i7 960 @ 4.2

So I have been working on an overclock of my i7 960 and I currently have it at 4.2 gHz running on 1.33v. The MAX temp while running prime95 thus far has been 81C. Is this too high? The temps usually hover in the 70-77C range while stress testing. I know that nothing I do will push my CPU to 100% and thus it should never reach 80C unless using prime95. Just was curious what you guys thought.

Its ok, but i don't like my cpu going past 70 c

Its ok, but i don't like my cpu going past 70 c

James161324

Same here.. TC, how much would you be willing to spend on an aftermarket cooler? A $40 cooler would be fine, but $70 or so would get you the ultimate in air cooling.,.-GeordiLaForge-

If you look at his sig, he already has a D14. Nothing short of a custom WC loop can beat that...

As for the temperatures, it's a good practice to try to keep load temps (including Prime95 tests) below 80C. However, those LGA1366 i7's can handle really high temperatures, so it shouldn't be too harmful to keep it at those clocks.

Right, I have an NH-D14... Honestly, I'm kind of surprised it is reaching these temps with the d14 at 4.2. I tried dropping the vcore to 1.32, but the computer just restarts about 30min after running prime95 (no BSOD).

Alright, I just dropped it to 4 gHz (vcore 1.25, qpi 1.3) and the temps are peaking around 74C and mainly staying in the 64-68C range. I'll just leave it here for now.

Might have to bump vcore up a bit, I tried 4ghz at 1.25v and it passed Linpack, Prime95, but still got random BSODs... Right now I'm at 1.26v until I see another BSOD :Pistuffedsunny

If you're asking me personally, that's high on Prime 95. It shouldn't even pass 70c. Maybe you need to reapply your thermal paste? Or perhaps get a new aftermarket CPU? The D14 shouldn't even let you get passed that much which I found rather odd. Well, look into a Coolermaster V6 or 212+, or even a V8. How did you apply the thermal paste exactly? Can you describe your method of apply paste to us? Sometimes it could make a difference, but I'm betting it won't... A mystery...Elann2008

Wow, I didn't realise the 9xx's got THAT hot.

My good old C2Q has trouble getting over 50°c and I'm only using a Zalman Performa.

IF you CPU gets too hot then Intel thermal management will kick in and throttle the speed, either that or it will crash. I know people on here often say "I would not like my CPU that hot" I think you can rest easy and maybe go further, in my career as an overclocking specialist I have NEVER known a CPU to die when overclocked when used for MANY years unless they have a stupid overclock,,,,although that would never pass Prime95 anwyay.

IF you CPU gets too hot then Intel thermal management will kick in and throttle the speed, either that or it will crash. I know people on here often say "I would not like my CPU that hot" I think you can rest easy and maybe go further, in my career as an overclocking specialist I have NEVER known a CPU to die when overclocked when used for MANY years unless they have a stupid overclock,,,,although that would never pass Prime95 anwyay.

Daytona_178

[QUOTE="Daytona_178"]

IF you CPU gets too hot then Intel thermal management will kick in and throttle the speed, either that or it will crash. I know people on here often say "I would not like my CPU that hot" I think you can rest easy and maybe go further, in my career as an overclocking specialist I have NEVER known a CPU to die when overclocked when used for MANY years unless they have a stupid overclock,,,,although that would never pass Prime95 anwyay.

C_Rule

[QUOTE="C_Rule"][QUOTE="Daytona_178"]

IF you CPU gets too hot then Intel thermal management will kick in and throttle the speed, either that or it will crash. I know people on here often say "I would not like my CPU that hot" I think you can rest easy and maybe go further, in my career as an overclocking specialist I have NEVER known a CPU to die when overclocked when used for MANY years unless they have a stupid overclock,,,,although that would never pass Prime95 anwyay.

Daytona_178

Wow, I didn't realise the 9xx's got THAT hot.

My good old C2Q has trouble getting over 50°c and I'm only using a Zalman Performa.

C_Rule

If you're asking me personally, that's high on Prime 95. It shouldn't even pass 70c. Maybe you need to reapply your thermal paste? Or perhaps get a new aftermarket CPU? The D14 shouldn't even let you get passed that much which I found rather odd. Well, look into a Coolermaster V6 or 212+, or even a V8. How did you apply the thermal paste exactly? Can you describe your method of apply paste to us? Sometimes it could make a difference, but I'm betting it won't... A mystery...Elann2008

That was my first guess. I started with the typical pea drop in the center of the CPU and was getting this temp. Did some reading on Artic Silver 5 and used their vertical line method... same result. Same went for self-spreading the paste across the CPUs surface.

Also, I have it all in a HAF X 942. Two 200mm exhausts on top, 230mm intake on the front, 200mm intake side pannel, 140mm exhaust out the back of the case, d14 blows out the back and I rigged yet another 140mm fan in the optical drive expansion bays as an intake. Airflow should def. not be an issue.

You are completely fine, man. I just stabalized mine this weekend - Antec 302 case w/ 6 fans, i7 960 @ 4ghz, X58 Sabertooth mobo, H80 Corsair ALC, 3x4gb Gskill Sniper Ram @1600mhz, two 2gb GTX560 SC's in SLI, 850w NZXT psu. Mine would tickle 85 sometimes on core 0, while core 3 is about 8 degrees cooler.

I had it stable at 159 bclk x 25 multi, but about 10 hrs into Prime95, I'd get errors when I upped it to 160x25. I had run memtest86+ for 8 hrs on these 3 sticks of ram. They were supposed to be 1.5 volt sticks, but I kept getting those errors, and even on Linx (I always tested w/ all free memory which was ~11gb most times). iad gone up as far as vcore 1.343, qpi/dram (vtt) 1.417. temps got up to temps I mentioned. I couldn't find anyone with 3x4gb sticks ram @ 1.5v. Most had 6 sticks of 2gb, or when they had more (gb), they had memory with 1.65 volts. Every tech site said set ram at factory specs (on label). Mine were 9-9-9-24 & 1.5v (which CPU-Z verified). I kept pushing the qpi/dram up cuz I thought it was the imc on the cpu. I finally got sick of the failings (not BSODs, and my ram was sound on memtest), and raised my vdimm voltage little by little. I finally got up to 1.61v & lowered my qpi/dram (vtt) to 1.36. Passed 20 runs of Linx using 11+gb of ram in 4 hours & 4 mins. Now that I know that was my issue, I can roll back the voltages on other stuff & optimize my system. My 24 hour Prime95 run will be last.

It is perfectly fine as long as it's not staying at those temps. Mine is 39-44 idle & gets to MAX 67 while playing BF3. It will be less, but even at that, these Bloomfields (including the D0 stepping) are made to run hot & withstand LOTS of heat. If you were folding at home daily, then I recommend finding a lower temp by using a lower clock speed, etc, but if you only raise the temps while gaming, then that temp is DEFINITIELY SAFE!

Happy OC'ing, bud. Take care.

4ghz is more than you need with an i7 anyway

So I have been working on an overclock of my i7 960 and I currently have it at 4.2 gHz running on 1.33v. The MAX temp while running prime95 thus far has been 81C. Is this too high? The temps usually hover in the 70-77C range while stress testing. I know that nothing I do will push my CPU to 100% and thus it should never reach 80C unless using prime95. Just was curious what you guys thought.

Smoke89

You are completely fine, man. I just stabalized mine this weekend - Antec 302 case w/ 6 fans, i7 960 @ 4ghz, X58 Sabertooth mobo, H80 Corsair ALC, 3x4gb Gskill Sniper Ram @1600mhz, two 2gb GTX560 SC's in SLI, 850w NZXT psu. Mine would tickle 85 sometimes on core 0, while core 3 is about 8 degrees cooler.

I had it stable at 159 bclk x 25 multi, but about 10 hrs into Prime95, I'd get errors when I upped it to 160x25. I had run memtest86+ for 8 hrs on these 3 sticks of ram. They were supposed to be 1.5 volt sticks, but I kept getting those errors, and even on Linx (I always tested w/ all free memory which was ~11gb most times). iad gone up as far as vcore 1.343, qpi/dram (vtt) 1.417. temps got up to temps I mentioned. I couldn't find anyone with 3x4gb sticks ram @ 1.5v. Most had 6 sticks of 2gb, or when they had more (gb), they had memory with 1.65 volts. Every tech site said set ram at factory specs (on label). Mine were 9-9-9-24 & 1.5v (which CPU-Z verified). I kept pushing the qpi/dram up cuz I thought it was the imc on the cpu. I finally got sick of the failings (not BSODs, and my ram was sound on memtest), and raised my vdimm voltage little by little. I finally got up to 1.61v & lowered my qpi/dram (vtt) to 1.36. Passed 20 runs of Linx using 11+gb of ram in 4 hours & 4 mins. Now that I know that was my issue, I can roll back the voltages on other stuff & optimize my system. My 24 hour Prime95 run will be last.

It is perfectly fine as long as it's not staying at those temps. Mine is 39-44 idle & gets to MAX 67 while playing BF3. It will be less, but even at that, these Bloomfields (including the D0 stepping) are made to run hot & withstand LOTS of heat. If you were folding at home daily, then I recommend finding a lower temp by using a lower clock speed, etc, but if you only raise the temps while gaming, then that temp is DEFINITIELY SAFE!

Happy OC'ing, bud. Take care.

twztid13

[QUOTE="twztid13"]

You are completely fine, man. I just stabalized mine this weekend - Antec 302 case w/ 6 fans, i7 960 @ 4ghz, X58 Sabertooth mobo, H80 Corsair ALC, 3x4gb Gskill Sniper Ram @1600mhz, two 2gb GTX560 SC's in SLI, 850w NZXT psu. Mine would tickle 85 sometimes on core 0, while core 3 is about 8 degrees cooler.

I had it stable at 159 bclk x 25 multi, but about 10 hrs into Prime95, I'd get errors when I upped it to 160x25. I had run memtest86+ for 8 hrs on these 3 sticks of ram. They were supposed to be 1.5 volt sticks, but I kept getting those errors, and even on Linx (I always tested w/ all free memory which was ~11gb most times). iad gone up as far as vcore 1.343, qpi/dram (vtt) 1.417. temps got up to temps I mentioned. I couldn't find anyone with 3x4gb sticks ram @ 1.5v. Most had 6 sticks of 2gb, or when they had more (gb), they had memory with 1.65 volts. Every tech site said set ram at factory specs (on label). Mine were 9-9-9-24 & 1.5v (which CPU-Z verified). I kept pushing the qpi/dram up cuz I thought it was the imc on the cpu. I finally got sick of the failings (not BSODs, and my ram was sound on memtest), and raised my vdimm voltage little by little. I finally got up to 1.61v & lowered my qpi/dram (vtt) to 1.36. Passed 20 runs of Linx using 11+gb of ram in 4 hours & 4 mins. Now that I know that was my issue, I can roll back the voltages on other stuff & optimize my system. My 24 hour Prime95 run will be last.

It is perfectly fine as long as it's not staying at those temps. Mine is 39-44 idle & gets to MAX 67 while playing BF3. It will be less, but even at that, these Bloomfields (including the D0 stepping) are made to run hot & withstand LOTS of heat. If you were folding at home daily, then I recommend finding a lower temp by using a lower clock speed, etc, but if you only raise the temps while gaming, then that temp is DEFINITIELY SAFE!

Happy OC'ing, bud. Take care.

JigglyWiggly_

4GHz is still excellent. It's definitely more than you need at the moment. Oh, and I didn't even see your specs in your sig... whoops =P-GeordiLaForge-

Ouch, that's my bad. I don't post here much anymore, but found the thread title in a search, and was interested to find it a GS. I didn't pay attention to the date. Sorry for doing it again, but I had to explain myself, lol. :wall:

If I were you I'd download cpu-z then run prim95 and actually look if your clock speed drops or the voltage via cpu-z. If the clock speed drops then your actually losing performance even if stable. I can hit 4.5ghz stable according to prim95 but it really isn't....