After twiddling around with the BIOS to achieve said overclock I'm running a stress test using Prime 95 and keeping track of temps using Core Temp. Core Temp reports all 4 cores are hitting above 90 but just below 100 degrees, I'm using a Corsair H50 Watercooler right now, I've been running a stress test for about 10 minutes now too, is this acceptable or am I pushing my CPU too far and run risk of shortening it's life span?
Yep, that's high. Please fill in the enclosed diagnostic form: Is Hyper-Threading enabled? What voltages/BIOS settings are you using? How is the H50 mounted - as an intake or exhaust? Have you checked the thermal paste/mounting of the H50 to the CPU? Is the chip C0 or D0? What's its VID (default voltage)?
something is wrong i have a 920 @ 4ghz with an H50 too i get 35-40C idle depending how warm my room is and i get around 65-75C under full load. 90 is a little too warm for my taste and i would say you either have a very very warm room, poor airflow (which way round do you have the H50 set up ?) or are pumping too much V through the CPU
Far too hot, 90 should be an absolute maximum. Mine gets up to just under 80 after a few minutes and will top out at ~85 after several hours (I live in a warm household).
You can download CPU-Z which will be able to tell you which stepping that you have. The D0 is the later revision of the cpu which should allow for better overclocking. I have the D0 920 but with cooling as in my sig. CPU-Z puts my core voltage as 1.344 under load with temps topping out at ~76C. This is with HT enabled. I'd suggest removing the cooler and thermal paste and re-applying and refitting the cooler to ensure that all is as it should be. I can't offer any advice on the H50 but I'm sure that one of the others can as they are running them at the moment.
That's not a huge amount of vcore tbh but the temps are on the high side. Those temps I'd have put down to the retail heatsink not being man enough to cope but seeing as you're using an aftermarket cooler that should do the job okay, it could be that the H50's contact surface is off or even the ihs of the cpu isn't great. How much thermal goop did you put on? And what did you use?
How tight did you tighten the screws on the H50? From experience not tightening the screws enough can push the temps up by 10 degrees or so. Hyper Threading can add a couple degrees too.
According to CPU-Z my revision is D0. I'll probably open up the case and see if I can make some readjustments to it, particularly on the thermal paste side and see about this fan intake/out take for the H50 fan, could I take off the fan it came with and replace it with a better one I've got?
correct me if i am wrong but that vcore is on the limit on what`s safe if i remember right intel states 1.35 as border line
it is, but intel put it low to cover their ass. You could get away with a vcore of 1.45 if you had the cooling power. To the OP; try mounting a second fan in push/pull. It makes a world of difference.
if your temps are that high you have installed it incorrectly as even by default without any extra stuf such as an extra or better fan it should be a lot lower than you have quoted. i.e. you put too much thermal paste on or not enough or installed the H50 as an exhaust when it should be as an intake and thus you need to turn around any front intake fans as well so they dont conflict as well as turning your existing exhaust on the back of the case to intake. or you havent scewed or mounted it right
I`v got a similar setup using a Gigabyte x58 ud5 board, when i overclock mildly it is very unstable, and have to reset bios to get it to boot. If i use Easy tune v6 its fine only at about 3.1 ghz, with core temps under 40 degrees. Awhile ago using the original bios i hit 3.8 ghz on air. maybe i should update bios. ??
how is this relevant to the thread ? i have a Ud5 and have used several bios including F3,F5,F6 and F7 and all overclock well but the F7 allowed me to go 4Ghz + personally dont use a software overclocking app they are never as good as the real thing. im guessing under 40C thats idle ? doesnt really mean much to be honest whats it under load ?
3.1Ghz is no bother for any 920, not quite sure where you're going wrong but it must be too low voltage somewhere along the line (or way too much). I couldn't get my D0 920 to be 100% stable at 4Ghz until I upped one of the voltages (can't remember which one off the top of my head but it was from 1.4-something to 1.6, I was very wary about so much more juice but it didn't affect temps and made it 100% stable, even meaning I could succesfully run the Intel Burnin Test). The only thing I've turned off is TurboBoost and the highest temp I've seen was while running a load of stresstests iirc it reached about 85c.
Hmm bit of an odd result, I reapplied thermal paste to the heatsink, gave the radiator a good hoovering and changed the fan over to push air out instead of taking it in. Now my CPU is averaging 58 Degrees all cores with no actual load on it, I'm a bit concious to stress test it yet but I'm not too happy with the average temps right now.
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=2438947&posted=1#post2438947 Check my thread as I'm clocking the same chip at the moment. There's a good bit in there and linsk to other threads that help explain what everything is. -Most importantly turn OFF ht and turbo, I gained 8C doing this. -Vcore of 1.2 should be plenty, 1.3 tops = increasing volts just a little add ALOT of heat to i7's, anyone saying 1.4 etc is probably used to clocking other chips, i7's are very voltage sesnative. -Remember to loosen memory timings initially and reduce memory voltage as i7's handle the memory on-core, which means added heat - I gained 3C by downtuning my ram. -Alot of the 'auto' settings will set themsleves to use too much voltage, get it stable and get an okay heat...then set alot of things manually and go lower and lower with the voltage on everything. The aim is too go as low as possible whilst keeping the system stable. -I'm at 4ghz with a TRUE and idle at 40C and at prime95 stay under 60C....90 is mad! -58C idle is definately not right, have you read thermal paste guides, should use no more than a single grain of rice in the centre and then spread evenly, check the pattern on the chip to see if the finish of your heatsink is flat, it should spread fairly evenly. -Don't be afriad to lower your clock a little, i7 speed really makes very little difference, overclocking them is more for personal satisfacation, there's very few programs that will benefit from pushing it to extremes.
Knocked off Hyper Threading and Turbo now, Not really notice any changes in temp. I've not touched memory timings much, not too clever with them. And yeah the thermal paste is fine I made sure not to over do it.
Have you given the heatsink time to bed down? Essentially it takes a while for the thermal paste to heat and work it's way into all the tiny airholes/lump/bumps of both the chip and the heatsink. I didn't overclock at all for 2 weeks after fitting a new cooler. Also try this: -Lay your case on it's side and open on your desk. -start prime 95 and let the temps level out. -gently apply pessure to the heatsink. -if the temps drop slightly then you have a mounting problem.
