Question about an OC i7 920 with 3.4Ghz P6T SE
Question about an OC i7 920 with 3.4Ghz P6T SE
I upgraded my i7 920 to around 3.4Ghz with speedstep and enabled it. I'm using an aftermarket cooler that should manage the higher speed. Here are the details:
Specs:
- i7 920 @ 3.4ghz
- DDR3 1066 and DDR3 1333 RAM, total 8GB, 1.5V rated
- Asus P6T SE
- CM Vanguard 800W PSU
- GTX670 stock
To reach 3400mhz I followed these steps:
https://imgur.com/a/C3CIpKn
View: https://imgur.com/a/C3CIpKn
Not observing many questions yet. Are you planning to push further?
You're not at the peak multiplier, definitely not the highest BCLK. Your memory selection could still complicate things. Room for improvement is also possible with more CPU voltage headroom.
165x6 seems moderate, but adding 1066 memory could limit your options.
I've encountered BCLKs reaching up to 220, which would require memory close to 1333Mhz.
Previously, I ran 161x10 for DDR3 at 1600 with an i7-950 at 161x23, achieving around 3.7Ghz core voltage at 1.185.
Well, I'm curious if the DDR at 992mhz could be increased. When I first saved the settings, the PC crashed and the DRAM was set to 992, but it booted up afterward and seems stable now. It might have been a one-time issue, I don't know. Should I keep the current settings? I've uploaded two screens of my configuration. Would it be better to lower or raise the vcore, or adjust the baseclocks? Thanks for the help (A)
Kind of hard to say, been something like 7 years since I had an x58 system.
Memory speed is least important to performance, but more is better of course. Since you are using the lowest multiplier, not really any way to go down. You can try throwing more voltage at the memory and see if it will run faster. But I wouldn't expect the world out of 1066 1.5v memory.
Increase in CPU core voltage may allow you to go up that last multiplier. But that depends on your temperatures.
To optimize the CPU. If it is stable now, you can try reducing the voltage to save on power a little.
Every CPU, memory, and board is unique. You just have to fiddle with it until you are satisfied that is as fast as it will go.
But my current CPU voltage is already quite low. I was considering a 170x21 setup to reach a clock speed of 3570, thinking it wouldn't cause any issues?
Edit: Temperatures remain consistent with before the overclock, especially during similar operations.
People have used i7-920 at around 4.4Ghz, it shouldn't cause problems if you maintain voltage below 1.4 volts (around 1.5V for 4.4Ghz with water cooling). The main concern is temperature control—avoid sudden large jumps. Running it at 1020Mhz on memory would be possible, but stability depends on careful management. Back then I noticed 'islands of stability' where certain BCLK values worked better; I had trouble around 170 due to my attempts to keep memory clocks high. Memory was expensive back then, costing about $300.
I checked the specifications for your P6T Delux with 920 DO running at 4GHz and 3x 4GB 1600 Gskill RAM. The lowest RAM speed observed was 1149 at 191 BCLK, which is manageable. I’m not certain if both RAMs have XMP profiles, but if they do, consider using XMP instead of manual settings to ensure proper DRAM timing under the DRAM timing control. Mixing different timings could cause issues. You might be able to adjust the timings slightly—raising each value by 1 or 2—to improve compatibility with the OC and potentially work better together. The BIOS may set tighter limits, so it’s worth testing.
Try these settings:
- CPU Ratio: 21
- BCLK FREQ: 191
- DRAM FREQ: 1149
- UCLK FREQ: 2298
- CPU Voltage: 1.27V
- CPU PLL: 1.91
- QPI/DRAM: 1.27
- DRAM Voltage: 1.55V
- Speedstep: Disabled
- HT on or off based on temperatures.
Newegg still has 1600MHz DDR3 4GB sticks available if you’re interested.
Really? Just bad luck? What temperatures were you observing? How much voltage were you using? Which cooler?
Noctua NH D12 (Antec 902 case, 2 intakes, rear / top exhaust) keeps my 920 at a comfortable 4°C under load, no more than 72°C running IBT with HT on, and a low 20s room temperature.
The temps weren’t too bad, probably between 68-70°C, which was really hot for an Akeet cooler from around 2009. It still worked, though I expected it to be rough. I assembled the PC for about $50 to $60. The voltage was set at 1.5. Then I added the Xeon and boosted the GPU speed. I used a 100cfm fan to push air through the radiator, but even then the temps stayed around 70°C. With the R15 at 993, it wasn’t too bad except for the noise.