OCing an i7 965 + hyperthreading

[Elvis]

What sort of OCs are you guys getting on these?

Would 4.2 GHz w/o HT be fine? Mine is 4.0 w/ HT on. I'm sorta bummed about that because I thought these were easy to OC. It's LC'd and everything. The one caveat tho, is that it's been stress tested in 30-40 C ambient...

But a 920 can get to 4.0 on air apparently. D:

Is HT a big loss? I only plan on gaming.

[Epical]

A question like this would probably be better off asked on a high-end OC forum. I don't think you'll get too many replies here.

[geno]

I have no experience with i7s (and HT) or LC, so you may be better off asking @ HardOCP or overclock.net or something. Also wtf @30-40C ambient. Get an AC!

That said, just from general OC knowledge, what are your core temps right now for idle/load at 4.0? And what are your voltages?

[mootsfox]

Umm, you're probably the only one with a 965 on this forum.

Go hit up overclock.net, I hear they are awesome

[levish]

or xtremesystems.org

[solsirt]

What sort of OCs are you guys getting on these?

Would 4.2 GHz w/o HT be fine? Mine is 4.0 w/ HT on. I'm sorta bummed about that because I thought these were easy to OC. It's LC'd and everything. The one caveat tho, is that it's been stress tested in 30-40 C ambient...

But a 920 can get to 4.0 on air apparently. D:

Is HT a big loss? I only plan on gaming.

I'm at another company at the moment, but have all my stats from demo'ng one of these at the office. I ran 4.6 on water... so I'd say at your ambient temp (turn on a fan and the A/C already!!!) on air 4.2 is pretty good.

I'm assuming you're 24hr stable? A lot of the numbers you'll read on websites are people getting the machine to post, or run prime for 1hr (bullshit)... so don't read too much into it. I had a 920 I couldn't get to 4.0 and keep stable on air... sometimes you just get the runt of the batch too. (not saying you have... at least not until you get your ambient temp down and see what happens)

that being said do you honestly NEED a 965 running 4.2ghz+?? I think you'll be just fine

[Olo401]

I'm gonna give this part a shot:

Is HT a big loss? I only plan on gaming.

That's a tough call.. Basically the purpose of HT is to allow faster communication between the four physical cores of the processor, and to allow each core to "split" itself giving you eight virtual cores. Since at the moment there really isn't any game on the market yet that utilizes more than a single core, the answer to your question is probably No. I would say try both on and off and see which one gives you better everyday performance.

If you're doing all kinds of shit with your computer though, HT is awesome.

[Akucaen]

Disclaimer: I will fully admit I haven't read up on the latest HT tech for the i7, this is going only of the one found in the P4.

HT was Intel's answer to the inefficient pipeline of the P4 (any flavor.) The reason such a fast processor could be 'so slow' was because it would waste dozens of cycles literally doing nothing because the pipeline wasn't filled or programs weren't coded with the P4 in mind. HT in the P4 simply pretended there was another core on the chip so it could fill the pipeline to full so cycles weren't otherwise wasted on small, several chunks of data/processing at a time.

The reason I threw that disclaimer up is because HT on the i7 doesn't seem to make sense [to me.] While the Core/Core 2 were 'touched up', they still remain loosely based on the P3, which had short stage pipelines. I know they've been extended considerably from the P3 days, but I can't imagine they're at the P4 levels - and even with that, the chip on a whole is far more efficient at data handling. HT would seem more like an inefficient thing for the i7...

But then again, I'm just a college student mildly interested in tech and they're a multi-billion dollar company.

[mootsfox]

or xtremesystems.org

XS is filled with assholes. OCN is not as "extreme" but they are friendlier and more helpful. I may be a bit biased though

I'm gonna give this part a shot:

That's a tough call.. Basically the purpose of HT is to allow faster communication between the four physical cores of the processor, and to allow each core to "split" itself giving you eight virtual cores. Since at the moment there really isn't any game on the market yet that utilizes more than a single core, the answer to your question is probably No. I would say try both on and off and see which one gives you better everyday performance.

If you're doing all kinds of shit with your computer though, HT is awesome.

There are a number of games that are multithreaded. Most don't make use of more than two cores if they are multithreaded, but some like FSX, Supreme Commander, TF2, L4D among others, do.

[levish]

the same would have been said of olde bg, doesn't mean its not a great resource