So I have been playing with my new pc and I've been reading a s***load about overclocking an i7 but for some reason I'm sure I have a setting wrong somewhere.

Current settings-
i7 930 @ 3.90ghz (187x21 @ 1.32V in my bios) turbo mode off, HT on
Noctua NH-U12P Special Edition SE2 cpu cooler
G Skill 6G(3x2G) DDR3 PC16000 Trident 2000mhz (running at 1860mhz i think @ 1.62V 9-9-9-24 with a 10x multiplier)
Corsair HX-1000 1000W ATX Modular Power Supply
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 F5 motherboard
Lian Li PC-60FNW Black Aluminum Case w/ Window
and a s***ty 9600gt video card that im hoping to replace with a 5970 soon.
ambient temp 22c


When I do a stress test in prime95 (small fft) my temps pretty much instantly jump from idle (48c-51c) to a massive 90c-95c in real temp and core temp with the case open. Speedfan reckons its at about 75c-80c on full load. If I close prime it jumps straight back down (within 3 seconds) to 50c-55c again. I'm using an apparently very good i7 cooler according to reviews with Artic Silver 5 thermal paste. I now have added 2 more fans to the case (one at the back under the video card and one blasting over my NB cooler. The system seems stable at these settings and haven't had a blue screen yet, although I'm too scared to leave it running for longer than 15 mins at 90c odd.

My vcore voltage is at 1.32V and anything less is not stable which is weird because I have read around that people a running 4.0ghz with lower voltage.

I have re-seated the CPU cooler and also my NB cooler. I'm really trying to get the most out of this CPU safely air cooled. How can I make it run cooler? Is my CPU/mobo f***ed? Is there anything I can change to make it run quicker or more efficiently?

2 new fans not pictured
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs504.snc3/26483_381840835859_681585859_5408968_3644421_n.jpg

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs484.ash1/26483_381840845859_681585859_5408969_8116918_n.jpg

do you really need to overclock an i7? (no you dont)

You are right and something is odd with it, you lapped both hsf's cpu/nb undersides? I had a thermalright hsf once that had a base that looked like a banana

last edited by HerbalLizard at 08:38:44 21/Mar/10

hsf?

Heat Sink and fan

Also is that fan on the on the left side of the cooler near the chassis blowing air in or out

last edited by HerbalLizard at 09:30:16 21/Mar/10

yeah they are fine no warping.. everything is new and less than 2 weeks old. I have artic silver on both the nb and cpu.

edit: that chassis fan is sucking air out.

last edited by eightyeight at 09:40:15 21/Mar/10

do you really need to overclock an i7? (no you dont)

qft

I've got a i7 920 @ 2.67GHz and the cpu just isn't the bottleneck, I'm always waiting for my HDD. Anyone want to throw some Intel X-25 SSD funds my way?

eightyeight, aren't the i7's designed to over-clock themselves anyway?

yeah kind of euphoria... they have a simple step up mode that can be changed in bios its pretty limited in the speed department. I have always just liked having a oc'd pc sincee i was using a athlon 200 back in the day, just a hobby thing i guess.

im also getting bottled by my hdd. that shouldnt be a problem by tuesday, SSD ftw.

Reason I mentioned the lapping issue as in the case I found it drop the core temp down 10c

Base was at least 2mm out, also found that killing ht dropped it even more

last edited by HerbalLizard at 09:52:44 21/Mar/10

im also getting bottled by my hdd. that shouldnt be a problem by tuesday, SSD ftw.

me = jealous. Although, what SSD are you getting? Have you read AnandTech's article: The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ? I found it very interesting and decided I'd wait until I had the cash for Intel.

IMO jumping from 2.8GHz to 3.9GHz is a pretty big jump for air cooling alone. I'd be kickin' it backa few nothces. Should have invested in a AMD TWKR.

cool vid

pun intended there? ^ oh so witty! heh

but yeah thats a interesting video, if only they could get those kind of temps into a realistic home setup.

me = jealous. Although, what SSD are you getting? Have you read AnandTech's article: The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ? I found it very interesting and decided I'd wait until I had the cash for Intel.

woah awesome post dude that is a great read about SSD's even though it took me like a hour to read it all.. I was going to get a OCZ summit 120gb then another to run in raid 0 but the Intel x-18m/e is also good. The Intel is faster but the samsung controller in the OCZ is better so it should retain a more consistant speed for longer.

So in the end if I get 2x OCZ summits in raid 0 it will be very very fast and consistant.