I7 OC General questions

[n-sanity]

Hello folks,

As some might have noticed, i'm moving back into the oc scene. Last time i did ocing seriously was back in the k8 days with san diegos and venice chips, bh5 and tccd ddr :D Had some early bird records 2... anyhow, last thing i overclocked was an e6300 a looong while ago :) Right when they came out. With d9gkx sticks and a 590fsb board no less :D

Haven't touched a bios since then. Hence my predicament.

I'm moving back in now, with water and plenty of time again (with education out of the way). Problem is, i hear all this crazy talk with mcp being moved on-die and untied clocks and whatnot, and frankly haven't the slightest clue to it obviously.

I would greatly appreciate it if someone took the time to do a quick fill in as to what happened while i was gone. The new ins and outs of higher tier ocing would be nice too! If not, a pointer to a general guide or refreshing article wouldbe nice too.

Thank very much to all. Glad to see HWCanucks is on it's feet...i joined when there were 30 members here, and now we have thousands :D

Cheers fellow beavers.

EDIT1: Ah, after a bit of reading i noticed that the i7 920 has a locked multi. Is that locked from 20 up, or is the only setting 20 (which would be a bummer with good ram...)

[somecanadianguy]

The mutiplier on the 920 can't be set above 20... with turbo mode though it goes to 21.
It will go to 22 if you are only using a single core (single-core must be set in BIOS on my board).

I'm learning a lot... much of it from this site .
I hadn't really OC'd before I got my i7 so it's all new to me.

There's tons of great info here, but I've found some other great stuff too that's helped me...

x58 i7 Voltage Guide [stickey please]
The i7 Overclocking Study Thread... post your OC settings. - XtremeSystems Forums
Intel Processor Power Delivery Design Guidelines and Specifications: Vdroop Explained - The Tech Repository Forums
Ultimate Core i7 Overclocking Guide -- We Push Nehalem to its Limits | Maximum PC

[n-sanity]

Lol maximum pc shouldn't be allowed on here. Speculating sharlatans the lot of them. Anyhow thanks for the reply and the great links!

I see the front bus has magically turned into QPI and fsb into bclk (< reminds me of the word black for some reason). This 'uncore' (lol encore?) business with the new mem controllers and separate l3 clocks (lol finally following amd r we) isn't funny either. I used to have a feel for ratios on k8 and later c2d, but these are all new and foreign to me :) I don't have a week to screw around and several extra hundred bucks if something doesn't go as planned. That's why im asking.

For that matter, still looking for that special someone to explain in brief! Thanks.

[MpG]

Ha, I remember that MaxPC article where they put out an article claiming to have 'discovered' the variable memory, QPI, and Uncore multi on non-ES chips, quite a bit of time after the fact. Gods, that had to be embarrassing for them.

It really is a whole new ballgame, and like usual, no two mobo makers can agree on what to call everything in their respective BIOS'. The CPU is also far more important than ever, (even though a good motherboard is obviously important). It's actually pretty hard to just 'explain' it, since there are a few basics, with a whole load of footnotes and exceptions everywhere depending on what hardware is being used.

Speed for speed, the new chips WILL run hotter than the old quads. You can either invest in really heavy-duty cooling, believe the hype that the chips handle high temps better (seriously, does anyone know what the source for this claim is?), or let your temps stop your OC's before anything else does.

[MAC]

Originally Posted by MpG

(seriously, does anyone know what the source for this claim is?)

Straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. These are very robust chips, and running them at 80C 24/7 is not a cause for concern.

[MpG]

Originally Posted by MAC

Straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. These are very robust chips, and running them at 80C 24/7 is not a cause for concern.

Very interesting. That's nice to know, I suppose. Despite it being quoted all the time, I never saw it referenced once. All I knew was that despite everybody shooting for 60's with the last gen, we had a newer generation that coincidentally didn't mind getting hotter. Wasn't sure if that was true, or just wishful thinking by OCer's.

[gingerbee]

all i am going to say once again remember the pentium 4 stove top cooker so ( sorry off topic ) there is no short cut guide to overclocking the i7 chips it's called lots and lots of reading sorry mate

[n-sanity]

Heh, i've been to and from the reading, and wrote a good heavy share of it myself for xtremepc.org and other sites when i was admin. I clocked with ln2 before and was somewhat heavy into exotic water (not peltiers but bong cooling).
Now after 4-5 years i'm ready to pull back in. There's no need for any noob introductions, i was just looking for the quick definition and pointer to good articles on uncore, qpi and i7's quirks. Heavy reading is of course expected and welcomed :)

Oh, and you gotta remember k6's and other good stuff that did fine up to 100c (and of course gpu's, some of which like it around 140c). High temps and silicone are nothing new. To 'melt' a chip as some call it, you would need several thousand degrees C, since silicone will melt at like 4000c or so. But usually ur trusty p4 will crap out at 90-120c permanently because lead/tin inside connecting the copper to the silicone and to lga contacts will melt @ that temp :) That and there's silicone expansion on the micro level, which leads to gate voltage leakage which in turn f's everything.

[gingerbee]

no noob intended at all sorry if i offended you all i am saying is there a lot to read (just for the i7 stuff) and i am new to i7 too
Don't know if you have seen this or not just trying to help basic but good start
NCIX Tech Tips #19 - Intel Core i7 Video Overclocking Guide - Linus Tech Tips Blog
or maybe this helps http://lakesidepc.com/Core.i7.920.oc....12.12_ENG.pdf
the gigabyte overclocking guide been awhile since i have read it