First time OCer and heatsink

[ratzlaff]

I will be purchasing an i7 920 soon. I was thinking about overclocking. Frankly, I'm a little scared of doing it.

so I read http://www.techist.com/forums/f10/overclocking-basics-temperature-guide-20319/

So im not gonna do anything extreme with watercooling. I would just want a air cooled system.

I don't know how to adjust voltage, or fsb. Will the Motherboard manual tell me how?
(Newegg.com - MSI X58 Platinum LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards is the motherboard I will probably be purchasing)

So what type of heatsink should I go with?
What do you think the temp range should be on an i7?
Thermal paste?

Also is there anything else I should read besides that link?

Thanks!

 

[Pinscher]

We can tell you everything you need to know here. It's really alot simpler than you probably think it is. I learned everything I know about OC'ing just by reading these forums and playing around in my BIOS.

There aren't a whole lot of coolers for socket 1366 yet but I would look for the Thermalright one, I'll try to find a link for it in a second, they don't have it at newegg yet. You also want to get some TX-2 thermal paste (they have it on newegg, just do a search for it)

Here is the cooler I mentioned:

Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme-1366 RT CPU Heatsink (Socket LGA 1336) - FrozenCPU.com

I just looked at that overclocking guide you linked to and wow that is old. It probably won't be to helpful in overclocking an i7. I will try to write a quick little guide on how to overclock the i7 for you or somebody else will chime in and tell you.

 

[BongWizard]

i dont know much about clocking up these i7s (i only had a couple days to play with one), but there is no FSB... what you'll be increasing with the 920 is the Base Clock. It's very similar to FSB OCing in that you have to increase the core and MCH voltages, but being a point to point interface, it's also rather akin to AMD OCing... im sure nos or AP4 can help you out alot more than i can... but if you have any specific questions, feel free to hit me up and i'll do the best i can

oh yeah... adjusting the voltage and FSB (bclk) is really simple... just go into the BIOS and in the first or second menu (usually... im not sure with the MSI board) you'll see the multiplier, bclk, memory speed and a bunch of other things (voltages should be here too... if not, just search around the BIOS... once you find it, it'll all fall into place)... you've just gotta use either the PgUp/PgDn or +/- keys to adjust it to where you want

 

[NosBoost300]

also you need to play with the uncore speeds and uncore voltages

 

[Pinscher]

nos, what are the uncore speeds? I saw those but I didn't do anything to them because I had no idea what they were.

 

[NosBoost300]

i generally try to keep it the same as the core clock speed... but for benchmarking i had it at 4000mhz

 

[ratzlaff]

Thanks for all your help.

I am pretty much at my budget max right now, so I don't know if I can afford a $75 heatsink. I guess would it be cool to use stock heatsink until I can find the money for a better one?

Obviously I wouldn't be overclocking on a stock heatsink.

I really don't know a whole lot about heatsinks. I would assume you get what you pay for. How would you compare stock heatsink to a $40 heatsink compared to that one you linked?

I guess what I want to know are target temps for the i7. When you guys OC what is too hot for you? What temp do you feel comfortable at when the cpu is under a lot of stress?

Is there a formula for voltage compared to clock? I guess im kinda confused when to boost the voltage.

Again, thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it!

Any links to any guides would be fantastic!

 

[NosBoost300]

i'd say 75c on a constant full load is too hot

and no.. there is no formula for voltage compared to clock.. each chip is different.

i wish we had a guide for you.. for i7 is just too new.. but me along with a few other would be more than happy to help you out

stock heatsink can probably get you 3.0ghz for everyday use for the most part.. even 3.2... i'm still on stock heatsink until i get this thing running on my watercooling loop...

and yes, buying a 40 dollar aftermarket heatsink would make a tremendous difference.. this stock one is absolutely garbage i hate it

 

[Pinscher]

nos, what are your temps with the stock heatsink?

 

[NosBoost300]

38 across the board.. give or take a degree or two ... on all cores

of course.. i'm sitting stock until i get my gtz