New i7 build up & running!

[Guest w2sjw]

Guys,

I got my new i7 build up and running yesterday with '0' problems at all. I decided to turn off the power control features in the BIOS to give a good test to how well the H50 is working. Early this morning, it was running at 27.5C, and now (close to noon, with my wife baking in the kitchen down the hall), I'm getting what you see in my RealTemp results (quite happy so far).

The only change I made in the BIOS of this MaximusIII was to use the 'XMP' profile to get me new RAM running at rated speeds.

#1 - Is the over-clock to 2492 normal because I used the 'XMP' profile?

#2 - I've seen a bunch of the guys here talking about using the C1E, SpeedStep, & other features present in the latest & greatest hardware. My mobo also has a feature called 'Intel C-State'. I shut all those off to run my initial tests. Is it OK to turn all of those three things back to 'Auto/Enabled' so that she de-clocks herself when I'm just surfing/doing e-mail?

Thanks in advance...

[TEX4S]

Guys,

....o has a feature called 'Intel C-State'. I shut all those off to run my initial tests. Is it OK to turn all of those three things back to 'Auto/Enabled' so that she de-clocks herself when I'm just surfing/doing e-mail?

Thanks in advance...

You talking about your wife or your computer ?

J/K man - nice to see someone can do something right - it sure as hell isnt me today

[tsupersonic]

The 2.942 GHz is the i7's turbo mode kicking in. You can tell it's turbo mode for your CPU since the multiplier is at 22x, it normally should be 21x. More specifically, it's turboing with 4 or 3 active cores.

Here are the turbo speeds:

4 active cores = 2.93 GHz (22x)

3 active cores = 2.93 GHz (22x)

2 active cores = 3.33 GHz (25x)

1 active core = 3.46 GHz (26x)

The XMP profile has to do with memory timings. I would keep the C1-E, Speedstep on. It puts the processor at a 12x multiplier (1.2GHz) when you're doing simple things, like web browsing, listening to music, etc. It will bump up the frequency automatically (and it's fast so you won't notice it) when the CPU needs to if you are performing a task that requires more CPU power. It is good for power savings, so keep it on.

[Guest w2sjw]

Thanks for the quick replies - I was a little confused, because the 'XMP' settings is found in the 'A.I. Overclock' main section at the top. I assumed that it would alter a few of the other main settings to make the memory run at DDR3-1600 at 8-8-8-24.

I set the turbo mode to 'active' with 'all cores' as the default setting. I didn't realize that setting all cores would only get you 2.93 - I thought it worked in the reverse (the more cores you let be enabled, the higher it would go). I thought that turbo-boost on the i7 only came on under load, so I was a little confused to see the CPU running higher than normal at almost 'no' load

I went back in the BIOS and turned on the C1E & SpeedStep settings after playing a bit with the i7 Turbo app that comes with RealTemp. I left the Intel C-State turned off, as I can only seem to find info about it as being beneficial to laptops.

I still have a bit to learn about the i7's, so I might be back now and then with more questions. I'm truly happy so far with how the Corsair H50 is working to keep the system cool. I have Antec 1200 case, and I have the lower factory default 120mm fan in the rear exhausting at high speed (2000 RPM), and the included Corsair fan 'pushing' at it's max of 1700 RPM in on the radiator. The 'push-pull' feature in this orientation seems to be doing the job quite well (my idle temps drop to 27 when the C1E & SpeedStep are on)...

[Guest w2sjw]

Quick question to the crowd - I was reading something on an overclockers forum about the use of TurboBoost & the c-state setting. From what I read, the fact that I shut-off the c-state control might be the reason that the CPU was sitting at 2.94 under no load with EIST & C1E off (basically I shut off the CPU's ability to tell whether or not it need to run any faster than stock).

Can you guys confirm that, or am I misunderstanding how that works...

[chconline Veteran]

TurboBoost and the power management features are correlated in Lynnfield CPUs. Basically there are various power management features on the Core i7 860 in question -- shutting off cores when not in use, reducing voltage and clock speed idling, and the such. TurboBoost is a correlated feature of the Power Gate Transistor in conjunction with the C6 sleep states. I wrote about that a few months back but I'm kind of sleepy... so I'll just send you the link: http://aphnetworks.com/reviews/intel_core_i5_750/2 You don't really need to read it, I went through the jist of it already but I'm way too tired to rewrite all that here.

[Guest w2sjw]

Forgive me for mentioning another board here, but I read about 4 different posts over at HardOC, and it finally came clear.

I enabled all three of the technologies, and left them all in 'auto', and it works 100% like it's supposed to.

She idles now at 1.2GHz, and playing with Prime95, I got exactly the behavior I should have seen - A single thread running in that program boosted one core up to 3.4GHz, and loading up all 8 threads got all cores running in sync at about 2.94GHz (at a max of 50?C).

I left the window open in this spare room last night, and just woke the machine up here from S3 sleep (7:30am). It's 50?F outside, and maybe a little less than 60?F in the room, and this is what I'm getting for temps at idle. Just astounding!: