I have an i-7 950 in an Asus P6X58D-E board, and have just woken it up. I am new to the newer clock inter-relationships of the 1366LGA CPU's, having previously had a Q6600 (which I had OC mildly). Currently, the CPU has it's stock cooler fitted, I wanted to bring up the system as it is designed to be (particularly since I am unfamiliar with the CPU), and will most likely later fit an after-market cooler and do some form of OC.I note that CPI-U is reporting a X12 multiplier for a core speed of 1.6 GHz. The reason for the post is somewhat related to the fact that I have the stock cooler fitted, however I assume that I can advance the multiplier BCLK to be X23? for a rated speed of 3 GHz without an overheat issue, would that be correct? (I can recall that my Q6600, when BIOS was reset, always started at a lower FSB multiplier than it was rated at).If i'm correct, how do the inter-relationships with the other clocks (PCI-e, UCLK and DDR3 clock) work if I increase the BCLK from 12X to 23X? is there any need to tweak any of those to compensate for the BCLK increase?Thanks- intuition tells me that it's OK to go to 23X, but this thing is running so well at 1.6GHz, much better than the OC'd Q6600, so I'm a little dubious about making it even better!Thanks, Bruce.

I note that CPI-U is reporting a X12 multiplier for a core speed of 1.6 GHz. Thanks, Bruce.

Could it be that the CPU downclocks when it is not under load?

Yes, sounds like speedstep is enabled. Bjorn

I agree with Bjorn, speedstep is probably enabled.Here are a couple of OC guides you can read that will explain some things.http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/22106-core-i7-overclocking-guide-beginners.html http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?board_id=1&model=P6T+Deluxe&id=20081220191040237&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Thanks Bert, Bjorn and idahosurge,Yes, you are correct- I did have Speed Step still enabled- I didn’t catch that. The multiplier goes to 23X when any load is placed on the CPU. Thanks also for the OC guide, although I think I should get some form of after-market (better) cooler solution before going too far with that. I note that at 23X (3GHz), that the core temps (using CoreTemp) are around 60 degrees when running FSX. I’m reading that 75 degrees is a good safe limit to have.Thanks also for the links to the interesting info on OC.Thanks again, Bruce.

As long as the core temps of your 950 do not get over 80C you will be fine. You can use RealTemp to monitor them.http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/If you are using the stock Intel HSF (Heat Sink Fan Assembly) that came with your 950 then you do need to get a better aftermarket HSF before you start doing a major overclock.

As long as the core temps of your 950 do not get over 80C you will be fine. You can use RealTemp to monitor them.http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/If you are using the stock Intel HSF (Heat Sink Fan Assembly) that came with your 950 then you do need to get a better aftermarket HSF before you start doing a major overclock.

Thanks, much appreciated. I'm surprised, though, just how good the peformance is without the OC, it's like "night and day" compared to the old Q6600 system. There's got to be more to the comparison between those 2 systems than just CPU speed, maybe the new NB architecture?Bruce.