Overclocking (Main Thread)

I spent some time going through the overclocking guide, and honestly, someone clearly put a lot of work into this. Kudos. It’ll be a huge help for anyone jumping into this without much background knowledge, though as a complete novice myself, it all still feels pretty complicated and risky.

I have two questions:

1. Is there actually any point in overclocking an Intel Core i7-920 with 8M Cache at 2.66 GHz just for gaming?
Basically, I’ve heard that games only utilize a single core, which would mean my 2.66 GHz wouldn't be enough and I'd end up bottlenecking my GPU...🤷

2. Has anyone on this forum actually heard of someone frying their CPU or motherboard while overclocking? What kind of risk are we looking at if you don't go overboard—say, bumping it from 2.66 to 3.66 GHz?

1. Games are starting to lean much harder into multi-core setups—it wasn't always this way, but the trend is definitely shifting. Take the Frostbyte engine used in Windows Vista, for instance; it actually supports up to 16 cores. Look, you don't absolutely have to overclock if you're already happy with where things stand, but generally speaking, once you push past that 3.0 GHz mark, you'll start seeing a noticeable bump in performance.

2. You're going to fry your processor if you get too aggressive with the voltage—that's just physics. If you only bump up the clock speed without adjusting the juice, nothing catastrophic happens; the computer simply won't boot because the CPU isn't getting enough power to stabilize. Those two things are inextricably linked, so you really need to tinker with the BIOS one tiny step at a time. There’s no "magic setting" that works for every single processor out there.

Benjamin King2 said:1. Games are moving toward multi-core support. It wasn't always like this, but things are changing fast—for instance, the Frostbite engine used in Windows Vista era titles can leverage up to 16 cores. You don't necessarily need to overclock if you're happy with current speeds, but pushing past 3.0 GHz usually yields a noticeable performance bump.

2. You’ll fry the processor if you push the voltage too high. Just increasing the clock speed won't kill it; the worst that happens is the system fails to boot because the chip isn't getting enough juice. The two are tightly linked. Just tweak the BIOS settings incrementally. There is no magic setting that works for every single CPU.

Thanks. I'll spend some more time messing with it. One more thing—would this cooler be sufficient if I push my clock up to 3.4-3.6 GHz? It looks like a decent deal, and I'm currently just running a stock cooler
http://www.amazon.com/example-cooler-link

I’d probably grab the Cooler Master Hyper TX3; it’s actually cheaper and might even perform a bit better... I guess the Katana might be slightly quieter, but if you're looking at budget coolers, maybe check out the TX3, Zalman CNPS5X, Xigmatek Gaia, or Loki... just pick whichever one is the best deal. 🙂

crimsonstag84 said:Grab the Cooler Master Hyper TX3; it’s cheaper and arguably better... The Katana might be slightly quieter, but if you're looking at budget coolers, check out the TX3, Zalman CNPS5X, Xigmatek Gaia, or Loki... just pick whichever one is cheapest. 🙂

Unless I'm missing something, none of these fit my needs. I need something for LGA 1366. Only the Xigmatek Gaia seems compatible, but I'd much rather go with the Scythe Katana 3. Honestly, I've never heard of Xigmatek, and apparently, the Katana is pretty straightforward to install...🤷

Xigmatek makes some really solid coolers—they’ve just been hitting the US market relatively recently, maybe appearing in stores over the last year or two. You can check out this review of the Gaia here: http://www.frostytech.com/articlevie...articleID=2595

Yeah, sure, the Katana is a bit easier to install since it doesn't require a backplate, but honestly, a backplate isn't exactly rocket science if your case actually has the designated mounting holes—which, let's be real, you probably have unless you're rocking some bottom-tier, budget junk. Besides, the Gaia is a superior cooler compared to the Katana, plus it comes with a larger, quieter fan than the Katana does.

Just go ahead and buy the Corsair H100 if you want to wait an absolute eternity like I did ☕

Honestly, I was pretty happy with my Cooler Master Hyper 212... it’s a little rough around the edges, man, but it works just fine enough in a push-pull setup.

Benjamin King2 said:Xigmatek makes solid coolers, they've just been hitting the US market relatively recently—maybe the last year or two. Here's a review of the Gaia: http://www.frostytech.com/articlevie...articleID=2595

Yeah, the Katana is easier to install since it doesn't require a backplate, but installing a backplate isn't exactly rocket science if your case has the standard access hole so you don't have to pull the whole motherboard out. You probably have one unless you're running some bottom-tier case. Besides, the Gaia is a better cooler than the Katana and uses a larger, quieter fan...

Thanks, read the review. Seems like a decent cooler and I'd probably grab it. I haven't dealt much with mounting though; I haven't even popped off the case shroud yet to check for that access hole.
The case I'm using is this:http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/prod...roduct_id=2710. Looking at the pictures, it doesn't look like there's a hole, but I'll check tonight.
If I actually have to strip the motherboard out, then forget Xigmatek. I'll just go with the Katana... better to have a slightly inferior cooler than to mess something up...

Yeah, you don't have it... there's this weird little mounting hole for a fan underneath the motherboard—honestly, I have zero clue what the point of that is. 😕

I have the exact same case (see my signature) 😉

I’m honestly not sure what that gap is for either; there isn't really enough room for a fan... maybe it's just meant to let some air escape...

I don't see why you'd need to pull the motherboard out... there's plenty of clearance, and the cooler isn't exactly massive... 🙂

I'm running a Biostar N68S3+ motherboard
with an Intel Core i3-2100 processor
plus 8 GB of G.SKILL RAM—two 4 GB sticks, to be exact.
GPU is a GeForce GT 240 1GB DDR5 128-bit.

So, does anyone actually know how to help me overclock this CPU on this specific board? I know my way around changing the FSB frequency, and I actually managed to bump it up from 3.3 GHz to 3.9 GHz once, but the second I reboot, everything just reverts back to stock settings. Sometimes, if I force a reset a couple of times, it actually holds at 3.9 GHz, but that’s it. Is there something else besides the FSB frequency I should be messing with?

You're working with the biggest possible bucket of a motherboard that officially only supports 95W TDP processors... so naturally, you can't just crank up the clock speeds without messing around with the FSB/DRAM ratio and core voltage. But I guess you shouldn't try that until you pick up a better board; maybe you could just leave it sitting around at 3.5-6 GHz...

crimsonstag84 said:You're working with the biggest possible bucket of a motherboard that officially supports nothing higher than 95W TDP chips... so obviously you can't just crank up the clock speed without messing with the FSB/DRAM ratio and core voltage. But seriously, don't even touch that until you grab a better board—you might be able to squeeze out maybe 3.5-6 GHz if you're lucky...

well yeah, I didn't get this board for free at $40.

thanks for the reply,, so is there some kind of rule of thumb here? since the CPU FSB is sitting at 200 right now which is just the factory setting, how do I actually bump the FSB? what else am I supposed to be tweaking alongside it?🤷

That’s nothing for a light overclock... I'd say bump it up by 7-8 MHz and try to boot, then just check CPU-Z to see if the higher clock speed is actually registering, and repeat. I guess I would personally stop at 220 (if it still runs on stock voltage), then maybe run a quick stress test, like Prime95.

crimsonstag84 said:For a light overclock... nothing much. Bump it up by 7-8 MHz and try to boot—check CPU-Z to see if it actually registers the higher clock—then try again. Personally, I wouldn't push past 220 if you're staying on stock voltage, then you could run a quick stress test, maybe in Prime95.

aha, okay, there's an option to bump the CPU voltage by 5%,

There's another thing though—everything in this build is brand new. When I first put it together and hit the power button, the GPU fans ramp up, then drop back down to normal speed, then they ramp up *again* before the image even hits the screen. It feels like the system is resetting itself once right before the display kicks in. But when I'm already in Windows and just do a standard restart, it behaves normally—the fans spin up once, settle down, and the picture appears. So, it's only during that initial cold boot where I hear that double fan surge. It’s kind of annoying... any ideas? Thanks in advance.

So, I’m running an Intel Core i5-2500K at 4.5 GHz around the clock, and I was wondering if I should actually bother enabling Internal PLL Overvoltage or not. I've been digging through various forums where people claim there's absolutely no point in turning it on at these relatively modest frequencies, yet a buddy of mine was insisting today that I definitely should.

Look, if everything is running rock solid right now, there’s really no reason to mess with it—but honestly, that kind of thing is totally dependent on the specific chip you're rocking. Some people are going to feel the need to push it to 4.2 GHz just to feel alive, while others won't even touch 4.8 GHz.

Alright, thanks.

I picked up an Intel Core i5-2500K and decided to mess around with some overclocking a bit. I don't actually need the extra speed, I'm just bored 😁

Basically, I bumped the FSB up to 250 and landed right around 3.5GHz... I also dropped the voltage to 1.275. I wanted it at 2000, and kept the RAM at 1333, though I did tighten the latencies to 7-7-7-20 1t and gave it a 0.5 voltage bump. Turbo is off, C&Q is disabled, and C1E is on auto (what even is that thing? Should I leave it on or kill it?)

I booted into Windows and everything seems fine while I'm browsing... but now I want to see if this setup is actually going to be stable. What should I use to stress test it?

The rest of my build: ma790fxt-ud5p, Arctic Freezer 7 Pro, 2x2GB DDR3 Kingston HyperX, VTX 6850, Corsair TX650, Windows 7 64-bit.

Go ahead and grab Prime95 and just let it rip -> http://www.freewarefiles.com/Prime95_program_19638.html

Once the CPU temp settles down and stops jumping all over the place, let the test run for another hour or so just to be safe.

Keep C1e enabled—this chip actually handles hardware throttling pretty well, so those sudden jumps from idle to full speed happen almost instantly... it keeps the processor from just running at max speed for no reason when you don't actually need the juice.