Alienware Aurora i7 920 Successful Overclock @ 3.66GHz

Try these settings @4ghz:       Memory Multiplyer: x8 (for 1333 RAM) BLK: 200 Vcore: +120mv Memory: 1.60v IOH: 1.15 QPI Frequency: Auto QPI Voltage: +040mv Spread Spectrum: ON Turbo: OFF

Did these on my Area 51 (non-ALX) i7 920, BIOS A09, 1333MHz memory

got the 4GHz

CPU cores idle at 43C, full load under Prime 95 ==> 77C   GULP!  Stable for 1 hour, plan to run 10h or to rethink since temps >75C

temps for 3.67GHz settings were sweet. no problem

can someone please confirm if I can overclock to 3.67 with 1066mhz ram?  Would it be safe as in that I wouldnt have to buy new ram lol?  I have a aurora i7 920, 12gb 1066mhz ram, win 7 64 bit, ati 5870...thanks.

4.2GHZ Stable (constructive criticism welcome)

Memory Multiplyer: x6 (for 1333 RAM, which gives 1200mhz, seems mine didn't like being at 1600mhz and randomly crashed in games))

BLK: 200 x 20 (actually 21x, read on!)

Vcore: +180mV

Memory: 1.65v

IOH: 1.20

QPI Auto

Spread SPectrume: OFF

Turbo: On! (speedstep on and c state off, this gives 21x multi ;) Also need to go to power managment performance in Windows and turn CPU usage to 100% all the timne to prevent it dropping back multis. Voila! 21x 200 is giving me 4.2GHZ :) :)

Admittedly runs a little hot, peaks at 79 degrees in Prime95, but very very rarely gets there with regular gaming/usage and only for a few seconds. I figure I can live with this, I will probably want to upgrade in 2-3 years and figure even with high temps should last this long. Thoughts anyone???

Considering buying 12GB 1600mhz or higher RAM so I can kick up memory multi and double my RAM from 6GB- anyone think this is worth it? Also want an SSD- thoughts?

Thank you, VasVas. I used the settings you listed, above, and managed to achieve a stable overclock on my Intel i7-930 QC at 4 Ghz. I ram Prime95 for over 24 hours with no problems. Here are the settings that I used. Most of them are the same ones you used for your overclock:

Memory Multiplier:   x8

Bus Clock:   190

VCore:   +100mV

Memory Voltage:   1.60V

IOH Voltage:   1.20V

QPI Frequency:   Auto

QPI Voltage:   +040mV

Spread Spectrum:   Off

Turbo Mode:   Off

I have an Alienware Aurora Desktop R1, Service Tag <ADMIN NOTE:Service tag removed per privacy policy>. Here are its specifications for reference:

Intel i7-930 QC

20 GB DDR3 PC-133 1333 Mhz RAM (24 GB as soon as my next package arrives from Dell :))

ASUS EAH5970 2 Ghz Dual-GPU 2 GB DDR5 VRAM

19 x 1 Media Reader

Blu-Ray/DVD/CD RW+/- BD-RE Drive

300 GB WD Velociraptor SATA II HD @ 10k RPM

1T Seagate Barracuda HD

1.5T WD HD (2) (non-RAID)

1T Seagate Portable USB HD

Soundblaster X-Fi Fat1ty Champion Soundcard w/ Front Bay Control Panel

Bigfoot Networks Killer Xeno Pro NIC

Hope this helps out anyone who has an Intel i7-930 QC and wants to overclock it! Kudos and my humble appreciation to VasVas for the original post :)

How hot is too hot ?

I tried the settings, and after a minute or so of  Prime95 I was up at 84C on one core and so I shut it down.

Depends who you ask it seems.

Personally I don't want mine to go past 80 at all, as per previous post, min touches 80 on and off but only for couple seconds then back into high 70's on Prime 95 @ 4.2Ghz or on other CPU intensive tasks- that I can live with. But anything over 80 for me from what I have (extensively) read is too hot.

While playing round with mine had my vcore way too high at one stage and hit 92 C in Prime 95, asked a mate and his eyeballs nearly fell out and told me was wayyyy too hot.

So short answer is turn down your volts until it is stable at your target oc, the volts creates the heat but increases stability when OC'ing, and I would be aiming for the same temp as mine or lower- 80C absolute max temp under load.

Someone will no doubt tell me I'm wrong though I'm sure- either I'm too hot or you could safely run hotter ;)

Hi pookiexl3oi,

Would recommend updating your BIOS for sure, always a good idea, irons out bugs etc.

Would also recommend doing extensive research so you fully understand OC'ing- there is no hard and fast rules from what I have discovered, and every machine and chip is different ie MY i7 920 may be able to OC higher than YOURS and vice versa.

Also would recommend when you are changing your settings in the BIOS to write everything down every time you fiddle with it, as you may hit some good settings, further tweak them and then not remember what the previous ones were.

Read through this thread a little more carefully, google i920 overclocking, visit overclockers.com etc and see how you go. Been running mine stable @ 4.2 for some time now after HOURS of fiddlign and research.

Also let us all know how you go and if you have any more specific questions.

Thank you pappsw for relaying the much needed info!

Like I said I'm new to the Overclocking world and I'm learning as I go =)

Like you said not everybody's Comp. & Chip are the same. No 2 are alike and only some can get lucky to have it maxed out O/clocked. I did read alot on the other forums ex.Overclockers.com and several other good O.C sites and they all helped. This Forum I really think helped me out alot more because in this Forum majority of us all have an Aurora/ALX with i7 920 and same Bios. With that said this is what is going on in my machine right as of now.

I updated the Bios to A10 this morning and started messing with the O/clocking and right now I am O/clocked@3.67Ghz with the same settings as VasVas 1st original post when he O.C@3.66ghz:

Memory Multiplyer: x8 (for 1333 RAM), x6 (for 1066 RAM)

BLK: 183

Vcore: +60mV

IOH: 1.20

Spread SPectrume: ON or OFF works fine

Turbo: OFF

Currently I'm running the Prime95 for 5hrs now while web surfing and occasional gaming.

When I checked my Cpu temperatures this is what it reads.

Idle: 38c-34c-37c-33c

Load: 74c-72c-74c-71c

These are all the current readings I have at 3.67ghz

I will try to O/clock@4.0ghz when I am sure first that this is stable then maybe tomorrow I'll go with 4.0ghz

Oh and if you think this temperature is to high for 3.67ghz by all means let me know what I should do to lower the heat.

Thanks Again & CHEERS!

Hi pookiexl3oi,

No worries mate.

Yeah if you have run Prime 95 for 5 hours you are very stable, some sites say to run it for 24 hours + which I think is rubbish, you usually get a blue screen either immediately or within 30 mins if you're unstable.

As far as temps, yours look fine (from my understaning), personally I am happy if they peak at around 80 degrees C for a few seconds during Prime 95 (or full load) and then simmer down a little as per my previous post- other opinions will differ and obviously the cooler the better, but you have to expect high temps when you are running your CPU faster than intended and with more volts. The trick is having just enough volts to be stable but not too much as this is what increases your temperature.

When you attempt 4 GHZ or above I would be very interested in hearing about what exact settings you use, so please let us know.

Also how do you find the performance increase with your SSD? - this is something I have been thinking about doing with my machine, just need to find the cash. Heard they give you quite a snappy response loading programs/windows startup etc.

Good luck with it mate, hope you have a chip capable of 4 GHZ+, makes a big difference for me :)

Hi pappsw and all you overclock fiends!

So I ran Prime95 for 9hrs O/clocked@3.67ghz it ran smooth and at the same time I did some websurfing, played some moderate games and it was all stable. I then tried to up the anti and Oc@4.0ghz with all the same settings as VasVas posted in his settings. When I ran Prime95 the system crashed and the BSOD kicks in so then I tried changing the voltage to a higher setting. I ran the Prime95 again at 4.0ghz this time it worked with the higher voltage settings but the problem were temperatures was going over 80c on all the cores so I got freaked out and at the same time it was causing my comp. to be very unstable I would get screen flickering from time to time slow response when opening certain windows or websites, I didn't even try to play any games judging by the way it was acting, I wasn't that crazy. I spent 4hrs trying to tweak the settings to get the 4.0ghz to work right but it wouldn't. When I did get it to work I let Prime run for about 20mint. and gave up on O/clocking@4.0ghz it's just to unstable for my machine to handle it was freezing up the computer most of the time I'm not about to take that risk. I decided to O/clock@3.8ghz prime runs stable with no issues and I can multitask during the test run. I've decided to keep at this setting I'm pretty sure I can go to 3.9ghz but I decided not to because if I did I would have to change the voltage settings again. My settings are either on Auto or low voltage settings at 3.8ghz so I'm happy with this.

Also everyone's machine is different as posted in this forum and the facts are true. My machine can't handle being O/clock@4.0ghz (Poor baby) after countless of time trying to make it work it just wouldn't give in to my demands so I gave up I didn't want to spend all night trying to get it to work.

Here are my settings for those who would like to be O/clock@3.8ghz or if your machine just can't handle 4.0ghz.

Memory Multiplyer: x8 (for 1333 RAM)

BLK: 190mhz

Vcore: +80mv

Memory: Auto

IOH: 1.10

QPI Frequency: Auto

QPI Voltage: Default

Spread Spectrum: On

Turbo: OFF

My Temperature during Prima95 test @3.8ghz.

Low: 45c-42c-45c-41c

High: 77c-76c-76c-73c

Cheers!

I almost forgot about the SSD question lol

Yes I do have a SSD. Mine is a Samsung SSD 128gig I bought it on Newegg.com on sale for $209 bucks at the time, as for how it works.

Very quick it opens windows fast & any apps. or any programs you installed. It will boot or open up programs faster then you can even blink (exaggerating). I didn't bench test it because I've read from alot of other websites doing the benchmarking on SSD's and they all perform well. So I took that chance and forked out some money to get one and I don't regret it. As for gaming wise I really didn't see much significance from SDD or HDD while gaming. I'm pretty sure there is a slight difference but it's not something you can really tell while your gaming unless you want to keep track of it then that's all on you folks. I'm not about to do all that. When you load up a game though it is alot faster to load then a HDD would be, now that I'm certain of ex: I play Shogun total war2 and normally on my HDD it would take 35-40seconds sometimes to load up which really isn't long if you think about it, but when I installed it in my SDD wow big difference it loads faster then the HDD I'm talking about several seconds which is beyond believable. After awhile I just got use to SSD and now I want another.

Hope that was some helpful insight k see you later alligators.

Sorry for bringing up a old post, but i wanted to get my alienware alx 920 up to 4.00ghz or even 3.8 i have bois version a11 and 12gb 1600 g skill ram, if anyone well help me would be awesome ...Thanks in advance 

Thanks for the fast reply, But i been over clocking for a while now, But this is my first alienware computer to over clock, And i have went threw the post and tried them all some work but when i got run prime 95 it juts frezzes and BSOD on me everytime, right now i have it to the factory overclocking settings in the bois, But if you could help out any would be great, Thanks

Hi Napternal.

Recently upgraded my baby to the same ram and gtx 680. Runs like a Ferrari with my oc and ssd! :) Have you read through this thread and started trying to oc? I spent hours that would have added into days on trial and error and reading forums. You have a very good head start with this thread that has the same specific hardware. Give it a go and see how it pans out. Post if you have any specific questions, more than happy to answer but you need to do some reading to gain at least a basic understanding of what you're trying to do and start off with a low to mid oc, or even try some of the settings already posted. And remember every chip is different and may yield different results. Good luck!