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1. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
JSS1138 Sep 11, 2009 3:32 PM (in response to nados)Going from my old P4 to an i7 920, I saw a 4x to 6x speed improvement with various encodings. You won't be disappointed.
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2. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 11, 2009 3:44 PM (in response to nados) -
3. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
nados Sep 13, 2009 9:41 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)HI all,
Ok, things are stable at default settings. I'd like to try OC'ing - just for fun - as far as i can without changing the OV (over voltage) jumper settings on the mb. The bios AI Tweaker menu is all set to auto by default, so i don't know what can be done.
In any case, any help on OC'ing would be appreciated. I'll try it for fun but will probably return it back to normal for editing.
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4. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 13, 2009 10:16 AM (in response to nados)Carefully, very carefully, go through the options in the mobo User Guide. Probably this is chapter 3, section 4 about the AI Tweaker settings.
Set the AI Overclock Timer to manual.
Leave the CPU Ratio Setting to Auto.
Leave all the other settings at default, apart from BCLK settings. Set this to 172. Do not change anything else. Press F10 to save and reboot.
You have now overclocked your system to 3.6 GHz, so keep a close watch on your temperatures, specially the core temperature with Speedfan or HWMonitor.
This is very basic overclocking and chances are that will suffice for normal NLE work. If you want to go for more extreme overclocking (to use your DDR3 to full potential, for instance) it get's a bit more complicated, but start here.
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5. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
nados Sep 13, 2009 10:17 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)Ok...
What about using the windows based AI Tweaker Suite - or is it better to do it directly in the bios?
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6. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 13, 2009 10:23 AM (in response to nados) -
7. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
nados Sep 13, 2009 11:56 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)Ok...
I installed AI Suite with Fan Xpert, EPU-6 engine and TurboV.
I don't know if EPU-6engine will affect any thing - should i un-install it? And should i set Fan Xpert to Turbo?
Anyway, what do i tweak in TurboV?
There is no AI OverClock Timer option or setting?
I set BCLK Freq to 172.
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8. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 13, 2009 12:33 PM (in response to nados) -
9. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 13, 2009 12:55 PM (in response to nados)I don't know if EPU-6engine will affect any thing - should i un-install it? And should i set Fan Xpert to Turbo?
I don't use it. I prefer manual controls.
Anyway, what do i tweak in TurboV?
Essentially, you use it to fine tune your BCLK and vCore settings, which you later set more definitely in BIOS. In the earlier post I showed a screenshot of Turbo V with the BCLK set to 178, which reflects the CPU-Z screenshot in my previous post. The other tab in CPU-Z that is quite handy is the memory tab as it shows the timings of your memory.
BTW, did you not ask about the impact of matched memory? Your slot 1 and 2 screenshots show that you have different tri-kits. The Crucial memory in the first bank is different from the memory in the 2-nd bank with slightly different timings. Nothing critical, but it shows.
I have all my fans run at 100%. I rather have some background noise than a fried PC, especially when OC-ing.
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10. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
nados Sep 13, 2009 4:34 PM (in response to Harm Millaard)Harm,
I can't go beyond BCLK 155. If i try to go to 160, i get the BSOD.
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11. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 13, 2009 5:04 PM (in response to nados)You said that you set your BCLK to 172. Did you do that in the BIOS?
Turvo V is only intended for small adjustments. If you do anything too drastic, the voltage may get in the way of success.
My best suggestion is to set the BCLK in BIOS to 172 and leave everything to auto for the time being, apart from the AI Overclock Tuner, which should be set to manual, otherwise you can't set the BCLK to a desired setting. Monitor temperatures while doing this!!!
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12. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
nados Sep 13, 2009 5:09 PM (in response to Harm Millaard)No, I set it in TurboV. I will set it in bios now. thanks.
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14. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
nados Sep 13, 2009 7:07 PM (in response to nados)FYI,
When i put the system to work, the cpu gets to about 55 - 60 celsius.
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15. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
JSS1138 Sep 13, 2009 9:39 PM (in response to nados)Man, how the hell do you guys get these temps?! Mine idles at 50+ C, and tops out around 90C.
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17. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 14, 2009 12:54 AM (in response to JSS1138)Jim,
The crux to good cooling starts with the CPU cooler, and then a lot of fans in the case. Of course my system is somewhat loaded, so I may need more fans than average, but I currently have 10 fans and get these idle temperatures with a room temperature of 21 degrees C:
This is with the CPU running at 3.7 GHz. When under heavy load, core temperatures go up to around 62 C.
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18. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 14, 2009 12:57 AM (in response to nados)nados wrote:
FYI,
When i put the system to work, the cpu gets to about 55 - 60 celsius.
You mean under heavy load, like encoding or running Prime95, right? That looks very good. You have now overclocked your system to 3.6 GHz and it was easy, wasn't it?
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19. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
nados Sep 14, 2009 7:31 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)The crux to good cooling starts with the CPU cooler.
What do you all recommend for a good cpu cooler? I'm currently using the one that came with the i7 920 processor.
You mean under heavy load, like encoding or running Prime95, right?
Both CS4 Media Encoder encoding and En transcoding put the temp at around 74c.
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20. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 14, 2009 9:43 AM (in response to nados)For a GOOD CPU cooler I would suggest either the Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 1366 or the Noctua NH-U12 SE 1366 with push-pull configuration. The Scythe Mugen2 is a good alternative.
Here are my idle tempreratures:
and when under some load, while encoding to H.264 BR from a HDV project I get these results:
You can see that even with a higher clock speed my CPU load is not up to 100% and my temperatures are around 10 degrees lower.
Around 74 degrees is not worrisome, but the lower the temps are, the better for longevity.
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21. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
nados Sep 14, 2009 10:30 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)Harm,
I noticed that you have configured your SpeedFan Exotics to be displayed in a similar manner to mine - funny!
Also, I noticed that at BLCK 172, the cpu is running at 3440mhz (3.44ghz) not 3600 (3.6ghz) as you thought and as shown on the speedfan image in my previous post. Even yours is running at 3.55ghz not 3.6ghz. Am i just picking hairs?
Anyway, i used TurboV to tweak it up to BLCK 180. Now the cpu is running at 3.6ghz with a little increase in cpu temp at idle. Is this a problem?
Also, increasing the BLCK say up to 200, would that be problem as long as the temp is under control?
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22. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 14, 2009 12:59 PM (in response to nados)With Turbo mode on, the multiplier goes from a standard value of 20 to 21 when the system is loaded.
When you multiply BCLK and the multiplier, ie. 172 x 20 = 3440 MHz, but with Turbo mode on you get 172 x 21 = 3612 MHz.
Same in my case, 178 x 20 = 3560 MHz, with Turbo mode 178 x 21 = 3738 MHz.
Increasing BCLK settings does impact the vCore voltage, at least when done in BIOS. Not automatically in Turbo-V. But it also impacts memory timings and everything on the southbridge, all the un-core components.
During my testing I found the sweet spot to be around 172-178 BCLK. Going higher caused a higher vCore and reduced timings for memory. The SPD tab in CPU-Z shows at what frequency you throttle back to worse timings. If you want to overclock more, you need to disable Turbo mode in the BIOS, choose a fixed multiplier and set your BCLK for maximum memory rates. It does not seem, at least to me with the limited testing I have done, to be really worthwhile. Sure, on certain benchmarks you may get better scores, but in real life, does it matter?
For your ease of reading my info, I adjusted Speedfan results to mimic yours.
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23. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
Harm Millaard Sep 14, 2009 2:30 PM (in response to nados)First try this Benchmark: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/491348?tstart=0
Please run them both overclocked and with the default BIOS settings. Then see what it brought you in terms of performance.
Running at BCLK 200 from Turbo-V without changing the Vcore and memory voltage to higher levels resulted in my case in instabilities.
BCLK 180 from Turbo-V without changing any voltages gave me no problems.
My HD3 is not displayed, because it is a raid on the Marvell and my HD4 is my huge media array.
The lower temperatures in comparison to the earlier post are all due to a difference in room temperature. The first one was with room temperature at 25 degrees, this one with 21,5 degrees.
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24. Re: Finally built my new i7 920 system!
nados Sep 14, 2009 3:49 PM (in response to Harm Millaard)First try this Benchmark test - thanks.











