i7 920 (D0 Stepping) Cooling and Overclocking

Hey, so I got my hands on an i7 920 (D0 Stepping), a Scythe Mugen II, and an Asus P6T Deluxe V2 (along with a new PSU and more RAM).

So here's my main issue - I don't know if my temperatures are decent. Granted, my PC is on the top floor of my house, and it's summer time (currently 80 degrees Fahrenheit outside), but I'm not sure if my temperatures are too high or just right. I've read around that the i7 series runs much hotter than the Core2Quad series, and so far these temperatures seem to be proving that.

Right now Core Temp lists my cores as 38-40, 39-40, 39-40, and 37-40 degrees Celsius, for each core (idle). I've seen other people's i7 920 temperatures and have noticed higher temperatures than these even with coolers.

Real Temp gives me 38-39, 39-40, 39-41, and 37-39 degrees Celsius (idle) - mostly the same as what Core Temp tells me.

This is a fresh installation of a motherboard with the new CPU, heatsink, etc. I installed all this before July 21st, when I left for India for three weeks (just got back last Friday).

I am also using Arctic Silver 5, and I've read that it takes a certain amount of hours to get the paste to perform at its ideal. I put only a thin line of paste, as the instructions detailed, and it got squashed around over the CPU, of course, when I put the Mugen II on (pain in the ass, if I may say so). I installed everything with extreme care and diligence.

I'm really trying to be careful here, because I'm planning on overclocking my rig here soon, eventual goal would be 4.0 GHz, or near it. I don't want to damage my equipment.

So any help on this matter would be appreciated.

The CPU is NOT overclocked yet. Those are idle temperatures at stock speeds, after the computer had been on for several hours, and my brother had been playing Mass Effect for several hours.

- PR-0927

 

Idle temps are not very helpful when deciding if you are thermally efficient in the CPU cooling department! Try running Prime95 for a while and monitoring your temps with 'RealTemp'. Also try LinX and Intel Burn Test.

If you leave RealTemp running whilst you are gaming you will see what your CPU is maxing out at during normal game play!

 

well what do your temps get 2 after 20mins of large data set occt? your idle temps are about right perhaps on the hot side but then as u say its hot where u are..

or run prime 95 for a few mins that will give u an idea..its kinda impossible for us to speculate when we dont know load temps at stock.

ahh was typing and hallryu slipped on in before me. as the above poster says as well hehe..

 

Alright thanks, I'll do that ASAP, once I get the time, and let you guys know my numbers.

Any specific settings I should be running Prime 95 on?

- PR-0927

 

download occt its pretty good and you can put in a custom time as well and leave it running..

i used it to oc and test stability and so far so good..

small ffts haha or blend!

 

Small FFTs.

or Blend! lol

 

Don't worry about it. My i7 idles around those temps too. It's more important to look at load temps. Intelburn and OCCT are useful. I don't get anything more than 64 degrees under load. This is with the Noctua cooler.


Intelburn Test:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/IntelBurnTest-v2.3-download-2047.html#download

OCCT:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/OCCT-(OverClock-Checking-Tool)-3.0.0-download-1880.html

 

It idles there even on stock speeds?

You do have a Noctua, which is supposed to be simply badass at cooling, so I've read.

Oh, one IMPORTANT thing I forgot to mention: I have 12 GB of DDR3 RAM, which blocks me from placing the fan on my Mugen II on the "default push/intake side." So, I put it on the bottom/push side, as I have a fan on the ceiling of my case (Antec Nine Hundred). Probably makes a bit of a difference, since my Radeon HD 4870 X2 is just below the fan (which is below the heatsink).

- PR-0927

 

Q6600 50 degree, E8400 newest revisit 45 degree and C0 i7 with noctua cooler 40 degree idle. Something say the produce sended in Netherland are very bad...

 

yeah the noctua is great. i have heatsink mounted the other way around...so u wouldnt need to worry about ram...

cooling seems just as effective..

 

Alright, I did some preliminary tests. Not sure if I ran it long enough or what, or if it was under good conditions since the PC had been running all day.

Let me know if I need to do more tests, this was just to establish a base. I took two pictures of RealTemp and Prime95 running, 2.5 minutes apart. Here they are:






- PR-0927

 

Yeah your temps are fine

Idle 40c/Load IBT 63c @ stock.

Idle 48c/Load IBT 82c @ 4Ghz.

 

Alright, badass. So would you all say it'd be fine to initiate some overclocking fun now?

Speaking of OCing, anyone have any good guides on i7 OCing? I learned LGA 755 OCing, and now there seems to be more things tossed in that need to be taken care of.

- PR-0927

 

It's funny... Running this time on 3.2 ghz having a idle around 38-44. and by prime95 up to 72 degree... Gotta keep those setting.

 

So I pushed it to 4.0 GHz today, after doing crazy amounts of research on what to do and what not to do, and what voltages are reasonable.

I more or less followed this guide:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx..._id=1&model=P6T+Deluxe&page=1&SLanguage=en-us


Now here are the issues:

1. I'm not sure if my temperatures are good.
2. I'm not sure if my voltages are overkill - this is kind of hit-or-miss for me.
3. I'm not sure if my system is stable (haven't done enough tests on it yet).


But, I did take this image:




It sat at around those temperatures for a few minutes, probably from Test 2-5. Before I lowered the voltages a bit, the temperatures jumped to 80+ degrees Celsius almost instantly, which scared me.

Now, in my infinite stupidity, I must admit I was doing this gradually all day without turning off the PC, and the room was shut for these last few hours, creating a hotbox (no ventilation or fans running). I started a fan and opened a door, so perhaps that would be a more realistic setting.

ATM, the cores are all idling around 43 degrees Celsius, and it's around 70 degrees Fahrenheit outside of the house at 1:13 A.M., if that helps in temperature judging.

I really appreciate all the input I can get - I want to do this right, and not destroy my expensive rig.

Tomorrow I intend to run Memtest86+ (2.11) to check for stability and memory errors, then later run Prime95, IntelBurnTest (if it's safe - I've heard this program can do bad things to a CPU), and OCCT (same story as the IntelBurnTest - although I've heard it stops if the CPU gets too heated).

- PR-0927

 

Turn off hyperthreading and lower your voltage by say 0.25v and your temps should drop a fair bit.

 

Wait, I thought HT was a good thing? It's what gives you four additional cores, and helps in performance of games and encoding, right?

Also, which voltage should I drop by 0.25v, LOL?

Any input on my temperatures, or input on what testing programs to use/not to use?

I did the Memtest86+ test, and everything passed, although I had dropped my CPU Multiplier to 12, as suggested by that guide, when running a memory stability test.

- PR-0927

 

Well most of us don't use hyper threading i just having it on for encoding but it actually lowers gaming performance unless that game supports like 4 or more threads.

Anyways i use Intel burn in test 10 rounds on very high or maximum settings will do fine.

And i ment vcore by 0.25, But all chips are different so maybe you could drop yours more or less.

 

Oh, I see, I'll definitely do as you suggested and report my results.

- PR-0927

 

I dropped my CPU Voltage to 1.2v for a bit, and the computer gave me a BSOD. I disabled HT, but I don't notice any temperature differences.

I ran IntelBurnTest at either 1.2v or something slightly lower than 1.225v, and got a BSOD after about 30 seconds.

Also, what about my other voltages? I haven't changed them since my last screenshot - they are all listed there.

And I'm kind of confused by the massive amount of BIOS options regarding the CPU like Virtualization, EHS, etc. From my last time of OCing with an LGA 775 CPU, I remember these were recommended to be disabled, and SpeedStep was too, until a stable OC was reached, but it seems there are many more features/options now.

- PR-0927