Core I7 Extreme Edition Overclocking Thread

I wanted to start a thread about overclocking just the Core I7 Extreme Editions (XE) 965 / 975. A thread just talking about unique issues, advise for overclocking these chips with unlocked multipliers. I have not been able to find athread like this anywhere.

I wanted to do this because I think most coverage and advise about I7 overclocking has been for the lower locked models. Probably due to those models having a much larger user base. Well you would have to be a bit crazy to pay double or more for the XE's which give just about the same overclock results as the cheaper chips....

But it has meant that most of the stuff discussed has been for locked multiplier set-ups. Where you can only play with the base clock of the chip.

Also I want to talk about the XE's also having an option of dynamic overclocking just by using the turbo function, as long as the motherboard supports it.

So I will get the ball rolling, with some brief details of how I have my XE setup. I can get into specific bios settings another time.

I brought a C0 965XE and a DFI X58 LanParty, board since it supports setting the turbo multipliers. I have not been very adventurous with the oc'ing yet and have only gone to 3.8 Ghz. This is bcause I have not changed any of the voltages yet. I got to 3.8 Ghz by setting the turbo multipliers to x29 and turning off the thermal limits to the chip.

Now because I am using the turbo function to do the oc'ing and have left the power saving functions on then it goes to 3.8 Ghz on-demand, but idles at 1.6 Ghz (x12). I also left the bios in auto on the Vcore, so it goes from 1.120 V at idle to 1.396 V when running prime95.

This setup appeals to me as the PC is not as power hungy as systems with a static overclock where de-clocking at idle does not happen. My system at idle consumes 187W..And goes to about 600W when playing a game like Crysis.

Anyway that is what I'm doing with my XE, what is everyone else doing with their expensive unlocked XE's?

System:
Core I7 965 @1.6 – 3.8 Ghz 1.120 - 1.296V
(using unlocked turbo multipliers to overclock on-
demand)
6GB OCZ Platinum 1600 @ 1300Mhz, 7-7-7-24, 1.58v
True 120 Cooler
DFI LanParty UT X58-T3eH8 ver 619
2 x Nvidia GTX 285's @ 700Mhz
Creative Audigy 4
Enermax Revolution 1050W

this is going to be a lonely thread

*spots tumbleweed rolling*

Let me in !!

I'll join you fella... but I agree .. I think we may be alone in here for awhile..

I have a 975 on a Rampage Extreme II Mobo.. without any voltage changes I have had the thing kicking around 4.5Ghz for a couple of weeks now. I've popped it up to 4.8Ghz for a while and it seems happy enough. I just start getting nervous myself as I am a complete novice when it comes to OC'ing.

to achieve the 4.5Ghz I changed the Bclk up from its baseline of about 155 (how low !) up to around the 170 mark (I'll try and get you some accurate figures but I am in work at the moment). I think the Multiplier was on about 26 to start which I bumped up to 31 ( I Think).

I'll repost to this thread when I get home and can fill the blanks in..

Phil

PhilColwill said:

without any voltage changes I have had the thing kicking around 4.5Ghz for a couple of weeks now.

Click to expand...

Do you have your Vcore on auto? What does CPU-Z report your voltage as?

freeagent said:

this is going to be a lonely thread

*spots tumbleweed rolling*

Click to expand...

Nice.....

PhilColwill said:

I have a 975 on a Rampage Extreme II Mobo.. without any voltage changes I have had the thing kicking around 4.5Ghz for a couple of weeks now. I've popped it up to 4.8Ghz for a while and it seems happy enough.

Click to expand...

Thanks for responding. Erm unless you are pulling our legs, I would be suprised if you got that frequency at the default voltage. But then I don't know your motherboard and whether it automatically increases the voltage. As already mentioned cpu-z can confirm your CPU frequency and voltage.

ph0b0s said:

Nice.....

Click to expand...

i didnt mean that in a bad way man, its not like you picked the most popular chip to buy

freeagent said:

i didnt mean that in a bad way man, its not like you picked the most popular chip to buy

Click to expand...

Yeah I know, just call this the thread for crazies . But I got my XE as I really want to play with oc'ing just using the turbo multipliers. I shall be patient and see if anyone else is as crazy as me.

Next I must get that 1 - $2000 keyboard where all the keys are little OLEDs......

ph0b0s said:

Next I must get that 1 - $2000 keyboard where all the keys are little OLEDs......

Click to expand...

I think thats the Art Lebedev keyboard.. Nice.. he's bringing out a new one now which is just one big touch screen ..

Getting back to the Voltage comments above.. (still haven't got home yet so this is guess work !!) but I think the voltage was moderating itself..

But .. I do have some info from when it was at 4.2Ghz.

Bclk Frequency was at 156Mhz
CPU Voltage was 1.425v
Multiplier was on 27 giving a result of 4212Mhz

With the Asus Mobo it comes with two default overclocks to choose from and the above is one of them ..

PhilColwill said:

CPU Voltage was 1.425v

Click to expand...

Keep an eye on that as I belive the quoted max safe vcore from Intel is 1.5v. Since you are using the bclk overclocking method you could do well to ready through the overclocking guides for the non XE I7's as they have to use this method as well. There is a lot of stuff you should be able to find though google. You may pickup better advise that I can give as my experience is only via overclocking by changing the CPU multiplier and keeping the bclk at the standard 133.

This is why I wanted to start this thread as I don't think this method on the I7 XE's has been given as much coverage as the method you are using. Also I have seen nothing, except a mention on a tomshardware article, about overclocking using the turbo multipliers.

Gah... even though you have a 965, raise the bclk.... then use the multi to push past that limit (around 200). Otherwise you have the potential to starve it of bandwidth. The point of this chip is really for extreme overclockers (LN2/DI). Air and a 965 is a perplexing combo.

BUT, subscribed to this thread.

1.5v? You need to join the benching team so we can talk you into running proper voltages on that chip.

2.0 or bust.

EarthDog said:

The point of this chip is really for extreme overclockers (LN2/DI). Air and a 965 is a perplexing combo.

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Agreed. An extreme edition CPU for gaming is a bit pointless.

Just like an AMD Black Edition CPU. Find the approximate limit with the multi and vcore, then tweak to your final OC using the Multi and the Bclk.

I finally got home !!..

I have attached a screeny of what I am currently running the machine at generally..

If any of your experienced OC'ers out there have any suggestions .. I would be very grateful to hear them.

The image left is V Turbo an app from Asus I believe that allows you to clock on the fly without reboot.. I am sure you're all familiar with image right .. interesting to see that the voltage readings are considerably different between the two apps.

sorry about the size of the image .. I will resize lower in future.. a bit of a novice to this forum malarky ..



ps.... Cheers to Amtrak... I liked your sig so much I stole it..

Interesting. Have you done any sort of stability testing? Prime95, LinX, etc.? What are your temps like?

Also, Turbo V shows voltages as they are set in the BIOS. CPU-Z reports actual Vcore.

PhilColwill said:

ps.... Cheers to Amtrak... I liked your sig so much I stole it..

Click to expand...

Haha, glad you like it.

Use RealTemp to see how hot she's running.

Besides that I think you sized the pic fine. At least it looks fine on my monitor.

Turbo Mode

I was lucky enough to get a very discounted i7 975 by working for Intel this summer and I decided to overclock it using turbo mode instead of messing with the multipliers.

To do this I got an MSI Eclipse Plus, which is a great motherboard except for the chipset heatsinks (I had to attach a 80 mm fan to my graphics card with mounting putty to help cool the heatsink, after removing the metal "stickers" and putting on a different thermal paste).

Anyway, I have the system stable with the unlocked turbo mode putting my processor to 4 GHz with four and three cores, 4.133 GHz with 2, and 4.266 GHz with one core. I haven't fine tuned the system because it was a hot week (in the 100s w/o AC in my apartment) and now I can't do it until I get back to school where my AC, keyboard, speakers, and monitor are (I was using these parts from my roommate's computer while he was on vacation).

I encountered a lot of blue screens along the way, but I finally determined that the last ones I had were because of driver conflicts and file corruption in Windows (which I fixed using some command line fixes and a Win7 installation).

I am looking forward to increasing the overclock, at least by a little, in two weeks and I will post some detailed information at that time. In the meantime, I was wanting to know what sorts of experiences, if any, others are having with OCing just using turbo mode.

Like I said, my OC on 4 cores is 4 GHz, with the core temps at load ranging from 58 C to 62 C (I think the pull of gravity on the megahalems causes one core to be cooled better than the rest and one worse than the rest because the temps are usually 58, 60, 60, 62). My voltages are only slightly changed, but I don't remember exactly how much (maybe a Vcore of 1.3).

Here is my system:

Intel Core i7 975 w/ HT enabled, Speed Step enabled, and Turbo Mode enabled (30, 30, 31, 32 w/ max W and A overridden)
Prolimatech Megahalems w/ 2 Cooler Master R4 2000 RPM fans
12 GB Corsair Dominator PC12800 7-7-7-20 at rated freq and timing
2xEVGA GeForce GTX 275 in SLI (overclocked to FTW settings)
Cooler Master ATCS 840
MSI Eclipse Plus
Corsair 1000W PSU
Samsung DVD Burner
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5 TB

I'm hoping starting this little 920 up and saving money might work into an I9 down the road myself I'm hoping a bios upgrade in the future would allow that.

The I7 change I really wasn't gonna go that high I guess, have to see what those things look like in the future.

GMoney86 said:

I was lucky enough to get a very discounted i7 975 by working for Intel this summer and I decided to overclock it using turbo mode instead of messing with the multipliers.

To do this I got an MSI Eclipse Plus, which is a great motherboard except for the chipset heatsinks (I had to attach a 80 mm fan to my graphics card with mounting putty to help cool the heatsink, after removing the metal "stickers" and putting on a different thermal paste).

Anyway, I have the system stable with the unlocked turbo mode putting my processor to 4 GHz with four and three cores, 4.133 GHz with 2, and 4.266 GHz with one core. I haven't fine tuned the system because it was a hot week (in the 100s w/o AC in my apartment) and now I can't do it until I get back to school where my AC, keyboard, speakers, and monitor are (I was using these parts from my roommate's computer while he was on vacation).

I encountered a lot of blue screens along the way, but I finally determined that the last ones I had were because of driver conflicts and file corruption in Windows (which I fixed using some command line fixes and a Win7 installation).

I am looking forward to increasing the overclock, at least by a little, in two weeks and I will post some detailed information at that time. In the meantime, I was wanting to know what sorts of experiences, if any, others are having with OCing just using turbo mode.

Like I said, my OC on 4 cores is 4 GHz, with the core temps at load ranging from 58 C to 62 C (I think the pull of gravity on the megahalems causes one core to be cooled better than the rest and one worse than the rest because the temps are usually 58, 60, 60, 62). My voltages are only slightly changed, but I don't remember exactly how much (maybe a Vcore of 1.3).

Here is my system:

Intel Core i7 975 w/ HT enabled, Speed Step enabled, and Turbo Mode enabled (30, 30, 31, 32 w/ max W and A overridden)
Prolimatech Megahalems w/ 2 Cooler Master R4 2000 RPM fans
12 GB Corsair Dominator PC12800 7-7-7-20 at rated freq and timing
2xEVGA GeForce GTX 275 in SLI (overclocked to FTW settings)
Cooler Master ATCS 840
MSI Eclipse Plus
Corsair 1000W PSU
Samsung DVD Burner
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5 TB

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. Someone else using just turbo oc'ing, yay. You have been more adventoues than me as I have just gone to 3.8Ghz with all four cores. That was with a max vcore of 1.3v. I get up to around 70c when running prime95 first test for about 10 minutes. Would be interested to hear if you have messed with your uncore / vtt voltages as at my voltages as well.

I had a simular problem with my old to cooler where if I put my tower on it's side the CPU was cooler when running prime95. So I brought a True 120 cooler where the clamp stops the cooler from suffering from gravity as much.

I also wanted to see what others experiences are like using this method to overclock. The results may not be as good as using the multi and Blck methods with a fixed increased voltages. But I really like the idea of the overclock being there on demand and when the system is idle the CPU is clocked back and saves power, probably only a few watts, but hey it's fun to play with.

I managed to get an engineering sample of the W3570. this is the xeon vesion of the I7-965. for a while now i have been overclocking the X series from intel and i have always used the raise the bus a bunch and up the multi a few levels. figuring out the voltages on this beast is a bit difficult though.

right now i only have Air but i am running at 3.75 with 1.25v on the core, and about 1.3v on the qpi and 1.35v on the IOH. it has been running prime now for about 3 hours stable with temps at about 80c. i am not too worried about the temps as its a ES and if i break it i can just get another and from what my intel guy has told me we dont have to fear temps like we used to.

i would like to get up to the 4.0Ghz mark so i think my next step is to up the multi a few levels to see if i can hit that mark.