you've not OC'd before the i7 may not the best rig to start with, as there's not that much information out there yet, as not many can afford the ridiculous prices at the moment.

Saying that dont be put off but there wont be anywhere near as many people able to jump in and help you with it compared to say a Q6600 or a Q9*50 rig :)

As said there will be many problems that need to be worked out to make these sytems rock stable at stock speeds first, let alone overclocked.
 
They're actually very easy to overclock upto about 4GHz. 3.2Ghz is very straight forward, probably mostly on Auto settings and stock voltage. Just change the baseclock BCLK to 160MHz. Safe vcore? 1.4v should be fine. The Intel spec for maximum voltage (1.55v) is 0.1v higher than the older 45nm quads.
 
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SillyHeatsink said:
Smaller transistor sizes mean i7 will be more prone to degradation due to overvolting than the overclock-friendly 60nm quads (anyone who screwed their 45nm E8600 shortly after release will testify to this!)
Click to expand...

So you're saying its not wise to overlcock i7 then if you want a slowly dying chip?

RoEy
 
This is what I meant, there are varying stories of sucess and failure at the moment.

The processors are so new it's impossible to really know the effect of the extra voltage and clockspeed on the lifespan of the processors.

There very expensive processors to kill at the moment.
 
I may go for the core i7 940 then. I was going to get the 920 come feb time but may now opt for the 940 to give me a bit more power if I'm going to run it at stock.

I'll be able to assess the situation more around feb anyway.

RoEy
 
So the bit-tech guide:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/11/06/overclocking-intel-core-i7-920/1

Is essentially dangerous advice to give? They seem fairly confident of the safety of what they're doing - take a look at the section on power consumption. It's an obscene amount of power but they mention with a decent cooling solution (even air) you should be able to keep it stable.

Again, all this is completely without even the slightest clue to the long-term ramifications of such an extreme overclock right off the bat.
 
Undercoverman said:
So the bit-tech guide:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/11/06/overclocking-intel-core-i7-920/1

Is essentially dangerous advice to give? They seem fairly confident of the safety of what they're doing - take a look at the section on power consumption. It's an obscene amount of power but they mention with a decent cooling solution (even air) you should be able to keep it stable.

Again, all this is completely without even the slightest clue to the long-term ramifications of such an extreme overclock right off the bat.
Click to expand...

I've got an i7 920 + Asus P6T + Noctua NH-U12P much like the review ...

I used exactly same setting as they and are able to get 4.0Ghz stable enough for Vista boot, Crysis, Far Cry 2, 3DMark06, Passmark .. but *not* stable enough for Prime95, 3DMark Vantage .. have not tried Cinebench & others ..

But lower OC's are an absolute pinch - 3.2Ghz & 3.6Ghz are both stable for all of the above, even with *stock* cooler .. only voltage change required @ 3.6Ghz (@ 3.2 Ghz I actaully brought it *down* from Auto 1.25V to 1.2V for lower consumption!)

Regarding power - the good news is you can keep C1E & C-State on with OC and it will clock down at Idle - so consumption can be kept to reasonable level ..

Still - not sure how they got their setup so stable @ 4Ghz -
 
i7, 920 cpu clocked to 3.60 using 200x18 as i am using the intel standard stock fan, untill a better one comes out or untill i can afford some nice water cooling yum yum.
asus p6t deluxe oc palm edition runnng bios 1003, 6GB corsair xms3 pc3-12800c9 running at 1604 Mhz, zotac geforce gtx 280 amp 1024mb gpu Stock speeds as it is crazy standard, coolmaster master rc-1100 cosmos s case with 3 extra fans installed, enermax galaxy 1000w psu, running x64 bit pro sp2.
very very stable.

i have removed turboV as setting the bios up by hand & mind is better a lot better & more stable.

i use =

200 bclk = 3.60 Ghz
cpu ratio =18
speed step on
cpu spead spectrum OFF
auto cpu volt = 1.27 cpu volt
memory is at 1604 Mhz
memory is at 1.62v
running 1604 Mhz memory
rest is on auto.

3dmark06 = 17005 standard
overcloced to 3.60 = 20517
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=9229314

temps are cpu idle = 35c load 67c
mobo idle = 32c load 54c
room is at 22c.
 
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Just on this notion of safe OC voltages .. I've kinda given up on tweaking voltags and just resorted to a 200 x 20 overclock with 'Auto' everything else ..

ASUS ends up setting Vcore = 1.42V & Vdimm = 1.80 V when I do Auto !! Which by their own recommendations is too high .. (espeically the Vdimm voltage).

So question is .. does Auto Voltage = Safe Voltage ??

Or by nature if you are overclocking and changing even 1 parameter in BIOS then your taking your life in your hands ..
 
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