Originally Posted by
Shaemus
This is a two-part post, figured it would make more sense to post my question here instead of starting a new thread for a simple question.
Current main-PC build..
CPU : Intel i7 920, 2.67GHz @ 3.3GHz, 48° @ full load
CPU cooler : Coolermaster V8
GPU : EVGA GTX580, 1.5GB
RAM : 12GB Corsair Dominator GT (triple channel 6x2GB)
Motherboard : Gigabyte EX58-UD4P
HD : assorted & too many to mention ~ 8TB total
Optical drives : 2 x LITE-ON IHBS112-04 Blu Ray burners (thx to NewEgg for the free bonus one)
PSU : OCZ-ZX850W
Case : Coolermaster CM690 with enough fans to ventilate a small house =)
Here's my question / main reason for posting - how much further would you think it's safe to push my CPU without resorting to anything beyond air cooling? It's been running stable for over a year @ 3.3GHz with the Coolermaster V8, and there is plenty of airflow in the case. I've got every single possible fan installed in my CM690 and the fan controller's temperature probes are showing that the fans are doing their job at keeping everything nice and stable, so I'm debating pushing it further. Honestly I haven't done a lot of overclocking, I stopped at 3.3GHz because that was the fastest automatic setting that the Gigabyte EasyTune software had by default, but it's running so stable that I thought taking it a bit further would be a good way to extend the life of the system. Everything runs great, no need or desire to get a new CPU yet, but it can always run better, you know what I mean? I wanted to put a new CPU / mobo in there and move these off to my HTPC, but I just can't justify the upgrade ATM since the HTPC and this rig are running just fine, so I thought getting a bit more performance out of what I already have could keep me satisfied for a few extra months. I wanted to try and push it to 3.6, but I wasn't sure if the cooling system that I had was beefy enough to handle the additional load from the CPU. It's only the cooler and the CPU I'm worried about, I know the case is ventilated enough to handle it and the PSU is one of the best investments I've ever made, I can't speak highly enough of it.
Any suggestions / tips for taking it further?