OC: i980X

[orange_light]

Hello,

I happened to win a Core i980x in a contest recently. I just built up a system for this chip
(CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D

ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard)

and am now thinking that I would like to dabble in Overclocking to see if I can get a little more performance out of it.

As it sits right now I enabled X.M.P on my motherboard and have just enough balls to play around with the CPU ratio up to about 23.0 (3.8 Ghz).

I'm using the stock cooler that came with the processor but I wanted to see if anyone had some tips and tricks that they might be willing to share with me or any advice to really getting the max performance out of this chip as it was a gift from above to receive.

 

[saint19]

Hi orange_light and welcome to Tom's forum.

1- Buy a better cooler, if you really want overclock that monster you will need a real cooler.
2- Disable the Turbo option of Intel in the BIOS.
3- What do you know about overclocking?

 

[orange_light]

Very little to be honest.

I was fortunate enough to win this in a contest and its really my first experience. I tried looking up some tutorials online about what cooler I should pick up and what temps are standard before completely bricking your system.

One thing I read was picking up a Corsair H70 and refurbing my system with this.

I'm very familiar with hardware but have little to no experience with overclocking.

 

[mrtoesterman]

turn a couple of things off, like, Turbo boost, C1E, E1ST

i 2nd what saint19 said, but a better cooler.... if you have money to spend, get a good liquid cooler.... if not then look into a Self contained liquid cooling.

i think there is 2 out there.... the h70 and then a ALC by coolit. i got the ALC one but i wish i waited a moment and got hte ALC with the temp monitor. i also want to try the h70 to see if there's a difference with the 2 that i mentioned above.

 

[vvhocare5]

Start with little steps. Leave the voltage at Auto, leave everything else alone and start by increasing the Clock multiplier for your cpu.

The 980X runs much cooler than the 975 CPUs ran. People report various levels of success but you should be able to get 3.6 to almost 4.0GHz without touching other things - and heat wont be your problem.

I have been running my 980X at 4.7+GHz and my temps do not exceed 65C at any time - yes I use an aftermarket air cooler but heat isnt the issue.

Intel specs 1.30/1.35V as the limit but I run mine consistently at 1.5V. I wouldnt suggest you do that if you cant afford to replace it.

You should be able to get to 3.8 easily without touching the other settings.

Good Luck!

 

[orange_light]

Best answer selected by orange_light.

 

[orange_light]

Thanks all for the tips. I'll do some digging and definately try some of these tips.

It sounds like Intel SpeedStep or whatever its called is a bad thing so I'll start there and then start with the tips that vvhocare5 suggested.

I appreciate it!

 

[jedimasterben]

OP, Speedstep really isn't an issue, it can cause instability for some while trying to overclock, but once you settle on a speed/voltage, I would re-enable it to save energy/heat (there is no point in running it 100% all the time).

i do not agree with a liquid cooler.
the idea of having liquid pumping in and around a electronics board amazes me.

i would only think about overclocking because you won this chip, if I had to spend almost $1300 there's no way i would.
before overclocking I would focus on getting more toys for the unit like SSD and maybe nVidia GTX580s'..

If a normal water cooling system "amazes" you, then you'd probably have a heart attack if you saw mine. It's got the pump/reservoir (a five gallon bucket) sitting on my floor, pumps up and over my system (in sig, minus the 5870 and plus a 5970), then into an evaporator bong hand-made out of 4" PVC, then back into the res on the floor. It's ghetto.

 

[saint19]

This topic has been closed by Saint19