How much voltage can the i7 920 safely take?

[aggielaw]

Posted this in general discussion, but no help yet, so trying here.

I'm concerned about my CPU voltage.

System 1 (in pertinent part):
Core i7 920 D0
Asus P6T Deluxe v2
Corsair Dominator 1600MHz (3x1GB)
Cooler Master HAF 932
Prolimatech Megahalems
Noiseblocker 1k-2krpm in push/pull config
Corsair 850w PS

CPU-Z readouts:
Bus speed: 200
Multiplier: 20x
CPU Voltage: 1.424v

When I set the BIOS I left the CPU voltage to "auto".

First, is this a safe voltage? Is it likely I can successfully lower the voltage manually in the BIOS? If I attempt to lower it and it fails will I fry my CPU?

And finally, is there a better/safer/more power efficient way to have the D0 hit 4.0 and be stable? I run SETI, so all cores and threads stay at 100% all the time.

Thanks,
HC

 

[CompuTronix]

From Intel's Processor Spec Finder: http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SLBEJ

All Core i7 variants Vcore Max 1.375

 

[aggielaw]

Ouch. Guess I need to back it off a bit. I don't understand how people are safely getting their D0s over 4 safely.

Thanks for your help!

HC

 

[cjl]

It's very CPU dependent. Some overclock better than others.

 

[CompuTronix]

Many users don't bother to look up Intel's specifications, so some are not getting "over 4 safely". Regardless, D0 Stepping will typically run ~ 200 Mhz faster than C0 at the same Vcore and temperatures.

 

[nonxcarbonx]

So does going over 1.37 V mean that you cpu isn't safe?

 

[cjl]

Well, there's a bit of margin, but I wouldn't go too far beyond it.

 

[Helloworld_98]

i7's have very different overclocks, my D0 hits 3.8ghz max at stock volts but it gets to 80C whereas some D0s will hit 4.2ghz stock volts at 60-65C

 

[c0der1020]

Intel has from my experience always set their Vcore max very low. I guess just to be absolutely sure that noone can fry their CPU as long as they stay within that limit.
That doesn't mean that running 1.424v would fry your cpu for sure though.

What you suggested yourself is the way to do it. If your cpu runs fine now try and lower the voltage bit by bit and run some benchmarks. When you get a failure you go back up one increment and then run some hourlong tests to make sure it's stable.

Failure from too low voltage doesnt fry your cpu. It just means that there isn't enough juice to do the calculations which doesn't harm the cpu.

 

[cjl]

True, although you can corrupt your OS install from crashes from too little voltage.