Intel i7 Overclocking Guide

[Cougr]

Very nice OC for those Temps! The amount of fans is insane! Well for me anyway. I have 2 fans that have randomly started to make a lot of noise. I'm gonna see how many fans I can fit and then purchase all new ones that are better quality and quieter. Going to get the Noctua CPU Fan as well because the V8 has one of the fans making the noise.

[Vengeance47]

Very nice OC for those Temps! The amount of fans is insane! Well for me anyway. I have 2 fans that have randomly started to make a lot of noise. I'm gonna see how many fans I can fit and then purchase all new ones that are better quality and quieter. Going to get the Noctua CPU Fan as well because the V8 has one of the fans making the noise.

Yea I've got 9 fans total moving something like 480CFM betweeen them. Then I've got the two fans on the NH-D14 which is a beast of a cooler and I would recommend it to anyone OC'ing i7's on air. As far as i'm concerned no air cooler on the market can beat it.

Do you know why the fan on your V8 is making noise? Ball-bearings loose or something? Or just vibrating? Have you tried reseasting your cooler just to make sure its not just a vibration or something?

You could always just replace the fan on the V8 though, rather than buy a new cooler.

If you're looking for new fans, i bought 7 of these;

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai ... ts_id=8022

I know it says 69.69CFM on the site but they actually move 90CFM according to the packaging they come in and CM specs.

Also, anyone looking at cooling on air will find this useful, I know I did;

http://www.silverstonetek.com/tech/wh_positive.php?area

It basically outlines the differences between positive and negative air pressure in your case. Its very handy to work out how you want to orient your fans (Intake vs Exhaust). So a good read if you want to get some new fans or are looking for a new case.

[Cougr]

I wanted to get the SilverStone Fotress FT0B-W, it looks so amazing! Plus 3x 180mm Intake fans from bottom of the case all with filters! And 120mm Exhaust from top.

I want to get that and a HD4870, G15 Keyboard, Z-2300 2.1, Noctua NH-U12P

[Sygate666]

Added a subsection with some info and links in regards to fan control.

[jonstosik]

Hi guys,

First off, I'm new to overclocking, but hey; everyone was new once.

SO I've recently made a new rig w/ an i7 930 in it and a Noctua NH-D14 cooler on it. All seated on an ASUS P6X58D Premium Mobo.

After looking around overlockers.net I decided to give it a go, and have used the settings from:

http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherbo ... ost8435147

The i7 930 w/ hyperthreading.

In doing this I've underclocked my 2000mhz ram to 1603mhz.

Being new to overclocking I tried to simple solution of increasing the DRAM Frequency to 2000mhz and UCLK Frequency to 4000mhz; I found that my computer wouldn't boot, and after a hard reset would tell me the overclock had failed.

I currently have my cpu running on the exact settings from that thread with the lowest temp core @ 33 degrees and the highest @ 37 degrees.

I am planning to do a burn test with Intel Burn Test ASAP, but I thought I would post to see if I can sort this first.

First, is it possible to utilise the full 2000mhz on the ram?
Second, if so, can you please help me with the settings that would be required to do so?

EDIT: Just after posting this I realsied I had been stupid and not raised the DRAM Voltage to support the 2ghz speed; would this be the problem?

EDIT 2: Just thought I would post my temps after about 1 hour on Prime95 on blend.

With my case fans on half my temps are currently 70, 68, 67, 67.
I can drop that another couple degrees by turning up the case fans to full, but then it sounds like my computer is about to take off .

[Sygate666]

I had a similar issue. My RAM is top of the range and rated at 2000Mhz but I couldn't get the computer booting with it at anything higher than 1903Mhz.

At the end of the day I compromised, my RAM is at 1650Mhz with my CPU at 4.2Ghz. I found that it's one or the other and my setup is very similar to yours (930, ASUS mobo, Noctua cooler etc.)

Out of curiosity, what did you increase the DRAM voltage too? From what I can recall it really didn't want to go higher than 1.5 or 1.6 or something and increasing it could cause damage. Might have another look when I get home but I'd be weary increasing said voltage.

Looking at your Prime95 temps you seem to be running pretty safely at the moment with a bit of room to fiddle further. 4000/1600 is still a decent OC though

[jonstosik]

Thanks for the reply sygate :>.

Yeah, I have my CPU Clocked @ 4.2ghz w/ 1603mhz on the ram.

I have my DRAM voltage set at 1.64 atm, 1.65 bring up the error saying anything above 1.65 can damage your CPU. 1.64 is exactly what that thread I linked said.

My computer has been running really cool. and pretty stable with my case fans a bit under half, so I think I'll leave it where it is now.

All my games are running smoother than ever and CS:S gets 299 fps on almost every map @ max settings, so I can't complain.

For anyone with the same mobo as me that thread I linked is amazing, tells you everything you would ever need to know.

[Sygate666]

Thanks for the reply sygate :>.

Yeah, I have my CPU Clocked @ 4.2ghz w/ 1603mhz on the ram.

I have my DRAM voltage set at 1.64 atm, 1.65 bring up the error saying anything above 1.65 can damage your CPU. 1.64 is exactly what that thread I linked said.

My computer has been running really cool. and pretty stable with my case fans a bit under half, so I think I'll leave it where it is now.

All my games are running smoother than ever and CS:S gets 299 fps on almost every map @ max settings, so I can't complain.

For anyone with the same mobo as me that thread I linked is amazing, tells you everything you would ever need to know.

No worries dude.

That's a nice OC man, pretty much exactly the same as mine, at pretty sound temperatures, well done! Glad to see you're happy with the results. Did you ever end up getting the RAM to run at 2000Mhz? I wouldn't worry about it if you don't, simply because the difference between 1600Mhz and 2000Mhz is minuscule at the moment especially with the current VRAM clocks and your CPU O/C.

Thanks for the link too by the way, I might check it out and add it to the OP as a reference for ASUS users

[jonstosik]

Nah, I didn't bother trying to hit 2ghz after I got my ram stable @ 1600hmz; everything was running smoothly and incredibly stable, so I didn't want to mess with a good thing.

[Sygate666]

Nah, I didn't bother trying to hit 2ghz after I got my ram stable @ 1600hmz; everything was running smoothly and incredibly stable, so I didn't want to mess with a good thing.

Haha that's exactly the same thing I thought when I reached my OC

[steve_rogers42]

Only just realised your linking to the tools is all over the place, most of the ones you have listed are available on MajorGeeks and maybe SourceForge... both which are hosted by 'node

Memtest86

CPU-Z

Prime95

UBCD

HWMonitor

[Matty]

I was going to try and slightly overclock my 930 for a little more ommph.

But now im more confused then when i started

[steve_rogers42]

Currently going through the overclocking motions with my new rig... and came across this site and the run down for Overclocking.

Although a bit technical, it does give the explainations are to how things relate and work on each other... will let you know how it goes as im following it (not due to missing this sticky, just followed another thread on gulftowns that lead me to it... <3

[Sygate666]

I was going to try and slightly overclock my 930 for a little more ommph.

But now im more confused then when i started

Sorry dude I missed your reply, give me a PM if you want some first hand help.

Currently going through the overclocking motions with my new rig... and came across this site and the run down for Overclocking.

Although a bit technical, it does give the explainations are to how things relate and work on each other... will let you know how it goes as im following it (not due to missing this sticky, just followed another thread on gulftowns that lead me to it... <3

Awesome mate, let me know how it goes and if it's worth adding a link to the OP.

[xanarax]

Looking to squeeze a bit more juice out of my 930, I currently have the Noctua D14 in mind, I've read that it's great. (currently running my processor stock with the stock HSF)

If anyone recommends something better for similar price I'd be happy to hear it.

Currently have 12gig Corsair Twin3x 1333Mhz PC-10600 ram, hoping it can take a bit of stress.

Wish me luck!