# New Core i7 2600K rig - Now @5Ghz, Updated in first post :)



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

Hey guys, a little update, been working with Gigabyte's new beta BIOS F7b, which unlocks the Internal CPU PLL Overvoltage option, this option is key to going beyond 5Ghz with a stable system. 







Had to toy with some settings, here's what I changed in my BIOS:

Disclaimer: these are my individual results with this particular board and proc, your mileage may vary, you may get lower results or even better results than me, be aware that over volting your CPU can kill your system if you're not careful, I'm not responsible for any damage to your system from using these settings.

*
CPU Clock Ratio: 50X
Internal CPU PLL Overvoltage: Enabled
Real-Time Ratio Changes: Enabled
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E): Disabled
C3/C6 State Support: Disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor: Disabled
CPU Vcore: 1.425V
DRAM Voltage 1.65V
Load Line Calibration: Level 1*

Here's the BIOS Status at boot:






Beware though, this is a beta BIOS, and sometimes will activate the Dual BIOS function, replacing the BIOS with the default F3 ver. if the system hangs, forcing you to flash the BIOS again if you want to enable certain OCing options, if you are not comfortable having to flash the BIOS please wait for the final release.

Make sure you have a voltage and temperature monitoring program to constantly check your CPU status, as anything north of 5Ghz and 1.45V will effectively double your CPU's temperature.

Here are some bench results:

IntelBurnTest average: 70.51265 GFlOPS:






Super PI 1M 7.49 secs.:






Super PI 32M 7 mins flat:






Sandra Processor Arithmetic aggregate 133.4 GOPS:






Sandra Multi-Core interconnect bandwidth 28.82 GB/s:






Sandra memory bandwidth aggregate: 24.28 GB/s:






3DMark11 default P6400 Marks:






3DMark Vantage default P31760 Marks:






3DMark 06 default 34,576 Marks:






Now for some gaming benchmarks: I took pictures of the settings I used for each game, but then I realized that posting all those pictures would make this post too long, suffice it to say that I used the max settings for all games, at 1920x1200, 4X FSAA, 8X AF, VSync off, using built in benchmarks when available and FRAPS when necessary, doing a one minute run using some of my saved games,   if you're curious about the settings I used for each individual game, let me know and I can post the pictures in a separate post. I also monitored temps and volts at all times:






Here're the results:

Batman Arkham Asylum average 91FPS:






Dirt 2 average 119.9FPS:






F1 2010 average 70FPS:






Dragon Age: Origins FRAPS:
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  7550,     60000,   102, 155, 125.833






Crysis: Warhead FRAPS:
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  2368,     60000,     31,  46, 39.467






COD:MW2 FRAPS:
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  8109,     60000,     84, 160, 135.150






Aliens vs Predator FRAPS:
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  6076,     60000,     69, 121, 101.267






StarCraft II FRAPS:
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  3703,     60000,     49,  64, 61.717






Battlefield: Bad Company 2 FRAPS:
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  6340,     60000,     93, 122, 105.667






Well, dunno if I'll try going higher, can boot to Win7 at 5.2Ghz, but I didn't want to push the temps too high as I was reaching 70 degrees already at that speed, and system wasn't fully stable, I got tired of having to flash the BIOS on system hangs (had to do it like 6 times) and I would probably have to push the Vcore beyond 1.45V and do trial and error but with a more stable BIOS that enables PLL overvoltage.

As you can see, the difference in performance isn't so much when going from 4.5Ghz to 5Ghz, and I prefer to use 4.5Ghz for 24/7 as temps are really good and the system is rock stable 

Will let you know if I get the OCing bug again one of these days and try to OC more when Gigabyte releases a final version of their latest BIOS.

I want to thank everybody for their posts  I really appreciate your words of encouragement you guys rock!  Special thanks go to EastCoastHandle for his excellent SB system builder guide, and to blu3flannel for helping me with FRAPS.

I hope I didn't bore you all with this long post  I'll keep updating this thread if there's any new developments.  

Please reade the rest of the thread for more pics and feedback


----------



## phanbuey (Jan 12, 2011)

awesome dude !!


----------



## Hms1193 (Jan 12, 2011)

Congrats! 

I love that foam thingy in the box.. :3


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

Some new pics:

Current system before dismantling:






Proc out of the box:






Proc and Stock cooler, I thought the cooler was going to be bigger 






Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7 mobo:






Some misc components:


----------



## blu3flannel (Jan 12, 2011)

You're gonna use that GTX 285 for PhysX?  That's totally overkill, but totally awesome. You must do some overclocking for us!


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

blu3flannel said:


> You're gonna use that GTX 285 for PhysX?  That's totally overkill, but totally awesome. You must do some overclocking for us!



Will do  I's gonna be a long night


----------



## Tensa Zangetsu (Jan 12, 2011)

I can't wait to see how this runs!!! Waiting for more pics.


----------



## exodusprime1337 (Jan 12, 2011)

gg on the new specs, definately gonna keep an eye on this thread, keep the pics coming man.


----------



## wolf (Jan 12, 2011)

subbed, wil be interested to hear your thoughts on the UD7 board and overclockability of that 2600K


----------



## Jamborhgini313 (Jan 12, 2011)

hope you get 5ghz outta that thing


----------



## blu3flannel (Jan 12, 2011)

Jamborhgini313 said:


> hope you get 5ghz outta that thing



Agreed, that'd be sweet. The only way I'd ever upgrade to SB is if I were guaranteed 5GHz. It'd be beastly.


----------



## 7.62 (Jan 12, 2011)

Gimme some BC2 goodness.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

Thanks for all your replies guys! I really appreciate it 

System's up and running, installing Win7 as I type this, here are some new pictures:

Look at the size of the cooler! The days of humongous coolers are over with SB I guess  Check the comparison with a Zalman PNPS9700:






Here's the proc mounted on the mobo:






Now, some of my secret sauce: Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra 100% liquid metal TIM:






Spreading the TIM over the proc, looks like T-1000's tears 






Adding TIM to the H70 water block, you only need a tiny dab and it spreads easily:






Mobo with proc and H70 mounted on case's tray:






Another view from a higher angle:






Preliminary test run:






BIOS start screen, please note this is not an UEFI BIOS, Gigabyte will release a UEFI update soon, as this P67 mobo has full support for it with dual 32MBs BIOS:






Win7 just finished installing while I was typing this! really nice! I can't promise you guys any benchmarks today, as I've got work tomorrow, but as soon as I have all bench programs installed will upload the results here. Will probably post preliminary benchmarks tomorrow night 






BTW, do you guys have any suggestions on which benchmarks to run? I'll start OCing at default vCore (1.24V vCore and 1.5V RAM @1333Mhz ATM), to see how much I can push the proc before upping the voltage, right now the proc is idling at a cool 24 degrees according to the BIOS hardware monitor 

Once again, thanks for your posts, and keep the suggestions coming


----------



## blu3flannel (Jan 12, 2011)

Well, definitely 3DMark11, Vantage, Bad Company 2 (if owned), SiSandra, etc. Put a mini test suite together.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

blu3flannel said:


> Well, definitely 3DMark11, Vantage, Bad Company 2 (if owned), SiSandra, etc. Put a mini test suite together.



Well, I have all of those, except for SiSandra, will download it tomorrow 

Just a quick 3dMark Vantage run at default settings:






This is all at stock settings, haven't changed anything at the BIOS, or GPU settings, looks promising, will try some OCing tomorrow and post the results


----------



## blu3flannel (Jan 12, 2011)

Wow, that's 3k better than my very overclocked system! Nice!


----------



## Cold Storm (Jan 12, 2011)

Looking good! Best of luck on the ocing.


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 12, 2011)

2D benchmarks would be more telling than 3D. Give us your memory tab in cpu-z as well. 

SuperPI 1M and 32M

WPrime  v1.55 32M and 1024M

PIFast


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Jan 12, 2011)

Wow, TIM on the CPU and cooler before attachment is too much TIM.

That is the same stock cooler from the older CPU's.  Seriously, what happened to the thing on the left that several review sites got with their 2600K?


----------



## caleb (Jan 12, 2011)

I accept old hardware donations ^^


----------



## overclocking101 (Jan 12, 2011)

all review sites got those with their samples and most published that retail cpu's *will* ship with the bigger coolers, so im a little unsure what intel did there.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

rickss69 said:


> 2D benchmarks would be more telling than 3D. Give us your memory tab in cpu-z as well.
> 
> SuperPI 1M and 32M
> 
> ...



I will post more benchmarks tonight after I come back from work, tomorrow's my day off and will try OCing the proc as well, it's very tempting to OC when looking at the unlocked mmultiplier in the BIOS! But I was really tired last night 

I had GPUZ open at the time of the benchmark, but for some reason, every time I pressed prtscrn to grab a screen shot, it only captured a screenshot of GPUZ's window, so I had to close it, can you guys tell me how to capture full screen shots with GPUZ open? I had not used it in a long time. 


TheLaughingMan said:


> Wow, TIM on the CPU and cooler before attachment is too much TIM.
> 
> That is the same stock cooler from the older CPU's.  Seriously, what happened to the thing on the left that several review sites got with their 2600K?
> 
> http://common5.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/24/0,1425,i=243266&sz=1,00.jpg



Those are Coolaboratory's instructions for their TIM, remember, this is a 100% metal TIM and you only use a tiny dab (less than 2 ml) on both the proc and the cooler, it looks like a lot of TIM, but it really is a very thin layer that spreads very easily and behaves almost like mercury, but it's mostly based on gallium, it's almost like painting your proc til you achieve a mirror like finish 



overclocking101 said:


> all review sites got those with their samples and most published that retail cpu's *will* ship with the bigger coolers, so im a little unsure what intel did there.



Exactly, looks like Intel pulled the rug from under all i7 2600k owners, those tall coolers were sent only to review sites, kinda sleazy on their part  I was surprised and googled it and it looks like all retail 2600k include this puny cooler  not that I really care, CPU's cores are idling at 21~24 degrees 

Well, I'm off to work, more benchies coming tonight


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

caleb said:


> I accept old hardware donations ^^



LOL! Sorry, I'll use those parts for an HTPC


----------



## Irish_PXzyan (Jan 12, 2011)

Nice one!
I was holding out until the 2600K came out! If everything looks nice here I will have to go through with the upgrade!! 
Congratz on the new gear!
Awaiting the BC2 results!!


----------



## CJCerny (Jan 12, 2011)

TheLaughingMan said:


> Wow, TIM on the CPU and cooler before attachment is too much TIM.
> 
> That is the same stock cooler from the older CPU's.  Seriously, what happened to the thing on the left that several review sites got with their 2600K?
> 
> http://common5.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/24/0,1425,i=243266&sz=1,00.jpg



Yeah...I thought the same thing. WAY too much TIM. Just need one single drop in the center and doesn't need to be brushed out at all. Heatsink does that by itself when it gets pressed down tightly.


----------



## [Ion] (Jan 12, 2011)

You and your new SB chip should really come join us for WCG.  Power usage is minimal, and performance is remarkable.  Check out the link in my sig


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

CJCerny said:


> Yeah...I thought the same thing. WAY too much TIM. Just need one single drop in the center and doesn't need to be brushed out at all. Heatsink does that by itself when it gets pressed down tightly.



Dude, those are the manufaturer's instructions, the syringe is metered and I used 2 ml on both the proc, and the water block, and this TIM is supposed to be spread with a brush, they even include the tiny brushes with their kit  have you ever worked with this particular TIM?

Here's a link to their website, they even have a video that shows you how to spread the TIM:

http://www.coollaboratory.com/en/products/liquid-ultra/

The instructions that come with the kit tell you to add it to both the proc and the cooler, check their site, it's full of photos and videos.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

[Ion] said:


> You and your new SB chip should really come join us for WCG.  Power usage is minimal, and performance is remarkable.  Check out the link in my sig



Thanks for the invitation, will check it as soon as I get back home


----------



## JrRacinFan (Jan 12, 2011)

Awaiting more benchmarks & pics.  It's too bad that i am a conventional old school overclocker that usually buys the cheap part to make it perform par up to the higher end's stock performance or i would be all over a 2600k right now.


----------



## [Ion] (Jan 12, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> Thanks for the invitation, will check it as soon as I get back home



That would be awesome.  At ~4.4ghz your i7 should do about the same PPD as ~12 of my Pentium Dual Cores


----------



## CJCerny (Jan 12, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> Dude, those are the manufaturer's instructions, the syringe is metered and I used 2 ml on both the proc, and the water block, and this TIM is supposed to be spread with a brush, they even include the tiny brushes with their kit  have you ever worked with this particular TIM?
> 
> Here's a link to their website, they even have a video that shows you how to spread the TIM:
> 
> ...



Doesn't the H50 block already have paste on it though? Every one I've ever seen new out of the box does. I can't tell from your photo of it. If you put that TIM on top of that paste, all that stuff is gonna end up serving as an insulator rather than a conductor, and that would be a bad thing. Hopefully your CPU temps will be good. If not, I would remove both TIMs and start again.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

CJCerny said:


> Doesn't the H50 block already have paste on it though? Every one I've ever seen new out of the box does. I can't tell from your photo of it. If you put that TIM on top of that paste, all that stuff is gonna end up serving as an insulator rather than a conductor, and that would be a bad thing. Hopefully your CPU temps will be good. If not, I would remove both TIMs and start again.



Yes, the H70 comes with Shin Etsu TIM pre-applied to it, I was, however, using this cooler on my previous build as you can see in one of my pictures, so I cleaned all the previous TIM from it before applying the new TIM. 

Shin Etsu is a very good TIM, better than AS5, but the Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra us even better than it  Oh, and as I mentioned before, the CPU temps are fine, right now it's idling at 21~24 degrees, and I'm yet to see it go over 45 degrees


----------



## newtekie1 (Jan 12, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> Look at the size of the cooler! The days of humongous coolers are over with SB I guess  Check the comparison with a Zalman PNPS9700:



That is pretty much the standard cooler since the late 775 days...


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

[Ion] said:


> That would be awesome.  At ~4.4ghz your i7 should do about the same PPD as ~12 of my Pentium Dual Cores



Whoa! It's amazing the performance you can get from these processors!


----------



## [Ion] (Jan 12, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> Whoa! It's amazing the performance you can get from these processors!



Oh yes.  Makes my Lynnfield i7 seem dated all of a sudden


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 12, 2011)

Me thinks Warlock is not getting much work done at work...


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

rickss69 said:


> Me thinks Warlock is not getting much work done at work...



LOL! Yeah it's been a pretty slow day at the office, I think i've only seen 3 patients so far, and I've been checking the thread while i document the charts  man, it's really hard to use copy and paste and posts links from my phone


----------



## brandonwh64 (Jan 12, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> LOL! Yeah it's been a pretty slow day at the office, I think i've only seen 3 patients so far, and I've been checking the thread while i document the charts  man, it's really hard to use copy and paste and posts links from my phone



Ur a doctor? sweet!


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 12, 2011)

brandonwh64 said:


> Ur a doctor? sweet!



He might be a Proctologist tho...


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

rickss69 said:


> He might be a Proctologist tho...



LOL you could say I'm the exact opposite to a Proctologist  I'll give you a clue, I'm not a urologist either, and if you've ever seen the Hangover, you may have learned that you still have to call 911 if you have a medical emergency even if I'm around


----------



## DannibusX (Jan 12, 2011)

Obgyn!


----------



## [Ion] (Jan 12, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> LOL you could say I'm the exact opposite to a Proctologist  I'll give you a clue, I'm not a urologist either, and if you've ever seen the Hangover, you may have learned that you still have to call 911 if you have a medical emergency even if I'm around



Dentist?


----------



## H82LUZ73 (Jan 12, 2011)

How is the H70 compared to the 50-60,Also does the UD7 have 16x 16x crossfire support?


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 12, 2011)

H82LUZ73 said:


> How is the H70 compared to the 50-60,Also does the UD7 have 16x 16x crossfire support?



The H70 has a radiator that's twice as big as the one on the H50, the waterblock-pump is half the size of the H50's and you have a dual fan push and pull setup as opposed to a single fan on the H50, dunno if you can add a second fan to the H50 though.  All this is supposed to result in an average of 11 degrees lower temperatures on the H70.

Yes, Crossfire is supported at 16x16x in a dual card setup and 16x8x8x for three cards. 



[Ion] said:


> Dentist?



Bingo!


----------



## [Ion] (Jan 12, 2011)

Aha!
You can add a 2nd fan to the H50, I have mine running in push/pull on my i7 860.  ~75c temps @ 3.83ghz/1.29v in a ~78F room.


----------



## PaulieG (Jan 12, 2011)

OK dentist guy, We really need to see some benches asap.


----------



## overclocking101 (Jan 13, 2011)

yeah man, crank that ram wayyyyy up and that proc to 4.7ghz and run some things!! 3dmark11 vantage, etc


----------



## hat (Jan 13, 2011)

I'll be happy to see some results coming from an average enthusiast rather than a reviewer who most likely got better hardware to bolster the scores.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 13, 2011)

Benchies coming later tonight  can't wait to get back home


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 13, 2011)

Ok, more pics as promised:

System status at default settings, please note cores temps:







More detailed default status:






System status after entering 45x multipler:






Voltage status @ 4.5Ghz core, RAM @ XMP Profile 2 (DDR3 1866Mhz) please note the Vcore@1.332V and DRAMV@1.524V:






Max system power 446W at 4.5Ghz, GPU at 840Mhz and 4.3Ghz for RAM while running 3DMark11:






Ready to run benchmarks:






Synthetic benchmarks results coming up


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 13, 2011)

Ok, some benchies at 4.5Ghz:

Super PI 1M:







Super PI 32M:






SiSoft Sandra Processor Arithmetic:






SiSoft Sandra MultiCore:






SiSoft Sandra Memory Bandwidth:






3DMark11 default settings:






3DMark Vantage default settings:






3DMark06 default settings:






Unigine 2.1 default settings @1920x1200:






Memory tab at CPU-Z:






OCing was a simple as typing 45 for the multiplier and picking the XMP profile at the BIOS, the P67A-UD7 took care of the rest, didn't need to change any voltage settings, I'm still looking at all the available BIOS settings and will try to go even higher, but for know I just entered this multiplier as it seemed like a good first step.

System is as stable as a building with horses in it, not a single crash, temps are very low all across the board, and I can say with confidence that in my personal experience, 4.5Ghz clocks can be used 24/7 without compromising system stability with a 100% retail, no engineering sample processor.

Your mileage may vary, but I think this is a beast of the proc, and I'm barely starting to reach its max potential. 

Next will be some gaming benchmarks, guys, I'll appreciate if you can help me with these, as for most games, I dunno how to run in benchmark mode, instructions for a particular game will be appreciated, I'll let you guys know if I have it in my collection. Any suggestions and links to other benchmark programs will be greatly appreciated.


----------



## H82LUZ73 (Jan 13, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> Ok, more pics as promised:
> 
> System status at default settings, please note cores temps:
> 
> ...



 

Man those I7k`s are sweet little cpu`s.Thanks for the info and temp read outs ,Guess that TIM and H70 really are better.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 13, 2011)

H82LUZ73 said:


> Man those I7k`s are sweet little cpu`s.Thanks for the info and temp read outs ,Guess that TIM and H70 really are better.



Yes, temps are 15~20 degrees lower than my Q9550@3.7Ghz with this proc


----------



## Hms1193 (Jan 13, 2011)

Damnit! :O  *must buy sandy bridge* @__@


----------



## hat (Jan 13, 2011)

So you set the multi and the board did the rest eh... now I know there's not much left to do, but I detest when stuff automatically changes on me. Is there a way to have it not automatically change stuff for you?


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 13, 2011)

hat said:


> So you set the multi and the board did the rest eh... now I know there's not much left to do, but I detest when stuff automatically changes on me. Is there a way to have it not automatically change stuff for you?



There sure is!  The BIOS has tons of settings to tweak even the tiniest details, I'm still going through some of them, but since I wanted to post some benchies ASAP I just changed the multiplier and bingo! Fully stable 4.5Ghz! 

I'm pretty sure there's lots of settings an OCer like you would love  I'm also sure it'll be lots of fun playing with the settings to try and get the last drop of performance out of SB procs.

Gotta admit though that OCing on these systems just got a lot easier if you have the right hardware.


----------



## H82LUZ73 (Jan 13, 2011)

Warlock they have at least 3 newer bios`s up for the board,I think F6 has EFI  or what ever its called.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3646#bios


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 13, 2011)

H82LUZ73 said:


> Warlock they have at least 3 newer bios`s up for the board,I think F6 has EFI  or what ever its called.
> http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3646#bios



Nice! Will try the F6 ver. as F7 is still beta , Gonna flash the BIOS now, thanks for the links mate!


----------



## Tensa Zangetsu (Jan 13, 2011)

H82LUZ73 said:


> Warlock they have at least 3 newer bios`s up for the board,I think F6 has EFI  or what ever its called.
> http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3646#bios



I don't think F6 is UEFI/EFI, otherwise they would state it in the description part. 

I am planning on getting this board at the end of the month and from what I am seeing here, it definitely looks very promising.

Still waiting for the gaming and heavy overclocking results. Keep the good work coming


----------



## H82LUZ73 (Jan 13, 2011)

Tensa Zangetsu said:


> I don't think F6 is UEFI/EFI, otherwise they would state it in the description part.
> 
> I am planning on getting this board at the end of the month and from what I am seeing here, it definitely looks very promising.
> 
> Still waiting for the gaming and heavy overclocking results. Keep the good work coming



So how come it supports 3tb drives.


----------



## overclocking101 (Jan 13, 2011)

idk if gigabyte supports eufi bios, i know the new asus boards do.


----------



## hat (Jan 13, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> There sure is!  The BIOS has tons of settings to tweak even the tiniest details, I'm still going through some of them, but since I wanted to post some benchies ASAP I just changed the multiplier and bingo! Fully stable 4.5Ghz!
> 
> I'm pretty sure there's lots of settings an OCer like you would love  I'm also sure it'll be lots of fun playing with the settings to try and get the last drop of performance out of SB procs.
> 
> Gotta admit though that OCing on these systems just got a lot easier if you have the right hardware.



Not sure why those are even there... all you can do is change the multi. That's nothing new, we've always had that option with AMD FX, Black Edition, and the Intel Extremes, and the newer K models.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 14, 2011)

Tensa Zangetsu said:


> I don't think F6 is UEFI/EFI, otherwise they would state it in the description part.
> 
> I am planning on getting this board at the end of the month and from what I am seeing here, it definitely looks very promising.
> 
> Still waiting for the gaming and heavy overclocking results. Keep the good work coming



Yup, it's not the UEFI BIOS update yet, Gigabyte's still working on that one as I heard they wanted more stability during OCing as opposed to the old fashioned BIOS, and are trying to make sure the public release is stable. The board is UEFI ready so all we need is to wait for Gigabyte to finish testing it.  



hat said:


> Not sure why those are even there... all you can do is change the multi. That's nothing new, we've always had that option with AMD FX, Black Edition, and the Intel Extremes, and the newer K models.



You're absolutely right, I think my statement was not fully accurate  getting 1.1Ghz higher clock out of the box using auto settings was such impressive feat, that I got carried away. 

Been testing more OCing, I can boot to Win7 at 4.7Ghz, but results are not fully stable, fastest I can run Intelburn test is 4.6Ghz without having any problems, getting aprox 62 GFlOPs average. Been using FRAPS for AvP, BC2, Batman, Crysis: Warhead, COD:MW2 among others at 4.5Ghz, but wanna wait till I reach my max OC before posting final results.  

A little update: At 1920x1200 and highest detail, 4xFSAA and 8xAF BC2 is runing at an average of 90FPS at 4.5Ghz and no OC to the GPU, I wanna finish OCing the proc before I push other system components and can give you guys 100% stable results 

Been playing with BCLK at I can push it to 103Mhz@4.65Ghz, but it's not fully stable, so I'll not update any benchies yet. Will try pushing PLL voltage, Vdroop and VCC also, will loosen mem OC as I think running at 1866Mhz is affecting stability. 

My goal is to achieve 5Ghz stable, will let you guys know how it goes.


----------



## hat (Jan 14, 2011)

Wouldn't it be easier to set a 50x multi? Of course it's possible your chip won't make it that far... it might just hand a big FU back to you when you try doing that.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 14, 2011)

hat said:


> Wouldn't it be easier to set a 50x multi? Of course it's possible your chip won't make it that far... it might just hand a big FU back to you when you try doing that.



I tried that already and didn't get past POST, so I think I may need to get my hands dirty and toy with some settings, will take baby steps and increase one multiplier at a time, hopefuly I won't have to push too hard to get there, and if that doesn't work, I'll just bench the system at most stable settings and call it a day


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 14, 2011)

You are going to need more vcore.


----------



## sneekypeet (Jan 14, 2011)

I want to see what sort of memory performance this rig can do, like 2K speeds at least, but I want like 2600-2800mhz speeds to start showing up on these boards


----------



## Millennium (Jan 14, 2011)

How much better are the Instructions Per Clock on these new CPUs? As clock speed isn't quite everything 

Nice thread thanks for the benches - good luck with 5ghz....


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 14, 2011)

I am already seeing some 4.7 - 4.8gig overclocks on good air over at Xtreme.... these things are looking good!


----------



## Hms1193 (Jan 16, 2011)

The temps are just amazing and a 4.5Ghz OC on that low Vcore.. :O


----------



## JrRacinFan (Jan 16, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> I am already seeing some 4.7 - 4.8gig overclocks on good air over at Xtreme.... these things are looking good!



What I don't like about them is that (in theory) the only chips that you can overclock on Sandby bridge is the "K moniker" chips. Defeats the whole purpose of overclocking. I am one of those old school overclockers whom takes a "$50 part" and attempts to match performance of the "$125 part". Buying a $300 part with a cost difference of $100 or so is not the way it should be done. Sorry i feel that way but just my .02 about the whole thing.


----------



## TeXBill (Jan 16, 2011)

> What I don't like about them is that (in theory) the only chips that you can overclock on Sandby bridge is the "K moniker" chips. Defeats the whole purpose of overclocking. I am one of those old school overclockers whom takes a "$50 part" and attempts to match performance of the "$125 part". Buying a $300 part with a cost difference of $100 or so is not the way it should be done. Sorry i feel that way but just my .02 about the whole thing.


I agree with you Jr. That what makes Over clocking fun is the exact same thing you just stated.
It was more cost effective to take a cheap cpu and be able to get it running the same as a higher cost cpu. Intel is digging into our pockets even more now with the Sandy Platform.


----------



## JrRacinFan (Jan 16, 2011)

Sorry i went way off topic in your thread Warlock. Carry on guys!  TPU is awesome!


----------



## overclocking101 (Jan 16, 2011)

is the rig 100% complate?? did you post completed pics?


----------



## nocrapman (Jan 16, 2011)

I am contemplating a Sandybridge build over the next few days. Just curious, why u went with UD7 MOBO vs the UD5 for much less $$?


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 17, 2011)

*Please read first post!!!!*

Please refer to my first post in this thread for updated results at 5Ghz and more benchies!


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 17, 2011)

sneekypeet said:


> I want to see what sort of memory performance this rig can do, like 2K speeds at least, but I want like 2600-2800mhz speeds to start showing up on these boards



 how can you reach such speeds with your RAM? Mine's rated at 2000Mhz, but I haven't pushed beyond 1866Mhz as I don't want to push its voltage too far, can you please tell me how to do this without burning your RAM? These SB mobos are supposed to use 1.5V RAM and mine's rated at 1.65V but runs stable at 1866Mhz and a little over 1.55V. Any advice will be greatly appreciated 



overclocking101 said:


> is the rig 100% complate?? did you post completed pics?


 
It's at 5Ghz, but at 1.45V the temps were too high for 24/7 IMHO; there's new pics if you check my first post  At 5.1~5.2Ghz I started getting system crashes, signaling that I probably needed to push voltage over 1.45V, but this BIOS is beta, and had to flash my BIOS a few times, during the trial and error phase, I grew tired of it and said: f$&k it, 5Ghz was my original goal and I'm more than happy with my results; I'll probably try again once Gigabyte releases a final BIOS with the PLL Overvoltage option enabled. For now, I'm happy at 4.5Ghz for 24/7 operation 



nocrapman said:


> I am contemplating a Sandybridge build over the next few days. Just curious, why u went with UD7 MOBO vs the UD5 for much less $$?



I wanted 2 PCIe slots at 16x for SLI for when I get my second GTX580, the UD7 had the N200 for dual or triple SLI and Crossfire


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 17, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> Please refer to my first post in this thread for updated results at 5Ghz and more benchies!



Thats one mean overclock on air!


----------



## Solaris17 (Jan 17, 2011)

I decided to buy this same combo...then I saw this thread. I dont like copying...but I think im going to have too. This system build looks like it rocks. I can live with having the same rig as someone else for a little bit.


It does look like sandy bridge varies alot though. This one review got 4.5ghz with the same chip and board with .20v less than you. MMV alot.


----------



## nocrapman (Jan 17, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> Thats one mean overclock on air!



Not to take anything away from Warlock, its not just a simple air cooler. The H70 is one nifty component!
I think his 'secret sauce' might be the hidden formula.


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 17, 2011)

nocrapman said:


> Not to take anything away from Warlock, its not just a simple air cooler. The H70 is one nifty component!
> I think his 'secret sauce' might be the hidden formula.



Yup, but it is still air with a bit of water added for good measure


----------



## hat (Jan 17, 2011)

Damn 5GHz 

What voltage exactly did you use for that internal PLL voltage? What is stock?

How about vcore... what did you use for 4.5GHz, and what's stock?


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 17, 2011)

JrRacinFan said:


> Sorry i went way off topic in your thread Warlock. Carry on guys!  TPU is awesome!



NP mate  Check the first post in this thread for updated benchies 



Tatty_One said:


> Thats one mean overclock on air!



LOL! Yeah, you could say the H70 would be the bastard son born out of night of kinky sex between a custom water loop and a high end air cooler. 

BTW, I was wondering if you (or any other mod who's reading this for that matter ) could help me edit the title to this thread, I tried changing the title on my first post thinking that would help, but that didn't change the thread's main title. Can you help me with that please 



Solaris17 said:


> I decided to buy this same combo...then I saw this thread. I dont like copying...but I think im going to have too. This system build looks like it rocks. I can live with having the same rig as someone else for a little bit.
> 
> 
> It does look like sandy bridge varies alot though. This one review got 4.5ghz with the same chip and board with .20v less than you. MMV alot.



I'm honored  

Yes, I've seen SB procs doing 4.4Ghz as low as 1.20V. Haven't played with under volting my proc yet, for now the mobo is engaging the auto VID, will try seeing how low I can go without any stability problems when I get back home, thank you for the idea


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 17, 2011)

nocrapman said:


> Not to take anything away from Warlock, its not just a simple air cooler. The H70 is one nifty component!
> I think his 'secret sauce' might be the hidden formula.



LOL! Yeah, the Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra more than held its ground during heavy over volting, and no need for setting time either  I would recommend this TIM to anyone 



hat said:


> Damn 5GHz
> 
> What voltage exactly did you use for that internal PLL voltage? What is stock?
> 
> How about vcore... what did you use for 4.5GHz, and what's stock?



Thanks!  And I'm just an average OCer, imagine what an experienced OCer like you would get from this proc! I can't wait til some of you, extreme OCers get your hands on these procs and post your own results! 

I tried raising the PLL voltage to 1.89V at 4.8Ghz but the system was very unstable, that was before BIOS ver. F7b was released. With that BIOS all you need to do is enable PLL overvoltage in the settings, and as far as I understand, your mobo will dynamically handle the PLL overvoltage depending on processor load, giving you a far more stable OC. 

Vcore voltages I used were:

@3.4Ghz (stock): 1.236V
@4.5Ghz: 1.33V
@5Ghz: 1.425V
@5.2Ghz: 1.455V

Hope that helps


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 17, 2011)

Main title changed.


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 17, 2011)

For Warlock...


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 17, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> Main title changed.



Thank you mate! 



rickss69 said:


> For Warlock...



LMAO! Good one!


----------



## phanbuey (Jan 17, 2011)

you should disable core parking - i hear it may make things a bit smoother in gaming...  might make a difference in benchies too.  Worth a look.

great job on this rig... gaming bliss right there


----------



## Deleted member 74752 (Jan 17, 2011)

http://ultimatecomputers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3644

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/494232-how-adjust-core-parking-inside-windows-7-a.html


----------



## hat (Jan 18, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> And I'm just an average OCer, imagine what an experienced OCer like you would get from this proc! I can't wait til some of you, extreme OCers get your hands on these procs and post your own results!



Heh, no way... first day on the job today taught me that the dollar is worth much more than I thought it was. Since I'm working part time, and have other things to pay for, it would take between 2 and 3 months to pay for the upgrade to a 2600K system (around $550). Worth it? Hell no.


----------



## Atlblkz06 (Jan 18, 2011)

*Hello!*

I just bought a 580, 2600K and an MSI P67A mobo with 6GB of Triple Channel OCZ memory.  I'm really looking forward to this rig now! right now I'm running an old school Q6600 (wow its old already?) with a Swiftech 220 Kit and eventually I'll watercool this too but for now it'll run on air.

Thanks for your post! I should have it running by Sunday and I cant wait.


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (Jan 18, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> *Snip
> Vcore voltages I used were:
> 
> @3.4Ghz (stock): 1.236V
> ...



So... what constitutes safe voltages for a 24/7 OC on the 2600k? Surely 1.425v can't be safe for the long run. 

Still a sweet system and that OC is insane. According to Intel 5Ghz is the new 4Ghz so I guess the elite will have to start the 6Ghz club to remain elite.


----------



## Wrigleyvillain (Jan 18, 2011)

^ Yep


----------



## hat (Jan 18, 2011)

I don't think SB, at least in the current iteration, will make 6GHz. Maybe with extreme cooling, but with the voltage required to get there, the cpu might not be able to survive long enough. 32nm is quite fragile.


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Jan 18, 2011)

Huh? Many consider 1.4v completely safe. SB has proven to be quite durable so far. If it takes 1.425 for 5 GHz then I'd use that 24/7, even more so with speed step.


----------



## JrRacinFan (Jan 18, 2011)

Wait a moment, what happenned to the claim of 5GHz with 1.0v?


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Jan 18, 2011)

I think that was voltage monitoring bug with Gigabyte boards.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 20, 2011)

Hello everybody, I'm sorry I have not replied in a while, but I've been really busy at work these past few days, once again, thank you so much for your replies to this post 



phanbuey said:


> you should disable core parking - i hear it may make things a bit smoother in gaming...  might make a difference in benchies too.  Worth a look.
> 
> great job on this rig... gaming bliss right there



I had never heard about core parking before, will definitely look into it, thanks for the heads up! 



rickss69 said:


> http://ultimatecomputers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3644
> 
> http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/494232-how-adjust-core-parking-inside-windows-7-a.html



Thanks for the links mate!  They were both very informative, will try to disable this core parking thing in Win7, and will let you know how it went; in some benchmarks or programs, I never see my processor load go over 60~80%, I wonder, if this has anything to do with it 



Atlblkz06 said:


> I just bought a 580, 2600K and an MSI P67A mobo with 6GB of Triple Channel OCZ memory.  I'm really looking forward to this rig now! right now I'm running an old school Q6600 (wow its old already?) with a Swiftech 220 Kit and eventually I'll watercool this too but for now it'll run on air.
> 
> Thanks for your post! I should have it running by Sunday and I cant wait.



You're welcome mate, looks like your getting a killer setup there!  Please give us an update once you have it ready 



TRIPTEX_CAN said:


> So... what constitutes safe voltages for a 24/7 OC on the 2600k? Surely 1.425v can't be safe for the long run.
> 
> Still a sweet system and that OC is insane. According to Intel 5Ghz is the new 4Ghz so I guess the elite will have to start the 6Ghz club to remain elite.



Well, I recently started experimenting with a little undervolting, (Thanks to Solaris for the awesome idea! You're the man! ) and my system is a 100% stable at 4.5Ghz and less than 1.30V, temperatures are really good too, so I don't think I have to worry about using this overclock 24/7


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 20, 2011)

JrRacinFan said:


> Wait a moment, what happenned to the claim of 5GHz with 1.0v?



I don't think I ever claimed that...


----------



## puma99dk| (Jan 20, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> I don't think I ever claimed that...



i think it's bcs most of ur CPU-Z shots says 1.056v


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 20, 2011)

puma99dk| said:


> i think it's bcs most of ur CPU-Z shots says 1.056v



LOL!! yeah, I had not noticed that!  Thanks for pointing that out. 

 Dunno what's wrong with CPU-Z, maybe a bug with SB procs? Good thing I posted screenshots from my BIOS and EasyTune6 voltages. I hope they fix that for the next CPU-Z release.


----------



## puma99dk| (Jan 20, 2011)

happens it's software, it's man made so it got bugs xD

but nice machine 15th Warlock.


----------



## PaulieG (Jan 20, 2011)

TRIPTEX_CAN said:


> So... what constitutes safe voltages for a 24/7 OC on the 2600k? Surely 1.425v can't be safe for the long run.
> 
> Still a sweet system and that OC is insane. According to Intel 5Ghz is the new 4Ghz so I guess the elite will have to start the 6Ghz club to remain elite.



According to Intel, 1.425 is well beyond spec. Here's a basic guide on SB voltage:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18227651


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 20, 2011)

Paulieg said:


> According to Intel, 1.425 is well beyond spec. Here's a basic guide on SB voltage:
> 
> http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18227651



Straight from the horse's mouth:

http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/324641.pdf

Check on page 78 for official current and voltage specifications. According to intel, for SB, the VID range goes from a low 0.2500 all the way to 1.5200V. 

Now, I'm not saying that you should use 1.5200V for 24/7 operation, you can, and you will shorten your processor's life if you do so, due to electro migration, that may not be the case if you use extreme forms of cooling for round the clock operation, like a peltier, or a very good water cooling setup. 

If you want to avoid damaging your CPU due to electro migration, you have to look for the lowest voltage that will get you to your desired overclock for 24/7, and, of course, make sure your cooler can dissipate the extra heat. 

In my case, the min stable voltage for 4.5Ghz is less than 1.30V, which I consider safe for 24/7. 

Extrme OCing for short intervals of time for benching and fun is, of course, is a completely different story


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (Jan 20, 2011)

I was under the impression electron migration can and will occur at extreme voltages irregardless of cooling even LN2. 

I just dont see how a 32nm SB can operate safely 24/7 at 1.425v when that Vcore is far beyond what was considered safe for a 45nm Penryn. Will it immediately explode at 1.425v?... no, but I don't think it will last.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 20, 2011)

TRIPTEX_CAN said:


> I was under the impression electron migration can and will occur at extreme voltages irregardless of cooling even LN2.
> 
> I just dont see how a 32nm SB can operate safely 24/7 at 1.425v when that Vcore is far beyond what was considered safe for a 45nm Penryn. Will it immediately explode at 1.425v?... no, but I don't think it will last.



And I agree with you to a certain extent, however, please note that in none of my posts I have stated that an SB setup should be used at that voltage for 24/7 operation, I invite you to read this whole thread, and you'll notice that I repeatedly mention that I don't feel comfortable using such high voltage for round the clock operation 

Also, please note that you cannot make a direct comparison between Penryn and SB, Intel has implemented energy efficiency features in SB, that reduce leak current, just notice how low the temperatures are in these new processors, for example, for Penryn, I don't think anyone would've dreamed of achieving 5Ghz on anything less than LN2 cooling, for SB though, you can see reports of processors working at this frequency on air virtually all over the net. 

What I'm trying to say is that this is akin to comparing apples to oranges, don't you agree?


----------



## TRIPTEX_CAN (Jan 20, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> And I agree with you to a certain extent, however, please note that in none of my posts I have stated that an SB setup should be used at that voltage for 24/7 operation, I invite you to read this whole thread, and you'll notice that I repeatedly mention that I don't feel comfortable using such high voltage for round the clock operation



I know. I've read the thread...I certainly don't mean to crap on your thread. 

I just wanted to discuss what was considered safe 24/7 and while SB clocks like a beast it takes some serious Vcore to get there.

-add- I agree comparing Penryn to SB is a long shot (apples to oranges) I was just leading towards the trend where typically as the frabrication process shrinks voltage tolerance is decreased even when efficiency is improved.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 20, 2011)

TRIPTEX_CAN said:


> I know. I've read the thread...I certainly don't mean to crap on your thread.
> 
> I just wanted to discuss what was considered safe 24/7 and while SB clocks like a beast it takes some serious Vcore to get there.
> 
> -add- I agree comparing Penryn to SB is a long shot (apples to oranges) I was just leading towards the trend where typically as the frabrication process shrinks voltage tolerance is decreased even when efficiency is improved.



Absolutely!  And I (and many more people I'm sure), appreciate your contribution to this thread   

You're making some valid points for ppl interesting in OCing their procs and interested in protecting their investment in the long run


----------



## Andrei23 (Jan 20, 2011)

I am impressed gg op


----------



## overclocking101 (Jan 20, 2011)

off topic, thanks paulie for that cpu link it shows the max VID for my cpu, and I am now going to lower my maximum voltage by quite a bit!


----------



## sneekypeet (Jan 20, 2011)

15th Warlock said:


> how can you reach such speeds with your RAM? Mine's rated at 2000Mhz, but I haven't pushed beyond 1866Mhz as I don't want to push its voltage too far, can you please tell me how to do this without burning your RAM? These SB mobos are supposed to use 1.5V RAM and mine's rated at 1.65V but runs stable at 1866Mhz and a little over 1.55V. Any advice will be greatly appreciated



Sorry for the late response, but running 2400mhz Patriots that require only 1.65V to do so helps. 

Also there is a set of 2300 CAS7 stick coming from Gskill soon that only require 1.5V, so taking a set like that to 1.65V should gain a fair bit of speed.

Dont know anything about the damages caused long term, but it seems many people are using 1.65V for their memory and doing just fine, for now. To me its more of a "green" move to use 1.5V as a standard then it is purely for safety/functionality. As I said though, it is new, and I could be way off the mark.


----------



## Dice (Jan 21, 2011)

Wow nice results 15th Warlock!! I've used that Tim before....great temps but how do ya clean it off??? i managed to polish the writing off my old q6600 and the plating off my true black trying to get rid of it!


----------

