Testing
The test rig consists of the following parts:
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770K
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD4H
Video Card: Zotac 560 Ti
Memory: Samsung Green MV-3V4G3D/US – 16GB
Power Supply: Enermax Maxrevo 1350W
Storage: OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB raid 0 Running Windows 7 64bit
Cooling: Corsair H80i GT
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe
Unfortunately we had the CPU_FAN header go out on our previous test board which has resulted in our switch to the UD4H. The good news is that it is a very similar board and during our testing we found it works well with the same overclocking settings.
As always testing was done using Intel Burn Test (IBT) with the AVX instruction set. The reason to use this instead of Prime95 with this setup is that it pushes our i7 3770K a whole lot harder. This gives us a better sense of extreme load temps. Most of the testing was done at the max memory setting for a single pass. While admittedly this in no way would qualify the chip as stable while overclocked, it gives us a realistic idea of what temperatures the CPU will be hitting. Additionally we are going to run 3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme to give you a realistic idea of performance while gaming.
Our baseline was established using a be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 with the 3770K on stock settings:
Ambient temps: 22.22C/72F
Idle temps: 38.75C/101.75F core average
IBT temps one pass max memory: 63.5C/146.3F core average
The first thing we did was to test the cooler with stock motherboard/CPU settings:
Ambient temps: 23.33°C/74°F
Idle temps: 30.75°C/87.35°F core average
IBT temps one pass max memory: 58.75°C/137.75°F core average
Our ambient temperature is actually 1.1°C warmer than the baseline setup, but runs a substantial amount cooler at the stock settings. We sort of figured the H80i GT would be a good cooler, but this is pretty impressive so far.
As opposed to simply going for a max overclock, we are simply going to shoot to hit 4.5ghz pass or fail. If the cooler will allow our 3770K to hit 4.5 ghz we note the temperatures and move on to test it on 3DMARK Firestrike. If not then back down to a more acceptable and stable overclock. Not as extreme as our previous testing, but slightly more consistent and far more analogous to normal use such as gaming.
Here are our results for our i7 3770K @ 4.5ghz with 1.248V vCore:
Ambient temps: 23.33°C/74°F
IBT temps: 78.5°C/173.3°F with one core hitting 83°C
So with the warmer ambient temps, we see that the chip is starting to get towards its max temperature. However after adjusting for the temperature increase we see that the results are indeed fairly impressive.
Adjusted Temps:
H80i GT (120mm): 78.5°C
H100i GTX (240mm): 76.44°C
H110i GT (280mm): 74.5°C
Tt Water 3.0 Ultimate (360mm): 75.08°C
NZXT Kraken X41 (120mm): 78.89°C
As you can see we didn’t break any records, but consider that we have a radiator that is as much as ⅓ the size of the other top performers. Also consider that when compared with the Kraken X41 our previous 120mm top performer it is actually a small step ahead!
With those performance numbers in mind I wouldn’t hesitate to game on the system at those clock speeds, so we’ll go ahead and run 3DMARK Firestrike @ 4.5ghz and see what gaming temps might be like.
Ambient temps: 23.33°C/74°F
3DMARK: 63.25°C/145.85°F with two cores hitting 65°C
And those are about the numbers we would expect, which are perfectly acceptable for daily use. All things considered a slight clock bump might even be possible, maybe up to the 4.7ghz range.
Throughout testing the pump and fans remained at a very comfortable sound level never becoming obvious or annoying. Although when turned all the way up the fans do create quite a bit of noise. During our testing we kept the Corsair Link fan setting on balanced and found it to be quite nice.