Newbie and Rookie trying to overclock a I7-950 on a p6x58D

[hawkeye123]

Hi - Newbie and rookie overclocker here looking for some help from this esteemed group.

I have a few Overclocking questions related to temp and voltage and whether it matters to increase bclk or the multiplier?

Setup: i7-950 on a Asus p6x58D with 12 Gb of Corsair Dominator CMD12GX3M6A1600C8 DRAM. Using Zalman 9900LED cooler.

Out of the box with the XMP on, ran at 3.06 GHz and the memory at 1600 MHz. Ran quite cool - <40 C under stress.

From there I played with Bclk and the multiplier and got the cpu up to 4.2GHz. I continued to keep the RAM at 1600 MHz for control purposes.

Temperatures rose under stress to 80C at which point I shut it down.

1. How high a sustained temperature (24/7) is OK to run at (I use the computer for number crunching not gaming so simulations can run 10 hours)? Any thoughts on how to improve cooling (would water fix this and not add a lot of noise)?

2. Is it better to adjust Bclk or the multiplier or it doesn't matter as long as I keep my RAM at 1600 MHz or below (I seem to be able to select this separately regardless of the Bclk or multiplier however the options it gives me are different)?

3. At 4.2 GHz I had the CPU voltage at 1.3V. Am running stable now at 3.68 GHz at 1.22V (160 * 23). I presume I can run at the higher 1.3V forever as its below the spec? Also, is there any benefit to downticking the voltage below 1.3V if I fix my perceived cooling problem at 4.2GHz?


Many thanks!!!

 

[r_manic]

I can only answer number, and not even all of it. As a general rule, I'm comfortable with a PC consistently running at 60C under load. Start worrying the closer you get to the 70C mark. You should also check Intel's website for information on operating temperature; so long as your CPU stays within that range, there's no problem at all.

 

[mezal1981]

you should change to water cooling, because when u oc the first important thing is the Temperatures, 80 c a very high and i could leed to short your mb component.the casing also important make sure their alot air flow in and out, Oc make all the component working twice or triple and more heat its make. to make u pc stable try to lower 50c below

 

[hawkeye123]

Thanks for the input. What is the best way to measure temperature - ASUS has a utility that gives a single number called CPU and then there is realtemp which seems to have 4 numbers - one for each core. They don't line up so wondering which is better?

 

[mezal1981]

the high temp you must monitor,if im not wrong the (core 1).

 

[LucaSabu]

I use CPUID Hardware Monitor for all my temps.

Also, the highest value is the one you should always take in consideration, meaning that if any core goes close to 80, you have a reason to worry.

For air cooling, I think you need a ubber fan to get over the 4.011 mark. I'm at 4.009 and my temps under stress are around 68. I'm using a NH-D14 which is, in my opinion, the best fan on the market.

I saw people pushing to 4.2 like you did, but they all had temps close to 75-79 at stress.