Overclocking i7 3820

Hi Mr Wizard, nice build log! We have very similar builds indeed, and congrats on purchasing the MSI big bang xpower II, it's simply awesome isn't it!

yeah I've got my multiplier on 39 and bus speed at 125. To change bus speed you click on it and then type in the desired speed, there is not drop down menu like the other options! And no i have set all my power modes off, so EIST is off and also disabled the Intel C2 and C1E. This makes my CPU run at full power all the time. If you want it to slow on idle then you have to enable all these, however watch out for when you enable EIST that it also doesn't enable the enhanced speed option (i think that's what it's called).

I hope this helps let me know if you need more help
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And congrats once again on an awesome rig!
 
Thanks Simsimma4. YES!! this motheboard is truly amazing in both looks and function. Im going to give the overclock a good workout today and the above info will be very helpful. cpl of questions if you dont mind..

1. Is it safe to run the CPU at full power all the time?

2. Is it possible to overclock just the turbo?

3. If not is it possible to overclock it but still have the cpu throttle down at idle.

sry if im asking noob questions but intel overclocking is new to me.
 
Question 1) well i have been running mine at full power with no problems, just make sure it's 100% stable using tests such as prime 95 for prolonged periods of time.

Question 2) i do not think it is possible to over clock just the turbo function, you can overclock the base clock to run greater than 3.6ghz but allow the turbo to determine the turbo speed, however this is wrong and it will most likely cause a whole host of instability issues and perhaps even killing the CPU?

Question 3) yeah i initially had it set up like this, i overclock to 4.75ghz but then i enabled EIST, C1E and C2 but disabled the turbo function, what this does is at idle the computer effectively puts some cores to sleep and down clocks cpu only ever waking it up and returning the CPU to full when such a moment arises where a program will utilize the CPU.

I'd rather you ask questions before attempting just to be safe as you have expensive equipment that you won't want to damage! I also fell in love with the motherboard the first time i saw it! so much so that i modded my case just to fit it in! (as i had already purchased the case with another motherboard in mind). Have fun overclocking, i will look forward to see what results you get!
 
Thanks again for the info. Here is a ss of my stock settings



The reason why i asked about the cpu throttling down at idle is. When i went in and just changed the cpu ratio to 43 and left evrything else alone the cpu would not throttle down in windows but it will if i set it to auto. Is this normal?
 
I think this may be normal, the board may see you have overclocked it by setting ration to higher than default and automatically switching off EIST and turbo? I'm just hazarding a guess, but i can't 100% confirm because i went straight into overclocking and didn't test anything while in stock settings.
 
When you look at the test that run on a sigle thread per core where clock rate rules, it's alittle behind,(alot cheaper) but nothing to worry about.

the gaming results are stupid, once your double the refreash rate of your monitor, its just bragging rights from there on.

when you start loading it with threads it starts to close the gap on the 3770K

Memory bandwith it cant be touched by anything on 1155.

when you start with the memory/CPU media creation it starts to pull in front
 
I'm really batteling between getting one of these or a 3930K!!

I'm hitting new limits with my current machine every day, if it dies I will be forced into a 3820/MB combo for alittle more than the price of the 3930K alone.

I don't really need the 6 cores because any CPU intensive apps I run, I can just wait 50% longer for 4 cores to do the work, but I really love the cool factor of having 6 cores and the 100% unlocked overclocking capability of the 3930K.

With your results on the 3820(repeated by most in reviews of it), I don't think the 3930K would go much higher and would only be faster due to haveing 50% more cores/threads. In single threaded apps it might even be alittle slower.

So I guess my question to you guys is, why did you buy some of the best overclocking motherboards with partially locked CPUs??

And given the choice would you give up alittle on your motherboard, for a potential better overall overclocking experiance, and a faster CPU??

I'm still leaning towards the 3930K just because I will learn more from playing with it(from it being fully unlocked) and I will keep it longer (because it will be better over time)which is a better value.

But I still can justify buying one of these now, because it is cheaper for what I need now. In the future when they release IB-E, if they bring out a new chipset, the 3820/MB combo cost less to replace. If IB-E brings other options like 8 cores, works on the x79 board, and if I want more I can just upgrade later. Worst case would be if I wanted more, and IB-E releases an 8 core, but needed a new chipset to take advantage of it just like z68/z77 did on 1155.
 
got mine up last night haven't overclocked it yet ...as this seems different from my x58...any good guides on how to over clock this bad boy
 
The reason why i went for the board i did was because i loved the way it looked; the fact that it had ample room for overclocking capabilities; to be future proof for further releases on 2011 platform (as i don't seem them changing the Big Bang anytime soon apart from bios updates to unlock it's potential); and finally because the CPU was only partially unlocked i wanted the most capable motherboard that could deal with a harder way to overclock.

The Z77 didn't really bring much more over the Z68 in my eyes, and if they were to do the same with the X79 boards then i don't think there would again be very much change.

I think it would be more of a challenge to overclock the 3820 rather than the 3930k, therefore i have learned more about overclocking trying to unlock the full potential of a restricted CPU rather than a fully unlocked CPU. However the 3930k is one awesome CPU and it has serious power, 50% more than the 3820, if you can afford it then why not!, it depends whether you will use this power or whether it's purely about bragging about having 6 cores. For me the 3820 was perfect, i don't really need the 6 cores of the 3930k but i wanted to come into the 2011 bracket
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.

Brutos said:
got mine up last night haven't overclocked it yet ...as this seems different from my x58...any good guides on how to over clock this bad boy
Click to expand...

Follow what i have posted in my first post and you should be fine
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depends how far you want to overclock it! You can push it to 4.3ghz with just upping the CPU multiplier to 43, and if thats enough then stop there, but if you want more then you have to start messing with the CPU base clock
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BKCXb said:
So I guess my question to you guys is, why did you buy some of the best overclocking motherboards with partially locked CPUs??

And given the choice would you give up alittle on your motherboard, for a potential better overall overclocking experiance, and a faster CPU??

I'm still leaning towards the 3930K just because I will learn more from playing with it(from it being fully unlocked) and I will keep it longer (because it will be better over time)which is a better value.

But I still can justify buying one of these now, because it is cheaper for what I need now. In the future when they release IB-E, if they bring out a new chipset, the 3820/MB combo cost less to replace. If IB-E brings other options like 8 cores, works on the x79 board, and if I want more I can just upgrade later. Worst case would be if I wanted more, and IB-E releases an 8 core, but needed a new chipset to take advantage of it just like z68/z77 did on 1155.
Click to expand...

My decision to buy the msi big bang II was purley from an aesthetic point of view at first. I was looking for a motherboard to fit my build scheme. I wanted a all black and white build. I was planning on buying a 1155 system but i didn't want to go z68 and none of the new z77 motherboards where to my taste.

Second. I bought the 3820 because this is a gaming rig and nothing else. A 3930k or a 3960x would not have given me any better perfomance for my needs. The 3820 is cheaper then the 2700k and the 3770k by about $40 and the msi big bang II is $40 more then a high end z77 so price is not the issue. Wasting money on a overrated cpu was the factor for me.
 
Well I can totally see the aesthetic point of view, I like full featured boards, and the Rampage IV , does everything I need to the point of being alittle too much, so I decided on the ASUS P9x79 DELUXE, which is basically a blue Rampage IV , minus the 4 way SLI support(which I will never do) for $70 cheaper. The P9x79 WS is also a solid board(for $20 more) , but I has more legacy I/O support, which I dont need.

So basically I too am choosing the P9x79 DELUXE, based on it having what I want and looks the best for my build. I have had ASUS DELUXE series boards in the past, and they are worth every penny, I learned to overclock on totally locked CPUs with my P5WD2, so I'm sure I will be happy with it for a long time.

The CPU i'm still on the fence, right now I spend about 80% of my time on the computer Gaming and surfing the web so the 3820 would be fine for now, but I'm thinking of Ripping all my DVDs (over 300) and maybe transcoding them to fit on my NAS server to stream to my TV. So maybe the extra $300 on a 3930K would be worth it and save me alittle time, and last longer into the future. I see no reason the 3930K wouldn't still play the same games and Surf the web 10 years from now.

I would just hate to get a really nice board and the 3820 than later want more or they change the chipset on 2011, requiring another upgrade.

I guess I will just have to wait and see if the extra $289 in my pocket is worth not being able to brag about having 6 cores or not.
 
Yes a 3930k is going to be faster at encoding but only seconds faster not minutes. If it is worth it to you to shave 10-20 seconds (sometimes less) off a a task and spend $300 to do it. More power to you.

I saved the $300 and spent it on a 7950 insted. But thats just me. Many people will want to stroke their ego and boast about having a 6 core and to them i say cool go for it.

But i tell you now i dont regret one bit getting the 3820 over the 3930..
 
Simsimma4 said:
Follow what i have posted in my first post and you should be fine
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depends how far you want to overclock it! You can push it to 4.3ghz with just upping the CPU multiplier to 43, and if thats enough then stop there, but if you want more then you have to start messing with the CPU base clock
smile.png
Click to expand...

Thank mates i have mine now at 4.5 strap 125x36 1.32v prime 7 hours last night and no issues rock stable...i will post up some pics when i get in later today. This chip and the x79 chips is the way to go anyone who says others just jealous..it files at stock but when overclocked makes my 950 look like a quad core AMD chip...am so loving i when this route..

Now i think i might change my case to the switch 810 even though the current NZXT Phantom is more than enough

38201.jpg
 
Brutos said:
Thank mates i have mine now at 4.5 strap 125x36 1.32v prime 7 hours last night and no issues rock stable...i will post up some pics when i get in later today. This chip and the x79 chips is the way to go anyone who says others just jealous..it files at stock but when overclocked makes my 950 look like a quad core AMD chip...am so loving i when this route..

Now i think i might change my case to the switch 810 even though the current NZXT Phantom is more than enough
Click to expand...

ahh very good start, i managed 4.75ghz with vcore 1.34v. Thats 125mhz X 38. but currently i'm at 4.875ghz with vcore of 1.38v (125mhz X 39). I have never owned an i7 core before so this is all new to me, but man it's one powerful CPU.

the switch 810 is a nice looking case, i even like the cosmos 2, though it is absolutely huge!
 
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