Overclocking results for I7-950, Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R MB

[galael]

Here are my overclocking results with the following setup:

- Intel I7-950 running at 4.15 GHz
- Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Motherboard Rev. FC
- 6 GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 Memory at 1733 MHz
- Zalman CNPS9900ALED Cooler (keeps things very cool and also a very quiet fan)
- Seasonic 750W 80+ Gold PS and CoolerMaster case
- WD 2TB 7200 RPM HD - Black

I have a Win7/OSX 10.6.3 dual booting system so I'm posting some comparison benchmarks to see how the different OS's fare against each other. OC'ing on both OS's is the same with the exception of the GTX 460 being slightly overclocked in Win7 thanks to the Nvidia tools:

Just the numbers first:
OS X 10.6.3
- Cinebench - CPU: 7.21
- OpenGL: 34.6

- Geekbench 64-bit: 12518
- Geekbench 32-bit: 11400
- XBench: 324.96

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
- Cinebench - CPU:7.12
- OpenGL: 54.64
- Geekbench 32-bit: 10200

Computationally, OSX seems just a tad faster than Win7. Graphically, the optimized Windows-based Nvidia driver comes in at an outstanding 54.64 (includes GPU overclock), but Tony's 460 GTX Mac driver is no slouch at 34.6.

 

[ysko]

Hey, can you post what did you do? The changes you have done on the MB? I've the same i7 and the same MB ...

Thanks.

 

[galael]

Sure thing. I'm in Las Vegas this week attending CES. I'll post a BIOS settings dump when I get back.

Galael

 

[ysko]

Thanks you Galael.

 

[findmory]

I 2nd that request for overclocking info! I have exact same MOBO and CPU. Right now with no OC I am getting Geekbench of 10234

Thanks much!

 

[noisefree]

And I'll third that request, as I also have the same setup aside from the GPU.

 

[notshy]

I used a very good guide and posted the link up:
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=7029

At the bottom I've posted my BIOS settings for a 3.8Ghz OC of an i7-930 so your guys i7950 should go a lot higher.

My settings were rock solid for me for over 18 hours Prime and Memtest and also a good few hours on max on OCCT and IntelBurn. I'd recommend having Win on a separate drive as most of the stability and monitoring tools are in Windows.

I would recommend reading that guide as it goes through your BIOS settings quite logically and isolates two variables at a time. Interestingly it covers Vcore last which is one of the settings that people jump too first !

I'm running a Zalman Quite CPU cooler so if you have a Scythe or something similar it might have higher RPM on the fans and get some lower temps.

Good luck!

 

[Hilbe]

Curious to see your temps. I had that cooler on my i7-950 setup like yours and it couldn't keep it cool. I ended up selling it on eBay and getting a Corsair H50. You been monitoring temps closely?

 

[notshy]

Curious to see your temps. I had that cooler on my i7-950 setup like yours and it couldn't keep it cool. I ended up selling it on eBay and getting a Corsair H50. You been monitoring temps closely?

At 3.8Ghz I topped out at around 75-79 C depending on room temp.

I've got a couple of case fans - one on the side pushing air in and one pulling out the back - aligned with my cooler.

The case is also a Fractal Quiet case s there's a load of noise dampening material in there too so I would have thought mine would have been a bit hot if anything.

What Vcore were you using? I used DVID instead of a constant voltage and found I only needed 1.25v (=Normal + DVID) total to get my CPU stable at 38Ghz.

How much thermal paste did you use?

I'm tempted by the H50 and H70

 

[Hilbe]

How much thermal paste did you use?

I'm tempted by the H50 and H70

I used all sorts of mfr and forum recommended thermal paste methods, none helped. Install was correct. I just seemed to idle around 60C with the Zalman. When I flipped to the H50, I dropped to 40C idle at stock speeds.