Core i7860 - What is your experience?

[nate42nd]

I have had my i7860 for 3 days now. I am very impressed with it. I have done some very mild overclocking with my P55-UD4P Gigabyte board. I am seeing guys on the net exceeding 4.0Ghz with this chip. I just have air cooling so I plan to go to the 3.5 (which I did - just haven't stress tested) to 3.8. That would be 1 full Ghz over stock. I would be VERY happy with that.

What is your experience? Have you had good or bad experiences so far?

Also, What is the advantage of using PWM on the CPU fan?
(Pulse width modulation) is it just a power saving feature?

[nate42nd]

Just to show it's not hard to get almost 1Ghz out of the 860....here it is stable at 3.7. It runs hot but I have a $15 TX3 cooler. With a better cooler I will run this at 3.7 all the time. I don't have much experience so I will improve on this for sure. This is on "auto" voltage except for the RAM. Load line calibration and the rest on "auto". I hear it may run cooler on "normal" but have yet to try it. Does anyone know if it will run cooler on "normal"

[artdrivers]

0

[nate42nd]

?

Not impressed huh? I understand. I will post back a nice 4+Ghz OC when I get some better cooling. This thing is a beast!

Ah, you're a Phenom guy....cool, I had one of the 1st Phenom X3s when they came out.

[artdrivers]

No I am interested in your system. I just have 0 experience with them. My pockets are shallow. I still like to see how the market is going. Core I5 is alot less though.

[nate42nd]

Yes the Core i5 750 and also the new ones coming out will be good options. The i7 860 is wonderful. I am very happy with it. I have had it stable at 4.0. I just need better cooling. This thing OCs like a dream. Intel will be selling fewer 920s that's for sure. I am one customer who would have a 920 but instead went for the 860.

[dbee]

My i7 920 C0 loves voltage. Thats why i hate mine, and drives me nuts seeing how little voltage D0's require. It does get the job done however, my last Prime run gave me 70c HT on @ 3.8ghz . I am stable at 4ghz , but it requires nearly 1.5vcore and gets upto 80c with HT OFF. HT ON @ 4ghz i dont think i have gotten stable yet.

[dbee]

Im sure it would run cooler if you set the vcore manually, goes the same with the i7. Auto can be bad, as with factory i7 defaults it will run at 1.376vcore and drop below 1.1 on load with load line calibration disabled. When its enabled, it will only drop to maybe 1.34. I would try lowering that vcore a little bit at a time. When i tweak my vcore, i usually run 15-20 minutes at a time until a crashes before said time. From there, up the vcore a couple notches and run Prime.

Alot of people disagree with this and will run 8 hrs every time. No time for that. Find a safe spot until its time to sleep and run it overnite. If she survives, you can leave it alone if your satisfied or continue to tweak. Im never satisfied and will tweak for 3 hours then game for an hour with the free time i have.

[Psycho101]

I hear it may run cooler on "normal" but have yet to try it. Does anyone know if it will run cooler on "normal"

No. It will run cooler if you select the minimum voltages actually needed for each setting to get your desired speed. Auto settings are pretty dangerous at times, and Normal just uses stock settings, which won't get you very far.

[Glandoux]

I have the i7-860 OC@ 3.8Ghz on air and my load temps are 70 degrees for my hottest core (Which is very acceptable for me).

I have the P55-UD5 and at my 1st try, i kept everything on auto.
The temps were way to high (85 on full load).

For a 3.8 Ghz OC and Load Line Calibration level 2 enabled, my vcore in the bios is set to 1.26v

In windows when i'm iddle, the vcore is 1.248v and full load, 1.28v so you can definitely lower your vcore, and you should try to manually set the QPI voltage as well, probably around 1.3v to 1.4v

If you want more info, let me know!