I7 Overclock

[raybob95]

How's it lookin'?

I got my CPU set to 165x21 @ 1.3V (CPU-Z shows 1.26?) with the QPI at ~1.29V. The Memory (BEFORE THE i7 OVERCLOCK) was set to 1.66V at a multiplier of x12 (1600 MHz) over the i7's original settings of 1.5V and 8x multiplier (1066 MHz). Now I ahd to reduce the memory multiplier to 10x to keep it at 1650MHz as it wouldn't run at 1980 MHz.

MemTest ran fine with the RAM as such, I have yet to run Prime95, although I was getting errors before I overclocked it.

 

[jerreece]

When you ran Prime 95 before you OC'd, you found that it was NOT stable? That's sort of concerning...

When you run Prime 95, make sure you run it on Small FFTs so you're putting most of the stress on the CPU, rather than the memory.

As far as your CPU Core Voltage. CPU-Z shows the actual voltage, where as the BIOS shows what it's set to. Due to what's known as "VDroop" your set voltage is not always the same as what's actually passing through.

Before any of your OC is really relevant though, you need to do some stability testing to make sure it's actually going to run.

Watch your CPU temperatures using Real Temp or Core Temp to make sure you don't get too hot.

 

[winkerbie]

Careful the memory voltage set higher than 1.65v will damage the CPU

Also doesnt the CPU have a higher stock voltage when running on stock speeds, than the one you have set?

Maybe that might be affecting your Testing

Also the real voltage is always different to the one supposedly supplied by the BIOS, due to internal resistance, so CPU Voltage is not equal to supplied EMF

 

[raybob95]

Careful the memory voltage set higher than 1.65v will damage the CPU

No it won't unless you get to really high voltages.

I find that my RAM is unstable at 1.64V and my motherboard goes by every 0.02 so the next up is 1.66. Besides, EasyTune reports the RAM as running at 1.648V.

My CPU when it's not OC'd gets up to 55C under 100% load, and 60C when OC'd to 3.4.

 

[winkerbie]

I find that my RAM is unstable at 1.64V and my motherboard goes by every 0.02 so the next up is 1.66. Besides, EasyTune reports the RAM as running at 1.648V.

Thats because youre running it at 1600Mhz, but if there could be long term damage (not immediately noticeable)

 

[raybob95]

Well, now I've got a perfectly stable OC, Prime95 is running as I speak. I reduced the memory multiplier down to 8x, so now it's at 1333MHz, but still 1.66V which I'll probably put back down to 1.64 just in case it does turn out to be bad for the i7.

Anyway, here's what I got.

CPU set to 166MHz x21
CPU Voltage at 1.325V
QPI/VTT Voltage at 1.3125V

When they said OC the QPI, did they mean the QPI/VTT or the QPI PLL?

EDIT: Nvm, apparently it's the QPI PLL you're supposed to overvolt, exactly not what I did. So I took the QPI/VTT from 1.3 and put it back 1.175 or whatever it was, and took the QPI PLL from 1.1 to 1.28V. I also took the memory back to 1.64V and it runs fine.