# i7 overclocking rig



## ShadowFold (Jul 13, 2009)

I'm thinking of throwing an i7 rig together for myself. I have about 2000$ to spend on it, so it's still kinda budget-ish. I want to go for an i7 950 just so I don't have to have 3ghz out of the box(kinda important to me, I leave my stuff at stock mostly). I'm still going to be tweaking and playing with it and all that. Also, my dad has a 940 and rampage II so I want to try and outclock it with the newer stepping and higher multi of the 950.

Here's what I got in my cart so far






I'm still gonna be using my PII rig for gaming and what not, the 4870 and 955 is for it actually. I'm just gonna get this for crunching and I kinda want to have my own i7 rig to tweak with 

Oh and my friend's gonna give me a 32gb SSD for helping with some stuff, so I'll be using that. I'm sure it's enough space for vista64 and benchmarks..


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## johnnyfiive (Jul 13, 2009)

I recently went to an i7 setup and ummm.... its MUCH faster than I realized.. lol.

Here is my latest result:
http://img.techpowerup.org/090713/4point2_1.34v_3dmark06_ht_turbo.jpg

That picture says soooo much about what the i7 can do. You are going to LOVE i7!


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## Yukikaze (Jul 13, 2009)

I gotta say that dropping 500$ on the i7 950 is near criminal when the i7 920 is approaching the 200$ mark in some places. Are the extra 400Mhz worth twice the money ? I highly doubt it. The higher multiplier is nice, but you said you leave things at stock, so in this case make an exception and just bump it up to 3Ghz and that's it. Any i7 920 will do that with ease, heck, my 920 does 3.2Ghz with 1.04v.


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## johnnyfiive (Jul 13, 2009)

^^^ I totally agree.


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## BarbaricSoul (Jul 13, 2009)

why do you have a phenomII x4 955 on that build Shadow?

nevermind, I see why now.


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## Binge (Jul 13, 2009)

You could easily outclock his 940 with a 920.  They're the same chip and have the same limitations that keep the max OC close to 4.6GHz on average.  If he isn't pushing it then I see no reason to get a 950.  I also can't see you seriously spending that much on ram.  There's cheaper, better solutions unless you're going for asthetics.  I know you like red... the Foxconn Bloodrage GTI is much less expensive than the RIIE and a more solid board just as far as parts are concerned.  I see so many flaws ><


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## DarkEgo (Jul 13, 2009)

Why drop so much on that 950 when you could get a 920 _and_ *water!* I7's beg for wwater when overclocking. Do you have a Micro Center near you? If you do you could get a 920 for $200. I would do this for $200




and




That gigabyte board is amazing and so is the PSU.


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## Binge (Jul 13, 2009)

ick... a D5?  A DDC355 with EK top would be a much better choice.  It's a difference of 2 gallons per minute in flow.


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## bogmali (Jul 13, 2009)

DarkEgo said:


> Why drop so much on that 950 when you could get a 920 _and_ *water!* I7's beg for water when overclocking.



I agree.....I have three of them on water......Here is one of them (conservatively OCed to 3.6Ghz)


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## Binge (Jul 13, 2009)

I can see why... that thing would burn up otherwise.


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## bogmali (Jul 13, 2009)

Binge said:


> I can see why... that thing would burn up otherwise.



Huh


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## ShadowFold (Jul 13, 2009)

I really don't want to water cool. Wouldn't that noctua be good enough for around 4ghz if I got a D0 920? My dads 940 only does around 4.2 on water last time I checked. I'll go talk to him today because if he got higher then I might go water, but I just wanna beat his clocks


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## Binge (Jul 13, 2009)

I used a Xig direct touch w/one 120mm fan, 920 D0, and a bloodrage GTI up at SystemViper's place and hit 4.6GHz.  I just wouldn't recommend making that your daily.


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## Binge (Jul 13, 2009)

bogmali said:


> Huh



GPU and CPU on the same loop only cooled by a swiftech and the cpu block is only a DD block...  It just looks painful


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## ShadowFold (Jul 13, 2009)

I'd most likely just run it at what ever I can do on stock volts. It's gonna be crunching when I'm not doing benches or overclocking.


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## Binge (Jul 13, 2009)

Most D0 can do 4.0GHz from .07V below stock to .1V above stock.  Load temps on air hover in the 60 C range.


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## DarkEgo (Jul 13, 2009)

Binge said:


> ick... a D5?  A DDC355 with EK top would be a much better choice.  It's a difference of 2 gallons per minute in flow.



They wern't in stock, lol
EDIT: Isn't the XSPC res top better?


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## johnnyfiive (Jul 13, 2009)

I recommend building one of these if its going to be crunching all day. Hell, I recommend one period.


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## n-ster (Jul 14, 2009)

So are you going for i7 920 finally?


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## ShadowFold (Jul 14, 2009)

n-ster said:


> So are you going for i7 920 finally?



I might. I have about 6000$ right now. I kinda want to spend some money on my computer, but my gf wouldn't be happy if I spent it all on it  I'm thinking of waiting for what AMD has coming out now that I think about it. I already have the highest end AMD board so might just get a 965 when those come out and if AMD doesn't have or announce anything worth the while after like September or something, I'll build an i7 or i5 rig just so I have something to tweak and play with.


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## Binge (Jul 14, 2009)

DarkEgo said:


> They wern't in stock, lol
> EDIT: Isn't the XSPC res top better?



No, no it is not.


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## DarkEgo (Jul 14, 2009)

Binge said:


> No, no it is not.



So the EK top is the best... I have a Swiftech Delphi DDC-1VC coming so I could use a top. I guess I will be buying the EK.


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