First Time overclocking i7 930

[maneil99]

Never Overclocked before, i increased the base clock to 166 i believe, or somewhere in the 160ish range. I save and left and started playing, no other adjustments. is this safe? I have a i7 930, 6gb of ddr3 1600mhz, 750w psu. I can't get back on my i7 computer till friday but i turned it off, when i come back is it neccassary to make any adjustments or will i be fine? Windows booted so i think its stable?

 

[christop]

I have my 930 at 3.8 bump the volts and lowered the multiplier up the clock.

 

[jb6684]

You'll need to put a bit more stress on the system to determine if your stable than just boot into windows....

I use Prime95 for about an hour when I feel I'm close to max on an overclock......

For basics, just tweak the BCLK up slowly till it crashes after a minute or two on Prime95 (or fails to boot into windows...). Then back it off a few Mhz and go for a Prime95 run.

NOTE: You really MUST have an aftermarket cooler to keep an OC'd i7-930 cool enough. You should run SpeedFan and shut things down if temps get about say 75C......


To get more serious you'll need voltage tweaks.... google a few of the tutorials on OC'ing i7-9XX series chips for some good answers....

 

[christop]

Prime is such a waste of time. Load up your favorite game and play it. If it crashes you need to do some work. I usually just play BC2 and if it can pass that it's stable

How can you say prime95 is a waste of time? It is best way to really see if you are stable or run linx. A game will not stress the cpu enough to tell if you are really stable. Yeah I ran bc2 so I can tell if my oc is stable. I would guess your oc would bsod or throw errors in 30 minutes of prime.

 

[maneil99]

So if I run primetest and it's stable everything should be fine? No need toscrew around with multipliers or anything just base clock ? Yes or no answer would be amazing

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

why not run occt?I like occt better and if you want to actually stress your cpu use intel's burntest.I havent used intel burntest however i have heard from other forums that it is like using increases your cpu temp by another 10c rather than using occt and prime.

 

[jfby]

Psychosaysdie,
While I agree that it may not be the best tool for stability, it will point issues in your setup.

Personal example: I had a buddy setup a system, overclock, and just played games right away and was apparently stable. After awhile he would complain about his computer crashing apparently randomly between 1 minute and 1 hr after startup, and he didn't due as well on benchmarks with people with nearly the same exact system.

I ran Prime95 on his system, and at least 1/4 of the workers failed within second of starting the test. Eventually his system would just crash; hardly stable. We tweaked the bclk, RAM timings, and voltages and eventually got where he could run Prime95 for 24 hr no problem, Intelburn test 10 runs, too. Now he runs games like a champ, has his system on for weeks at a time with no crashing, and his benchmarks are where they are supposed to be.

Like I said it's not the best, but at least with Prime95 you can repeatibly test your system for stability instead of waiting up to an hour for your system to crash.

To the OP, I hate to say 'overclocking an i7 is easy', but there are a lot of guides you can find online by going to Google and type 'overclock Intel Core i7 930' and compared to the older AMD and Intel chips I've worked with it is much easier.

You will need an aftermarket cooler, a good application of TIM/heatsink+fan, and time. Eventually after adjusting your voltages and clocks appropriately, you will reach the point where you are as fast as you want to be and running as cool as you like.

 

[cadder]

So if I run primetest and it's stable everything should be fine?

Almost... you also have to worry about temperatures. Download something like coretemp and run it while you are testing your cpu. Depending on your temperatures under load, you might or might not be putting your CPU in danger.

 

[maneil99]

Thanks guys. Two more questions, does the computer auto shut off if it gets too hot? Also since all I did was adjust the base clock to 166mhz and have left everything else to default settings will It work? The only reason I ask is because all the guides I read talk about voltage and mem multiplier but I haven't touched any of those. All I did was change the base clock. Anyways thanks guys for the support.

 

[christop]

I run 40 straight iterations of Intel Burn Test on extreme so my overclock is perfectly stable

Good for you..

 

[jfby]

I run 40 straight iterations of Intel Burn Test on extreme so my overclock is perfectly stable

Nice; I wasn't saying you didn't know what you were talking about, I was just saying that I used Prime95 more for the immediate (i.e. within 2-3 seconds) failure that it often provides. I much prefer the burn test for testing.

The most I've done is 20... looks like when I work out tonight 40 it is!

 

[maneil99]

No offense guys but can we stay on topic lmao, just need an answer to the last two questions I asked and then we can close this thread

 

[jfby]

If you can run Intel Burn Test 20 runs and your temps are low enough and you don't have crashes, then your fine. Is your RAM multiplier set to 10x. Some memory sticks will handle higher frequencies while others won't. With a bclk of 166 and mem at 10x, that would be close to stock.

 

[maneil99]

believe the defalt multiplier is at 8x so unless thats changed i believe it should be 166x8=1328, and my memory is 1600mhz.

 

[jfby]

Copy; some memory does OK above the rated speed, others don't, so it's up to you.

Run Burn Test 5 times, then if OK go for 20 and let us know how it goes. If you pass and you are happy with your temps, then I'd say you are good to go. If you don't pass, bump your volts up a notch, drop the bclk, and/or you may have to adjust with the RAM timings, not the speed.

 

[maneil99]

but since my ram is 1600mhz nothing bad will happen if im only runny at 1328mhz

 

[jfby]

Not that I am aware; it would be bad if you ran much higher than 1600. It will just be slightly slower than stock, that's mainly it.

 

[maneil99]

And just to be clear : Base Clock X Mem multiplier= overall ram mhz? correct?
And finally to wrap things off, I should be fine if the computer's stable and ive only changed two things: Base clock and memory multiplier, the rest is default?

 

[jfby]

First yes (166 x 8 = 1328 MHz)

Second if you can run Intelburntest 10-20 times without issue, then yes, you are good to go.

Just make sure your temps don't get too high; I try to stay under 65 C when gaming. Just use a monitor that tracks your current, min, and max and you'll be good to go. Considering you didn't modify your voltage, you should be OK, but it never hurts to check.

 

[maneil99]

Best answer selected by maneil99.