I7 3820, Sabertooth X79 & Corsair H100

[shawnsum]

Hey guys, just put this system together last night! So far so good!

I know that I have the hardware to do some pretty substantial overclocking..I just don't know how substantial (Whats safe, What isn't), and I am not sure if I really want to be a "hard core" OCer (pushing my hardware to breaking points). I would just like a nice safe over clocked CPU..because I know my Cooler can handle it.

Here are my full system specs!

Coolermaster 932 HAF Advanced
Corsair HX1050 PSU
Intel i7 3820 2011
Asus Sabertooth X79
16gb Corsair Vengeance Memory
Gigabyte GTX 670
Kingston 120gb SSD
1TB storage HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium

 

[DarkOutlaw]

For starters the Corsair H100 isnt really 'water cooling'. Hopefully you havent bought it yet, since the H80 performs better, and the Noctua DH-14 is probably the best choice. That or the Hyper 212 Evo.

OC speed is going to depend how lucky you are. Every CPU is different, which means that the volts/temps may not be the same as others. Since this isnt a widely used chip you have even less to compare to. I dont even think you can over clock it unless you play with the BCLK...

 

[rubix_1011]

Non-K SB/IB chips do not have the unlocked mutiplier like the k-series, so darkoutlaw is correct; only voltage and BCLK are you options...and they are relatively limited.

 

[shawnsum]

K thanks DarkOutlaw.

 

[jacknhut]

H100 is considered real watercool, its just that you cannot expand it to gpu. H100 IS BETTER than h80 and IS BETTER than noctua dh 14 according to multiple professional reviews.
I7 3820 can be overclocked to 10+ ghz if not more although you will run into temp and voltage ceiling at around 5 ghz. A lot of people don't know how to overclock I7 3820 because they don't have it and because they only know how to overclock using unlocked multiplier. They don't know that I7 3820 is partially unlocked despite its not a k series CPU. You can change multiplier up to 43 for I7 3820, multiply that by strap frequency 100 mhz to get 4.3 ghz overclock. If you want to go higher, change strap frequency to 125 mhz, and select appropriate multiplier to get desired clock. For example, 125 mhz strap x 40 multiplier equals 5 ghz overclock. Or 125 mhz x 39 multiplier equals 4.875 ghz etc...

 

[cuecuemore]

While the H100 isn't "real" WC, it can be made to beat any air cooler on the market, by a good margin, too.

 

[rubix_1011]

H100 is considered real watercool

Disagree; similar concepts and principles, not the same though.

its just that you cannot expand it to gpu.

It can be modded, many people have done it...just not that effective.

H100 IS BETTER than h80

Yes, simply because the radiator is larger.

and IS BETTER than noctua dh 14 according to multiple professional reviews.

Most of what I have seen shows 1-2 C difference, at most. While yes, that would suggest IS BETTER, it doesn't represent all capital letters suggesting it's significantly better. In many cases, the DH-14 is better at lower fan speeds and only beaten by the H100 at high fans speeds and typically in push pull (requiring you to buy 2 extra fans).

H100+2 fans easily puts you into XSPC Rasa/Raystorm watercooling kit range that will perform much better than the H100 for the same cost.

 

[hcool1987]

You can OC this processor, I have the same processor on a Gigabyte mobo and a H100i (pretty much the same thing, just I have software and couple things and you got a button).

I am also like you dont OC to the limits but my temps were so low (low 20's) so I decided to do a OC for 24/7 use.

The multiplier can be changed, it can only go to 43, but at 43multi X 100 BCLK you can get a 4.3Ghz processor just by changing the multiplier in bios to 43, thats max. My processor idles at low 30's high 20's and low to high 50's under 7hrs of Prime95.

Also I'm not sure if this makes a big difference, but in the bios' settings theres an option for the cpu fan PWM, you need to disable any kind of control on the CPU Fan header, let the Corsair unit do the job. I figured and I've seen alot of higher temps with this cooler, that the Corsair is not able to change the fans the way it wants cause the bios settings are interfering with the unit. I could be wrong on this but I just disabled and gave the Corsair unit full power not letting the Bios control it.

 

[dirkdigler29]

You can OC this processor, I have the same processor on a Gigabyte mobo and a H100i (pretty much the same thing, just I have software and couple things and you got a button).

I am also like you dont OC to the limits but my temps were so low (low 20's) so I decided to do a OC for 24/7 use.

The multiplier can be changed, it can only go to 43, but at 43multi X 100 BCLK you can get a 4.3Ghz processor just by changing the multiplier in bios to 43, thats max. My processor idles at low 30's high 20's and low to high 50's under 7hrs of Prime95.

Also I'm not sure if this makes a big difference, but in the bios' settings theres an option for the cpu fan PWM, you need to disable any kind of control on the CPU Fan header, let the Corsair unit do the job. I figured and I've seen alot of higher temps with this cooler, that the Corsair is not able to change the fans the way it wants cause the bios settings are interfering with the unit. I could be wrong on this but I just disabled and gave the Corsair unit full power not letting the Bios control it.

Were you able to do this without changing voltage? also I cant seem to find where to change the multiplier