Overclocking i7 860 - help needed

Discussion in 'Die-hard Overclocking & Case Modifications' started by Seban, Dec 10, 2010.

  1. Seban

    Seban Member

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    Hello everybody.
    At first I would like to apologize for my english - its not my mother language and I may make some mistakes. Again im realy sorry about that.

    I came here to seek both help and advice regarding the overclocking matters.

    What I wanna achieve is an overclocking of my i7 860 with stock cooling. Thats right. I dont wanna listen to things like "get a better cooling" blablabla, no. I would like to do some overclocking with what I got and I would like to know what can I achieve.

    As a matter of fact I kinda did by using bios preset to 3.06ghz but Im guessing it can be done better. Thing is Im very rusty nowadays if it comes to computers and especialy overclocking. I mean I did some oc on my old comp with e5200 so I guess I got some basic knowledge and experience but I think I lost it. I was guided backthen by someone I used to call a friend. Now I am on my own and I would like to get to know things again. My knowledge unfortunately stoped at year 2000-2002 and SLOT 1 motherboards so there is a lot of work that needs to be done.

    Anyway I came here for help and advice so here is my questions:

    1) How high can I go with stock cooling and what exactly do I do ?
    2) How to set Intel Burn Test when checking CPU's stability ?
    3) What temperatures should I watch for ?
    4) Anything I missed/Need to know - you tell me.

    Anyways heres what I ran into that inspired me to do the same: http://solidlystated.com/hardware/core-i7-860-overclocking/4/

    What I remember about overclocking is to do it on stock voltage and never raise the voltage but go down with it.

    If any information will be needed on any specific component I will gladly provide it.


    Regards.

    /edit:

    PS: I know it may look kinda lame but Im a begginer and I apologize if I posted this in the wrong section. Im not a pro overclocker but I would like to become one some day maybe.
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2010
  2. dchalf10

    dchalf10 Banned

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    I would set BLK to 150, leave turbo mode on so the multi is 23x and this will give you 3450mhz. I don't know what speed your ram is but 150 with an 8x memory multiplier will give you 1200mhz ram speed.

    You should easily be able to leave your cpu on stock volts and the other settings on auto.

    I got mine to 3720mhz just changing a few settings and it passed OCCT and a bunch of game benches ( ang gameplay ), but for some reason I must have set something it didn't like later on and it wouldn't play nice. Then I just left everything on auto or stock and got it to 3840 first try. This is with a thrid party cooler though, but I imagine 3450 will be easily possible with safe temps on your CPU. I would not use Intel Burn test, for me it give massively abnormal temps ( 20c higher than other apps ) and is not a reflection of real world temps, you would be better downloading OCCT and running it for 30 minutes in the OCCT CPU test. If it passes without errors ( and doesn't go over say 75c ) then it will be fine for gaming. You will definitely notice the difference in gaming with the higher O.C.
     
  3. Seban

    Seban Member

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    My memory is Kingston DDR3 1333 and how do I set OCCT for those testing purpouses ?


    /edit:

    Weird its seems that I cant pass OCCT regardless if there is overclock or I go back to original settings it says its too hot... I think Intel Burn Test was more acurate then this or maybe I do something wrong...

    What now ?
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2010
  4. dchalf10

    dchalf10 Banned

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    If you can't pass OCCT because of temps, then there is absolutely no hope for overclocking on your stock cooler.

    I bought a real cheap cooler called Arctic Freezer pro 7 rev.2 It was half the price of all the other coolers and I have my cpu running at 3.84ghz 24/7. I suggest you pick up a better cooler, you can double your performance in some games with an overclock all for >$50
     

  5. proton_chain

    proton_chain Guest

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    Forget it if you want to overclock it with stock cooling. The stock cooler is unbelievably thin and worthless. I know you did not want to hear that, but I have to tell you this for the safety of your CPU. You can OC Core 2 Duos or Quads with the stock coolers, even i7 9xxx ones, but not i7 8xx ones. My i7 860 hit 90 degrees celcius on stock under IBT load. The ambient was hot enough as it was middle of the summer (~36 degrees) but still, my previous CPUs stayed under 75 with stock cooling.
    How you do it is a different story, look for overclocking guides for i7. All of them are pretty much applicable for an i7 860.

    Set "High" stress mode as very high is not available for 4 GB RAM (it itself uses 4 GB, thats why), set the number of threads to 8 and click "Start". After 2-3 minutes, you should reach the maximum temperature.

    If your ambient is low enough, you may reach 70-75 degrees under load (In winter I did). In that case, you can overclock it to <3.6 GHz. But be sure not to let the IBT temps cross 90.

    Find your own limits. With aftermarket cooling, I reached 3.63 GHz @ 1.175v. You may need more than this. But if I go for 4 GHz, I need 1.3v, which is unusually high than it is supposed to need (considering the fact that it is running comfortably @ 3.63 GHz with only 1.175v). To be honest, even 3.7 GHz needs 1.22v. So, my "sweet spot" is 3.63 GHz where I can minimize the voltage. You find out yours. This is just an estimation, your chip may overclock completely differently.

    And always try to minimize the RAM speed before overclocking. You can always come back and increase it later when you are done with the CPU. This way, you eliminate the possibility of any RAM related issues.

    True but not so much. Increasing frequency and voltage both damages the CPU. So, OC=damage. There is no "safe OC" in this sense. But we can take calculated risks.

    Good luck on that. :)
     
  6. johnny87au

    johnny87au Guest

    Please purchase a aftermarket cooler, You have quite a decent system im sure you could afford a $60 cooler which will suit your needs, Do you have a budget?? The highend coolers i can think of are, Noctua D14, Silverarrow, Venomous X, Cogage Arrow, Prolimatech megahalem
     

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