My latest overclock...i7-930 at 3.8Ghz

[azasadny]

Baseline at 2.8GHz, followed by overclock to 3.8Ghz

Specs:
i7-930 D0 Rev,. CPU
Seidon 124v CPU cooler (liquid), with two fans in push/pull
ASUS P6X58D Premium motherboard
12GB Crucial 12800 DDR3 RAM
150GB WD Velicoraptor HD
MSI GTX-650 video card
Corsair 200D case with 4 x 140mm fans
Win7, soon to be Win8.1 (after overclocking testing has been completed)

Ran Prime95 to test this overclock for 8 hours with no issues at all. Temp maxed out at 170 degrees.

 

[Brink]

Nice boost Art.

 

[azasadny]

Thanks, Shawn! It's an older, used CPU that I paid $70 for and the motherboard (ASUS P6X58D-Premium) was believed to be bad, so that was free. All I did was buy 12GB of RAM, the Seidon CPU cooler and a few other parts and I have a nice little "chaos box" to play with. I have 3 WD Velicoraptor 150GB hard drives that I'll RAID and I'll get Win8.1 installed on it next weekend. So far, the 30some % overclock is great, especially considering where the temps are!

 

[Hopachi]

Nice work Art!

A good example showing that older-getting hardware can still hold the line.

Not that this is to be considered old, on the contrary, you got pretty decent material and heaps of ram. But I like how that i7 holds it steady at that higher frequency.

 

[azasadny]

Hopachi, Thanks! I've been building systems using the AMD FX-6300 on a 970-based MSI motherboard and getting really nice overclocks, so I thought I'd play with this older CPU for awhile. I had the CPU and motherboard, and I couldn't justify scrapping it as long as it was functioning correctly, which it is. I'm very happy with the stability and performance of this system and I'll be installing an SSD and Win8.1 on it this weekend. I'll install the 3 x 150GB WD Velicoraptor 10k hard drives in RAID to play with. I may compare RAID to Windows 8 Storage Spaces to see how they compare. The Corsair H60 and Seidon coolers are very effective in keeping the CPU temps in a reasonable place. For $60, they are a good deal and I always use Corsair fans in the case to provide sufficient airflow. The ambient temp in my "mancave" is 68 - 70 degrees F...

This PC will go in my garage this summer so I have a PC to play on while I brew beer. I brew beer and make mead in the backyard and I listen to music on the PC while I'm brewing. The yeast really like Little Feat, Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead!!

 

[CountMike]

OC, best way to get all your computer can do. I OCed everything even at times (long ago ) when some HW mods were required. It all stems from the way CPUs are made. Each one is tested separately and only ones that can work on highest projected speeds are marked for those speeds. Other that can not safely do those speeds are marked as having lower frequencies. Just look at the "Core" name and model stepping. Sometimes manufacturers intentionally mark some models as lower frequencies so they sell more. Those ones are easiest to OC. Some can even unlock some cores. AMD Phenom II 550 was most famous for core unlocking, almost all of them could be unlocked to 4 cores with a decent OC too.

 

[azasadny]

Yep, I've been overclocking the AMD FX-6300 to 4.2GHz , using a Corsair H60 AIO cooler. Overclocking is fun and not much of a challenge with the current technology.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Thanks for sharing your information and experiences, Art. Always an inspiration to me.

I like the rock of Little Feet and the A Brothers, but never understood what the appeal was for the Dead. Rock on any which way!

 

[azasadny]

Thanks, Tony! I only like the Grateful Dead studio work, not the live shows with 28min songs that meander around aimlessly. Remember the old joke: "Why do Grateful Dead fans wave their arms in the air at a concert?" "To keep the music out of their eyes!" Little Feat, especially the time when Lowell George was with them, are my favorites!

 

[azasadny]

A few pics of my recent projects...

Works in progress... The last pic is of a batch of beer I'm brewing for this summer (ginger wheat ale)

 

[CountMike]

Didn't have an idea that washing machine. beer and computers have that much in common.

 

[pparks1]

Threads like these make me sad, my last computer "build" was in June of 2009. And I haven't turned on that computer at all in the past year. Always on laptops these day

 

[azasadny]

Oh yeah, I have to share my "man cave" with my wife. I have several hobbies and they all share the same space. It gets pretty crowded!!

 

[chev65]

The Prime95 Blend test is the one to use when stability testing.

I've been running my old Q9650 air cooled at 4.05Ghz for over 5 years now.

You can learn about building PC's, the limits of the equipment and how to set up a stable system just by learning how to overclock which is more difficult than most can imagine, I'm referring to STABLE overclocks which are the exception rather than the rule. Stable means running Prime blend for 10 hours which runs each test at least once.

 

[azasadny]

Yes, I agree. I always run Prime95 (Blend) for at least 10-12 hours before I declare an overclock to be "stable" The PC's that I overclock run that way at all times and I've never had one fail. You have to pick the right components, assemble them correctly and patiently go through the settings. The computer I'm writing this on has been running overclocked since I built it over 15 months ago...

 

[azasadny]

3.8 is the highest I can go with this setup. Whenever I try any higher settings and apply more voltage (within acceptable limits), I get lockups... I'm happy with 3.8, though...

 

[Ermate2000]

Why do you need 12GB RAM? 8.1 works well on 2GB...(also DDR3)

 

[azasadny]

I paid about $100 for 12GB of high quality DDR3, so why would I want to run with any less than that? This PC uses triple channel DDR#, so you have to add 3 sticks. 3 x 2GB = 6GB and 3 x 4GB =12GB made more sense for me...I always max out the RAM on my PC's since RAM is so cheap. I play with virtual machines, so the more RAM, the better...

 

[pparks1]

Why do you need 12GB RAM? 8.1 works well on 2GB...(also DDR3)

Well, 2gb is about bare minimum. As stated, ram is cheap. If you run VMs you will need it. Gaming will need a bit more, so will video or audio editing. I don't ever go lower than 8gb these days.

 

[Hopachi]

Why do you need 12GB RAM? 8.1 works well on 2GB...(also DDR3)

Well, 2gb is about bare minimum. As stated, ram is cheap. If you run VMs you will need it. Gaming will need a bit more, so will video or audio editing. I don't ever go lower than 8gb these days.

The more the merrier.

Speaking of audio/video, rendering in After Effects for instance takes all your free RAM, If you have 32GB, the program takes about 24GB of it. But your work gets done a lot faster in the end.