I7 860 Overclocking & Memory

[sivic06]

Hey all, been about 3 years since my last build. Looking for some technical info...

As a background I am a gamer who loves to crank settings as high as possible. My budget is about $900-$1000 and I will be porting over my 74GB Raptor, another basic data Sata Drive, Optical drives, Antec P180 Case, and BFG 650w Power supply (if possible). FYI I do not live near a Microcenter or Frys =(

As it stands, I am planning on ordering...

Core i7 860
Asus P7P55D PRO
GSkill Ripjaw 2x2GB Dual Channel 7-7-7-24 (Possibly to 8GB in a year or so)
XFX Radeon HD 5850 (Standard or Black)

I plan on OC'ing but this is where I need help. My goal is between 3.6 & 4Ghz.
1.) Do I need to get DDR3 2000/PC3 16000 or DDR3 1600 / PC3 12800?
2.) Can anyone offer a suggestion for a good CPU air cooling solution?
3.) Am I going to run into a power consumption issue? I am worried with that XFX card I will overdraw on the PSU during overclock. I have run the numbers and as far as I can tell this should be enough power.

Thank you in advance =)

 

[RJR]

First:
I would go for the P7P55D-E Pro MB, never know down the road the Sata6/USB3 might come in handy.
BFG 650W, 40AMPS on the 12V Rail, Corsair 650W, 52 AMPS....for a couple of dollars more....just a suggestion

1) either ram will be fine, depends on how much you want to spend, you won't notice a difference in every day performance, you will see a little dif in benchmarks thats all.
2) Frosty Tech web site, lots to chose from
3)either PSU should be fine, personally I like a little extra wiggle room on the 12v rail.

Have fun

 

[sivic06]

I am trying to keep the cost down a bit, but the e-pro has solid caps so im considering the extra $. Someone else said in another thread that OC'ing with a 7-7-7-24 is harder than the 8 or 9. Is this true? Part of what is making this build difficult is choosing the proper memory to make the OC'ing stable. There are so many opionions its hard to tell.

I could use as much insight as possible. Money is tight so I have to make this work the first time.

Thanks

 

[RJR]

The memory timing, whether CL7/8/9 is just the binning from the manufacturer that states the ram will run at a specific speed and timing at a given voltage. You have memory multipliers in the Bios so you can run your ram at or below the specific speed/timing given. Most will OC beyond the rating anyway. You don't have to worry about one set being more STABLE than another, unless your planning on using LN2/Dice and extreme clocks.

 

[sivic06]

Nope im just trying to get anywhere around 3.8ghz with the 860. Thanks again.

 

[bob5568]

Sivic, my system is similar to what you're planning. I have:

i7 860
ga-p55a-ud4p
evga 8800 gts (g92)
4x2gb G. Skill Ripjaw (pc 1600)
Corsair Modular 520w
Lancool PC-K60 case
Cooler Master Hyper tx3
4 hd - 2 wd black 640gb in raid 0; 2 older Seagate drives
Sony dvd drive

My power is fine, so check on the difference between my old fashioned vid card, and yours...that's the prime difference on power draw between our systems.

I just set my bios so my memory remains underclocked. Overclocking memory is down the road for me.

Andy over on another thread just described much better temps than I get, his hsf is the Prolimetech Mega-
Shadow. I think I'll buy one. My cooler master is pretty dinky.

And with my dinky hsf, my box is prime 95 stable at 3.6 with 100% load tems never exceeding 73C. Vcore is 1.216 at idle, 1.23 at full load. Vtt is at 1.21. My bclk is 180 with a multiplier of 20.

I have every suspicion that the mega-shadow will help me reach 3.8 or more.

About 3.8: Depending on how you evaluate your overclock, I have a totally stable 3.8 right now at 180x21. However, to reach a stable prime 95 for more than 1 hour, I need vcore that drives my 100% load temps to mid 80s. Some folks never bother with load testing, they would likley declare my 180x21 totally stable! Lower vcore (and lower temps) were successful at passing prime 95 for up to 1 hr, and that also might cuase some to declare this setting successful.

I like to be conservative, but I'll bet with the MegaShadow, I'll be easily satisfied at 3.8.

Enjoy!

Bob

 

[RJR]

I'm sure you will like the MegaShadow also, by the way Andy is on an i5 750 so without the HT capability his processor runs cooler.

Here is a pic of 4.0 GHz, not a stability run, I just took this for temps with the MegaShadow. This is also with a single 1800 RPM fan, should do better if you use two.

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[andy5174]

Hey all, been about 3 years since my last build. Looking for some technical info...

As a background I am a gamer who loves to crank settings as high as possible. My budget is about $900-$1000 and I will be porting over my 74GB Raptor, another basic data Sata Drive, Optical drives, Antec P180 Case, and BFG 650w Power supply (if possible). FYI I do not live near a Microcenter or Frys =(

As it stands, I am planning on ordering...

Core i7 860
Asus P7P55D PRO
GSkill Ripjaw 2x2GB Dual Channel 7-7-7-24 (Possibly to 8GB in a year or so)
XFX Radeon HD 5850 (Standard or Black)

I plan on OC'ing but this is where I need help. My goal is between 3.6 & 4Ghz.
1.) Do I need to get DDR3 2000/PC3 16000 or DDR3 1600 / PC3 12800?
2.) Can anyone offer a suggestion for a good CPU air cooling solution?
3.) Am I going to run into a power consumption issue? I am worried with that XFX card I will overdraw on the PSU during overclock. I have run the numbers and as far as I can tell this should be enough power.

Thank you in advance =)

1. I would get Corsair HX620 or HX650 if I were you.
2. Get at least a DDR3-1800 if you want to have your CPU running at 3.6GHz+ with RAM at their native frequency at the same time.
3. I am using a Prolimatech Megashadow and it's excellent. My i5's full load core temps are 48C-44C-44C-43C at 3.6GHz under 18C ambient temperature.

 

[andy5174]

BTW, as you can see from my signature, 1440MHz is the best frequency I can achieve at 3.6GHz OC without exceeding the native frequency(1600MHz).

 

[RJR]

BTW, as you can see from my signature, 1440MHz is the best frequency I can achieve at 3.6GHz OC without exceeding the native frequency(1600MHz).

Or you can run it at 200 X 18 = 3.6 GHZ and still allow you to run your ram at 1600.

or 190 X 19 = 3.61 GHz and ram at 1520

 

[andy5174]

Or you can run it at 200 X 18 = 3.6 GHZ and still allow you to run your ram at 1600.

or 190 X 19 = 3.61 GHz and ram at 1520

In order to do so, I will have to exceed the absolute maximum Vtt/IMC which I hesitate.

 

[sivic06]

Thanks for the input all...

This is my final build. I am installing Windows 7 Home Premium as we speak...

Asus P7P55D EVO - $170 at Newegg
I7 860 - $280 at Amazon (Pasted with Arctic Silver)
Titan Fenrir Heatsink/Fan assy - $50+10 shipping
GSkill Ripjaw 4GB DDR3 2000 Dual Channel PC3 16000 - $130 at Newegg
ATI Radeon XFX 5850 Black Edition - $330 at Newegg

I am taking a trip to get a new case in the morning. I have fitment issues with the one I am using (Antec P180). The power supply is too far from the 8pin 12v rail. I am sick of having to get extension cables for my boards.

I am picking up a NZXT Panzerbox at the Tigerdirect store in Illinois. Should run about $109+tax its a pretty sick case I highly recommend it.

as soon as windows is configured I will start my overclock/tweaks. Wish me luck.

FYI currently with default settings the processor is idling at 29c.

 

[antiloop]

Thanks for the input all...

This is my final build. I am installing Windows 7 Home Premium as we speak...

Asus P7P55D EVO - $170 at Newegg
I7 860 - $280 at Amazon (Pasted with Arctic Silver)
Titan Fenrir Heatsink/Fan assy - $50+10 shipping
GSkill Ripjaw 4GB DDR3 2000 Dual Channel PC3 16000 - $130 at Newegg
ATI Radeon XFX 5850 Black Edition - $330 at Newegg

I am taking a trip to get a new case in the morning. I have fitment issues with the one I am using (Antec P180). The power supply is too far from the 8pin 12v rail. I am sick of having to get extension cables for my boards.

I am picking up a NZXT Panzerbox at the Tigerdirect store in Illinois. Should run about $109+tax its a pretty sick case I highly recommend it.

as soon as windows is configured I will start my overclock/tweaks. Wish me luck.

FYI currently with default settings the processor is idling at 29c.

nice one you should be able to get that running at 3.6 with no effort at all. Rams can be set as low as 1080 or slightly higher, with timings tight . im getting mine done up at 3.6cpu, rams 1080DDR3 7-7-7-20 . CPU Vcore @ 1.2 bios/1.136 in windows. PCZ Plats 15000 1866 C9 modules, 4x2GB. Not too bad i would say.

Current room temp @ 24C, with each core maxing out @ 61-62C each.
. Managed to get it run 6621mb of LinX for 11 rounds before it errored out. , time to try going 4.0 now....

 

[sivic06]

I havent had time to OC it yet, but I will try those settings and see what I can get. My goal at this moment is to get it as high as possible w/o going over 70 degrees C under full load.

 

[antiloop]

Alright here's the deal

Didn't get it at 4.0ghz but did get it on something different.

3.8Ghz 1.23V
Rams at 7-7-7-24 1T for both Channels (8GB in total)

Temps never hit more than 70, mostly averaging out slightly higher than before. 64-66C average. So essentially managed to get 200mhz more cpu speed, 6mhz more for ram (ha, yeah its 6mhz) but hitting1T on all banks! Nice... I wonder if i can push it to 7-7-6-24 ...... let me know how yours goes mate...