*** Official i5 Overclocking Thread ***

[Duke]

Hi all,

Got my i5, Gskill mem and Asus P7P55D board from Nova today so thought I'd create this thread for people with them to post OC settings and results.

Just sat at stock at the moment in Windows 7. There seems to be a lot more steps down in speed on speedstep which is good for temps/power.

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/8701/i5stockidle.jpg

This is only with stock heatsink as the Noctua bracket is on the way.

[Duke]

Cranked up to 3.2GHz with ease. Getting hot though - temps are in the 70s on full load with OCCT on the stock cooler.

Can't wait to get the Noctua on it :D

[Mr. Orange]

ouchie.. 70C only at 3.2Ghz is... very hot =/

[Duke]

Yep, completed hour test. Remember this is 4 threads running full so is a good test of max temps and is only on the tiny Intel stock cooler (like they use on the E2100 series).

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7894/occtcomplete3200mhzi5.jpg

Compare that with a decent cooler like the Noctua I've got here and it should make a big difference. Just hope the bracket comes through quick!

[wuyanxu]

ouchie.. 70C only at 3.2Ghz is... very hot =/
actually, that's not hot at all, considering how tiny the stock cooler is. the stock cooler is so tiny, its fan is taller than the silver coloured heatsink.


will be using my trusty TRUE once mounting kit becomes available. my target is either 4.2Ghz no turbo or 3.7Ghz with turbo up to 4.4Ghz. or 3.8Ghz up to 4.6Ghz.

what cooler will you be using and what will be your target overclock?

[Duke]

Noctua bracket arrived. Currently benching at 3.3GHz (166 x 20). Couple of pics below of the cooler as I swapped it over.

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/1086/photovg.jpg

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9315/photo2xu.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7885/photo3n.jpg

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/153/photo4yo.jpg

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/9498/photo5ik.jpg

[wuyanxu]

only 3.3Ghz? come on! i had 160 Bclk 3.2Ghz with turbo all this morning, couldn't get it stable without going over my arbitrary +0.05v limit. my temperature hitting 95c's.

im interested in how much you can overclock before forced to turn off turbo mode due to single/double thread instabilities.

[Duke]

Gets into Windows 7 at 4GHz but not prime stable (no where near). Tried lots of volt changes etc but no joy yet :)

[system7]

Excuse my ignorance on matters i5, but isn't there an issue where the PCIE bus gets overclocked too?

[Kelvin_C-J]

Excuse my ignorance on matters i5, but isn't there an issue where the PCIE bus gets overclocked too?


I think the same Steve.

Last I heard, it had to be @ '133'mhz intervals..? (For PCI-E to remain @ 100mhz)

[wuyanxu]

Gets into Windows 7 at 4GHz but not prime stable (no where near). Tried lots of volt changes etc but no joy yet :)

is that with turbo mode or without? try 1.4v on IMC, i managed 205 Bclk stable (with lowered multiplier, testing for highest Bclk) with 1.4v IMC, other 2 options below RAM voltage lowest possible.

PCIe bus is locked, depending on motherboard, out Asus boards have this setting just under Bclk.

[I3R0K3N7FEET]

hmm yeh with a built in pcie controller when OC arent you overclocking the pcie too.. so wouldnt that limit what you can actually clock to? or how you clock.. hmm asus are really liking their blue atm xD

[Duke]

You can force the PCI-E to any value (i.e back to 100) like normal. Intel Turbo turns off when you set to manual OC.

[Kelvin_C-J]

Intel Turbo turns off when you set to manual OC.


Is that so?

I heard differently, but then again I'm going by Youtube Videos and they're probably not that truthful!

Last I heard you had to 'disable' the feature, rather than it turning itself off after you increase the clock frequencies?

[Duke]

Probably depends on the board. Looks like it can be turned back on again but I prefer to just set a manual OC and then let speed step drop it down when idle / light use.

[wuyanxu]

if you disable power management, turbo mode is gone. i always keep as much processor feature as i can, so i am hoping to overclock with turbo mode on. with it turned on, i find the voltage increase done by the processor isn't enough. the voltage increase is either a ratio of VID or a set amount, but after overclocking, in order to maintain stability in 2 or 1 thread load, a lot more voltage is needed. i wish there is a way to set the amount of turbo mode, eg, instead of i5 750 increase multiplier by 4, perhaps increase by 3 or 2.

from this pic, we can see turbo mode is completely separate option. when you change to manual overclock mode, only Bclk appears, nothing else changes.
http://www.hardwarezone.com/img/data/articles/2009/2958/bios-3.jpg

[Duke]

wuyanxu (http://forum.novatech.co.uk/member.php?u=5981), there are some BIOS updates for the Asus by the way (if you hadn't noticed them).

[wuyanxu]

running 0701 at the moment, gotten from Bit-tech staff

[Duke]

Anything much new in it? Any good? If so could you send it across please :D

[Jonny2Bad]

Watching this with interest, any news on the getting the TRUE on yet Wu should help with temps a whole heap ;)

[Duke]

Just to confirm I got the i5 750 to 3.8GHz quite easily and it seems to be the sweet spot for the chip at the moment. The final push to 4GHz requires quite a bit more voltage (and heat) so need to wait for more mature BIOS updates and any other tweaks/setups from other people to see how to get it higher.

[wuyanxu]

here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/277790254/P7P55D-DELUXE-ASUS-0701.rar
wait, it's for Deluxe only, don't think you are using Deluxe because your p55 heatsink doesn't have that useless plastic cover.

nothing essential new, they added a lot of memory options, not sure if it's in your 06 or not.

i won't be getting TRUE on it for a while, i dipped it in tap water hoping to wash off dust, but got limescale on it, going to clean it manually next week with cleaning agents first, then vodka to get rid of the cleaning agents.

AC5 did help every-day temperature by a bit, but under constant load, the tiny intel heatsink quickly become overwhelmed. running with turbo mode at 150blck, 3Ghz turbo up to 3.6Ghz, gaming already lots faster than q6600 at 3.4Ghz.

[Duke]

Yeah mines not Deluxe. Will wait for official release. The 0606 did have a lot of new memory options, all of which meant nothing to me :)

[Duke]

8 hours + prime completed with small FFTs. Temps getting a bit warm but I have a quiet set up rather than meant for performance cooling so is ok when gaming, only toasty when using prime on all cores.

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7525/image1kr.jpg

[I3R0K3N7FEET]

you know.. i love how people say.. getting a bit warm... when overclocking intel cpus.. the max temps these phenoms like is 63 degrees even then BSOD pops up after 56 degrees .. if they had the thermal robustness of intel i reckon i could clock this phenom to 5ghz on air<< the phenoms stability seems to go hand in hand with temperature.. if i had headroom to hit 80degrees.. man... anyway all good then you got yourself a pretty stable overclock.. :) do you think you'll use the turbo on top of that overclock?

[Duke]

Na probably not. This chip is so quick with the SSD its silly. I was hoping for 4GHz stable but even with fair few volts more, it wasn't happening. Still early days on the BIOS side, there is a newer one around but not out officially yet so we'll see.

[wuyanxu]

so that's going to be your 24/7 overclock? on what cooling?

if i can't hit 4Ghz with TRUE, i'll probably be going Corsair H50.

[Duke]

Yeah with Speedstep enabled, so the speed drops down in stages to 2.1GHz when idle. The cooler is a Noctua (120mm fan) on 'Standard' within the BIOS so its v.quiet for most things until gaming where it steps up so you can hear it a bit more. Idle temps in Win 7 are 32-36c.