Overclocking Overclocking and power delivery

As in the other post, I just build myself a pc that will work as a media pc (Ok, folder in me wanted GTX470 to the set up as well ) At the moment there is Core i3 overclocked to 4.2 GHz, but I just noticed that my motherboard (Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H) supports everything LGA 1156 up tu Core i7. So the natural thinking of me as upgrade-o-holic is that I could slot in Core i7 860 and clock the nuts out of it.

Question is - I spotted that CPU power delivery is hosted by only 4 pin connector (instead of whole 8-pins), how severely would this limit my i7 overclock?

Thanks for any advice as I don't want to splash a cash on something that won't return too good.

 

well issue 1...

you have an H55 board so that already limits your overclocking as P55 is better for i5/i7.

second...

why would you overclock a media PC unless you encoding 24/7

4pin - 8 pin is a mute issue as the chipst is your limiting factor.

 

Well, the reason why I have the cpu overclocked is because whenever I'm at work/sleeping/not watching tv or movies from this pc (which is most of the time) I will be running folding@home on it (hence such a powerful card in the pc too). I have other pc and my laptop doing video encoding for me (mostly the pc), but I like my machines to work on something usefull all the time. Not worried about the noise as I have Corsair H70 with two Sharkoon 1000RPM fans plus two of the same fans as intake and two as exaust (all connected to a fan controller) and I choose Zotac's super quiet GTX 470 Amp edition , all in the Fractal Desing R3 case, meaning my hdd is the loudest thing in there most of the time.

I am aware that's a massive overkill as far as media pcs go ( I just read CPC article) but as far as I'm concerned this will make for a fine media pc / folding / gaming machine.

That's why I'm concidering cpu upgrade and overclock.

So you think I'll hit on the board limit before I'll hit on the power delivery limit?

 

yep a 12V 4 pin EPS can supply a fair amount of power to the CPU and is more than adequate.

The H55 chipset will limit your overclock. to what degree im not certain as i havent tested it. but you will get the most from a P55

 

I guess I'll then stay with i3.

 

My opinion on it: The i7 at stock speed will give you so many more PPD than the current i3 at 4.2GHz, that overclocking shouldn't even be necessary.

What kind of case are you running the PC in? An HTPC case, or a tower? If you're running a small HTPC case, honestly I would be worried most about heat. The HTPC cases aren't exactly known for having the ability to fit decent coolers...

As for overclock, from what I can find on the 4-pin (P4) power connector, it SHOULD be able to supply up to 16 amps or 192 watts. Considering the i7 860 is a 95w chip, I don't see any issues, though the more current you pull through the wires, the higher the strain on the wiring, the higher the risk of power fluctuation and crashing.

Personally, I'd stay on the safe side of things and only overclock what the chip can take without altering the voltage... Again, that's if you can cool the chip properly.

 

As I wrote in my previous post I went for a Fractal Design R3 case (excellent noise isolation, very black, no excessive lighting but the power button) with Corsair H70 water cooler with two silent Sharkoon fans, plus two intake and two exaust silent fans on the case. Not worried about heat at all mate

 

You should be able to get 3.8Ghz quite easily even with a H55 chipset. You might not hit same 4.2Ghz though even with a decent motherboard and cooler. But 3.8 with a quad would crush a dual any everything.

 

Doh! Definitely passed that part over. You should be fine for a quad-core then. More than likely you'll still get a decent overclock out of it.