How to overclock i7 860

[vlaka]

hi everyone.
just bought an i7 860 and was wondering how to go about overclocking it with the standard heat sink fan and 3 case fans.
I havent overclocked in over 8 years and im sure things have changed

My motherboard is a Gigabyte P55A ud3p
Ram: 4gb 1600 corsair dominator at 9 9 9 24 (it runs at 7 7 7 20 in the bios for some reason)
650w PSU


I used the Gigabyte overclock software and am sitting at 3.18ghz. I've read through a number forums and they say to keep volts and cpu temps below certain numbers.

This is what I have atm

3.15ghz speed
BCLK: 150mhz
VOLTAGE
cpu: 1.232
DRAM: 1.568v

Thats by using Easytune software provided by Gigabyte.

I havent touched anything in bios.
Any help and tips would be much appreciated

 

[RJR]

STOCK Cooler & OCing = NG

Download coretemp or Realtemp and monitor your temps.

Run Prime95 or OCCT or IBT to stress your system and see if it's stabile and what your max temps are.

 

[vlaka]

STOCK Cooler & OCing = NG

Download coretemp or Realtemp and monitor your temps.

Run Prime95 or OCCT or IBT to stress your system and see if it's stabile and what your max temps are.

Ok thanks.
does NG stand for no go?

What's a suitable temp reading both idle and working?
Currently at 3.15 it sits at around 34degrees and around 45 working.

How long should I run the stress tests for?

 

[RJR]

10-15 minutes Prime95/OCCT/IBT will give you an idea of your max temperatures.

For 24/7 stability it depends on what program you are running: Prime95 12-24 hours.

45c working = means nothing, run a stress test

I would check out a few OCing guides too.

Good Luck.

 

[Fisherman619]

I got almost the same rig. You can try these settings BUUUT first, if you want to OC you need CPU cooler. I recomend the Coolermaster hyper 212 plus. For mild OC'ing 3.6ghz and under, this does the job well! And at $30 theres no reason not to!! If you want to go higher, then get a P. Megahalems and your set!

ALL SETTINGS ARE DONE IN BIOS.

3.0ghz
Everything on auto.
Just changed BCKL to enable and set to 145.
Set your ram in bios to their specks. Also set it to standard.
load line calibration enabled.
Thats it. Its a small bump but in single core, turbo will OC up to 3.57ghz
Temps with CM 212+ are 65c-68c under full load in prime95. Will probably be in the high 80's with stock cooler = NG!!

3.46ghz (all cores will be set. No turbo)
BCLK set to 165. multiplier is 21.
Turbo disabled
vcore set to 1.175v
C1E disabled
EIST disabled
load line calibration enabled.
Set your ram in bios to their specks. Also set it to standard.
All else is auto.
Temps are 57c-59c under full load P95.
Prime95 stable 14hrs.

I use real temp and CPUZ to monitor.
72c full load is what you want to stay under. I test 15min just to see temps. Overnight to test stability 8-12hrs. You can do a 24hr test if you want to be 99% sure you are stable.
NG= No Good!
You can try these settings to see if they work for you. May need to tweek a little but its a starting reference. Hope this helps. Good Luck!

 

[RJR]

You can try these settings to see if they work for you. May need to tweek a little but its a starting reference. Hope this helps. Good Luck!

Letting him try your settings is all well and good but he's not learning anything. You tell him to tweak his settings and he's going to say, HUH. Tell him he might need to bump up the vtt to stabilize his Bclk or ram and it's going to be the same thing. If you don't know what all the Bios setting are for, and work up your own OC how do you know your settings are optimized to your computer or even dangerous to your computer.

 

[Fisherman619]

By stability testing.

"Overnight to test stability 8-12hrs. You can do a 24hr test if you want to be 99% sure you are stable."

I'm no expert and dont know much about about OC'ing these i7's. I am learning as i go. (as in now!) We all know that OC'ing is playing at your ovn risk and that there is a risk involved. I am just sharing what i've found worked for me in hopes to help someone out. We all start somewhere. This was just a starting point so he can see what types of things i changed to find success. I'm pretty sure he isnt going to just copy my settings and walk away. Hopfully he did get something out of my post. None the less i contributed. Small as it may be in your eyes. Im sure it will help someone.

 

[vlaka]

I got almost the same rig. You can try these settings BUUUT first, if you want to OC you need CPU cooler. I recomend the Coolermaster hyper 212 plus. For mild OC'ing 3.6ghz and under, this does the job well! And at $30 theres no reason not to!! If you want to go higher, then get a P. Megahalems and your set!

ALL SETTINGS ARE DONE IN BIOS.

3.0ghz
Everything on auto.
Just changed BCKL to enable and set to 145.
Set your ram in bios to their specks. Also set it to standard.
load line calibration enabled.
Thats it. Its a small bump but in single core, turbo will OC up to 3.57ghz
Temps with CM 212+ are 65c-68c under full load in prime95. Will probably be in the high 80's with stock cooler = NG!!

3.46ghz (all cores will be set. No turbo)
BCLK set to 165. multiplier is 21.
Turbo disabled
vcore set to 1.175v
C1E disabled
EIST disabled
load line calibration enabled.
Set your ram in bios to their specks. Also set it to standard.
All else is auto.
Temps are 57c-59c under full load P95.
Prime95 stable 14hrs.

I use real temp and CPUZ to monitor.
72c full load is what you want to stay under. I test 15min just to see temps. Overnight to test stability 8-12hrs. You can do a 24hr test if you want to be 99% sure you are stable.
NG= No Good!
You can try these settings to see if they work for you. May need to tweek a little but its a starting reference. Hope this helps. Good Luck!

Thanks Fisherman, gives me a round about idea of what I should be tweaking and fiddling with and what temps I should be aiming for

I'll give it a whirl soon
BTW would anybody know what the deal with my RAM is?
Says its meant to run at 9 -9-9-24 yet in bios its set at 7 7 7 20?

Im guessing i'd need to set it to it's correct speed to stabilze the OC?

 

[vlaka]

Just set it to what you had suggested Fisherman and running prime95 and realtemp to monitor temps and all that. ATM @ full load highest it gets to is 75 degrees

That pushing it?

 

[Fisherman619]

Maybe you have the XMP setting on for the ram in bios?? If so just take it off and manually set timings and voltage to speck. Also set your mem multiplier to 6x till you get your OC stable. By doing this you will lessen the chance of it being your ram getting errors in testing. After you have stability, you can then up the multiplier to 8x or 10x. Which ever of the 2 is closest to 1600 without going over. Run tests again to check for stability.
Yeah I would stop there till you get a cooler.

 

[webdevoman]

Correct me if I'm wrong but why over clock this CPU to only 3.46 when that is the max turbo speed anyways?